Tagged: Economy

A Northwest brand is finding women's apparel and jewelry a tough sell in the current economy. Idaho-based Coldwater Creek has announced it will close dozens of stores in the face of a 28 percent drop in sales.

Is the economy recovering … or heading for another recession? Uncertainty has been growing in recent weeks with conflicting economic indicators and high volatility on Wall Street.

On this week’s "Money Matters" with financial commentator Greg Heberlein and KPLU’s Dave Meyer, Greg changes his mind about how soon the economy will recover. Instead of a 5 to 10 year recovery, Greg thinks it'll be more like 10 to 15 years.

We are working on a story about the REAL impact of the ongoing economic woes. We want to know, what one thing has been affected most in your life by the turbulent economy?

Come to our Facebook page to join the conversation and tell us your story. Here’s a few of the responses so far:

Are more people hunting and fishing for food during these tough economic times? Possibly. However, the recent upturn in the number of people buying a hunting and fishing license is probably due to unemployed construction workers with more time on their hands, one department official said.

Your car may be your most-prized personal possession, but the vast majority of the time it's parked not doing anything. Now, several startup companies propose to help you capitalize on your car's downtime by renting it to perfect strangers.

Following the example set by California last year, the Oregon Legislature is set to tweak its insurance rules to smooth the road for person-to-person car rentals. One company already has hundreds of registered users across the Pacific Northwest, even though the service has not officially launched in that region. And, another company plans to include Washington state this summer.

Seattle and the Puget Sound area seem to be popping up on those "top ten" and "best places to..." lists with increasing regularity.

A "...boatload of loans, sitting in foreclosure," or on the verge of being taken back by the banks. Those are the words of one economist, talking about what's happening in the real estate markets of major cities, nation-wide. The greater Seattle area is no exception.

The numbers come from the Case-Schiller index and they're not pretty.

Here's some good news in a down economy.  Michelle Dunlop writes in The Herald of Everett that Boeing is hiring 100 people a week and has been doing it for the past several months.

Dunlop writes:

Reporter Ruth Teichroeb has been keeping tabs on her former Seattle PI co-workers since she and 140 colleagues lost their jobs after the Hearst Corporation shuttered print operations.  Did they find new work? If so, were those journalism jobs?