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Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.

Economics / Finance

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UW: We're Number 5!

Posted Wed, Jan 7, 6 a.m.

SmartMoney says a UW grad gets a 225 percent payback over time, making it a better value than an Ivy League school. But do the numbers add up?

2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 13

Posted Tue, Jan 6, 6 a.m.

By Dick Morrill

Why the odds are long for an economic and social turnaround

2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 12

Posted Sun, Jan 4, 1:20 p.m.

By Ben Rankin

Yes, we can. Will we?

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2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 9

Posted Wed, Dec 31, 1 p.m.

By Bob Simmons

Beginning of the Great Distrust

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2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 6

Posted Tue, Dec 30, 11 a.m.

By Susan Trapnell

A perfect storm of opportunity, caused by our disorientation and our search for a new vision.

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2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 3

Posted Mon, Dec 29, 11 a.m.

By Chris Vance

Waking up to the new reality of curbing spending

2008: Year of Hope, Year of Fear. Essay 1

Posted Sun, Dec 28, noon

By David Brewster

A year of growing up and getting serious

Are the Vancouver Olympics turning into a stimulus plan?

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 6 a.m.

By Jonathan Hiskes

Smart thinking, Canadians. The Winter Games are shovel-ready for the recession.

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Can Seattle be a Slow City?

Posted Wed, Dec 24, 6 a.m.

By Knute Berger

An international movement to change the ethic of growing cities seems right for the Northwest. But we'd have to check the boom-town impulses embedded both in our growth economy and our frontier DNA.

Memo to city pols: times are tough

Posted Mon, Dec 22, 6 a.m.

By Kent Kammerer

While the rest of us tighten our belts, the Mayor and City Council pass around pay increases and raise fees. Hello?

Humor: The Fear Olympics

Posted Sun, Dec 21, 3 p.m.

By Steve Clifford

The competition over catastrophizing couldn't come at a better time, and our author is one of the contestants.

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Humor: The economy needs a new bubble

Posted Sun, Dec 14, 3 p.m.

By Steve Clifford

Fortunately, a wonderful speculative bubble is right at hand, better than tulips. Think lemons on wheels.

Shot down in Shanghai?

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 6 a.m.

By Knute Berger

Another task Obama inherits is trying to bail out America's botched effort to have a pavilion at Shanghai's Expo 2010, the largest world's fair in history. There are reasons to hope that "yes, he can."

How Wall Street is destroying the timber way of life

Posted Fri, Dec 12, 6 a.m.

By Daniel Jack Chasan

The pressure for real estate and the short-term perspective of fancy Wall Street financial instruments have changed the old line companies utterly.

Lending for ultra-luxury Western resorts: dumb, dumb, dumb

Posted Wed, Dec 10, 6 a.m.

By Jonathan Weber

As resorts for the wealthy such as Yellowstone Club, Tamarack, and Promontory tumble into insolvency, you have to wonder what the lenders such as Credit Suisse and Lehman Bros. were thinking. Here's another tale of toxic assets, poor diligence, and no backup plans.

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Heckuva job, economists!

Posted Sun, Dec 7, 10:19 a.m.

By Steve Clifford

Test your economics IQ against the worst predictors of our times.

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The Gravy Train to nowhere?

Posted Thu, Dec 4, 6 a.m.

By Knute Berger

With Obama's new New Deal gaining momentum, let's remain skeptical of big projects that are touted as economic saviors. States like ours may be desperate, but a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.

The real reason Dino Rossi lost

Posted Wed, Dec 3, 6 a.m.

By Chris Vance

A veteran public affairs consultant argues that the Rossi race was on track to a win with one month to go. As the Market plummeted, reminding voters of Bush's unpopularity, it took Rossi down with the Dow.

Making sense of unprecedented times

Posted Wed, Nov 26, 6 a.m.

By Ted Van Dyk

Despite all the economic turmoil and the rapid pace of the transition, Obama is inspiring confidence, and the outlines of his first year are taking shape.

Cross-border commerce and the 2010 Olympics

Posted Tue, Nov 25, 6 a.m.

By Floyd McKay

Money isn't flowing as freely as once thought, and the challenges of the border and exchange rates determine whether and how Northwest contractors and service providers will benefit from the Vancouver Games.

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Other media

Michael Lewis: Why do financiers commit suicide? And why do disgraced politicians not?

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Semantics: Is it time to use the D-word about the economic crisis? So far, only Paul Krugman has had the nerve to talk about "the Second Great Depression." Is honesty the best policy, or is this an example of how the media succumbs to hyping fear?

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Nouriel Roubini: More doom to come The economist who warned about the economic crisis is still at it: "My predictions for the coming year, unfortunately, are even more dire: The bubbles, and there were many, have only begun to burst."

FOREIGN POLICY

How I was fleeced by Bernie Madoff A teacher wonders how it could have happened to her to lose 30 years of retirement savings by falling for a Ponzi scheme.

SALON

Meet the architect of Obama's economic strategy Lawrence Summers was booted from Harvard and now is mastermind of the US economy. His job will be to shoot down dumb ideas without shooting down the messengers.

FINANCIAL TIMES (LONDON)

Blog posts

A region in decline

Posted Tue, Jan 6, 6 a.m.

by David Brewster

Once known for resilience, the Northwest now seems baffled as regards an economic strategy for the recession.

You call that socialism?

Posted Tue, Dec 30, 6 a.m. 2008

by Knute Berger

In economic hard times many states are re-looking at privatization and "pawning the family silver" to raise cash.

Detroit's welfare queens

Posted Fri, Dec 5, noon 2008

by Knute Berger

When Alan Mulally was at Boeing, he lectured the unions about the realities of the free market. Now he wants taxpayers to give Ford the security he denied workers.

The (literal) elephant in the room

Posted Thu, Dec 4, noon 2008

by David Brewster

At what point will the budget crunch facing cities start to become a decision-forcer in Seattle?

Coming this spring: a tax increase

Posted Fri, Nov 21, 10:22 a.m. 2008

by David Brewster

How to pass a tax increase with everybody saying they're against it.

A tax surprise after the election?

Posted Wed, Oct 29, 1:36 p.m. 2008

by David Brewster

It's not what you're thinking. Instead it's a form of value-added tax, with elements of an income tax, with strong appeal to business. It's kinda NEAT.