Oregon Office of Economic Analysis

Apologies for the radio silence. I’ve been busy both professionally and personally but have a number of good things lined up in the coming weeks. Up next are two posts on debt in Oregon. One will examine debt on auto loans, credit cards and mortgages, using the same NY Fed data seen on the blog before, however this looks at debt to income ratios. The second post will be on student loan debt and educational attainment. Both in Oregon and in the U.S. as a whole. In about a month I will revive the Job Polarization report from last year that still sits in draft format as 2012 occupational wage data is to be released by BLS at the end of March. I hope to have that report issued in either the first or second week of April. In the coming weeks we will start to see the bulk of income tax returns being submitted and processed and we will provide some updates along the way. Our forecast calls for a fairly big April due to stronger growth in 2012, particularly in investment type incomes and also the pull forward impact of higher federal tax rates. Finally what has kept me the most busy recently has been the Lottery outlook. I have a research report on Lottery and gaming trends that will likely be released next week or the following.

In the mean time here is a photo of me doing economic/finance related things in New York, where I was recently. On the left is the Charging Bull, an iconic symbol, while on the right is the plaque for Zuccotti Park the physical origins of Occupy Wall Street. It turns out that “park” in NYC doesn’t necessarily mean grass and trees, as it really is more of a plaza and I walked by the first time without realizing it. The last picture is in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building, which is also down in the financial district, as you might imagine.

Lots of other good things being produced by our office that I will try to keep you posted on. Also as we head toward the May forecast, which effectively sets the revenue outlook for the 2013-15 budget and also the basis for the kicker calculation, lots of discussion on the economic outlook.