Episode 4: Recovery is a Backward Square Root Sign

After Office Hours with Puget Sound Economic Forecaster

We are now three weeks out from the first publication of our June forecast. It seems like a great time to talk about what we know now and where are current thinking is at.

On the show today:

Our special guest: Dr Steve Lerch is the Executive Director and Chief Economist for the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. Steve is responsible for the official state forecast and contributes that forecast each quarter to the Puget Sound Economic Forecaster.

James McCafferty serves as the general manager and publisher for the newsletter.

Dr. Hart Hodges is an economics professor at Western Washington University. Hart writes the regional forecast article and will occasionally contribute other articles based on the topics. Hart and James both co-direct the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western.

Josh Grandbouche is the lead research analyst with the Center where among a long list of things he manages the forecast model for the Forecaster. Josh often contributes many of the articles in the Forecaster including the leading index analysis.

Sara Wold is our Research Economist and is joining us for the first time today. Sara will be taking over Josh’s duties in these next few months as Josh heads off to graduate school. Sara has been with the Center for two years and has contributed many articles to the Forecaster and we look forward to even more.

Today we cover topics including
- The current regional outlook
- The current state outlook
- Retail Sales
- The shape of the many industry recovery curves
- Is the Puget Sound region buoyed by the Tech industry or pulled down the decline in Aerospace.
- What is this Fall going to look like for Schools, both K-12 and University.
- How the impact of COVID-19 on Sports and Music shapes our local economy
- The 5 hour car ride
and more!

Join us for lively economic discussion!