NBS Companies Named one of Top Donors to Arts and Culture in Oregon

Norris, Beggs & Simpson Companies has been named one of the top donors to arts and culture in Oregon by Business for Culture & The Arts (BCA). BCA‘s mission is to engage every business in the arts - to build audiences, encourage volunteerism, strengthen board capacity, recognize and stimulate community leadership and create arts advocates. NBS Companies ranked seventh on the list of medium-sized companies (100 to 499 employees).

NBS Companies donated nearly $20,000 to the arts in 2009. Recipients included the Oregon Symphony, Young Audiences, and the Portland Art Museum. Many of NBS’ partners also serve on the boards of arts organizations.

Local Economist Mitchell Provides Economic Forecast for 2010

Local economist John Mitchell gave an economic forecast for 2010 at a Portland Business Alliance forum this morning. Mitchell said that the recession is likely either over or nearly over, and projected a fairly slow recovery. Though residential real estate has already seen gains, he expects commercial real estate to take much longer to recover. Mitchell is a principal at M & H Economic Consultants, and was previously a chief economist at US Bancorp.

The Daily Journal of Commerce and Portland Tribune both covered the event, and Oregon Business Editor Robin Doussard has a good blog post about it.

The PBA holds breakfast forums once a month. January's forum is on the future of Portland's newspapers.

Oregon, Washington May Lead Nation Out Of Recession, Moody's Predicts

Oregon and Washington are two of the states that will lead the nation out of the recession, according to Moody's Economy.com. The others are fellow western states Idaho, Colorado and Texas.

Moody's said that job growth in these five states should start to rebound first, likely in the fourth quarter of this year.

The large number of high-tech companies in Oregon and Washington will benefit when tech spending picks up again, Moody's predicted, and home sales in these states will be stimulated by lower prices and good mortgage rates.

You can find The Oregonian's coverage here.