With the House having again approved permanent repeal of the estate tax, the issue now moves to the Senate, where, although Republicans are in the majority, enthusiasm for wiping out what conservatives like to call the "death tax" is considerably more muted.

It's the season to scam.
I think I've used the phrase "low-life bum" more than I care to as I've read story after story this past year of investors being ripped off in new and old scams.

The daily ride has given rise to audio books, the travel mug and a 7-Eleven Inc. trademark, Dashboard Dining. The national motto has become grab and go, and legions of businesses work feverishly to fill a near-sacred space: the cup holder.

MCI Inc.'s board of directors embraced a cash-rich offer from Qwest Communications International Inc. after months of saying the company was a financially weaker and strategically less desirable merger partner than Verizon Communications Inc.
-The Washington Post

Will private equity boost the Northwest's most important shipbuilder or look for a fast buck? Behind the question is the long and dangerous decline of a vital industry.

The trade war with China is a self-inflicted blow. Only a strong economy is cushioning us against bigger pain — so far.

The rich are employing more people to cater to their desires. But that's only part of a tidal wave of change coming to the workforce.

Immigration is good for the economy — that's the big picture. It doesn't mean some Americans aren't hurt in their paychecks and opportunities.

If a downturn comes, the Seattle area benefits from a diverse economy. But it still has a few weak spots that would ripple out.

One of the most powerful business lobbies says it wants to change the calculus that is giving capitalism a bad name. It's a good idea, but faces tremendous resistance.

Jon Talton | No single source can explain the big decline in union membership. Rebuilding organized labor, and worker bargaining power and rights, will be a hard battle.

The most recent Census numbers show some major metropolitan areas that shone during the post-recession years now are losing population. But that doesn’t mean an equitable spreading of economic assets, much less a halt to the “back to the city” era. At least not yet.

The weekend attack on critical oil facilities rattled the market. No wonder: Spikes in petroleum prices are closely associated with recessions.

Seattle real estate is expected to be a hotspot next year, continuing a long trend of investing and building. But the prospects for housebuilding are more muted.

The technology giants have plenty of advantages in fending off antitrust actions. But that's what the old Bell System's leaders thought, too.

Jon Talton, The Seattle Times economics and business columnist for the past 12 years, says goodbye and offers some parting thoughts.

2020 is here as a new decade, ready or not. But decades as clear political, cultural, social and historical eras are as elusive as centuries.

The pandemic's effects are putting us in unknown territory, but we're already in a recession. It could be the worst of our lifetimes. Columnist Jon Talton explains why.

Behind shortages of masks and ventilators is a staggering disruption of the global system of making, assembling and delivering critical products.

Even President Trump now realizes the need for a prolonged shutdown. But when the economy finally restarts, we have no guarantee it will bounce back quickly. The danger is a "Greater Depression."

Globalization was already unpopular among many Americans. Now it's one of the suspects in the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. But trashing the world order will make us sicker.

Federal red ink was exploding even before the pandemic required a historic rescue stimulus. But the national debt only becomes dangerous if the United States is seen as an untrustworthy borrower.

Superstar cities bounced back stronger than ever after the Great Recession. But the COVID-19 shutdown is different and the way back will be a challenge unlike any other.

The co-founder of Microsoft is leading our understanding of COVID-19 and the road ahead, backed by one of the world's wealthiest charitable organizations. Columnist Jon Talton takes a closer look at the role of Bill Gates.

Amazon and several other large Seattle-area corporations, including Alaska Airlines, Costco, Expedia, Microsoft and Starbucks, expressed support Tuesday for the concept behind a Washington House bill that would allow King County to enact a big-business tax.

Pilot programs this week will introduce two types of "smart" reusable cups in independent coffee shops in San Francisco and Palo Alto. The models, made mostly from plastic and outfitted with RFID chips or QR codes for tracking, are the fruit of a two-year "moon shot" project known as the NextGen Cup Challenge.

NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks customers in Canada will soon be able to down fake meat with their Frappuccinos. The coffee chain said Wednesday that it will soon start selling a sandwich featuring a meat-free patty from Beyond Meat, the El Segundo, California, company whose products are being put on the menue at other fast […]

Starbucks said staff across its 14,000 U.S. sites are being told to wipe down busy areas of the store — ideally, every eight minutes. If that can't be achieved, stores shouldn't go more than 30 minutes before cleaning.

The Starbucks Reserve near the Seattle Art Museum was subjected to a deep cleaning and is scheduled to reopen with staff from other locations who have no known impact from COVID-19.

The communication and collaboration among businesses and local government leaders who don’t always see eye-to-eye has helped smooth the response to the region’s coronavirus crisis.

Starbucks says “catastrophe pay” will be available to employees, regardless of whether they are showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Some Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada may become drive-thru only while others could limit the number of people allowed inside, the company said, one day after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus a pandemic. “As a last resort, we will close a store if we feel it is in the […]

The Seattle-based coffee chain, which sees itself as a “third place” between work and home, is trying to reassure customers and employees about its response to the outbreak.

It was a rocky week on Wall Street, as most securities fell and some saw record declines. Seattle-area companies felt the pain as sharply as any.

In a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Starbucks will temporarily close some of its North American locations and will shift to a “to-go” model at the rest of its more than 10,000 North American stores. The closures, which were announced and implemented Sunday afternoon, will last at least two weeks and […]

Boosters of a new Seattle tax on large corporations such as Amazon, including City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, have filed a petition to put an initiative on the ballot this year, they said Thursday. They’re aiming for the November ballot and say the tax could raise $300 million a year, though those calculations were made before coronavirus […]

Some cafes close to hospitals or health care sites will remain open, according to the statement, as part of the company’s “efforts to serve first responders and health care workers.” And Starbucks will continue to pay all employees for 30 days, whether they come to work or stay home.

The fallout from Luckin Coffee’s accounting scandal is spreading far beyond the high-flying Starbucks challenger, with renewed concerns about Chinese corporate governance dragging down stocks across industries and threatening to bring a halt to the country’s overseas initial public offerings. The Xiamen-based coffee chain said on Thursday that its chief operating officer and some underlings […]

Starbucks' U.S. experience is similar to that of McDonald's, which Wednesday announced a dramatic contraction in March after what had been a healthy pace of sales.

The Seattle City Charter says legislation approved under a state of emergency can't be repealed by referendum. Council members can't name every business the new tax would cover, because the state discloses only aggregate payroll data.

Starbucks is planning to “gradually expand” operations at some stores in the U.S., citing progress in the fight to contain the coronavirus.

The Seattle-based coffee chain on Tuesday began selling lasagna, pasta and a wrap filled with Beyond Meat grounds, which are made from pea protein. It’s the first time Beyond Meat products are being sold in China.

In the U.S., Starbucks has temporarily closed half its 8,000 company-owned stores. It's planning to reopen 90% of those with modifications by early June.

Starbucks this week started reopening stores in Seattle that had been closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s updated statewide eviction moratorium, announced Thursday, is arguably the most far-reaching local action yet to protect renters. The proclamation protects tenants from eviction until June 4. And it goes further, barring landlords from collecting late fees, raising rents or asking tenants in housing closed due to the coronavirus pandemic — including student housing — […]

As my legal career has gotten longer, I have learned that while getting older does not necessarily make a person wiser, but it does make them more experienced. A decade ago, I tried to help hundreds of homeowners who could afford to make their monthly mortgage payment but thought that if they missed just a […]

Passed by the City Council in 2016, the pioneering Seattle law requires landlords to publicize their criteria for prospective renters and to accept the first qualified applicant.

BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. sales of existing homes cratered 8.5% in March with real estate activity stalled by the coronavirus outbreak. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that 5.27 million homes sold last month, down from 5.76 million in February. The decrease was the steepest since November 2015. The situation will likely get worse, […]

In March, contract closings declined 8.5% from the prior month to an annualized 5.27 million, according to National Association of Realtors data released Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. new home sales plunged 15.4% in March as a winding down in the middle of the month due to the coronavirus began to rattle the housing market. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that sales of new single-family homes dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 627,000 last month after sales […]