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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1976)
! I P o r tla n d '**• ÿ * S ta to U n iv e r s ity L ib r a r y i ' *» V »' • w ** . • H • a * r • r i s o n , O r e . Ö 7Z JI Forr t« .- W H . / PORTLAND OBSERI/ER Voi. «, No. 36 Thursday. July 22> 1978 ><* P*r C°P> Port studies ship yard expansion The Port of Portland Commission will deride whether to seek general obligation bond financing for a new dry dock facility at Swan Island Ship Yards by putting the proposal on the November ballot, at a special meeting to be held July 26th at 8:00 a.m. at the Lloyd Building. 700 N.E. Multnomah Street. 13th floor. The Commission heard testimony on July 14th, the final public hearing. A report of the Citizens’ Evaluation Com mittee appointed by Commission Presi dent James B. Thayer was heard. Com mittee Chairman William Love identified the important points of the report. “A new. larger dry dock for Portland is justified,” Love said. "Such a dry dock can be self liquidating and a future source of revenue for the Port.” The report recommended changes in state law to allow revenues from opera tion of the new facility to be pledged in support of general obligation bonds, to ease a potential burden on the taxpayers. The Port currently does not have this authority. The committee recommendation pro poses that the project be financed by sharing costs between taxpayers and the users. They recommended that taxpayer support be provided until the dry dock generates sufficient revenue to fund the obligation, a period estimated to be be tween three and five years. The proposal, presented in February by Port of Portland Executive Director Lloyd Anderson, recommended the con struction of a dry dock, 3,000 feet of berth space and utilités to accomodate the larg er ships now in use. Of specific interest ar the oil tankers that will be used to carry nil from Alaska to the refineries. C u r rently thre is no ship yard on the west coast capable of servicing these ships, and if one is not provided they will be repaired in Japan. Private industry that leases ship yard facilities estimate that expansion will create approximately 1,000 new jobs. At this üme, 37.518 jobs, or Un percent of the jobs in the tri-county area, are related to the maritime industry. William H. McClendon III. m mirrors. I Please see page 4) / C. F. I ef the new Bank opens American S U U Bank has expanded its poUntial to serve the community by opening its first new branch at S.E. 28th and HolgaU. The branch is managed by C. F. East abrook. EasUbrook, who has been with the bank since its founding, has over forty years of banking experience. The Eastmoreland branch serves an area of 14,500 people - an area which has no other bank. “In order for the bank to grow, we needed to expand. We plan to open at least U n more branches in the future." V. F. Booker. President of ■ of Junior Dental Institute, examines his teeth with the help of (photos; Dan Long) Great depression unemployment rates here to stay ___ . ____i:_____ ___. by Paul Rosen stiel (PNS) With the economic recovery of ficially enuring its second year, econom ista have some bad news to balance off the good. First, the good: the unemployment rate, now at 7.5 per cent, will continue to decline from its high of a year ago. though at a slower rate. Administration econom ists predict that unemployment will dip below seven per cent by the end of the year. However and now the bad news - many economists say the decline in the unemployment rate is already nearing an end. These latter experts think the days of three or four per cent unemployment, as in the lato 1960’s, may be gone for a long time -• if not forever. Instead, six or seven per cent unemployment -- last known during the Great Depression may soon be regarded as normal. Explanations for such a condition are about as diverse as the economics jrofes sion - known until recently as the ’dismal science." With their theory in a state of flux following its inability to deal with the economy’s poor performance, economists are groping for new explanations. But for every new theory advanced by one group of economists, another group of equal size and prestige is likely to tear it apart and offer up its own. MORE EQUAL MISERY What is clear to everyone is that long term high unemployment threatens to touch some of those groups most immune from unemployment: male workers and white workers. A comparison of statistics from 1969. when the unemployment rate was 3.5 per cent, and 1975. when it was 8.5 per cent, shows that male unemployment jumped more than three fold, while female unem ployment only doubled. Non white unemployment grew 117 per cent during the same period, com par ed to a 152 per cent rate for whites. So » in n ln v m » n t la while ,>n unemployment is still still highest highest among women, teenagers, blue-collar workers and non-whites (whose unem ployment rato is traditionally double that of whites), the misery is now spreading more evenly. It is also clear, according to the Nation al Council on Unemployment Policy - a group of 17 of the nation's leading labor market economists -- that aftor almost every recession since 1948, the unem ployment rato has receded less and leaa from its recession high before the econo my peaks and begins a new decline. Most economists agree that the pro blem of high unemployment will be tough to beat over the next decade. According to a survey by U.S. News and World Report, the U.S. will have to provide an average of more than 72,000 new jobs every week between now and 1985 to cope with new entries into the labor force and to lower unemployment to four per cent. Such a rate of job creation is nearly state committee G. E. RICHARDSON JR. economists, holds that unemployment is a necessary ingredient of capitalism. Writing in the American Economic Re view, economists James Crotty and Leo nard Rapping of the University of Massa chusetts argue that corporato profits de dine with the unemployment rate be cause workers gain more strength in wage bargaining. The recent recession, they say, was deliberatoly brought on by government officials who had no choice but to cool off the overheated economy with a recession after other policies, in-' eluding wage and price controls, failed. They argue that for government offi cials and businessmen, "intermittent re cessions are a necessary condition for the maintenance of satisfactory profits and the health of financial institutions." The recent recession, according to Crotty and Rapping, was especially severe because it was long overdue. The high employment of the late 1960 s was American Bank, explained that although the bank is Black-owned and was intond- ed to serve the Black community, the best way to remain viable is to serve all the Portland area. "There is no reason that a Black owned business must be located only in the Black community. We must have the same opportunity to ex pand as any other business." The new building, which was built for the bank. It has 32,000 square feet of floor space, a drive-up window, two remoU su tion s, and is the first bank in the staU to have bullet-proof windows for the toilers. artificially sustained by the Vietnam War and the Great Society programs. Finally, most economists - including the Marxists - agree that many of our problems stem from a changing intorna- tional economy in which the U.S. no long er enjoys the dominance it once held. ‘ Third World comodity producers, such as OPEC, have successfully demanded higher prices and a basic re ordering of the international economy. In addition, the international role of the U.S. dollar, once dominant because of a fixed ex change rate that benefited the U.S. exclu sively. has been seriously weakened by the new flexible" exchange rate system. The result of this complex change is that the U.S. is no longer able to “export" its inflation to foreign currencies, but must respond to inflation by devaluing the dollar. Some economists believe this situation alone accounted for 15 to 20 per cent of the inflation rate in 1975. ; ‘ J h li Richardson joins George E. Richardson. Jr., has been appointed to the State Television and Radio Service advisory board, announced Corneilius C. Bateson. State Director of Commerce. Richardson's term will end June 30th, 1980. His duties will include advising the director on policy and legislation concern ing the regulation and licensing of TV and radio technicians within the state. Richardson is assistant budget super visor for Northwest Natural Gas Com pany. double between 1050 double the the Dace pace between 1050 and and 1075, 1075, cutbacks are now hitting all levels of government. Many labor market emperts expect government to join the long list of declining industries in America. Some economists, particularly conser vatives, believe our problem is too many people who want jobs. From this point of view, our high unemployment originates from the influx of new population groups, such as women, into the labor force. Since 1947, the number of women in the labor force has risen almost two and a half times as fast as the female population. This situation has led some ecnomists to abandon Ulk of the unemployment rate and emphasize the “employment rate" - or what percentage of the popula lion has jobs - which they say has re mained fairly constant. All these explanations assume that our economic leaders sincerely want to end unemployment. But a radically different explanation, put forward by Marxist i ef the Americas S u te iPheto: D as Lsagl Over 50.1
