Bruce Ramsey

Bruce Ramsey was a business reporter and columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the 1980s and 1990s and from 2000 to his retirement in 2013 was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle Times. He is the author of The Panic of 1893: The Untold Story of Washington State’s first Depression, and is at work on a history of Seattle in the 1930s. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Anne.

Adding up the Math for Seattle Social Housing

It’s a fetching idea, but people who know public housing say the arithmetic doesn’t work. The profits from renting to the middle class would be too small to support the poor, unless you have lots and lots of middle-class people and only a handful of poor.

Chris Vance’s New Book: Battle Cry for Republican Revolt

Right now,” he says, “there’s only one litmus test: Are you loyal to the Orange Jesus?”

Reality Check: No National Recession, But Seattle Economy is Ringing Alarms

So – are we in a recession? Officially, no, at least not yet. But for several industries, especially tech, the office market, much of retail, and now aerospace, it feels very much like a coming-down.

Understanding Gig Harbor’s Christopher Rufo, Right-Wing ‘Brawler’

The takedown of Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, is a cultural event of the first order. And the man behind it, conservative journalist and activist Christopher Rufo, lives in deep blue Washington.

Have Recent Tenant Protection Laws Reduced Our Number Of Rental Units?

The City studied the availability of rental properties, finding a distinct pattern in the response: houses and units in small properties drop by one-fifth in the four-year period (2018-2022) and units in large properties either increase or stay the same.

Defining Terms: Insurrections and the Court

The Constitution does not define the term “insurrection.” I’ll offer a writer’s definition.

Remembering the Old Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s political struggle is a David-and-two-sGoliath story in which Goliaths won. A new book Among the Braves, tells the story from the protesters’ point of view. The “braves” of the title are the radicals who fought with police — and lost.

Possible? Washington State Mandates Electric Cars by 2030

The goal of an all-EV car and pickup market by 2030 implies a huge increase in the local use of electric power. We don’t have the power plants to do that. Our utilities will have to buy the expensive power on the market.

Inside Crypto’s Wild Ride

The financial industry is regulated in lots of ways and has been for a long time. Crypto was started by people outside the financial industry, which wanted nothing to do with it.

In Defense of Republican Renegades

With all the hand-wringing, the oh-my-God-what’s-the-world-coming-to, let’s have a little interest in why they did what they did. Much of it was that McCarthy, they said, had lied to them. He was untrustworthy. He had promised to do certain things and hadn’t. Okay. But lied about what?

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