Washington Research Council Economist Sees Lean Times Ahead for Seattle

Here is a chart of annual taxable retail sales in the city of Seattle for the years 1994 to 2008. To remove the effects of inflation, we have adjusted spending spending to 2008 values using the BLS's Seattle Consumer Price Index.

via www.researchcouncilblog.org

This is surprising: "...for 2007, the peak year of the last expansion, real taxable retail sales for goods and services other than construction were lower in Seattle than they had been in 2000."