I wholeheartedly agree with Ron Buel's post. I own a consulting business and have spent many years as a management consultant; I've watched Portland's economy closely over the past 10 years. We are not doing enough in the Higher Ed sector to generate Knowledge Economy jobs. But I also think the city needs to seriously attempt to lure some large corporations here, instead of chasing them away. Sam and I have had this conversation before: consider the example offered by Cincinnati, which is actually smaller than metro Portland. Yet their economic stability (not to mention their significant tax base) is greater than Portland's, because they have a diversified economy. Consider that metro Cincinnati is the home of Kroger, Proctor and Gamble, Chiquita Brands, Toyota of North America, etc. The jobs they provide are in different economic sectors, a key factor; and food, consumer products, and automotive manufacturing are sectors that will remain healthy for quite some time. Why isn't anyone alarmed that, in 20 years, Portland's economic development model went from one that was over-dependent on forest products (bad idea) to one that ws over-dependent on semiconductors (equally bad idea)? Diversification and a serious effort to build a world-class Higher Educational model to support the new Portland economy are critical factors.