A new study issued this month by the Milken Institute ranks the Seattle area as the nation's second largest tech center behind only the San Francisco Bay's Silicon Valley.

The study, based on 2007 numbers, moves the Seattle area up a notch from a similar study in 2003 when the Boston-Cambridge area in Massachusetts ranked second. That area dropped to third place in the new study.

Ranking fourth is the Washington, D.C. area followed by Los Angeles, Dallas and San Diego.

According to the Milken study, some 226,000 workers in the Seattle area work in high tech which includes such big sectors such as software development and aerospace (read Microsoft and Boeing).

The study notes that areas with concentrations of high tech industry may be poised to emerge from the recession earlier than other cities.

That thesis agrees with the findings of a Moody's.com study last week that ranked the Seattle-Tacoma area as one of the areas most likely to rebound from the recession early.

Seattle isn't mounting the kind of high-dollar effort to attract Russell Investment's headquarters to the Emerald City as Tacoma is to keep its largest downtown employer here.

That's the news revealed in Sunday Seattle Times story about the tug-of-war between the two cities for the favor of the international investment advisory firm.

Part of Seattle's reluctance to go head-to-head with Tacoma is driven by a gentleman's agreement among regional cities not to poach companies from each other.

And part of that reticence is the result of political pressure from both the likes of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and from the state to let Tacoma take the lead in the quest to keep a valuable employer in the region.

That doesn't mean that the Seattle business community in the form of the Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle developers with skyscrapers to fill haven't mounted a campaign to bring Russell to vacant space in downtown Seattle.

But the Seattle mayor's office has offered only token help in that recruiting effort, and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce has adopted a hands-off attitude.

Tacoma's effort is powered by $148 million in benefits ranging from tax breaks for sales tax on construction to business and occupation tax loopholes for financial service companies. The Tacoma package includes 500 parking spots and a $66 million cosmetic and functional upgrade of downtown's streetscapes.

Russell expects to make its decision on the headquarters issue by fall.

Its space requirements, once as high as one million square feet, have dropped to as little as half of that as the economy has shrunk and Russell has pared down its staff to cope.

It sounds too obvious when Audrey Godwin says businesses fail primarily because their owners run out of cash. But Godwin, a certified public accountant, sees cash management as a skill business owners need to strengthen.

"Knowing what your cash balances are today and during the next six months is essential for a healthy and sustainable business," she said.

The City of Tacoma has booked Godwin to teach cash flow management to small business owners Wednesday as part of its ongoing series of Economic Gardening workshops.

Godwin will teach two free sessions: 8-10 a.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m. The workshops will be at The Evergreen State College-Tacoma Branch, 1210 Sixth Ave., Room 105. Parking is available in the campus lot in front of the building. Refreshments and light snacks will be served.

For more information or to reserve your spot by phone, contact Christine Clifford at (253) 573-2435 or cclifford@cityoftacoma.org.

Laughing Lotus, a new store opening Friday on Sixth Avenue, will bring artistry and knickknacks from villages around the world to an even more central location at 3013B 6th Ave.

Four retailers – Dockmandu, Matur Suksema, Rustic Trails and Suradi imports – have joined forces and resources to bring their traveler’s treasures closer to potential customers.

“The fact is four businesses in one location is our way of getting through the recession,“ said Amy McDonald, owner of Suradi Imports. “That way we have shared expenses and shared staffing.“

Suradi Imports and Dockmandu had retail businesses in the Tide Flats for more than five years – until the closure of the Eleventh Street bridge made them too hard to find.

So the pair moved to Sixth Avenue about a year ago to start Far & Wide at 606 N. Prospect St.

And now they’re moving again, inviting the other two wholesale retailers to try a hand at store ownership with them.

Customers will find a world’s worth of goodies at Laughing Lotus‘ opening bash 11 a.m. Friday.

Suradi Imports offers home and garden décor and art from Java, Indonesia, while Seattle-based Matur Suksema sells handicraft products such as beaded baskets from Bali, Indonesia.

Dockmandu’s stock ranges from Vietnamese pots to Mexican handicrafts.

And Lakewood-based Rustic Trails imports carpets, copperware and baskets from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The products are fairly-traded and made from sustainable materials, says McDonald. The retailers would know because they travel to the prospective villages to pick up the goods.

Suradi Imports and Matur Suksema also have online stores, but McDonald said they chose to open the store instead of pouring their efforts into generating more online business.
Laughing Lotus will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This Friday at 7p.m. travelers to China and India will share their stories at a monthly travel talk session.

A Thurston Co. court granted approval today of a consent decree that bans Kent-based All My Sons Moving and Storage from doing business in the state.

The moving company attracted the attention of the state's Utlities and Transportation Commission after customers complained about inaccurate in moving cost estimates. alleged overcharges and mishandled damage claims.

The WUTC stripped All My Sons of its permit to operate a moving company business in Washington in November 2008. The commission ordered the company to halt operations here.

The commission in February complained to the Thurston County Superior Court that the company had failed to comply with that order and continued to conduct business after the order went into effect.

All My Sons, the WUTC complained, continued to advertise its services and continued handling customer moves after the permit was revoked.

All My Sons has filed to dissolve its business and is liquidating the company, the WUTC said in a press release.

Boeing rival Airbus is seeking as much as $5 billion in government aid to pay for development costs for its A350 jetliner, Bloomberg.com reports.

The aid request may refuel protests from Boeing over European government subsidies to Airbus. The A350 is a twin-engine, high technology jet designed to compete with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and its 777.

The aid would come from four countries, France, Germany, Britain and Spain whose factories would play a major role in building the A350.

Boeing says the loans give Airbus an unfair advantage because Boeing must seek financing either from its own internal earnings or from private sources to finance the risky business of designing a new plane.

Typically, European governments have provided about a third of the financing for Airbus planes.

Airbus contends that it has paid back that financing plus interest on previous projects.

Airbus counters that Boeing receives government aid of its own through NASA grants for developmental work on aerospace research.

Two Indian airlines, hit by slowing air traffic, are considering asking Boeing Co. to defer deliveries of billions of dollars worth of new aircraft they have on order.

Both Air India and Jet Airways officials told reporters at an aviation conference in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia that they may want to postpone deliveries of new jets from Boeing while their business recovers.

Air India has $8 billion worth of new planes on order including 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Jet Airways has placed orders for 10 Dreamliners.

The delivery of the first Dreamliners is running almost two years behind schedule because of technical problems Boeing and its suppliers encountered in assembling the first of the new jets.

The first production Dreamliner had been scheduled to be delivered in May 2008 to launch customer All Nippon Airways. That delivery is now scheduled for the first half of 2010.

The first test Dreamliner is due to fly later this month.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways also is considering deferring delivery of some of the $10 billion plus in orders it has placed with both Boeing and Airbus.

Today is the last day you can use Sea-Tac Airport's increasingly popular cell phone waiting lot north of the terminal.

The lot will close down Tuesday while the airport doubles the lot's size. A new lot will open in about a month, said the airport.

In the meantime, the airport hopes those waiting for friends, associates and relatives to arrive won't revert to their old habits of circling the airport drives or parking along the freeway shoulders (illegal and prone to attract police attention).

Instead, the airport suggests that people on airport pickup duty park in the airport garage's hourly parking floor which costs $2 for 30 minutes.

The cost of the cell phone lot was free.