Jon Talton

1 week ago | seattletimes.com | Jon Talton

Imagine a world without the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. For more than a century, and especially after the Allied victory in World War II, America has enjoyed the equivalent of a gold card with an unlimited credit line. Both parties spent decades nurturing the dollar’s dominance. That’s the benefit of having the currency that’s used by central banks and other monetary authorities around the world for international transactions that drive the global economy.

2 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Jon Talton

Seattle goes by many nicknames beyond today’s pretentious Emerald City. It was officially the Queen City of the Northwest from 1868 to 1982, City of Flowers in the 1940s, the Jet City because of its connection to Boeing, Rain City — although it rains far less here than most outsiders realize — and Sea-Town among others. But I propose another moniker: City of Loss.

3 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Jon Talton

In 1970, King County voters rejected a plan to build a regional mass-transit system. One critical component of the Forward Thrust ballot would have built 49 miles of rail flowing out from downtown Seattle. According to HistoryLink, a Washington history site, “U.S. Sen. Warren G.

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Jon Talton

An important meeting this week in the other Washington will have consequences that affect Seattle and the Northwest, as well as the nation and world. After World War II, the United States established two institutions to help prevent the type of trade conflicts that in the 1920s and 1930s contributed to the rise of Hitler and the military control of imperial Japan.

2 months ago | seattletimes.com | Jon Talton

Like almost every city and metropolitan area in the United States, Seattle needs more housing. Last year, my colleagues Heidi Groover and Anna Patrick reported that Washington will need more than a million new dwellings in the next 20 years, including those for people with lower incomes. Whether the recent approval by the Seattle City Council of fewer than 1,000 new apartments in the Sodo industrial district south of downtown, amid enormous controversy, will help is yet to be determined.