John Mitchell received his B.A. degree from Williams College and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oregon. He is a fellow of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was a professor of economics at Boise State University for 13 years, before joining U.S. Bancorp in July of 1983. He was Chief Economist of U.S. Bancorp until July of 1998 and served as Economists Western Region for US Bank until July of 2007. His regional publications include: The Economic Debate, the Business Barometer, U.S. Territory and Oregon Tidbits and he currently writes a column for Oregon Business Magazine and Sterling Bank’s Economic newsletter. He was a business analyst for KPTV in Portland. He has been making economic presentations on the nation and the region for more than 38 years.