This month reads like three versions of the same story: whoever controls the bottleneck controls the scoreboard. In 1609, Isaac Le Maire tried to smack the Dutch East India Company back into its lane because monopolies eventually stop competing and start rewriting the rules. In 2026, Pinterest proved you can add users and print real GAAP profits, miss a revenue expectation by a hair, and still get publicly executed because ad buyers are spooked and the market is allergic to “maybe.” And the AI boom is taking that same logic into the physical world, turning electricity-linked land into a premium asset that can outbid housing—exactly why Oregon’s land-use system now looks less like a political quirk and more like a financial firewall.

— Managing Partners Drew Millegan & Quinn Millegan

December served up the full Woodworth sampler platter: Oregon’s market “scoreboard” gave us a mid-month sugar high and a month-end reality check, a 90s peso hangover reminded everyone that “international outperformance” can just be FX doing cardio, and a dating app the market ghosted might be lining up the rebound trade. We also dig into housing policy that keeps blaming the wrong villain while missing the supply mismatch, a coastal port pitch that sells greenfield automation and rail efficiency (and gets attacked for dredging while the Columbia quietly gets dredged for 100+ miles), the latest push to replace quarterly facts with semiannual vibes, and why faith in the economic data plumbing matters more than ever—because when the scoreboard gets politicized, markets don’t get calmer, they get louder.

— Managing Partners Drew Millegan & Quinn Millegan

In between conversations with interested festival attendees, we conducted a poll of 58 willing participants as to their current feelings on the economy, as well as their own personal investments.  In exchange, participants received a free Woodworth-branded shot glass.  From this poll, a familiar trend emerged.

In the spirit of our upcoming sponsorship of the local Scottish Heritage Festival here in McMinnville, Oregon, we find ourselves thinking of Scotland, and the ways in which our own home half a world away has many parallels. Catch us at the McMinnville Scottish Festival October 5th & 6th.

The proposed $60 million Gwendolyn Hotel in downtown McMinnville, which has asked permission to demolish three designated historic buildings within the Downtown National Historic District, has created a great deal of controversy.