Extracts from SF Fed Reserve Bank Presentation [see Mesa details]

Re: The Health of Nations
Presentation to the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference

Los Angeles, California
By John C. Williams, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

For delivery on February 10, 2016
[sources in talk are noted by footnotes]
Complete transcript >> http://www.frbsf.org/our-district/press/presidents-speeches/williams-speeches/2016/february/health-of-nations-interagency-community-reinvestment-conference/
Before yours truly gets into details about John Williams, let's put the title of his talk into an historical perspective with his play-on-words to the magnum opus published in 1776 by Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations missing the cues about "an Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". What Adam Smith had to say then is about as revolutionary as what John Williams has to say now, without the moralizing. He presents data for his experiences.
For these reasons and many more that you probably don’t have the patience to hear me recite, we have a broad definition of health that encompasses jobs, education, and safety. Now that I’ve given the requisite economist’s evidence, I want to make something of a departure. I’m going to wander outside my comfort zone of spreadsheets and talk a bit about my experiences and what I’ve seen, traveling across the Fed’s 12^th District.

Vantage Point Survey and the Importance of Qualitative Data

From The Newswires > Expansion For Existing Business Into Downtown Mesa

Mesa, Ariz. (PRWEB) February 09, 2016
Growth in 2015 Drives Online Community Platform Company, Socious, to Double the Size of Its Headquarters Office
Arizona-based provider of customer community software and services reports a strong 2015 driven by increased demand for customer engagement technology and expertise in building and leveraging customer communities.
Good news.

Link to press release >> http://www.prweb.com/releases/online-community-software/201602/prweb13205926.htm
Cloud-based online community software company, Socious, began 2016 by opening a new 10,000 sq. ft. headquarters office in Mesa, Arizona. Over the past 6 years, the leading provider of community software has averaged 24% revenue growth per year.    

Through its social community software and services, Socious helps some of the top companies and nonprofits in the world manage relationships with over 1.5 million customers – an increase of 50% since the beginning of the 2015.

Socious experienced a significant expansion of its community management, event management, and technical services in 2015. Socious is the only online community software company to provide both an industry-leading platform and a full stable of specialists to design, implement, and grow their customers’ online communities.

Nice image of the staff team from the company's website  http://socious.com/

NOT So Giddy > Recent Gallup Poll: U.S. Economic Confidence Index Level at -13

a report on 09 Feb 2016 from The Gallup Poll says this:
Economic Confidence Index was quite strong in early 2015, and consistently reached positive territory each week in January and early February of last year. Index scores fell in subsequent months, bottoming out at -17 in late August. Since that low point, scores have remained within a narrow window of -15 to -10, apart from the brief mid-January exception.
Americans' economic confidence has withstood significant volatility in the stock market in recent months and has seemed resistant to a new wave of declining gas prices as well as moderately positive news on the labor front. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate dipped below 5.0% for the first time since 2008, although job gains in January did not meet expectations.
Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index is the average of two components: how Americans rate current economic conditions and whether they feel the economy is getting better or getting worse. The index has a theoretical maximum of +100 if all U.S. adults say the economy is doing well and getting better, and it has a theoretical minimum of -100 if all U.S. adults say the economy is doing poorly and getting worse.
These data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Double-Speak // Politicians Say One Thing + Data Says Another

How many times has Mesa Mayor John Giles said "Things are great" ??
Is that just an over-blown and vague adjective to wishfully describe the current State-of-the-City or just plain Double-Speak?
 In "1984" Orwell introduced us to the words doublethink and newspeak. A word he didn't use - but which combines the two - is doublespeak. Doublespeak is saying one thing and meaning another, usually its opposite.

DOUBLESPEAK IS NEWSPEAK DOUBLETHINK. Got it?
There is a thriving industry in constructing words without explicit meaning but with particular connotations.
Challenges, anyone? Or how about Opportunities? Doublespeak is often used by politicians for the advancement of their agenda. The Doublespeak Award is an "ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered." No awards for that here in Mesa, but certain people are in contention to get one.
Hence - following the logic in these endeavors if there is any sense to do that, education is necessary to recognize and combat against doublespeak-use effectively.

Your MesaZona blogger got a good giggle the other day in an email reply from the Mayor's Office when it was asked to supply statistics [specific names of companies and number of jobs and whether part-time and full-time, that were actually paying salaries to employees that were hired lastnyear not projections for job creation] . . . the answer:

"We use a third party proprietary database to obtain our numbers [name deleted by blogger] . . . You're welcome to contact them for information about their process. Thanks"

 

A Garden Wizard! Catherine The Herb Lady Will Appear @ MUG For A Class

Check out a post on this site "Much Ado Mulch" about a free class on Sat 20 Feb in the Mesa Urban Garden . . . attention all you Muggles and/or humble humans who want to Plant ... Grow ... Eat!
Catherine Crowley, aka The Herb Lady, is an expert in edible landscaping in the Desert Southwest.  She writes and lectures on how to 'get growing' at public and private events.
 "I remember my grandmother, well.  She grew things and cooked things - wonderful things in the kitchen.  I looked backward for gardening and cooking lore, and found a future more than 3 decades ago.  I always loved gardening but was not always successful at it.  "Trowel and Error" have been my teachers!  If I found a new-to-me herb, fruit or vegetable I wanted to try growing it and have been very successful, in part because of the wonderful Tuscany/Provence type climate the Phoenix desert offers".   
Here's a post on Twitter from The Herb Lady: @TheHerbLady
SUGAR CANE! I will have rootable segments for sale at Friday's Mesa Farmers Market. Message me if you want me... fb.me/3skGmyuj6 
 

You CAN have an edible garden - there's fertile deep dirt to start planting in right now in the community garden on First Avenue.
Go to >> mesaurbangarden.org

Yanis Varoufakis Capitalism will eat democracy — unless we speak up - De...

Definitely not what we usually hear from suit-and-tie money guys. Hunky Greek ex-Finance Minister talks tough about democracy - really tough. So get ready and listen . . . and that's only the start so take the time - 1:04:12 - to see and watch another extraordinary episode in how the world is turning. Seriously, dear readers, this is serious

Streamed live on Feb 8, 2016

On February 8 we will go Live from Berlin with an extraordinary episode of our political webshow TalkReal one day ahead of the launch of the new movement DiEM25 by Yanis Varoufakis