Kicking off the five-year financial forecast at City Council today is economist John Hockenyos, with an economic context view “50,000 feet from above.”
There’s some “bubblish” signs, but “the fundamentals remain strong,” says Hockenyos. But he also says his field is a step away from witch-doctoring, so take that into account, too. To us, it sort of seems like crouching the sunny conventional wisdom about Austin in pseudo-scientific jargon. Here, see if you can separate his statements into those respective categories:
“I wonder if enough people moving into town can afford half-a-million dollar condos.”
“More than one in 10 of us wasn’t here in 2000. … People are leaving California in droves.”
“The difference between the haves and the have-nots is getting bigger.”
“[Entertainment] used to be about experience – going to see a band. … Now we’re capturing the in capital of our creative sector in a way that can be exported all over the world. … [I call it] exportable sustainability.”
Time’s up!
Oh no, Brewster McCracken‘s talking about the digital convergence! Run!
This article appears in April 27 • 2007.