Bing Heckman

What the heck; a little grist for the mill:
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us ‘the Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -- a kind optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein


"When I take the time to look, there is wonder in the commonplace, and wonder is commonplace."
A. J. Heschel



Doings:
• Feasibility analyses for public and private development: shopping centers to an aquarium (Monterey Bay)
• Commercial real estate appraiser
• Acquisition person for a fund buying office and industrial properties in Western States
• Commercial Real Estate broker

Nothing particularly useful or lucrative, but hey, the wonder of it all.

A somewhat surprising thing, at least to me, is that I am fairly active in a local church, First Congregational Church of Palo Alto-Trustees; Stewardship, Grants, Planned Giving Committees & even have taught Sunday School to middle schoolers (lesson one of my curriculum is above).

My main interest is Meher Baba

Truly unbelievable quality and quantity of bands. Someone should put together a list.

The cultural shift we saw from '67-'71 was second to none in world history. Start with women having hours to sign in and stay in. Shifted to no limits, civil rights, Vietnam, great music, other provisions. The school went from a role as babysitter to “have at it.” The odd thing is it went fairly smoothly for such dramatic change

I was an econ major, which can lead to compulsions to forecast. My fearless forecast:
Real GDP Growth 2021 = 5.4%; 2022 = 3.8%; enjoy the party for the next two years, we'll see after that.

Inflation may become a real issue in 2023 or 2024, but i do not think so. Expect a CPI increase of 5.4% in 2021 and 2.1% in 2022.

$15/hr minimum wage will not do much to alleviate poverty, which seems to be a main intent
Best way to reduce poverty is greatly expanded, quality pre-K education; there is actually hope for that.

Real estate accounts for 13% of the U.S. economy; it generates 30% of the carbon emissions