This is an hour long presentation on local economics, given this week by David Tandy, CEO of Texas National Title.  For those of us who enjoy geeking out on economics (and like them presented in layman's terms), this is pretty awesome.  

I'll bet you didn't know this, but I am officially an Endangered Species. I am a native Austinite that is over 40 years old. I was here before hipsters, Starbucks, and skinny jeans. According to statistics I made up last Wednesday, I am one of only FOUR native Austinites at this age or older that you are destined to meet in your lifetime.  

Why should you care? (My kids ask this too....just silently with an eye roll....) 

Well, I grew up in a Real Estate family here watching and learning as we navigated the last significant inflation the news keeps referring to. I remember the Carter Administration. I remember the Miracle on Ice at the Lake Placid Olympics (which I watched in shorts because hey...I was in Austin). I remember when mortgage rates were flirting with reaching 20%. I remember that we had not one, but TWO boom and bust cycles in Texas Real Estate in the 1980s. The second one was particularly challenging to my family's sphere of influence, and I remembe ...