Every year the Chamber sponsors a poll of San Franciscans regarding the health and vitality of our economy and well being of the City by the Bay. The results were unveiled last week at the City Beat breakfast. Mayor Lurie gave the Keynote address and CEO Rodney Fong presided. In today's podcast, Rodney discusses the poll results.

A majority of young adults believe that they will not be as well off as their parents. In other words, they are falling behind. And the economic data bears it out. The average age of first time homebuyers is 40. But in the 1980s it was 30. What can the average young man or woman do to build wealth ?

Venezuela went from being one of Latin America's wealthiest countries to an economic disaster. More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country . And despite having the largest proven oil reserves in the world, daily oil production stands at a measly 500,000 barrels per day. Meanwhile, Ex President Maduro sits in a NY jail awaiting trial as a narco terrorist.

The Great San Francisco Comeback is in full swing. And nowhere is the energy, drive and vision of The City that Knows How on display, than iconic Union Square. It's the heart and soul at the center of our Reimagining San Francisco, led by the Union Square Alliance.

Sir Keir Starmer's 18 month Premiership has been thrown into crisis as a result of Peter Mandelson's past associations with Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer appointed Mandelson UK Ambassador to Washington and then sacked him in September 2025. Can Starmer survive calls for his resignation ?

Author, essayist and literary critic, Bill Deresiewicz assembled a collection of forty essays written over a 30 year period. The themes include, Individuality vs. Networks, The Purpose of Education, Culture and Technology, Art and Criticism and Social Trends. The former Professor of English Literature at Yale University shares his opinions.

January 2026 saw a series of strategic foreign policy moves in Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, the Board of Peace which will continue to reverberate throughout 2026 and beyond.

As American Universities opened campuses in China and the Middle East in the early 2000s the wish was that our values of free speech and freedom would take root there. But increasingly their standards of censorship and authoritarianism seem to be pressuring our universities. How did this expansion go wrong ?