Invocation: Dan Lundahl

 

Joe Mahon is the Director of Regional Outreach and Public Affairs for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His skillful summary of our nation’s economic processes and current conditions managed to compress what may have taken a whole semester to cover in college.

Joe focused on the causes and controls affecting inflation, consumer spending and employment. Divided into 12 Districts, the Federal Reserve Bank provides a decentralized and non-partisan financial organization for the country.  It monitors surveys and data to provide information to Congress so that measures can be taken to keep our economy within established goals.

The Federal Reserve Act mandates that the Federal Reserve conduct monetary policy “so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.”

Joe tried to satisfy all the data-driven attendees with graphs showing the financial trends before and after March 2020 to illustrate the changes brought about by the COVID pandemic. He covered Inflation, Consumer Price Index, Personal Consumption Expenditures, Gross Domestic Product, and Employment.  Joe was just about touching the topic of interest rates when time ran out for our learning session.

 

For information from the Federal Reserve Bank: www.FederalReserve.gov

For Bureau of Labor Statistics data that was used in this presentation: www.bls.gov
To contact Mr. Mahon: joseph.mahon@mpls.frb.org

 

 

Dan separated himself from the experiences of many of us by providing quotations from movies, media and books and challenging each table to identify the source. Many of us didn’t even recognize the answer, but Trivia maven Jodie Hesse expressed her glee at her correct answer.  Happy Dollars came from Mike Wentzell (with thanks to the Highway Cleaners), Dan Keyport and Bob Roepke. 

 

Juan Llerena from Vamos visited to thank our club and District 5950 for the support his scholarship group received in 2019. Contact: vamosmn.jllbmedia.com.

A memorial service for Karl and Signe Nylene will be held June 18 in Shakopee. More information will be provided by Vic Benetti.

Ray Schalow’s wife Judy will provide information about his memorial at Ft. Snelling on August 3.

New member Jodi Hesse and her name badge both happened to be in the same place at the same time!  Gretchen Oppriecht happily joined the two and thanked Jodi for immediately joining the work required by our May projects.

Andy Haugen asked for beverage servers to assist the Pryor Lake Rotary during their Riverfront Music Festival - Friday, July 8 from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Check your email for a detailed message from Gretchen.

 

The June 2 Chaska Herald continued to help publicize our Rotary Leads the Way in May with a short piece about our support for local nurses.