Jack Lessinger, Chief Operating Officer

Jack enrolled as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, after serving in World War II with the 11th Armored Division. While pursuing his Ph.D., he first began developing an alternative to mainstream economics that would create a testable science linking history, society and geography to economics. This effort has culminated in ‘Socio-Economics.’
In 1964, Jack became an Associate Professor in the Department of Business, Government and Society at the University of Washington’s Graduate School of Business. In 1985, as Emeritus Professor, he retired from teaching in order to pursue his research interests more fully.
His first book, “Regions of Opportunity,” was published by Random House in 1986. “Regions” and subsequent books provide a record of Jack’s predictions over the last two decades that have come to pass.
“Penturbia,” published in 1990-1991, predicted the shift in geographic living preferences away from suburbia to the next region of opportunity chosen by ‘We the People.’ It recognized that today’s economic decline is aggravated by the obsolescence of suburban houses at the epicenter of boom and bust. This movement is now occurring at a pace that has startled the real estate industry and has been a major factor in destabilizing the U.S. economy.
Jack’s 1997 book, “Boom Counties,” identified the preferential and waning geographical areas of population migration as the Little King era ended. Updated in 2006 as “Your County, Boom or Bust?” this book has gained widespread credibility. Its data has proven useful for those wanting to know where the next geographical migration and housing boom will occur.
His latest book, written with SocioEconomics, Inc. president, Ranger Kidwell-Ross, is “The Great Prosperity of 2020.” This book provides a comprehensive overview of the previous and current socio-economic trends in the U.S. It provides a foundation and perspective for the economic meltdown being experienced in 2009, and offers insight into how the transition may best be smoothed from consumer-oriented Little King to a durable reign by Responsible Capitalism.
With his wife of over 60 years, Jack makes his home in a rural hamlet of northwest Washington state, a characteristic example of the geographic locale he’s termed, “penturbia.” This area is representative of the similar regions of opportunity Jack predicts will be embraced in the era of Responsible Capitalism.
As a lifelong violinist, at age 87, playing chamber music is still Jack’s major delight.