Results for “food” 2044 found
Airlifting Yemeni Jews
Here is a new paper:
This paper estimates the effect of the childhood environment on a large
array of social and economic outcomes lasting almost 60 years, for both
the affected cohorts and for their children. To do this, we exploit a
natural experiment provided by the 1949 Magic Carpet operation, where
over 50,000 Yemenite immigrants were airlifted to Israel. The
Yemenites, who lacked any formal schooling or knowledge of a
western-style culture or bureaucracy, believed that they were being
"redeemed," and put their trust in the Israeli authorities to make
decisions about where they should go and what they should do. As a
result, they were scattered across the country in essentially a random
fashion, and as we show, the environmental conditions faced by
immigrant children were not correlated with other factors that affected
the long-term outcomes of individuals. We construct three summary
measures of the childhood environment: 1) whether the home had running
water, sanitation and electricity; 2) whether the locality of residence
was in an urban environment with a good economic infrastructure; and 3)
whether the locality of residence was a Yemenite enclave. We find that
children who were placed in a good environment (a home with good
sanitary conditions, in a city, and outside of an ethnic enclave) were
more likely to achieve positive long-term outcomes. They were more
likely to obtain higher education, marry at an older age, have fewer
children, work at age 55, be more assimilated into Israeli society, be
less religious, and have more worldly tastes in music and food. These
effects are much more pronounced for women than for men. We find weaker
and somewhat mixed effects on health outcomes, and no effect on
political views. We do find an effect on the next generation – children
who lived in a better environment grew up to have children who achieved
higher educational attainment.
Here is an ungated version.
Making dining complicated
Here is Grant Achatz, now blogging:
Each guest at a table gets a card with four rows of six words. The rows
are defined by characteristics. In the example below, from left to
right: Row one is flavor, two is texture, three is emotionally driven,
and four is temperature. As a group, the diners have to select one word
from each category or row. Once the group has made a decision, they
turn in their choices to the waiter. The waiter hands the choices to
the kitchen, where we create a dish based on the guests' four choices.
Soon after, the result of their choice–their exercise in limited free
will–is served. Or will be.
As Arnold Kling has noted, I am interested in the issue of the efficient delegation of choice. So very often the theatrical presentation of "the feeling of being in control" conflicts with the efficient delegation of choice. If I ran a restaurant I would be embarassed by this practice, not proud of it.
The failure of the independence axiom, once again
It seems that the mere presence of a salad on a fast food menu makes people more likely to order french fries.
Here is more.
Are European nations free-riders when it comes to fiscal policy?
I don't think so. I think the truth — hard for some people to digest — is simply that these smart Social Democrats, rightly or wrongly, don't much believe in massive fiscal stimulus. They're used to the idea that their economies have big structural problems that government spending cannot eliminate.
If fiscal policy can work for a large country such as the United States, it should work for the Netherlands (or Portugal) as well, even if it would work with less potency.
The benefits from the first round of spending would be captured almost completely within the Netherlands. If unemployed resources can be well targeted, and without messing up incentives too badly, (big "ifs" in my view), that provides an almost automatic case for extra Dutch government spending.
It is a good question whether the Dutch already have too much government spending. I will say yes but I don't much hear this from fiscal policy advocates. Maybe they think the current Dutch balance is "just right" but again that means at the margin fiscal policy, targeted at unemployed resources, won't wreck the overall balance.
What about the second round of expenditures from the fiscal policy? Well, if a big chunk of those newly employed workers increase their spending on food, shelter, and local transportation, lots of the second round is captured in the Netherlands as well. Even buying a T-shirt from China will likely benefit a Dutch retailer to some extent.
You will hear the common tale that "everyone not crazy thinks fiscal policy is a good idea, but some countries are too selfish, or too cowardly, to do it."
That story is an easy out, but the truth is that not everyone is so enamored of massive fiscal policy stimulus. If they were, they would be doing it. But they're not.
Hong Kong, by the way, is preparing a relatively aggressive stimulus package.
Here is a relevant blog post on Germany.
Repo markets in everything, Passover edition
This is an example to inspire Jeffrey Williams:
When Jaaber Hussein signs an agreement with Israel's Chief
Rabbis tomorrow, he will be inking the only Arab-Jewish accord sure to
be meticulously observed by both sides. The deal will make him the
owner for one week of all bread, pasta and beer in Israel – well a huge
amount of it anyway. The contract, signed for the past 12 years by the
Muslim hotel food manager, is part of the traditional celebrations
ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Jews are forbidden by biblical injunction to possess leavened bread,
or chametz, during Passover and ironically an Arab is needed to
properly observe the holiday. The agreement with Mr Hussein offers a
way of complying with religious edicts without having to wastefully
destroy massive quantities of food.
If only our capital markets could run so smoothly:
Tomorrow, Mr Hussein will put down a cash deposit of $4,800
(some 20,000 shekels or £3,245) for the $150m worth of leavened
products he acquires from state companies, the prison service and the
national stock of emergency supplies. The deposit will be returned at
the end of the holiday, unless he decides to come up with the full
value of the products. In that case he could, in theory, keep them all.
At the close of the holiday, the foodstuffs purchased by Mr Hussein
revert back to their original owners, who have given the Chief Rabbis
the power of attorney over their leavened products. "It's a firm,
strong agreement done in the best way," Mr Hussein said.
I thank Michael Webster for the pointer.
A market in something, every now and then
North Korean edition, of course, and now it is pizza:
It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the
technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart – the
nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria…
Last year a delegation of local chefs was sent by Kim to Naples and
Rome to learn the proper Italian techniques after their homegrown
efforts to mimic Italian cuisine were found by Kim to contain "errors".
In
the late 1990s Kim brought a team of Italian pizza chefs to North Korea
to instruct his army officers how to make pizza, a luxury which is now
being offered to a tiny elite able to afford such luxuries in a country
that cannot feed many of its 24 million inhabitants.
Despite the
food shortages high-quality Italian wheat, flour, butter and cheese are
being imported to ensure the perfect pizza is created every time.
"Our
people should be also allowed to enjoy the world-famous food," the
manager of the Pyongyang eatery quoted Kim as saying, according to the
Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper.
The paper, which is often
seen as a mouthpiece for the communist regime, added the restaurant had
proved to be a major hit after it opened in the capital Pyongyang in
December.
"I've learned through TV and books that pizza and
spaghetti are among the world's famous dishes, but this is the first
time that I've tasted it," Jung Un-Suk, 42, told the newspaper, "They
have unique flavours," she said.
The news that Kim's dream of
making genuine Italian food available in the capital has been realised
comes as North Korea threatens to test-launch a rocket which the US
believes is capable of striking America.
I thank Leonard Monasterio for the pointer.
Eskimo ice cream
The Inuit people of Alaska have a distinct version of ice cream. It's not creamy
ice cream as we know it, but a concoction made from
reindeer fat or tallow, seal oil, freshly fallen snow or water, fresh berries, and sometimes ground fish. Air is
whipped in by hand so that it slowly cools into foam.
They call this Arctic treat akutaq, aqutuk, ackutuk, or
Eskimo ice cream. Akutaq is a Yupik word that means mix
them together.
Here is the link. Nowadays Crisco Oil often substitutes for animal fat.
Here is a picture of Eskimo ice cream.
The original tip is from 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die, an excellent book for reading or browsing.
Two related links I don’t wish to title
They are both about economic growth. One is here and the story involves a sari and the Taj Mahal.
The other is here, from Taiwan ("China fact of the day"?), and the markets in everything version as well. Excerpt:
The reasonably priced food includes curries, pasta, fried chicken and
Mongolian hot pot, as well as elaborate shaved-ice desserts with names
like "diarrhea with dried droppings" (chocolate), "bloody poop"
(strawberry) and "green dysentery" (kiwi). Despite the disturbing
descriptions, the desserts were great. But after seeing curry drip down
a mini-toilet, I may never have that sauce again.
Do read the whole thing, but the bottom line is this:
Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed
with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone
dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your
meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food
closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a
souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish
shaped like a squat toilet.
I thank Chug and Kurt for the pointers.
Markets in everything
Pork brains in milk gravy (canned).
I thank Yves Smith for the pointer. Yves also points us to a rare cheetah captured on camera.
The countercyclical asset, northern Virginia edition
It is Little Seoul, mostly in Annandale, spilling over into West Alexandria. The number of innovative Korean restaurants continues to increase and they are usually crowded. I love the new place devoted to the many forms of Korean porridge. Seoul Gool Dae Gee Honey Pig on Columbia Pike has the best decor (and the pork neck) around. TodamSoonDooBoo (also known as Tofu House, next to the Giant, straddling 236 and Columbia Pike) has dumpling soup and tofu. The two branches of Shilla Bakery and Le Matin de Paris give Virginia a cafe scene. Much of my eating out is now Korean or in the new Vietnamese places in the Western Saigon interior branch of the Eden Center; either that or Ray's Hell-Burger, Hong Kong Palace, Thai X-ing, or the now-reopened Nava Thai, right next door to the shuttered old branch.
Annandale used to be a nice appendage to the peak places to eat. Now it's the epicenter, the main culinary show, and also the coolest place to hang out.
Addendum: Here is a good article, which mentions Korean food as the next trend to come. Let's hope not.
The countercyclical meal plan, Arrow-Hahn-Debreu edition
Will Wilson blogs:
Seattle’s 5 Spot has a new “Blue Plate Special” promotion, with the daily meal priced like this:
recent close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. If the Dow closes at
8650, then your “square meal” will only cost you $8.65; if it closes at
7875, then you win your meal for a mere $7.87.
There’s a built-in stop-loss, too. They make a limited number of blue plates each night, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
San Juan, Puerto Rico bleg
I won't be there for long, but where should I eat? Is there credible street food in or near the city?
I am surprised no one has complained about this yet
MissMarketCrash sent this along to me:
pitch to the laid-off American workers it's offering to place in India.
The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to
U.S. salaries.
Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off
from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in
which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that's developing markets like
India, China, and Brazil.
NB: The program is limited to "satisfactory performers."
Government and the cost-disease — provoking you
Matt Yglesias writes:
it tends to go away. Consider agriculture. Our modern-day agricultural
technology is way better than what was available 200 years ago. But
agricultural progress hasn’t meant that everyone goes to work in the
super-charged high-tech agriculture of the future. It’s meant that more
food than ever is grown with fewer person-hours of labor than ever. We
should expect this to continue apace. For all the talk of trade’s
impact on American manufacturing, the bigger issue has been automation
and robots. But either way, even though people will continue to consume
manufactured goods–just as we still eat–manufacturing will be a
less-and-less important part of the economy. Not because manufacturing
“isn’t important” but because it’ll get more efficient. And that’s how
the whole private sector part of the economy will go. Markets, doing
their work, will make those sectors more and more efficient leading
them to shrink as a share of the overall economic pie.
What will be left is big government. Or, rather, bigger and bigger government.
I would make a few points. First, some progressives wish to argue that government is fairly efficient (low Medicare overhead costs is a common observation here); in those sectors this argument won't apply. Second, if a given activity could go to either the private or public sector, we might be reluctant to stick it in the less-productivity-enhancing public sector. Third, many government activities should benefit greatly from private sector technological advancement (electricity, cars, internet, etc.), yet we don't usually observe those sectors shrinking rapidly, as a percentage of gdp, as a consequence. This should worry us. Still, there is truth in Matt's basic observation.
The social changes brought by recessions
Here is my column on the social changes occasioned by recessions. Of course recessions are mostly bad and this one is no exception. Still, one underappreciated fact is that health outcomes appear to improve in recessions, not get worse (even though health care access and coverage decline):
Sure, it's stressful to miss a paycheck, but eliminating the stresses of a job may have some beneficial effects. Perhaps more
important, people may take fewer car trips, thus lowering the risk of
accidents, and spend less on alcohol and tobacco. They also have more
time for exercise and sleep, and tend to choose home cooking over fast
food. In a 2003 paper, “Healthy Living in Hard Times,” Christopher J. Ruhm, an economist at the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, found that the death rate falls as unemployment rises.
In the United States, he found, a 1 percent increase in the
unemployment rate, on average, decreases the death rate by 0.5 percent.
In this recession the consumption of the wealthy is taking a bigger hit than is usually the case in a downturn:
In any recession, the poor suffer the most pain. But in cultural
influence, it may well be the rich who lose the most in the current
crisis. This downturn is bringing a larger-than-usual decline in
consumption by the wealthy.
The shift has been documented by Jonathan A. Parker and Annette Vissing-Jorgenson, finance professors at Northwestern University, in their recent paper,
“Who Bears Aggregate Fluctuations and How? Estimates and Implications
for Consumption Inequality.” Of course, people who held much wealth in
real estate or stocks
have taken heavy losses. But most important, the paper says, the labor
incomes of high earners have declined more than in past recessions, as
seen in the financial sector.
Popular culture’s catering to the
wealthy may also decline in this downturn. We can expect a shift away
from the lionizing of fancy restaurants, for example, and toward more
use of public libraries. Such changes tend to occur in downturns, but
this time they may be especially pronounced.