Descend into the Maelstrom

Much is being made of controversial high-cost bailout packages and stimulus packages these days.  Washington is engulfed in an all-out war against an economy in global decline, and Washington is losing so far.  The conflict has already spanned over the sunset of the Bush reign and the sunrise of the Obama era.  It appears that the Obama administration, with a largely partisan Democratic Congress, will ram through some version of a $700-$800 billion stimulus package as an opening salvo in the battle.  Much has been said about all of this, and above all the only predictable outcome is more uncertainty in the short run.  Since I nearly failed every one of my college Economics classes, four of which I was required by my undergraduate institution to suffer through in order to matriculate, perhaps I’m not the best person to comment on all of this.  Then again, the world’s top economists and policymakers appear to be as clueless as I am, so here are some issues to keep track of as the battle rages on.  It’s a complex and unpredictable subject, so one thing we can sure about is that there are no easy answers.

To Stimulate or Not to Stimulate. That is the question.  Most of the citizenry and most of the government seem to be in agreement that something must be done, as the economic indicators spiral out of control.  Unemployment is at a high level unseen for decades.  Housing prices are down sharply, resulting in trillions of dollars of lost wealth collectively for Americans and foreigners.  The financial system is on the brink of collapse.  Lending is down, and so is consumer spending.  Most people, rich and poor feel like they are worse off right now than a few years ago.  To navigate out of the quagmire probably requires drastic government action of some sort rather than sitting lamely by.  The Democrats believe that we should spend our way out of it, thousands of multi-million dollar checks at a time.  The nay-saying Republicans have been thrashed so badly in the last two election cycles that they are rendered irrelevant in the debate because most of them are not needed to pass legislation.  Their game appears to be that tax cuts are the ultimate answer, not spending.  John McCain, the closest thing the party has to some semblance of leadership, has taken pains to absolve his party of responsibility for the bill.  As a compromise several hundred billions of dollars of tax cuts are part of the plan.  The Republican strategy appears to be: hope the stimulus will fail miserably in its aim, making us look good in time for the 2010 midterm elections.

The Need vs. the Speed. On the other hand, the optimistic tack taken by Obama and his Democratic team appears to be that the stimulus can right the ship, a la President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s massive spending bills from the 1930’s whose public works projects shaped much of what America looks like today and helped the country out of depression, along with a patriotic re-purposing of the workforce toward defeating the Axis powers in World War II.  This period saw workers who used to make fridges learn how to make tanks and bombs instead.

However the stimulus bill is based on America’s ability to spend the money speedily.  In the political world that means progress must be made by 2010.  Contracts have to be signed, shovels have to pierce the earth, and dams and bridges and windmill farms must pop up or be repaired.  But the speed must be balanced with practical concerns.  Are we building roads that we really need, or are we just spending for the sake of spending?  Will the newly planted infrastructure help our economy into the future or will it be a one-off shopping spree that will leave us back where we are now at the end of it- like a temporary caffeine rush from a visit to Starbucks?  Unfortunately, Congress’s poor track record on spending wisely does not inspire any confidence.  That’s not even the biggest pitfall.

Debt. The larger risk is taking on more debt to get there.  Money doesn’t appear magically from the sky- the government is spending from a finite pot, and putting more cash in circulation means that the American people are borrowing against our own future.  This is a sticking point for Republicans, and it’s a good thing that it’s being discussed.  But debt is only a problem if the economy doesn’t get stimulated.  If stimulation occurs, the debt will be neutralized by a rejuvenated economy revving up.   If it doesn’t happen, we will owe the Chinese and the Gulf states even more in the future than we do now.

Bigger is Better? Size matters when it comes to spending.  What’s the right amount to spend?  Bush and Obama both backed a bill that injected $700 billion worth of treasure into the coffers of America’s banks.  With about half of the taxpayer money already spent, nobody can prove that it’s been any better than pissing $350 billion into the wind.  Credit hasn’t loosened, job loss has not been stemmed, and the banks seem even worse off and more tone-deaf than before.  Many banks have admitted to just holding onto the gift money for dear life to better position themselves for an economic recovery that they have no intention of contributing toward.

The latest stimulus figure being thrown around today,  $789 billion, has clearly been pulled out of someone’s ass.  Nobody can agree that any number, whether it’s $400 billion, $800 billion, or $2 trillion would really stimulate a damn thing.  That is because our economy is more complex and globally entwined now than it’s ever been.  This 789 number is an arbitrary compromise between all of the pigs feeding at the special-interest trough and salivating at getting their pieces of the slop.

What Should We Really be Doing? Ultimately I do not believe that we are spending the money in a creative enough fashion.  Our way of life as we know it is being threatened, and a massive shopping spree paired with a massive bank bailout simply cannot be the only fathomable option on the table.  We have to think of re-structuring our country and indeed the entire international trade system in radical ways.

We need to consider more carefully what Americans should be doing, and what we should let other people in other countries do.  Our economy should be driven more by things that Americans can do better than everyone else.   For example, our cars will not be able to compete much longer against those built by automakers in other countries with sharply lower labor costs and access to similar technology.  Cars, for America, are a thing of the past.  We should be focusing on what will matter 20 years from now, high technology innovation, the stuff that Google and Microsoft and Oracle are made of.  We should invest more of the stimulus money in alternative energy research and production, and re-thinking our entire energy grid system.  We should begin the complete transition of things we do not do well or cost-effectively, such as auto manufacturing to other nations.  People in Detroit should learn to make or do something else.  For that matter, American workers should be commuting to work not in SUVs but instead, newly-built mass transit or perhaps new types of high-tech bicycles powered by electric batteries.  Our schools should be teaching foreign languages from 1st grade onward, sponsoring mandatory study abroad programs, and hooking up every child with a laptop computer.

Finally, we need to invest in stabilizing the rogue states of the world run by dictators tacitly supported by foreign great powers, and get them working productively as part of the community of nations.  Until that happens, we will always be at war with somebody who hates us, and we will not be using our resources most effectively.  It’s my opinion that if Africa never becomes politically stable and civil enough to be the place that builds all our cars, America and the rest of the world will never progress.  We will probably sink or swim together now in the global drink.

Unfortunately, these creative long-term goals are difficult to achieve when politicians are only elected for short spans lasting 2, 4, 6, or 8 years at most.  Transitioning America toward the next and better step of history would take longer than that, and many aspects of creative and visionary thinking are defeated by the overpowering urge to seek short-term gain and glory.  Ultimately this may be the largest flaw in our system, one that is not nimble enough yet for the 21st century, and one that to our peril just may never be.

Inevitably, we’re going to have some sort of stimulus package.  I hope it achieves some sort of stimulation.  But I don’t think it will be a long-term solution in any case.  That means we are still going to need one.

To follow up on my last food blog about New York’s tastiest morsels, full of flavorful red meat, I’m going to expound here on the best vegetarian food I’ve eaten in over 7 years of wandering around this great city.

Just because you’re eating something vegetarian doesn’t mean you have to deny your body of protein.  That’s where falafel comes in.  Falafel is generally a deep-fried elliptical ball of crushed chickpea mashed with delicious seasonings, and it seems to be the only thing that both Israelis and Arabs seem to agree on.   That’s how you know it’s special.  Ubiquitous amongst both cultures, it’s usually served with rice or pita bread.  In New York you’ll usually find it in a sandwich preparation with white tahini (sesame) sauce, onions, tomatos, lettuce, and parsley.  It’s a cheap meal, always within a few dollars, and can be found within short order in every neighbordhood in New York at Israeli or Middle Eastern establishments.  I believe the crown amongst these goes to Mamoun’s, a world-famous store usually featuring lines out the door past four in the morning.  As a kid living in Saudi Arabia I still remember the vendors who fried these on the sidewalk in large vats of oil, and served them fresh on the spot.  Usually they were gone before my family made it home, which was just three blocks away.  Mamoun’s wins out for the quality, freshness, and perfect seasoning you get every single time, day or night for $2.50.  And it can now be found in both the East and West Village areas.  If you haven’t devoured a falafel sandwich, haul yourself down there like yesterday.

A few doors down from the original Mamoun’s on McDougal Street is the Indian sandwich shop known as the Kati Roll Company, which competes nightly with Mamoun’s for the length of the line going out the door. Here you can buy the achari paneer kati roll, which features grilled cubes of paneer, or hardened Indian cottage cheese, topped with fresh chilis, onions, lemon juice, and spices rolled up in a grease-toasted flatbread known by various names, including paratha.  When you bite into one of these I guarantee your saliva will drip all over the paneer.   The cheese doesn’t melt, so it stands up to the barbecue process, and it’s cholesterol-laden enough to satiate even the meat-eaters amongst us.  As an added bonus, this is easy to make at home too after a quick visit to any Indian grocery store.  Slabs of paneer can be found in the frozen section.  Defrost it and throw it on the pan, cut into cubes and we’re ready to go to town.

Of course, New York is also famous for its unique style of pizza.  The most famed sit-down pizzerias in New York, such as Lombardi’s, Grimaldi’s, John’s, and others specialize in the gourmet coal or brick oven-fired pies that have been feeding New Yorkers since the 1800’s at very reasonable prices.  You cannot go wrong at any of these joints, with any pie on the menu.  Just about all of them have their roots in one single shop in Manhattan, but vicious family feuds mixed with ego issues (”Ayyyyyy, I said 227 degrees not 229 degrees in that f***ing oven Luigi!!!”) caused them to break off into splinter groups.  Now you can get a slice of pizza on just about every street corner of all five boroughs.  Although no two people seem to agree on this, I think the best amongst all the budget chains is easily Famiglia. Within the first bite of a plain cheese thin-crust pie from this place in the fall of 2001, I was in love.  This simple concoction of dough, a sweetish tomato sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese is the one dish that I always take out-of-towners to taste.  My preferred store is on 50th and Broadway, not too far from the bright lights of Times Square, my old ‘hood.  Toppings really are not necessary- the basic pie has all the flavor you could want- although a little garlic powder and crushed red pepper takes things to the next level.  Chase it with a $1 order of garlic knots.  I think the secret here is the sauce, made of vine-ripened tomatoes picked by discerning old women with nothing better to do in Southern Italy, and water from some secret source that helps shape both the sauce and the dough.

I would be amiss not to include a dessert item on our vegetarian tour.  A chain called Beard Papa’s, all the rage in Japan, has been happily transplanted to Manhattan several years ago.  Like all of today’s features, this one too is exceedingly simple: a fluffy hollow pastry filled with luscious creams of various flavors.  The regular cream puff is heavenly, but you also can’t go wrong with coffee-flavored and green-tea flavored cream infusions.  If you’re really hungry, get all three.

And there we have it: without leaving Manhattan you can travel to the shores of the Red Sea, the stalls of Delhi, the vibrant markets of Sicily, or the back alleys of Tokyo.  All the while stuffing your face with tasty vegetarian food.  Most major cities of the world can boast the confluence of cultures, but no other place can match the consistenly high quality of flavors within easy reach of one another.  We haven’t even scratched the surface yet, so tune in next time.