Saturday, November 7, 2009

Immigration in Europe

[draft:] Let's focus on two issues: a) What are reasonable demands that a host country can make on its prospective immigrants? b) What's the goal of an immigration policy?

  • What is the difference between subversion and dissent? It appears to me that dissent is against a particular policy rather than the government itself. Dissent implicitly assumes faith in the constitution and the moral foundation of the existing society.
  • If diversity itself if a goal of society, then why should immigrant integrate?

Should minorities have the right to have their own legal system (sharia law)? The end.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Chrysler

Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The government had tried to sit down with the bondholders to work out a deal. Basically Chrysler owes creditors a lot of money which it can not pay back. If they went into bankruptcy, the thinking went, the creditors would lose much more than if they forgave some of the debt. J.P.Morgan Chase and other banks have complied with the governments negotiations. However some hedge-funds refused to take the markdowns and that led to the Chapter 11 filing.

So why did the hedge-funds resist? When they lent money to Chrysler, they basically went out and bought a lot of insurance, the now infamous CDS. So if Chrysler goes bankrupt the hedge-funds will get paid from the CDSs which they most probably bought from ... take a guess ... AIG. So Obama indeed has cause to be pissed. This is an unfortunate misalignment of interests and the taxpayers are in the hook for it.

I think that the primary person responsible for this situation is Paulson for not forcing a haircut on AIG. Basically, in distressed times lender and borrower (for example troubled homeowner and mortgage lender) work out a deal, debt forgiveness and such. The Obama administration had similar plans for Chrysler. But in the last administration, Paulson made sure that all of AIGs clients got paid in full. The biggest beneficiary? ... Goldman Sachs, Paulson's old bank. So once AIG started paying out in full, they'll now have to payup these hedge-funds as well and the whole process has become a moral hazard. Read more!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Blue Hill @ Stone Barns

April 19, 2009: The best restaurant I have been so far. Anyway I woke up a little late and took the taxi to the midtown rental place but Gene was a little late. We started off and were soon driving up the West Side Highway, didn't realize that the drive by the river was so beautiful. In those parts even The Bronx looked charming. We reached Tarrytown within 40 mins, drove into the farm but we were really early for our tours so we went for a spin around the town. It is quaint but we exhausted all that there was to see in ten minutes, took a detour and found Sleepy Hollow but there's nothing there really. We came back to the farm and the animal husbandry tour began. More after the fold. Basically the farm is a non-profit and a part of the Rockefeller legacy, and Blue Hill is a for profit restaurant which is a tenant of the farm and consumes about 75% of their products.

We saw sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and pigs as well as the newly born ones. The don't keep any cows which are kept by the next farm. After the first tour which lasted from 12 to 1pm, we had lunch at the cafe. My impression was that the cafe was separate from Blue Hill the restaurant, but I could be wrong, the food there was very refreshing, I had lamb with broccoli raab, a salad with carrot and parsnips, cauliflower soup and a macaroon.

After that we went on the vegetable tour to see the different kinds of vegetables they grow both in permanent and portable greenhouses.

By 4:30 the others had arrived and we retired to the lounge, their cocktails looked interesting, but I didn't try any. Almost on the dot at 6 pm they sat us at dinner. Flash photography is prohibited so photographs came out rather dark. So here's a picture of the ceiling of the barn.


I couldn't take too many pictures of the food since I was really enjoying the meal. So here's a link which shows a very similar dinner. The dinner was excellent, the best I have had. The choreography of the servers was also beautiful. We were at a circular table, three would get behind three seats and on cue simultaneously plate the dishes. Was fun to watch. Also they were extremely helpful with advice and information.

There is no menu at Blue Hill, basically you can choose a 5 course for $95 or an 8 course for $125. Of course the 8 course won the vote and we are really lucky to have made the absolutely right decision. After Del Posto, I was suspicious of pork chops, so I asked them to leave it out of my main course. Here's what we were served. (courtesy Jeff's memory)
  • Potato chips - served upright 2 ways between a needle holder, faro chip was thin and rectangular, gold potato chip was lightly sea salted
  • Baby carrots on stem, cauliflower - cauliflower was vinegared
  • Beet burgers - 1" buns
  • Sea trout tempura lollipops - served on bamboo skewer
  • Parsnip soup shot
  • Charcuterie (copa, speck, beef salami, fennel sausage) - beef salami was the standout
  • Potato onion bread (w/ butter, ricotta, beet salt, arugula salt) - salts were genius, BEST BUTTER I've ever had, they get their dairy straight from Dan's grandmother's farm Blue Hill @ the Berkshires!
  • Bone marrow (w/ caviar)
After this the server mentioned that the first course would arrive soon!! These were only the amusements! In fact Renee asked for bread at the beginning and was advised that to wait for it, it was indeed excellent advice as you can see.
  1. Spanish Mackrel sashimi (w/ lettuce and dandelion vinaig.) - not briny at all, 3 chunks
  2. Beets (w/ mache, yogurt, pine nut butter, maple gelee) - yogurt was genius
  3. Rhode Island farm fresh daily egg (in speck, ramp marmalade w/ pine nuts) - they say the smaller eggs are from the 1st lay and taste better, pine nut flavor was bursting in this!
  4. Goose egg pasta (w/ black trumpet shrooms, shaved embryonic egg) - yolky, they physically go into and take the embryonic egg from a recently retired (slaughtered) chicken and cure it, it's pricked onto a needle holder then shaved upside down over your pasta
  5. Berkshire pork belly (w/ chickpeas, rappini) - small sliver but damn tasty. After Del Posto I was suspicious of pork chops, so I had asked for something else, mistake!! Blue Hill is not Del Posto, anything here is good. I got sticky chicken wings, tasty but probably the pork belly was better. Next time!
  6. Lamb neck (w/ swiss chard, parsnip puree, scallion stick) - the star of the show
  7. Passionfruit gelee on meyer lemon rind, yogurt sorbet and foam, choco bits) [palate cleanser] - takes 48hrs for the lemon rind to be edible
  8. Beet w/ chocolate cake, espresso sorbet - half of the table had this
    [Pineapple cake w/ formage blanc ice cream and heirloom greens - half of the table had this, i tried this]
  9. Gin (sorbet) and tonic (gelee) w/ buddha's hand - buddha's hand tastes like orange zest
  10. Espresso stick, bourbon chocolate, marshmallow [petit fours] - aka a deconstructed s'more
After this awesome dinner we were given a tour of the facilities and the kitchen and the herb garden and the barn and the banquet rooms. This was a fantastic day and can't wait to go there back again.

Might have to try the bar area if I can't get a reservation which is like 2 months in advance. Also they do Sunday brunch, same problem, two months even during recession.




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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Del Posto

April 8, 2009: Went to Del Posto, the decor was very classy albeit a bit dark. No flash allowed so had to really go slow on the shutter speed, so I am impressed with the hand held lobby shot. Previously there was some talk about the 20 course menu, but simply there was no consensus so we settled for the Il Menu Del Posto for $95. Basically one appetizer, choice of two pastas chosen by the whole table, a main course and a dessert. Somehow my picks for the pastas got the most votes so here's the menu we had. More below the fold. For appetizer I had the lobster salad, a bit too spicy and the taste of lobster was slightly obscured by it, but after all it's lobster.

Then we had potato gnocchi with Pork Shoulder, Spiced Prunes & Pine Croccante, shown below, this was extremely good.

The other pasta dish was the Caramelle di Robiola with Black Truffle Butter, looked like Werther's originals, but was also excellent.

Next came the main dish, I didn't really like anything on the menu so I chose the arctic char thought that would be the most inoffensive, turned out reasonably O.K. had lots of squid ink and black truffle, so overall can't complain.

Jeff and his buddy (can't recall the name) both ordered pork chops, was so bad that they both returned it and got the char which was much better. You simply don't expect that from a restaurant of this level. I think he gave it a two star review. Dessert was also unremarkable, and not bothering using up my free internet bytes.

Overall, pasta was good but the other stuff doesn't stack up. Will have to try Babbo sometime.
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Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Current Economic Situation

The history of this economic crisis can be found in several places, but This American Life has the best introductory material, a fascinating narration on the housing bubble, the worsening economy and now bank solvency. Here's my earlier write-up on the bailout (mainly TARP). Finally, from my favorite blog, financial crisis for beginners.

So what's going on now? Before diving into the micro-details let's think of the macro picture. Early last year Krugman warned about the coming currency crisis. Has it finally arrived? Basically Chang the Chinese plumber is having second thoughts about financing Joe the plumber's quarter million dollar American dream. So basically the United States is hostage to all prospective investors who are needed to fill the current account deficit which will keep increasing in the near future. In this light, GM and other industries are dispensable, but the finance industry which ties together all these global investors is not.

This is the backdrop of the AIG story. Not only are they involved in these toxic CDSs, but also regular institutions are deeply exposed to AIG through non-toxic regular insurance. Thus collapse of AIG basically brings down the financial system, and with it confidence in U.S. leadership and destination of global capital.

Here is an extremely detailed look at bank solvency and a contradictory view of Krugman. Bottom line is all these experts are speculating, and it's still hazy who might be right and if the latest Geithner "plan" and the accompanying rally (Dow up 500pts) is any indication for actual recovery.

Nationalization seems to be the option of choice from liberals like Krugman to libertarians like Greenspan, while an anathema to the Obama administration. Here's a discussion on the just announced Geithner "plan", but following the hoopla over AIG bonuses and performance of Congress many are having second thoughts about nationalization. The speculation is that this is what was politically possible, if this fails then the administration will have sufficient momentum for nationalization (looking at Congress whether that's a good idea or not is a different question).

Will have a separate post on executive compensation.

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Friday, February 13, 2009

Plastic Logic

My first view of the Plastic Logic reader:

The touch sensitive net on the screen is visible, as well as spurious lines of dead cells. These were promised to be removed in production. The discussion of e-book readers is here. Read more!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A Team of Rivals

(ruminations on Doris K. Goodwin's book)

A wonderfully written piece of history about an extremely important and interesting time. The story is about the political ambitions of four men, Lincoln, Seward, Bates and Chase who came to adulthood just after the Revolutionary War and saw before them the boundless possibilities of their young country. This was not just the material possibilities in terms of westward expansion and free commerce, but also of political ideology, the firm belief that people could govern themselves.

Lincoln's generation did not have to fight the Revolutionary War, write the Constitution or build a government; they were handed a brand new country by their previous generation. The men who struggled to preserve the Union were very cognisant of this inheritance, the secession directly challenged them to preserve the gift that had been handed down. Furthermore, they had deep conviction in their inheritance, the manifest destiny of their nation. The rest under the fold. The most interesting points I think are the following:

1. [defending the Union] Historically, the Confederacy started the civil war by attacking Fort Sumter and Lincoln who had decided against "firing the first shot" had to respond. But in his mind the need to preserve the Union was something like preserving the inheritance bestowed by the founding generation. The South seceded from the Union as soon as Lincoln was elected, long before the inauguration. Lincoln realized that in a democracy there are elections, and if the loosing party can withdraw from the Union at will, democracy itself can not survive. Thus in my view Lincoln was not only preserving the Union for America, but democracy for all future generations. I will discuss the right to secede further below.

2. [machinery of war] The second point is the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln argued that southerners could go and fight the legitimate government (the Union) because the slaves were taking care of the domestic production. Thus slaves (being property) were a part of the southern machinery of war and could be confiscated (and then proclaimed to be emancipated) by the government, just like the police can confiscate the gun of a rogue gunman. Of course not a single slave was freed the day of the proclamation, but it laid down the principles which the Union would follow once it had the ability to do so.

But could slaves be legitimately considered a part of the machinery of war? In recent times Israel deliberately targets civilian infrastructure which is often of dual use, like bridges, power plants etc. since Hamas also uses them. Are they legitimate machinery of war? Hamas and Co. on the other hand considers Jewish settlers to be enablers of the occupation and therefore a part of the Israeli war machinery. Are they justified?

One possible answer to resolve the above is to postulate that only "property" can be considered a part of machinery, and slaves were "property". This is in line with Lincoln's argument, but nevertheless deeply unsatisfactory.

Right of Secession: The quarrel began with the induction of the new states (California, Nebraska etc.) into the Union. Lincoln demanded that abolition of slavery was a precondition, much like polygamy in Utah (many decades later). The southern states wanted a referendum in those states. This was because if all the new states were free, then the slave states would become an insignificant minority in the senate and hence loose all influence, and feared a majority support for an amendment (eventually the 13th) eventually abolishing slavery altogether. But did the south have a right to secede?

The comparison of secession with a divorce is incorrect. During a marriage the divorce laws are known in advance, the Constitution is silent on secession. States came together form the Union, so one can argue that they can choose to secede. But the Constitution introduces "we the people", not we the states, so it is the people who came together to form the states. This is further supported by the independence of Vermont, part of New York and New Hampshire seceded, so states are not fundamental units. So can a farmer secede from the state? Such a framework simply can not work. How about communist countries refusing passport to it's citizens, is that not like preventing secession? I would argue that the jurisdiction exists only over territories, and not people, for example a nation is defined by its borders and not any of its individual citizens.

Several other interesting points stand out, a few among them being:

1. A recurring theme in the book is the great story-telling genius of Abraham Lincoln. We know of the fireside chats of Roosevelt. What's the correlation between story-telling and leadership? Intuitively, people gather round the story-teller, and he assumes a leadership position, so this might make sense anthropologically, but historically bards have not been great leaders. On the other hand this might have assumed much greater significance since nations became democratic. How are Obama's story-telling abilities? The infomercial was rather tacky.

2. Lincoln's original platform consisted of national bank, higher import tariff and internal improvement, very similar to Obama's platform. Contrast this with Obama considering temporary nationalization of banks, his stance on NAFTA during the campaign and now infrastructure spending.

3. In his only term in the Senate, Lincoln opposed the Mexican War since the War was started on false pretences, and the president refused to submit any evidence behind the claim that the Mexican military had shot at Americans on American soil. Since the United States won, the war was very popular. Later Lincoln realized that no one in office can oppose a war and still get elected. Obama's opposition to the war in Iraq is similar, while Hillary took a lesson from this. The differentiating factor was not the legitimacy of the war but that the war in Iraq dragged on.

4. The Republican party was formed by disaffected Whigs (sons of the Enlightenment), and the Know Nothing Party (anti-immigration). Today Sarah Palin is still carrying the banner of the Know Nothings and the "real" Americans, but the Whig faction of the party has completely disappeared.

5. Lincoln's evolving positions on slavery, was this an evolution or simply recalibration to attain his ultimate goal of abolition. Is this similar to Obama's position on gay marriage?

6. Deportation of freed slaves, was this a bad idea for the Black community to reject this? One can think of Liberia to estimate the outcome, but I don't think that's a fair comparison since most of the black intellectuals decided against leaving the United States, thus probably Liberia was colonized only by a self selected group.

7. Lincoln was able to win over Seward. But not Chase. Will Hillary head for SCOTUS? Who'll challenge or be the most difficult to manage?


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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

End of An Error


Was at the Eldridge St Synagogue for a community viewing of the inauguration. The synagogue was quite decorative with faux marble and intricately restored roof. There were some technical difficulties due to the extreme heavy internet load, but it all went over fine. Rick Warren was downright unimpressive, almost as inconsequential as Bush 43. I was arguing with Mark that the oath of office includes defending the Constitution "against all enemies", turns out it's a part of the Vice Presidential oath but not that of the President. Then Roberts starts reading the oath, and Obama seems to fumble!!! I am thinking, this is your day, what the heck are you doing???, Anyway, turns out that Roberts was reading without notes and he messed up, and Obama was going with the memorized lines. Mark wondered if conservatives would now claim this was not a legitimate swearing in. Oh Roberts! Obama after all voted against his nomination.

The speech started off OK, nothing mind blowing.

"This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year."

How about them sub-prime mortgages?

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear,"

Hmm, so McCain = fear?

They have been replaying on TV some of his past speeches especially the one from Grant Park: "It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled." and I have been mentally challenging him to embrace both believers and non-believers, but never thought he had the courage. And then this:

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."

It felt as if he added it as an afterthought, it sort of hangs here at the end of the sentence. I was shocked, and impressed, and delighted. Although there are perhaps more Buddhists in the US (he might have clumped them with non-believers) than Hindus (not sure). The rest is equally eloquent:

"We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. "
And here is the rest of it. From that point on I guess the speech just took wings and lifted off.

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Also interesting was the quote from Washington(?) "that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive."

and the finale:
"America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
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Monday, January 19, 2009

G30 Advocates Nationalization

The group of 30 is a group of most respected economists from all around the world. Members include Krugman, Volcker, Summers and Geithner. According to it's latest report Volcker urges
  1. limiting the size of banks to prevent the "too big to fail" quality.
  2. monitoring executive pay
  3. regulating hedge funds.
With the situation with BofA one can see where this is going. Read more!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Peter Lugar

Have been eating out a lot lately, went to Daniel which was fantastic, but didn't have a camera. Six course meal, you could tell the short ribs were not soaked in coke. Anyway, was at Peter Lugar tonight, this is New York's most famous steak house. Most people either love it or hate it. I had heard that the service was rude. I found the service good enough, and the waiters friendly and helpful. We had bacon, creamed spinach and grits for sides. The steak sauce was good with everything, except for the steak.

Now for the steak, porterhouse medium rare. That's the only thing they serve. So they don't even have a menu. It was good, but honestly, is this the best steak I have ever had? Not really. So, it's one of those things you have to do once, so check. Won't be back in a hurry, not that I regret going there. Read more!

Dems Already Blowing it

So all this stimulus plan, $30b for highways, and $10b for public transit. Way to go Obama, and what about Amtrak Biden? Carbon emission? Maybe Obama wants to promote tire gauges. Take a look at Spain to see how it's actually done. Read more!

Plane Crash in Hudson

Not stolen from a website, but taken by yours truly.


They blocked street access, so we can only see the wing.

and here's the flight path.
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