Towards an effective opposition

The Grand Old Party (GOP), which is, in fact, younger than its main opponent, is in for a heck of an internal fight. One the one hand, the often subtle anti-intellectualism of the "base", has now become explicit. On the other, the Wall Street Journal, long the home of the "country-club" Republicans, is publishing op-eds that are clear in their distaste for what is to come.

There is a battle underway for the soul of the Republican party, and the results have significant implications for the US PMCIN. The current banking crisis is starting to relax a bit, but the pretty massive recession promised by the end of the refinance boom is going to come right as we transition from one fairly radical approach to fiscal and regulatory management to another. On top of that, those who seized this power, and fought for a unitary executive, are about to have it crammed down their throats. At least the FBI will have "terrorists" who look like their agents.

Here at Pie and Policy, we have a very clear stake in the "country club", "elite" and "moderate" GOP'ers winning this battle. Divided government, with an effective opposition party in Congress, forces the national debate to a higher level. Note that I say "effective", not one that is easily distracted. On the other hand, united government tends to bring out the worst in the ruling party, regardless of which party holds the reigns.

Towards that end, here's some thoughts into what the GOP can do to get set to take advantage of the mess that the Democrats will be in come 2010:

(1) Tone down the "Party of God" nationalist shtick. After Abu Graib, 8 years of growing income disparity and a major financial crisis only about 22% of the country sees "America the way [Mrs. Palin] see[s] America." Instead, play up the "Party of Personal Responsibility" that brought us the 104th Congress.

(2) Embrace sustainability as a policy goal. There are hundreds of business opportunities available, many with strong export potential, that either limit environmental harm, like solar cells and algae farming , or turn waste into fuel, like digesters that convert manure into methane. All mined fuels, fossil or nuclear, are finite, and societies that depend on them will fail eventually. Provide clear leadership on a path to (1) energy independence (2) complete sustainability in the next half century without picking winners before the technology hits the market. Be willing to call for small scarifies in the name of efficiency, maybe even victory gardens.

(3) Push trade hard. Brazil should not have a more liberal (as in "freedom loving") trade policy than the US. Emphasize how Brazilian sugar cane, tended by Caterpillar and John Deere equipment, can help us get away from Venezuelan (and soon Cuban) oil. Make it clear that Columbia wants our engines, solar panels and biotech products as much as we want their coffee. The list goes on, and the ability to work with center-right Democrats on this will go a long way to restoring the party's credibility.

(4) Show unions some love. This is a simple strategic move, since unions are often the best funded and staffed parts of Democratic campaigns. However, with the right candidate, they can lean towards the GOP. I personally recommend focusing on training, health care and mediation standards.

(5) Push for "transparency" instead of "regulations" in finance. They are, in fact, largely the same thing, but using that language appears more sensible, and keeps the negotiations focused on protecting markets from bad actors, rather than mandating certain behaviors.

(6) Call for a "BRAC" style approach to Medicare and Social Security reform. This has the advantage of possibly working, and lets the bloc that calls for it to punt the really tough questions.

(7) Narratives! Put a human face on all of these points. You're up against the best orator in a generation whose story is n0thing less than extraordinary. His backers in Congress, on the other hand, are less popular than W. Show how your options will help real people (not mythic plumbers), use the PMCIN metrics, and make it clear that you want a stable, sustainable and prosperous America.

(8) Accept the party's split. Americans will only tolerate a center-left government if the alternative is uncomfortably right-wing. There are implacable members of the party who fervently desire to pretend that Bush, Santorum and Palin enjoy widespread support. Where such folks can win local elections, it's no good trying to interrupt that. But do not let them define the party. For years, the Democrats had a list of points potential candidates must support to get national support, and they're set to sweep the nation because they gave it up in favor of pragmatism. Now, GOP, it's your turn.

Philo-crusted Pear-Apple Pie

Credit for the idea of this recipe goes to my dear friend Virgil, who posted the germ of the recipe as a comment at the beginning of October (the post on narratives and upcoming projects). His, and his lovely wife's, recipe calls for a free-form peach and black grape pie, which sounds fabulous. Unfortunately, fresh peaches and grapes are gone until next August in the Great Chilly North.

Of course, I don't keep phyllo dough on hand, but I do make a lot of bread (the kind with flour, not flax fibers). The recipe didn't look too tough, and I was trying to think of some way to celebrate an apparent outbreak of sanity in the part of the world from which phyllo hails (you go girls!). We also had a couple pears and apples that needed to be cooked badly.

Ingredients:

Phyllo dough: 2C sifted flour, 1 egg, 1/2 cup water, 5 1/2T butter, 1t salt, some honey

Filling: 3 crisp apples sliced thin; 2 pears sliced thin; 3T brown sugar; 1T lemon juice; 1T granulated sugar; 2T cornstarch

Assembly:

(1) Sift the flour into a bowl, make a small well in the center. Add the egg, water, 1/2T melted butter, and salt and mix thoroughly, then knead until smooth and elastic. Cover with a small amount of flour and a damp towel for 15min. Preheat the oven to 350F.

(2) Combine the sliced apples and pears in a bowl, add brown sugar and lemon juice, stir. Allow to sit for 10min while mixing the granulated sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.

(3) Melt 3T of butter in another small bowl. Roll out the Phyllo until it's about 1/2" thick and spread the butter over it (this will make a small mess). Cut the dough into three sections, stack them and re-roll. Knead in any butter that has escaped. Form into a ball, then separate into two roughly equal balls. Roll out one ball until it's roughly a 14" circle. Get this into a 9" pie plate and leave the overhang, you'll need it shortly.

(4) Mix the cornstarch/sugar mix into the fruit and stir thoroughly. Scoop the larger sections of pear and apple into the pie plate. Roll out the other ball into a ~14" circle, place this on top of the larger chunks of fruit. Pour the remaining fruit and juices onto this layer, then fold all of the overhanging sections in to cover the pie as best as possible.

(5) Melt the remaining butter and some honey in a small bowl and brush the top of the pie with the delicious mixture. Place in the oven for 30min, rotate 180deg and continue baking until the top is golden brown, about 30min.

(6) Remove and let cool for a couple hours.

Pie on the national stage

Props to JD for the link, I couldn't be happier to see pie called out on the national stage.

When economists dream

I apologize to my readers for the largely negative tone this blog has taken lately. It's an intense campaign year, and the country really is about to choose a fundamentally new direction. While I believe the US is going to make the most pro-pie choice, I'd like to engage in a little alternative history of what might have been a more pleasant, interesting and competitive presidential campaign.

Our story begins around 3am, in small-town Ohio, August 29th, 2008:

A private jet lands at a small town airport. It's publicly available flight plan shows that it launched from Santa Barbara airport, with four people aboard. Two shadowy, slender adults deplane with three largish, hairy dogs and quickly climb into a waiting black Chevy Suburban. The overnight watch at the FBO calls a friend, who calls a friend, and is suddenly the most photographed fuel guy since a high school kid filled Bob Hoover's gasoline powered airplane with Jet A.

That afternoon, at a McCain rally nearby, a larger portion of the stage is covered by curtains than usual. McCain, feeling the bounce of his VP pick finally being announced, takes the stage triumphantly. After a brief stump speech about the things the Dems didn't say at their convention he says, "My friends, I've found the best running mate for these troubled times. He's a man who needs no introduction, except I think I can say for sure that neither of us will take a day off!"

The crowd gives an obligatory cheer, then falls silent. A stage worker wheels a chalkboard out from behind the curtain, and a lean man in a cheap suit walks up to it, pulls out a piece of chalk, and begins in a perfect deadpan, "In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives," while the crowd goes absolutely wild.

The deadpan, somehow given extra life by the distortions of the sound system, continues, "in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?... the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this." From there, Ben Stien goes on to describe the scary similarities between today and 1929 and 1930, then gives a cutting comparison the Obama tax and trade plan to Hoover's tax plan and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. He goes on to describe McCain's tax plan as letting people win his money through hard work, but calls Obama's "Take Ben Stien's Money."

The campaign from there gets really interesting, because Ben's a very safe conservative, but articulate and intelligent. The chalk-board gimic, far from getting old, gets adopted by some of the Obama partisans in an effort to appear smarter and more on top of the dangerous situation than the opposing Ivy-league trained economist. Identity politics get kicked to a back burner while historical examples and economic theory fills the airwaves. The Obama campaign would even have to go on the offensive at some point, with Deadpan Ben being as much a go-to guy on economic issues as Helicopter Ben. With much cajoling, a last minute "economics debate" is arranged between Warren Buffet and Mr. Stein. After Lehman fails and the wheels really come off, Ben addresses the Republican Study Committee and sends them all to the principal's office.

I'll stop here. I doubt this scenario would have changed my vote, but it certainly would have made the decision tougher. At it is, there's two weeks to the election, and unless something rather impressive happens, the Republicans are in for an embarrassing slap in the face. So, Mr. Stein, Governor Jindal, the original John McCain, if you're reading this, please save the GOP from what it's become. I'll bake each of you a pie.

Red October Berry Pie

The farmer's market had raspberries, inexplicably for October. I think it's a sign.

To recap:

(1) The People (US Treasury Dept.) have seized the means of production (banks).

(2) The party that aims for a unitary executive inveighs against elite greed while celebrating the virtues of the proletariat. The other promises to make it make it much easier for the central planning authority to direct production of individual factories.

(3) Today, Helicopter Ben went before the planning commission to recommend further "stimulus" help make sure we don't leave our Road to Serfdom too quickly.

Well, this particular kulak thinks we ought to celebrate the inevitable march of history. I propose a raspberry-rhubarb pie, but inflated (you know, like the currency will be).

Ingredients:

Basic flakey crust, double

filling:
~5 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1/2" chunks
1 1/2 cup and 2T granulated sugar
~2 cups raspberries, preferably fresh (like from the farmer's market the day before)
2 T lemon juice
3 T cornstarch

glaze:
1/4 cup milk
2T sugar

Procedure:

1) Roll out the bottom crust and get it into a 9.5" pie pan. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2) Combine rhubarb, 1 1/2 cup sugar, raspberries and lemon juice in a large bowl. Let sit for 10min while combining cornstarch and sugar in a small bowl.

3) Roll out the top crust, then pour the filling into the bottom shell. Moisten the rim of the bottom crust, put the top crust on.

4) Mix the glaze ingredients together and brush over the top, poke some vent holes, and place in the oven for 30min. Rotate 180deg, reduce temp to 375F and bake another 1/2hr. (it helps to put a foil-lined cookie sheet under the pie in the second step)

5) Let cool for at least 2hr and enjoy with your comrades.

Calling the events of this month "the October Revolution" is, in many ways, a discredit to those who actually suffered under real Communism. It also smacks of "reducio ad hiltarium", or at least a specious slippery-slope argument. However, any move in that direction should evoke a very strong response, and calling Republicans commies when they adopt populist policies is kinda fun. It also explicitly avoids pointing out their move towards the group that the original reds claimed to hate most.

Consumer Credit: the scenic road to serfdom

Recently, I've been rereading F. A. Hakek's The Road to Serfdom, after reading it eons ago in high school. The central premise, based on the author's experience as an economist in Austria in the 1930s, is that collectivism leads to tyranny. When the government has more than a taxation stake in the economy, it becomes interested in the performance of individuals in their own work. Thus, screwing around at work or otherwise limiting productivity doesn't just hurt a single employer, it's a crime against the state.

Today, a significant portion of banks in Western countries are owned by their respective governments. In the UK, Gordon Brown has even mandated, or at least encouraged, that banks continue to lend at 2005 levels. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and thus now the US government, hold 60% of home loans in the United States. Shopping, we were told, is patriotic.

Consumer debt in this kind of environment, one that has existed since the 1930s somewhat, and more so since the late 1980s Savings and Loan Crisis, is nothing less than highly regressive taxation. And consumers who default hurt not only themselves and their lenders, but the state. Capitalism cannot function when banks do not trust their borrowers to pay them back, and going to the government till for redress means that it is the government's job to determine who exactly pays back that loan.

Today, we're doing that by spreading the bad loans around the whole tax base. We're also taking steps to keep questionable companies afloat, and considering others to prop up housing prices. All of these require that people have jobs that they know won't go away, so that it becomes safe to lend them money.  A particularly terrible piece of legislation that's likely to go through next year will make it much easier to form a union, and for that union to have a federal mediator force new terms on the company.  We've nationalized the banks and the Lumbering 3 (soon Lumbering 2?), made highly-unionized extractive industries a national priority, state governments are the major sources of long-term capital, and now we're looking centralize the authority to define the relationship between labor and production.  I may have to bake a Red October pie to celebrate. 

Half-baked Alaska Pie

No political blog is complete without a little satire.  Here at Pie and Policy, we aim to keep ours in good taste (unlike, say, this pun).

Pictured here is the Half-baked Alaska Pie as we suggest serving it: with a small glass of water between it and a white Russian.  

Ingredients:

Crust: Basic pastry crust

Carmel layer: Harry and David's Butterscotch Sauce

Ice Cream Layer: ~1/2 quart chocolate ice cream

Meringue Layer: 4 large egg whites
1/4 t cream of tartar
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Procedure:

1) Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Roll out the pastry and get it into a standard 9" pie pan.  Line the pastry with aluminum foil and fill the dish with pinto beans (these are cheaper than pie weights, increasing your PMCIN PIE).  Place the pie shell into the oven and bake 10min.  Remove, wrap the foil around the beans and save for later use (pumpkin pies, which are coming soon, require pre-baked shells).  Let the half-baked pastry cool.

2) Once the shell is cool enough to handle, line it with your favorite carmel sauce.  Harry and David's works well, or you can melt caramels with some water to make your own.  Place this in the fridge for roughly 30min, and put the ice cream in the fridge to soften.

3) Use an ice cream spade or sturdy spoon to make an even layer of ice cream in the shell.  Place the partly filled shell back in the fridge for 2-3hrs (I skimped on this and it wasn't such a hot idea).  

4) Pull the eggs out of the fridge and make a fabulous dinner for 5-8 people.  After dinner, break out the drinks and dash off to the kitchen to make the meringue:

Turn on the broiler to low

Beat the egg whites until the hold soft peaks

Slowly beat in the sugar

Add the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla and beat a little more, the meringue should be big and fluffy.

5) Place the pie under the broiler, and check every minute or so to see when it starts to turn brown on top.  When the top is a sort of dirty blonde, pull it out and serve immediately.

Makes you wonder

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I wound up on the GOP USA list serve. Perhaps half of the emails have condensed versions of their website news and commentary, which occasionally is interesting, even insightful. Most of the rest fall into the nakedly spam or "donate to our cause" category. But once in a while, there's a real gem.

I hadn't heard of the Google 2030 Energy Plan before I got that little bit of invective. On whole, I think it's interesting and ambitious, although I have doubts about being quite so willing to pick winners on such things as transportation fuel. But it proposes no specific legislation, so why tell Congress to reject it? Check out the comments, it's an interesting discussion.

French-style Apple Pie

I offer this recipe to thank Congress for telling private investors around the world not to take on the Lumbering 3, even if their own rules prevent them from actually giving the companies money in time to keep them out of bankruptcy. One might hope for something more Progressive from the world's largest and most innovative economy. Instead, let's all hoist the tricolor, don our berets and enjoy the culinary lessons our quasi-socialist buddies can teach us. (In fairness, Sarkozy's trying his best to get France out of that rut, and may even succeed.)

Anyway, the pie is once again an alteration of one of Ken's recipes. This time it's s a purpose-made apple-custard pie.

Ingredients:

1 Basic flaky crust (can substitute gluten free pastries)

3 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into thick slices
2 t unsalted butter
2 t + 1/2cup granulated sugar
1/4cup + 2t apricot brandy
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
3 large eggs
1/2 t vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Making it:
1) Roll out the crust and get it into a 9 1/2" deep dish pie pan, partially prebake it at 400F for about 12min, remove and allow to cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on at 350F.

2) Saute the apples in the butter over medium heat for about 3min, stir often, adding the 2t sugar in the last minute. Add the 1/4cup brandy and boil off the liquid, then let the mixture cool on a plate.

4) Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just starts to steam (if the room is humid), about 2-3min. Beat the eggs until frothy in a largish bowl, and slowly add the warm cream while stirring vigorously. Once you've added about half the cream, mix the vanilla, salt and 2t brandy to the cream and continue adding the mixture to the egg mixture.

5) Place the apples in the pie pan. Add about 1/2 cup of the cream mix, lift the apples so the mix gets under them, and then add the rest. Hopefully the apples won't float (mine did, but still tasted great).

6) Bake for 50min at 350F. Let cool for 2hrs on a rack, then place in refridgerator overnight before serving. Extremely tasty, use with caution.

Narratives and upcoming projects

First, I haven't forgotten my promise to put more pie recipes up, but the non-baking parts of my life have priority at the moment. Anyway, here's what to expect in the next month:

(1) French-style Apple Pie: In celebration of the $25b "loan" to the Big 3, we'll celebrate the tastier side of partially-privatized socialism.

(2) Pie For (almost) All: A growing number of friends and relatives have food allergies. I think I can bake a pie that all but the fructose-intolerant can enjoy.

(3) Half-Baked Alaska Pie: A typical Baked Alaska type pie features a prebaked crust, an ice cream base layer and meringue top. For this one, I'll partially pre-bake the crust and get the meringue to be cooked golden on top, but white elsewhere. I recommend serving it with a small cup of water and a white Russian.

Also, the narrative below contained one huge factual error: Anytown Bank would have made no guarantees about the quality of the securities they were selling. Instead, their losses would come from buying similar securities from other banks to provide revenue that would go into AB's capital base, enabling it to lend more (and collect more security-selling fees).

The whole point of writing it out in narrative form is to provide context. Humans love narratives, even post-modernists who smash them. Sound bites only have meaning if everyone understands what the words mean. My own professional life has suffered greatly from such a misunderstanding, and today when we throw around words like "bail-out", "fiscal responsibility", "liberal", "conservative" and so on they evoke strong emotional reaction that mostly serves to polarize the audience. So, if you hope to get my attention, try to tell me a story. Please, put the words you are using in context so that I understand what you mean by them.