Word: dollarization
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...Cannes that I noticed how Roger looks everywhere, beyond the screen, for signs of outrageous vitality. He loves characters who are larger than life, larger even than movie life. One such was Billy "Silver Dollar" Baxter, the Broadway producer who carried a sachel of dollars coins with him and would summon waiters at the Majestic Bar in Cannes with a shouted "Irving!" Another was, is, Dusty Cohl, the cowboy-hatted Canadian lawyer who helped found the Toronto Film Festival. Roger became close friends of Dusty and his wife Joan; and when they launched the Floating Film Festival (nonstop movies...
...little historical perspective: despite the recent price run-up, Americans still spend less to feed themselves than any other people on the planet--probably less than any monetized society in history. Just 9.9¢ of each dollar we spend is for food, down from 23.4¢ in 1929. By comparison, 16% of household expenditures in Britain go to food; Brazilians spend 23%, Thais...
...simply don't have to. During the Depression, the government began subsidizing commodities like corn. Today, against all logic, the subsidies continue, and corn-derived snacks and Cokes are so cheap and convenient that, as University of Washington epidemiologist Adam Drewnowski argues, it's perfectly rational, on a dollar-per-calorie basis, to buy them. (Fresh fruits and vegetables aren't subsidized, and by nature they cost more to store and ship.) Drewnowski estimates it would cost 100 times as much to get the same amount of energy from fresh raspberries as from a typical packet of cookies...
...food is more expensive, won't we simply eat more cookies and fewer raspberries? In the short run, yes, although the USDA has launched programs to teach people that while convenience foods have more calories, they usually have fewer nutrients. On a dollar-per-nutrient basis, healthy food is not more expensive. Lab studies have shown that fruits and vegetables are also more satiating--they make you feel fuller than junk food even though they have fewer calories. In short, we should stop subsidizing junk. To address hunger more directly, we could take that money and use it to increase...
...former Rep. Jim Nussle was summoned to Washington to serve as new head of the Office of Management and Budget. The Long Island newspaper Newsday broke the story that Giuliani was a virtual no-show as a member of the Iraq Study Group - he was too busy making million-dollar speeches and other appearances, the article claimed - and resigned from the blue-ribbon panel after being told he must either pull on an oar or get off the boat. And then there was the fact that Giuliani's own successor as New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stole the campaign spotlight...