GREEN EDGE | Atlanta,You Have Our Water–Brazil

Sao Paolo Reservoir

OURO PRETO, Brazil. I’m here in Brazil for about three weeks, away from the snowstorms and ice, and my first stop was in the most populous city proper in Latin America, Sao Paolo. Its metro area is about the same size as Mexico City's, 21 million. These two cities are significantly more populous than the third-place New York metro area, which has a population of 19 million.

The unexpected string of snow and ice in New York and Atlanta (and Tokyo) has been matched by drought in Brazil. It's the rainy season and no rain. Sao Paolo is running out of water. Connect the climate-change dots from A to B. (As my friend Peter Sealy asks me on Facebook - do we need James Bond to find the culprit?)

Some news is delivered in single spies, other news in battalions. Sao Paolo is facing the end of half of its water supply in 45 days. It's one of the main sites for the 20th FIFA World Cup, and the idea of water rationing during the month (June 12-July 13) of the World Cup is causing local consternation.

The Shrinking Amazon Rainforest

One suspect is the shrinking rainforest. Nature has responded to the shrinkage of the forest cover by reducing rainfall. As yield per hectare has fallen, the demand for new farmland has continued.  The cycle is unmistakable, but the message is muted by the fact that it has been happening incrementally.

Now, the severe drought is delivering the message of interconnectedness and crisis. Loss of rainforest is a global problem and a local problem.

In this post I ask two questions:

• Given that the Amazon rainforest has been a top cause for responsible consumers and investors - and for environmental groups, many of which are headquartered in New York City - why has the rainforest continued to shrink?
• Can we pinpoint the guiltiest parties and do more to save the rainforest and planet Earth?

Why the Rainforest Cause Is So Attractive

This loss of tropical forest is deeply troubling for anyone concerned about global sustainability because the world’s rainforests are

• a major repository of species biodiversity from which new medicinal cures and food sources could emerge, and are
• the lungs of the earth, the means by which we renew the planet’s oxygen supply.

Queen Wilhelmina

The Amazon rainforest is the most important single remaining rainforest in the world, and 60 percent of it is in Brazil. (Surinam is one of the other South American countries sharing the rainforest. My grandfather Abraham J. van Stockum was sent by the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, who ruled Holland 1890-1948, with an expeditionary group into the rainforest in Surinam to find the source of the Saramacca River, and he wrote a book in 1905 about the expedition. The place he found to be the source he loyally named the Wilhelmina Mountains.)

Environmental groups frequently show pictures of threatened exotic rainforest birds, other animals or plants. The Amazon rainforest is home to 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,300 birds, about 800 reptiles and amphibians (snakes, lizards, frogs, toads) and some 3,000 fish species.

Clearcutting the Rainforest

Protecting the rainforest has been, at least since the 1960s, an early concern of environmentalists and conservationists. Their appeal to
protection of animal and plant diversity has been based on preserving access to potential future cures for cancer or other human diseases or ailments. It was one of the earliest themes cited by American social ventures that looked for causes to which they could link their brands. Ben & Jerry’s, for example, back in 1988, was looking for a new brand to tie to the protection of the rainforest. The product they came up with was Rainforest Crunch ice cream. The Body Shop in the 1990s sought customers by claiming their product not only included exotic oils and plants but were helping ensure sustainability of the Amazon rainforest.  The Rainforest Alliance has even built protecting the rainforest into their name and their tree-frog logo.

If corporations can win public approbation for championing the sustainability of a single bird, for example, what better cause than championing the protection of the area that is home to many, many threatened species?

Status of Rainforest Protection

The deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in the last 50 years has been alarming. The average annual loss depends on what time period you look at, but a Brazilian told me the annual loss of  Brazilian rainforest over the decades has approximated to the size of Belgium, nearly 30,500 square kilometers (about 12,000 square miles). Belgium is about the size of Maryland.  The figures I report below show that in some decades the loss has been more than the size of Belgium, sometimes less.

The 1990s pleas of environmental organizations seem to have fallen on at least partially deaf ears. The decade of the 1990s was worst ever, as the loss in the total Amazon rainforest in Latin America is estimated at nearly 590,000 square kilometers, the size of Spain. This is an annual rate of loss equal to double the size of Belgium.

The modestly good news is that the rate of loss, at least in Brazil, has slowed since then.  Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) reports on deforestation using satellite images. Since the benchmark 1970 Amazon rainforest cover of 4,100,000 km², the Brazilian forest area has been reduced to 3,344,000 km² in 2013 – a loss of 18.4%. (See Table.)

Table. Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest Cover – Annual and Cumulative Loss

Year	Rainforest Left (est. km2)	Annual loss  Rate (km2)	Percent	Cum. Loss Since 1970 (km2)
1970	4,100,000	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
1977	3,955,870	20,590	96.5%	144,130
1987	3,744,570	30,186	91.3%	355,430
1997	3,576,965	23,944	87.2%	523,035
2007	3,387,381	27,083	82.6%	712,619
2013	3,344,297	6,155	81.6%	755,703

The rate of deforestation in recent years has been slower. However, the forest continues to shrink. The main driving forces for deforestation are a need for housing and the economic incentives for switching land from rainforest use to any other use. About 70 percent of the lost forest has been replaced with grazing areas. Cattle ranchers are sometimes fingered as a driver for rainforest loss. The  ranchers respond that they simply move in on cleared areas, and that the real driver is demand for wood for building in Sao Paolo and other cities.  

A little history might help here. Before the Spanish and Portuguese colonists arrived, the Amazon basin is believed to have been densely populated, with much of it farmed. The rainforests were not as extensive as they are today. A united Spain and a prosperous Portugal set out to create empires. Spain started by defeating the Incas and the Aztecs. The Portuguese colonial invaders exploited the sugar cane production and then moved up into Minas Gerais to mine gold and other metals and diamonds. To provide labor for these enterprises, indigenous populations were enslaved and Africans were brought to Brazil - by 1800 Africans constituted half of the population. Through conquest and death from European diseases, the Amazon basin became depopulated. The rainforest spread to where farms had been. The peak of the Amazon rainforest was probably in the mid-20^th Century. Deforestation was speeded up by highways that made access to the rainforest easier.

The Guilty Parties

Who is responsible for the deforestation? Like any good mystery story, there are many plausible suspects:

After a Rainforest Fire

• The marketplace. The price of soybeans goes up, and more farmers want to grow soybeans. The price of soybeans goes down and  farmers want more land to offset the loss of value.  In 2003, the peak year of deforestation, more than 20 percent of the Mato Grosso state’s forests were converted to cropland, largely for growth of soybean farming. 
• Small farmers. The rainforest has become host to smaller farms starting in the 1960s. They have used unsustainable farming methods, which meant farmers got used to depleting the soil. Their solution was to move on to new areas.
• Loggers. Loggers cut down the trees using the clear-cutting method instead of the more sustainable harvesting approach. They cut down rare old trees that should be protected.
• Cattle ranchers. They create incentives for clearing the land because they will buy it. They can use almost any cleared land because they require few workers (not counting the animals) and cattle only need to eat grass, whereas the soil needs of sugar cane, coffee or rubber trees are greater. 
• Real estate speculators. The large - tenfold - increase in value of land for grazing over forest land is believed by some Brazilians to create incentives that lead to such actions as owners starting forest fires so they can realize a sale of their land quickly.
• Government education. Governments should be doing more to educate farmers about sustainable farming, which a recent post on Grist advises is about “math as much as mulch."
• Government road-building. The Brazilian government has built three highways with unintended consequences - the Belem-Brasília federal highway in 1958, which enabled two million new settlers in the next 20 years, the Cuiaba-Porto Velho highway in 1968, and the Trans-Amazonian highway of 1972.
• Government regulation. Governments are slow to regulate because a powerful special interest can usually prevail over a general one. “I love my country. It is beautiful," one Brazilian told me. "But the government can do what it wants because the public is not properly educated and even educated people are not properly informed about the issues.”

We Have Met the Enemy

Unlike a mystery story, finding a single culprit is impossible. We are all part of the problem. Solutions depend on getting as many stakeholders at the table as we can.

Consumers should demand sustainability in the products they buy. Businesses should contribute through trade associations to a culture of compliance and, beyond that, to certification of sustainable practices. The Brazilian government and state and local governments need to enforce sustainability laws as well as create new policies.

One promising development was Norway's 2008 commitment of up to $1 billion over seven years to Brazil's Amazon Fund. The Fund is set up to slow down the deforestation of the Amazon, for example by providing technical assistance and financial incentives to states and localities in Brazil. The British Overseas Development Institute has attempted to evaluate such "climate finance" programs and suggests they need more analytical support, and that partnerships with business are a potentially fruitful direction. But the BBC's climate correspondent does not see a Global Climate Fund getting under way as quickly as it expects.

As Nature turns the screws a few more times, we can only pray she gets more attention.

What Mayor de Blasio Could Do About Snowstorms

First, shovel a path from your door.

January 25, 2014—Mayor Bill de Blasio and John Doherty, who is in charge of the snow plows, have been unfairly castigated for their handling of the snowstorm.

I don’t claim inside information about what happened on the Upper East Side of NY, but consider this:

• When the temperature remains well below freezing, plain salt doesn’t work. New York has suffered an unusually long spell of sub-freezing weather, with temperatures commonly below the level where salt on the street would melt the ice.
• When traffic is at a standstill, snow plows can’t get through.

The good news is that it is still nearly four years until the next mayoral election. The bad news is that Superbowl week is upon us.

Implement a Snowstorm Traffic Flow Plan. The Mayor needs a plan from the NYPD, as well as the Department of Sanitation, for keeping traffic moving so that snow plows can do their work at all times. If it is freezing weather, traffic police are more, not less, necessary. Gridlock is disaster in a snowstorm, because it prevents remedies.

Involve the Public. If NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton doesn’t want to tie up his force on traffic control, one idea is to reach out to the public and ask them to avoid certain parts of New York City - and announce plans to back up this request. Boston, which is no stranger to snow, has a map of all the fire hydrants and catch basins and urges the public to “adopt” them on a neighborhood basis and keep them clear in a storm.

Implement a New York City Storm Severity Index. The City has had an emergency rating that ranges from Phase 1 to Phase 3. The rarely used Phase 3 was invoked for the Blizzard of January 7-8, 1996. This blizzard, and the one that occurred in March 1993, are also rated by the National Weather Service as the only two storms that reached the top category 5 on the NESIS scale, which was developed in 2004 – and also on the more recent RSI scale. But the scales are not useful as guides for action in a storm – the NESIS and RSI scales only consider snowfall and population affected. In 1996, the NYC Comptroller’s Office recommended that the City develop its own Storm Severity Index. Here’s an example of how such an Index would work:

NYC Storm Severity Index = (S - 2)n*d

where S = expected number of inches of snow or water-equivalent ice in the first 24 hours
n = expected number of days of continuously freezing (below 32 F) weather
d = expected average number of degrees below freezing over the n days
If projected snowfall is eight inches, and five days of continuously freezing weather are expected, and temperatures are expected to average 17 degrees, the Index becomes 6*5*15=450. Now the Mayor has an idea of how badly the storm will slam the City.

From a Jobs POV, Keep Manhattan Open.  Brooklyn has been insulted often since it was consolidated with New York City in 1897-98. It doesn't have a baseball team any more, but it has a million more residents than Manhattan. It would rank fourth after NYC (4 boros), LA and Chicago, if it were still independent. But Manhattan accounts for at least 70 percent of the New York City economy, and commuters from the other boroughs need those jobs.

Close the Schools on the Severest Storm Days. School buses clog traffic and stop snow plows going through. It’s a problem for parents who work, but if school buses are blocking traffic, the parents won’t get to work anyway. Only half of teachers showed up at the schools on the first full day of the storm. Offices are more likely to close when schools are closed.

Consider Alternatives to Plain Salt, Which Doesn’t Work Well Below 15 F. U.S. airports watch snowstorms like hawks. They use de-icers and anti-icers that work down to -20 F. Glycol and urea are bad for the environment but the EPA has approved potassium acetate based (KAC) liquid E36. It takes just 10 minutes to go to work. There is also an additive to salt that lowers the temperature at which salt water melts.

NYC | Urban Flooding Wake-Up Call (Guest Post)

Robert Trentlyon, Boolavardier
(Photo by JT Marlin)

The following post was sent to me by Bob Trentlyon, a Yale man (Monsieur Boolavardier, I call him) and former publisher of the Chelsea-Clinton News and other fine newspapers. Bob has asked me to post his comments on my blog in the hopes of being read by people he hasn't reached before. Here's what Bob wants you to know:

Justin Gillis of the New York Times performed an important public service when he wrote a major piece in the January 14 "Science" section entitled “The Flood Next Time”.  He wrote about the inexorable rise of the Atlantic Ocean and its impact upon the east coast of the United States.  Not only is the sea level rising, but the land mass in many places is sinking. Not only is the sea level rising, but it is rising faster.  That means that flooding and hurricanes will create even more damage.  This means that we have to do something about it very soon.   

There are three options - moving to higher ground, resilience, or sustainability.  Moving to higher ground is the most logical, but I am not sure or able that millions of New Yorkers are ready or able to do that.  Resilience means living with the higher water, raising your building, and making continual repairs.  Sustainability means protecting yourself from storms and flooding by building storm surge barriers (SSBs). 

Restoring marshes, and building berms will be done using either  resilience or sustainability. In England there is a 50 year plan for London and for all the neighboring towns.  The London Environment Committee tells the towns what they must do to fit in with the 50 year plan.  The latest North Sea storms had no impact on London, because of storm surge barriers on the Thames that had been in place for many years.

Two cities that have lived with resilience and have chosen storm surge barriers are St. Petersburg, Russia and Venice, Italy.  Both of them had been plagued by flooding for hundreds of years.  St. Petersburg is situated at the mouth of the Neva River. The Neva River Estuary that leads into the North Sea closely resembles the Hudson River estuary. This past year the storm surge barriers were finally completed, and this past fall St. Petersburg was not flooded for the first time in 307 years. The British company Halroyd was the major adviser on the project. The St. Petersburg extensive series of gates and barriers is much longer than what is proposed for the five mile stretch between Sandy Hook and the Rockaways. In Venice, the Venetians were tired of their first floors being flooded every year. The Venetians, with a big assist from the Italian government, are presently testing their new SSBs.

In smaller residential buildings resilience means making do with what we have and modifying existing structures.  It means moving machinery to a higher floor or even the roof. It means vacating living space on the ground floor and eventually the second floor.  There would be some governmental money to assist the owner in making these changes, but not enough. The streets would still be flooded every year in the flood zone.  The flood zone will expand as time goes on.  Most housing modifications in the future will be paid by the owner of the building and passed on to the tenants.  Flood insurance will not exist or be limited, and government aid will be either minimal or non-existent.

If storm surges and flooding can be controlled by building barriers at two or three strategic locations that would be more effective and much cheaper than fortifying hundreds of miles of NYC shoreline and tens of thousands of buildings.  Why are some people afraid of having SSBs studied?

DE BLASIO | NYC v. Snowstorm

Blizzard of February 2013.

My "Notify NYC" messages from the City of New York are still coming from "Michael Bloomberg". I guess that will be changed tomorrow when City workers are back at their computers.

The word from Notify NYC is that 6-8 inches of snow will fall starting 6 pm tomorrow, January 2, through 1 am Friday. The snow will be accompanied by "low temperatures" which means that the snow will accumulate and some will turn to ice.

Expect salt spreaders. Last year on February 7-9, the first big blizzard of the winter hit New York City and then-Mayor Bloomberg reported he had on hand 250,000 tons to spread on the streets of New York.

A snowstorm happening at the end of a week, on Friday or Saturday, is relatively benign for offices because only one day of work is lost. By Monday the commute is likely to be back to normal. Saturday is a less crucial day for most businesses, obviously excluding retailers and entertainments. During my stint as chief economist for three NYC Comptrollers in 1992-2006, we considered a Saturday economy as three-fourths of a Monday-Friday weekday economy and Sunday was one-fourth of a weekday, so it added up to a six-weekday week.

We estimated the relationship between certain storm variables and economic impact based on historical records. The crucial variables in a snowstorm for determining economic impact are the timing, the precipitation and the temperature. The impact is reduced if the snow is on a weekend, if the precipitation is low (two inches is where trouble can start) and if the temperature is above freezing, 32 F (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

Putting down salt allows the City of New York to reduce the impact of freezing temperature on the ability of commuters to get to work, or shoppers to get to stores. One of the worst scenarios is a slushy snowfall and then a deep freeze, causing icy roads. A snowstorm becomes a blizzard if the snow is driven by the wind.

In the laboratory, adding salt (sodium chloride) to water can bring down the freezing-melting point – depending on which way one is going - from 32 degrees Fahrenheit to 20 F (in the case of a 10 percent concentration of salt) or 2 F (for a 20 percent concentration). In practice, the lower number depends on how much salt one puts down on the roads (the more salt that is added, the higher the salinity percentage and the lower the freezing point of the water). In a lab, the freezing point can be brought down lower than in storm conditions. One source suggests that below 15 F, salt will have little effect.

So salt is only useful to add when the temperature is between 15 F and 32 F. Below 15 F, the salt won’t melt the ice. Above 32 F, ice won't form and the salinized water will just run off into the city sewers.

The preferred remedy for ice in places like Montreal, where I spent much of my childhood, is sand, which helps provide traction to pedestrians and motorists regardless of the temperature. My beloved grandmother Olga van Stockum nonetheless died of hip injuries after falling on Montreal ice in 1949.

Salt has some negative effects on the environment. It corrodes cars and other vehicles and the roads themselves. It is bad for shoes. The runoff is terrible for plants and marine life. Pets that walk outside get the salt on their paws and suffer from the abrasion.

But a big city needs to keep working. So we accept the negative impact of salt. The test is whether the mayor can keep the roads open on Friday morning.

CITYECONOMIST | Why I Blog (Postscript)

Why do I blog as CityEconomist?

Because I can tell within hours whether I have hit on a good topic and posted something that is interesting. In that case the number of people who look at the post rises from a fairly immediate 2-10 to 20 or 30. If the views stop there, the topic is clearly of limited interest to the CityEconomist audience (you).

But on a good day the views will rise quickly to 100 and keep going. Sometimes they will keep climbing for days, even months. I don't know who is reading my posts unless you sign up for Google + (or some other feed that notifies me), but it is enough to know that the posts are being read. Thank you.

So I blog for... feedback.

FYI, here are the most-read posts, in order of readership, as of 100 posts ago (it takes time for a post to accumulate readers). Four of the posts have had more than 1,000 views. I was in Washington working for the Joint Economic Committee between April 2009 and May 2011, which explains why there are no posts during that period.

It is easy to get to them via Google - just type "CityEconomist" and some of the listed key words. The date will also take you to the post on www.cityeconomist.blogspot.com.

Thank you for reading! Please comment or send me an email at john@cityeconomist.com.
J
Postscript, March 9, 2016: G+1 counter (all of my blogs) just clicked past One Million Views.

Title and Key Words	Views	Date
How the Clinton Health Care Plan Was Killed AlterNet, American Prospect, Barack Obama, Ezra Klein, Fritz Hollings, Health Care Reform, Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, Ron Wyden.	5,443	1/31/2009
Causes of the Depression: Real Estate Speculation or the Fed? (1 comment) Benjamin Strong, cause, CDOs, Depression, Federal Reserve,Florida, Japan, Milton Friedman, Polly Cleveland	2,596	2/23/2009
In the Eye of the Storm: NYC OMB's Mark Page (1 comment) Gov. Paterson,Mark Page, Mayor Bloomberg, NY State budget, NYC budget,OMB	1,139	3/22/2009
AdAge: Obama Makes Marketing History AdAge, Barack Obama, Brand, Change, Consistency, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, John Tepper Marlin, Patt Cottingham, Relevance, Simpolicity	1,002	11/5/2008
NYC More Catholic, Jewish, Muslim Bronx, Brooklyn, Catholic,Immigrant, Jewish, Manhattan, Muslim, New York, Protestant,Queens, Rome, Staten Island	950	2/15/2008
U.S. Financial Regulation 2008 Bank, CDOs, Economist, Federal Reserve, Glass-Steagall, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Regulation, SEC	929	3/22/2008
BBC Panorama on U.S. Health Care BBC, health care, Michael Moore, Panorama, PBS, what now	862	1/25/2009
The Rising National Debt - Why It Matters in 2007 current account, Debt,deficits, Misery Index	853	10/1/2007
What Keynes Said and What Bush Did Balanced budgets,Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bush 41, Bush 43, John Maynard Keynes, Manhattan Institute, Paul Krugman, Robin Wells, Steven Malanga	838	6/23/2012
NYC Tax Amnesty: A Good Idea? amnesty, City Comptroller,Daily News, Finance Department, moral hazard, scofflaws	699	2/27/2009
NYC’s Traffic Congestion Gets Worse Congestion Pricing, New York City, Rankings, Travel Time	660	9/19/2007
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How Candy Cigarettes Contribute to the U.S. Budget Deficit  addiction, Arizona, ban, Blair, candy cigarettes, childhood obesity,fee for smokers, Medicaid, Medicare, Peter Orszag, social costs,surtax, U.S. budget deficit, William Baumol
Missing Minsky Alan Greenspan, Barack Obama, Bard College,Ben Bernanke, Benjamin Strong, Fed, Hy Minsky, John Maynard Keynes, Levy Institute, Martin Wolf, Milton Friedman, Ponzi, SEC	524	12/27/2008
The NY Software Industry Incubator - R.I.P. Brooklyn Poly, Bruce Bernstein, incubator, John Tepper Marlin, NYSIA, NYU, Pace	453	3/20/2008
Cognitive Dissonance - Equity vs. Fixed Income Markets cognitive dissonance, Dow, equity markets, Fed, fixed-income,John Tierney, Royal Bank of Scotland	448	11/8/2007
Turkey's Economy - Action Needed Now AKP, Filiz Bakirhan,IMF, Turkish Central Bank, Turkish economy	442	2/9/2009
US Financial Regulation - 2009 (1 comment) Arthur Levitt, CFTC, Chuck Schumer, Patricia Kilday Hart, Phil Gramm, SEC, Senator Schumer, Texas Observer	432	12/25/2008
Harvard Gloms onto Stanford-MIT Model - Splendor in the Glass Allston, Cornell, Drew Faust, Faust, Harvard, Ken Auletta, Kit Parker, Mayor Bloomberg, MIT, New York City, NYU, NYU Poly,Roosevelt Island, Silicon Valley, Stanford, Walter Isaacson,Youngme Moon	411	5/7/2012
NYC and NY State Stimulus Details college tuition tax credit,FMAP, Gov. David Paterson, infrastructure. New York State, New York City, Sen. Charles E. Schumer	390	2/13/2009
HuffPost Editorial Panel Talks about the Business 92nd Street Y,Arianna Huyffington, Colin Sterling, Facebook, Google, Huffington Post, HuffPost, Jason Linkins, Katharine Zaleski, MySpace, Roy Sekoff, Tweets, Twitter	389	2/7/2009
Rising Unemployment: True Pain Is Twice What's Reported Bureau of Labor Statistics, discouraged workers, Jurgen Brauer, part-time workers, U3, U6, unemployment	347	3/10/2009
NYC To Be #1 in Tech? The Cornell-Technion Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island (3 comments) BetaBeat, Charles Feeney, Cornell, Doctoroff, High Tech, Jobs,Mayor Bloomberg, New York City, NYC, Rep. Carolyn Maloney,Roosevelt Island, startups, Technion, venture capital	345	12/30/2011
Mayor Bloomberg Seeks to Clone Himself Brooklyn, Green Edge,Green Spaces, incubators, Mayor Bloomberg, MIT, NYU,Polytechnic Institute, Route 128, Salamon Brothers, Seth Pinsky,Silicon Valley, Stanford	305	2/24/2009
Regulating Banks and Non-Banks: One Year Later bank examiners, banks, Credit and Banking, FDIC, Fed, financial regulation, France, FSA, G20, George Benston, Germany, Glass-Steagall, Lord Turner, Money, non-banks, Stephen Labaton, UK	297	3/22/2009
Why Do Gas Prices Rise While Crude Prices Fall? crude oil,Energy Information Administration, gas prices, Middle East, North Sea Brent, NYMEX, West Texas	291	2/21/2009
What Happened to Our Peace Dividend? federal budget, GDP,Jurgen Brauer, military expenditures, Peace Dividend	290	3/18/2009
Obama - Please Fund Tech Innovation - SBIR - DARPA ATP,Barack Obama, DARPA, Innovation, picking winners, SBIR New York, stimulus, technology	250	1/18/2009
What OWS Has Done for NYC and Vice Versa Adbusters,Columbia Journalism School, Commissioner Kelly, Hospitality,Judy Le, Leisure, Mayor Bloomberg, New York City, NYPD,Occupy Wall Street, OWS, Picasso, Prado, Richard Cordray,Spain, Tourist Magnet, Video	223	1/10/2012
Defusing India's Labor Time Bomb Graziano Trasmissioni India,Maruti Suzuki, New Delhi, Rishi Singh, SA8000, SAI, Social Accountability International, Suzuki Motors	221	8/5/2012
Counterfeit Goods - New York City and Los Angeles brands,complements, counterfeiting, knockoffs, Los Angeles, New York City, substitutes	214	8/7/2011
How Severe Was Hurricane Irene? economic impact, Eric Blake,Ethan Gibney, Hurricane Irene, hurricanes, John Tepper Marlin,loss, New York, New York City	210	8/28/2011
Hamptons Institute Assesses U.S. Economy Cyrus Amir-Mokri,Dodd-Frank, FDR, Guild Hall, Hamptons Institute, Joe Nocera,Joseph Perella, Ken Miller, Roosevelt Institute, William H. Woodin	191	7/22/2012
Otterness Sculptures as Images of the 99% 1 percent, 99 percent, Eighth Avenue Subway at 14th Street, Occupy Wall Street, Tom Otterness	186	12/2/2011
Blair Warns of Economic Unrest Dennis Blair, economic unrest,Global Peace Index, Iceland	183	2/12/2009
Few States Thrived Under Bush 43 Augusta State University,Bush 43, Democratic Party, GSP, Jurgen Brauer, Michael Kinsley,Republican, St. Louis Fed, Washington Post	175	3/15/2009
Krugman and the Liquidity Trap Alan Blinder, Ben Bernanke,Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Board, FOMC,Laurence Meyer, liquidity trap, Paul Krugman, Taylor rule, zero bound, zero interest rate policy	173	8/31/2011
Word of the Year - Bailout - Alas, Not New American Dialect Society, Chrysler, Proxmire, Sarah Palin, Word of the Year	166	1/10/2009
Ireland Bond  Belfast Telegraph, bond, Dail, Eamon de Valera,Hillary Clinton, Northern Ireland, peace	155	2/6/2008
Good Move by Schumer - Improve Mass Transit Benefits Chuck Schumer, fare increases, mass transit, Metro-North, MTA, New York, Senator Schumer, tax benefit	147	1/28/2009
New York City's Economic Outlook economy, Federal Reserve,New York City, Rae Rosen, Wall Street	145	5/28/2008
Credit Slips Blog Supports Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights bill of rights, cardholders, Credit card, credit slips, Levitin	144	2/28/2008
The Ongoing LIBOR Scandal Bank of England, Barclays, Baruch College, Carrick Mollenkamp, CFTC, CUNY, David Rosenberg,Federal Reserve Bank of NY, LIBOR, Reuters, Robert Zicklin, Zicklin School of Business	136	9/6/2012
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GW | Dec. 4–GW Bids Farewell to Officers, NYC

General George Washington says farewell to his officers

at Fraunces Tavern in New York City, December 1783.

On this date in 1783, General George Washington tearfully said goodbye to his officers in the Long Room at Fraunces Tavern, 54 Pearl Street (at Broad), New York City. The tavern now encompasses a museum.

Washington was described as so overcome with emotion that he was barely able to speak. The context was that the British soldiers left New York City two weeks before.

This was the final victory, more than two years after the redcoats surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. In the meantime the under-supplied and overworked Continental Army had narrowly survived several mutinies and, the autumn before, a near-coup.

The second Treaty of Paris, between Britain and the newly independent American colonies, was not signed until September 3, 1783 -- 20 years after the first Treaty of Paris, signed between the British and the French, wound up the French and Indian Wars and made the independence of the colonies possible.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris by representatives of the American colonies, General Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home -- Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Washington's return to civilian life was significant. It said to history -- this was not just a war, it was a  revolution. The Continental Congress had given him dictatorial powers. Some wanted Washington to become king. But he did not want this. He wanted a Republic, and land in the western territories for his veteran officers. Washington's farewells to the nation and to his officers were short-lived. Five years later he was elected as the first President of the United States.