Humanitary, Economy and Culinary: A New York Adventure

Richard Katter
Economics, Strategy and Research

I have recently returned from a sabbatical in New York City. The following will discuss the Humanity, Economy and Culinary delights of the city that never sleeps.

Humanity
New York is the home of the international headquarters of the United Nations. The UN is often perceived by popular media as a toothless tiger. I took part in a tour of the UN and left very impressed with what this organisation is achieving and very proud of the active role Australia takes in the UN.

The dominant media exposure the UN receives is for its peace keeping work. Since 1948 when the UN deployed troops to the Middle East to observe the Armistice Agreement between Isreal and its Arab neighbours, there have been a total of 64 UN peacekeeping operations. During the Cold War, UN peacekeepers would often be deployed to maintain cease fires when the Security Council became paralysed, which frequently occurred. Ensuring cease fires were maintained allowed conflicts to be resolved, peacefully at the political level.

Post the Cold War the “strategic context” under which the UN peacekeeping operated changed dramatically, evolving from traditional missions involving strictly military tasks to more complex multidimensional endeavours, from helping to build sustainable institutions of governance, to human rights monitoring, to security sector reform, to the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. However, their overarching purpose remains the maintenance of peace, be it through the implementation of comprehensive peace agreements to assistance in laying the foundations for sustainable peace.

Peace keeping is just one element of the UN’s activities. A major focus of their work is their seven millennium goals;

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: 1 in 7 people don’t get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life
2. Promote gender equity and empower women: Women produce half the world’s food, work two thirds of the world's working hours, yet only earn 10% of the world’s income and own less than 1% of the world’s property. One third of women will experience some form of violence in their lifetime.
3. Achieve universal primary education: 75 million children are not enrolled in primary school; 55% of them are female.
4. Reduce child mortality: Immunisation reaches 80% of children worldwide and prevents about two million child deaths every year. Each year almost 11 million children die prior to the age of five. Malnutrition is associated with 53% of these deaths.
5. Improve maternal health: Over 500,000 women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. A child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life than a child born in a developed country.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases: Malaria kills more than 1 million people per year, 90% of those who die are African children. The virus that causes AIDS infects five people every minute. Preventing HIV infection costs as little as $2 per year. Every 20 seconds someone dies of Tuberculosis, a disease which is both preventable and curable.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability: The continued environmental deterioration will displace rural and indigenous people creating increased pressure and tension in urban areas.

In 2007, $1.3 trillion was spent on the military worldwide.  Those under the poverty line earn less than $1.25 USD a day - if this military spend was redirected to reducing poverty, we could move people above the poverty line 1.3 times over. 

Economy
It is often thought that investment in prime assets is a wise strategy in terms of mitigating risk. Arriving in the US I was very familiar with the economic troubles that faced the world’s leading economy, however I thought that given NYC’s position internationally as a retail mecca that I wouldn’t see too much evidence of the recession.

I was wrong (don’t tell my wife who I assure daily that I am never wrong). The stand-out indicator of the economic troubles experienced in the US was the number of vacant shops in prime locations. There were empty shops on 6th Avenue amongst the likes of Tom Ford, Gucci and Prada. I also saw a vacancy that was clearly formerly a Footlocker in the middle of the financial district. The closing of a major international chain store in such a prime location is indicative of a fundamental lack of demand in the market.

Whilst there were considerable retail discounts available in most stores, the local media were discussing further measures, besides the exhausted discount route, to try and stimulate sales. The vast majority of people in the shops were foreign tourists.

Another obvious indicator of the economic troubles was the relative affordability of property, both in Manhattan and in the more suburban areas. Rents in Manhattan in prime areas were comparable to those in the inner suburbs of Brisbane and a standard home in the suburbs was cheaper than comparable stock in Australia.

My observations of the US economy from the ground in NYC further confirm the view that Australia is increasingly disconnected from the US. Whilst we are all concerned that our economic growth will lead to further interest rate hikes, the US continues to bounce along the bottom of the economic cycle.

Culinary
Whilst I was very interested in visiting the UN and ground truthing my economic assessments of the US, my primary aim was to dive mouth first into the culinary delights of the city. Holy smokes, was I very pleasantly surprised with what it had to offer. Now, New York and the US is a city and nation that is portrayed as being the epitome of bad food. My experience of NYC was unhealthy food - done well. Some culinary highlights included a 20 cm high warm pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli and a massive “Dude Burger” from “Big Daddy’s Diner.” However, we also did some fine dining which was pretty impressive, but where I think NYC really shone, relative to Australia is their ability to do trash food such as burgers and pizza really really well.

If you'd like to hear more about Richard's adventures in the city that doesn't sleep, email him at richardk@thg.com.au.