lummi island wine tasting nov 15-16 ’24
Hours, Nov 15-16 ’24
This photo shows:
— a strange-hatted alien chimp on tippy toes deftly parrying a black Lab...OR
— a couple of water pipes sticking out of the wall in the crawl space..?
Friday Bread This Week
Rosemary Olive Oil – made with bread flour and freshly milled white whole wheat for additional flavor and texture. Fresh rosemary from the garden and olive oil make for a nice tender crumb and crisp crust. – $5/loaf
Multi Grain – Uses an overnight preferment of flour, water, salt & yeast before mixing the final dough to begin the enzymatic activity and gluten development in a cool environment. The next day it is mixed with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and rye, with cornmeal, flax, sunflower and sesame seeds for a nice bit of crunch and extra flavor. A great all around bread! – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Rum Raisin Brioche- A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with golden raisins and chunks of almond paste and topped with a chocolate glaze before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like? -$5/loaf
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed) will be available for pickup at the wine shop Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s Wine Tasting
Chapoutier Belleruche Blanc ’21 France $14
Delicious blend of grenache blanc and roussanne; fragrant and perfumed with a light, grilled-lemon note over ripe melon, and a lingering palate of rich white peach.
Riebeek Pinotage ’21 South Africa $14
Cold soaked overnight and fermented on the lees in 80% French and 20% American oak, and blended with unoaked wine to enhance fresh fruity flavors.
Cloudlift Halcyon Cabernet Sauvignon ’18 Washington $36
From Gamache and Elephant Mountain Vineyards; bold aromas of currants, anise, black cherry, and herbs lead to bright raspberry and dark cherry flavors and a bright, lingering finish.
Economics of the Heart: GDP by Presidential Party
FDR photo by David Beach/Flickr/cc
Over the last hundred years or so, there has been an observable pattern in the relationship between Presidential party and changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as shown in the list here . While each era presents its own economic booms, busts, and challenges, a relatively consistent pattern of economic philosophies has followed each party over the last century.
The 20’s were shaped by substantial overconfidence by investors, which led to a disproportionately high stock price/earnings ratio, or what today’s Fed Board might call “over-exhuberance.” Overconfidence had led to overproduction of steel, iron, and durable goods, which caused drops in sales for large manufacturers across the economy, rapidly falling prices, and the implosion of the entire economy.
The crash hit bottom around 1932, when FDR was elected. With the help of some extraordinary people with innovative ideas, his administration introduced a number of game-changing economic stimulus policies based on the ideas of English economist John Maynard Keynes. Metaphorically, Keynes basically said that the economy is a circular flow among consumers, producers, workers, households, and government. Imagine all of these players sitting around a large table, each beginning with equal stacks of coins. At a signal, everyone starts passing coins to the person on their right. They get income from their left, and spend to the right, holding back more or less as they choose, without knowing exactly when the game will end.
After a few minutes it becomes clear that everyone has a different sense of how much or little they want to keep in their pot; some tend to horde, while others just keep passing it through. And the real economy is just like that. The Depression didn’t end until around the end of WWII. The US economy crashed originally because the wealthy had taken so much for themselves that sales crashed. FDR gradually brought it back with vast debt-supported spending both before and during the war effort, both of which kick-started the broader post-war national economy. Manned by GI Bill-educated vets, the postwar fifties was a great time to to be a kid in the US.
But none of that changed the fundamental nature of the players. From the 20’s to today, the Very Rich still feel entitled to vastly disproportionate shares of the pie, at the expense of the masses. Going back to our table, we can see a consistent pattern across the decades. Republican administrations immediately lower taxes on the very wealthy under the false claim that they “create jobs,” even when those jobs pay subsistence wages at best, even today paying workers hundreds or even thousands of times less than the owners or top execs, often not enough to house or feed a family.
The pattern that emerges is that Democratic administrations keep the money going around the circle, stimulating the economy so everyone has enough to get by with dignity. But Republicans pile it up in their money bins to earn interest, taking it out of circulation, lowering worker incomes and spending. Ironically, their compulsive avarice not only leads to widespread suffering; it also decreases their own long-term earnings.
Maybe Republicans think like my old college roommate, who used to say: “There are only so many good deals in the world, so the more people you f**k over, the more good deals are left for you!”
Their first order of business is always to cut their own taxes (Dick Cheney called it “Our Due”), taking $billions out of circulation, lowering demand, sales, employment, tax revenue, output, and employment.
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2072 Granger Way