Buying from a local farmer can mean that he makes a two-hour extra truck drive, which can damage the environment more than a bunch of bananas on a boat. Tyler Cowen More Quotes by Tyler Cowen More Quotes From Tyler Cowen What the banking system needs is creditors who monitor risk and cut their exposure when that risk is too high. Unlike regulators, creditors and counterparties know the details of a deal and have their own money on the line. Tyler Cowen own know details money At fancy and expensive restaurants (say, $50 and up for a dinner), you can follow a simple procedure to choose the best meal. Look at the menu and ask yourself: 'Which of these items do I least want to order?' Or: 'Which one sounds the least appetizing?' Then order that item. Tyler Cowen yourself best you simple If we want to improve American food and make it much cheaper, we should deregulate the food trucks and the other street vendors, provided they meet certain sanitation standards. Many cities have already moved down this path, and people are not keeling over with salmonella. Tyler Cowen street path food people The way to make the world a better place, through your eating, is simply to eat a bit less meat. Local is sometimes good, sometimes bad. But even when it's good, its environmental impact is relatively small compared to other possible improvements. Tyler Cowen good environmental eating world A lot of local food is very tasty. I'm very happy to eat it. I just don't think it's the same thing as saving the world. Tyler Cowen think happy food world I sometimes say I am a 'happiness optimist' but a 'revenue pessimist.' Tyler Cowen i-am say happiness sometimes Most restaurants in most cities, including Washington, are at a sort of mid-level. They're somewhat trendy, or they have some sort of gimmick, or they're somewhat expensive. And they make a lot of money off drinks. I tell people don't go to most of them, unless your goal is just to socialize. Tyler Cowen your go money people For the U.S., I think we should have a carbon tax, for environmental reasons. Tyler Cowen i-think tax think environmental I think as individuals, people overrate the virtues of local food. Most of the energy consumption in our food system is not caused by transportation. Sometimes local food is more energy efficient. But often it's not. The strongest case for locavorism is to eat less that's flown on planes, and not to worry about boats. Tyler Cowen think food sometimes people To get anything done, Obama has to be seen as having winning economy - which isn't easy. Tyler Cowen economy done easy winning Presidents always want to do nice, noble, long-run things, and Congress is less keen to do so. We've seen that throughout the history of this country. Tyler Cowen nice want country history In truth, it's not the shareholders of the American International Group who benefited most from its bailout; they were mostly wiped out. The great beneficiaries have been the creditors and counterparties at the other end of A.I.G.'s derivatives deals - firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Barclays and UBS. Tyler Cowen end great group truth We're seeing an enormous amount of global upward mobility that's quite rapid and quite sudden, and undiscovered individuals have a chance - using the Internet, using computers - to prove themselves very quickly. So I think the mobility story will be a quite complicated one. Tyler Cowen computers think internet chance I think a lot of people will be liberated from a lot of oppressive manufacturing jobs, or a lot of service jobs, because they'll be done by computers. There'll be the world's best education available online and free. Tyler Cowen best service education people
