We were informed previous to, and confirmed the fact rigorously throughout our trip, that Mexico City is one of the great food cities of the world. We dined well throughout our vacation, including during a food tour of the Merced Mercado, the largest traditional food market in the city. One of our fellow tour participants asked us where we were from and what we did and after answering we reciprocated the question. He was from Los Angeles and worked in the entertainment industry. He was originally from San Antonio. When we informed him we had adopted the Spurs as the NBA team we rooted for after the Sonics were stolen by some rascals in Oklahoma City—aided and abetted by the Devil David Stern and his demon stooge Howard Shultz—we got to talking all things Spurs.
When we later Internet searched our fellow food tour participant we discovered he was a big shot in Hollywood. But interestingly he never bragged about any of that. He did proudly show us an article online in which he was quoted about his beloved San Antonio Spurs. His priorities are in the right place. And he told us he once joined one of the famous dinners organized by the Spurs coach, Greg Popovich. At these dinners, Coach Pop hosts his assistant coaches and players at Michelin rated restaurants. Pop orders all the dishes and the wine and thus begins a long night of eating and conversation, not just about basketball but about a mercado of topics. We imagine Coach Pop would enjoy the dining scene in Mexico City, and if the rumors are true of Mexico City being an expansion location, might one day travel there to coach his team. Meanwhile we sit down to a dinner of Poland’s economic success, Asian cooperation with the Philippines, and Xi, businesses and APEC. It’s this week’s International Need to Know, the tasty tamales of international information, the barbacoa of global data.
At the trendy Ventana de Ticuchi we had good food, but nowhere as good as some of the other joints we dined at (Try Mux). It was hard to see the food in the dark interior that the owners apparently felt made the place trendy and it was difficult to converse with the loud music—strangely the music playing was old, in some cases as old as we are. We’ve noted before that we are surprised that restaurants and bars in America aimed at the young play music from our era of youth. We were equally surprised to find the trendsetters of Mexico City doing the same. This is all, of course, an excuse to post the video below of the fantastic Fania All Stars playing one of the songs we heard that night.
Mexico City is a wonderful place to visit. The food, the sights…the Lucha Libre event at Arena Mexico. A good time was had by all.
Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.
Poland’s Example
In recent months lots of people have expressed concern about Europe’s economy and there are certainly worrying trends. But one bright spot is Poland. Its GDP per capita has steadily risen since escaping the damaging and sclerotic clutches of Russia. And as Daniel Karl points out, Poland’s exports are strong both in volume and type. He tweets Poland’s exports show, “…evidence of moving up the value chain, with a growing surplus in ICT and Telecom services.” Plus, its economy continues to outperform the rest of Europe as you can see in the second chart below. In fact, much of Eastern and Central Europe are doing better economically than Western Europe. Before we know it, Poland might begin complaining of too many immigrants from Britain. And, as we noted last month, Polish voters rebuked the misnamed Law and Justice Party and its anti-democratic inclinations. In a world full of trouble (as it always is), we could do worse then turn to Poland as an example.
The Philippines Is Not Alone
The last month we’ve described China trying to take territory from The Philippines, specifically a shoal that is over 500 miles from China’s borders. But the Philippines has been bravely fighting back against its much larger foe, and is increasingly receiving cooperation from other countries in Asia. Not coincidentally, Japan and the Philippines recently announced they are commencing negotiations on a “Philippines – Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement.” Meanwhile, India is sending arms to the Philippines. And, of course, the U.S. continues to state it will meet treaty obligations if China takes military action against the Philippines. Remember the U.S. is an Asia-Pacific nation so the Philippines is practically a neighbor, at least to us on the U.S. West Coast (more on this in China Corner below). Related to all this, it’s also not a coincidence that the U.S. and Indonesia this week announced a Joint Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which follows on Vietnam and the U.S. similarly upgrading relations. If the world cooperates, even the smaller Philippines can push back against a much larger China.
China Corner: APEC, Businesses and Hope
Though we were in Mexico when Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leadership meetings, we felt connected to them nonetheless. We were a volunteer at the first APEC Leadership meetings that were inaugurated in Seattle way back in 1993. It was a more hopeful time shortly after the end of the Cold War. The formation of APEC was a recognition of the importance of the Asia Pacific region and how it would grow in the future. It was also a time when it was hoped China would liberalize politically as it grew economically. Such an assumption was understandable given recent history even though it turned out to be wrong. While digesting a tlayuda and a michelada on the streets of Mexico City we read with interest the large dinner being planned in San Francisco for Xi with business leaders. Companies paid $40,000 for a table that bought them attendance of their top executives and one seat at the head table with Xi.* Our dinners in Mexico City were less expensive and tastier. When we helped organize a similar dinner during Xi’s visit to Seattle in 2015, the going rate was $25,000. Inflation! In 2015, such cash expenditures were attached to a more hopeful chance at the Chinese market. Since then trade wars, Covid-induced shut downs and CCP capricious economic policies would seemingly sober up such hope. But hope, as the saying goes, springs eternal—and for many companies the river of profits earned from selling to and/or manufacturing in China require such a small tribute to the man who makes the idea of political liberalization seem quite distant.
*One of our roles in that dinner was helping decide who sat where at the head table. You pay us $40,000 and we’ll tell you some interesting stories about those choices.
Additional APEC Note: A widely reported statement from Xi’s opening remarks to the Biden meeting was, “The Earth is spacious enough for both China and the U.S., and the success of each is an opportunity for the other.” Sure, but as we often remind people, 75 percent of the problems in our world come from how we define “success.”
Perhaps Most Important Development of the Week: The two opposition candidates in Taiwan, the KMT and TPP, are unifying around a single candidate. It’s important to digest this development in conjunction with Xi’s remarks about Taiwan during his meeting with Biden.
