Art & Investments: Top 10 Spanish Artists to Buy in 2008

To view PicassoMio's picks for top artists to buy, please click here.

Eating Out in 21st c Madrid – Top 10 Restaurants, Restaurants to Avoid & Restaurants Wanted

Gone is the Madrid of the last century, where it was hard to get culinary variety – ethnic cuisine meant a Valencian paella or Basque tapas and gourmet implied the then-pretty-cheesy restaurants at some of the local luxury hotels.  Well, our culinary limitation was one of the last remaining tragedies of the Franco era... (its interesting, how you can even tie food to politics)

Today’s dynamic Madrid is capable of competing with London, New York or Los Angeles, in terms of its culinary diversity and taste. Damn right!!

Here are some of the more special ones (in alphabetic order, I think):

Don Lay (Chinese)
Paseo de Extremadura
If you have never been across to the other side of Manzanares river, this is a good reason to go. Great fish and a nice selection of Dim sums. Don’t be discouraged by the Iberico-Chino décor…
;-)

El Chaflán (Contemporary Spanish)
Avenida de Pio XII, 34
Don’t be turned-off by its association with a pretty unimpressive hotel, El Chaflan is beautiful and a modern version of Spanish-ness. Very well designed, you will find some of the more interesting takes on traditional Spanish, especially Andalusian flavors, here. Go for one of their fish dishes.

Goya Restaurant Terrace & Gardens, Hotel Ritz (Spanish)
Plaza de Lealtad, 5.
During summers only, the Goya’s terrace and garden extension, offers one of the most beautiful dining experiences in Madrid. Wine selection is decent, food is reasonable, but this is probably one of the most romantic dining destinations, in Madrid, during the hot summers. My preference is a table in the terrace so you can look into the garden and see the who’s who of Mad.  Caution:  The restaurant itself is pretty avoidable! 

Gumbo (American – Cajun)
Calle Pez 15
Located in the hip, young Calle Pez, this is homely New Orleans cuisine. Don’t forget to order the fried green tomatoes.  After the meal, go get smashed in one of the hundred bars on this street or in the neighbouring bario Malasana.

Kilimanjaro (West African – Senegalese)
Somewhere in bario Lavapies
Located in Madrid’s most cosmopolitan yet authentic neighbourhoods, the chefs at Kilimanjaro prepare some of the better Ceebu Jen and Chicken Yassa, this side of the Mediterranean.  Its quite perfect for a Saturday afternoon and after your meal, you can pick-up decent pita bread and Indian spices, in the local shops.

La Taqueria de Alamillo (Mexican)
Plaza del Alamillo, 8.
If you find yourself with an urge for some real Mexican food, this is it. Good margaritas and micheladas (spiced beer – for those with a hangover) and hell, pretty good Mexican food, by any standards. All in the vicinity of La Latina’s popular hangouts, where the beer is cheap and its easy to get laid  :-) 

Lhardy (Spanish – Madrid)
Carrera de San Jeronimo, 8.
Smack in the center, this place has been going on since first half of the 19th century. The only place to have the hearty cocido Madrileno (the popular regional stew) for lunch.  This is the real stuff!

Santceloni (Contemporary Spanish)
Castellana, 57
Quite possibly, one of Mad.’s best restaurants! If you think food ought to be elaborate, this is it. This man, Santi Santamaria, knows his ingredients – tuna, frog legs, everything…, and shows them off like no one else. Go there, please!

Tienda de Vinos y Comidas (La Taberna del Guitarrista & El Comunista) (Spanish Home Cooking)
Calle Augusto Figueroa
In the cool gay neighborhood of Chuecca, this intriguing place (known by its three preculiar names), is the one with the red facade, and probably has some of the best home-cooked meals in Mad..  Whether you go for the lentejas (lentils), liver or kidney, you just cannot go wrong. And don’t be surprised if you run into Almadovar or another aging (dying) landmarks of Movida Madrilenia! And I am moving out of Madrid, if this taberna is ever replaced by a cheesy “fashion” restaurant, Chuecca-style.

Restaurants to Avoid:

1. Anything to do with Sergi Arola (La Broche, etc):  I am pretty wary of rock-star chefs, to begin with and his stuff gets pretty boring after the first time.

2. Olsen:  Why did we need a Northern European restaurant ??!!  On the other hand, the vodka selection is not bad.

Restaurants Wanted in Madrid:

1.  Cheap California Burritos 

2.  Better Argentine Grills

3.  More Mediterranean flavors - Lebanese, Moroccan, you name it!

4.  Decent Hamburgers

5.  Authentic Indians

6.  Lots more Cubans, Peruvians, Colombians (hell, whatever happened to our Hispanidad?)

Related Link:  Food in Art/ Arte sobre Comida

Seeking Senior Developer at Loquo.com (Madrid)

Please click here for details.

Social Enterprises - Basics

Definition:

In contrast with a regular business, a social enterprise is also a profit-driven company, but one which generates positive social externalities, other than those typically accepted of any business, such as employment creation.

Popular Business Sectors

- Ethical consumerism
- Health and wellness
- Education and training
- Alternative energy and entertainment

Interesting Examples:

Justgiving
PicassoMio
ResponsibleTravel
Ethical Superstore
Abel & Cole
KleenAir Systems
Green Tomato Cars
theNag.net


Things to Consider:

Do you start with a social problem and create a business solution or do you start from a corporate perspective and create positive social implications.

Social Return on Investment:

One of the most critical elements of social enterprise that most experts are still struggling with; It attempts to quantify the positive externalities of the investment.

Sources for Funds

For Profit-type:

Breakthrough
Triodos
Bis Issue Investment
Bridges
Catalyst

Non-for-Profit type:
Cdfa
Adevnture Capital Fund
Charity Bank
CAF
Ark

When the US sneezes, will the rest of the world catches a cold and how can your start-up react?

U.S. Economy

The U.S. remains the world’s leading economy in terms of GDP and GDP per capita (amongst the large economies). It also is the world’s largest trading partner and the leading financial centre (in terms of stock market’s capitalization).

State of U.S. Economy

At the current time, the U.S. economy is facing a slowdown in growth from an estimated 2.1% in 2007 to expected 1.5% in 2008. At the same time, inflation and core inflation (excluding food and energy) has grown, with a risk that inflation could further increase. As such, it puts a pressure on the monetary policy to balance economic growth and inflationary patterns.

State of Rest of the World

However, major emerging markets, like China and India, continue to grow rapidly and other major countries, like Japan and EU members, continue to grow at a normalized pace.

How can the U.S. slowdown impact rest of the world?

The U.S. impact on the world has two potential linkages: financial linkage and trade linkage. Financially, the global markets are increasingly linked (i.e. globalized) with the U.S.. In addition to being the leading stock market of the world, the globalized nature of the financial markets has resulted in the impact of the credit crisis in the U.S. being felt across the world.

The U.S. is also the world’s largest trade partner. As such, a weak domestic demand in the U.S. creates a slowdown in its imports and has a linkage to its importing partners.

Since, supply and demand are interconnected, business cycles are driven by both prices and expectations of the future.

Aggregate demand, the expenditure on goods and services produced in an economy, consists of the following:

Y = C + I + G + X – M (consumer spending, investment (business, government and housing), exports less imports)

Based on a short run supply and demand curve model, if the U.S. demand slows, it leads to lower prices and reduced output, i.e. (recession). Given that the U.S. is the world’s leading economy and trade partner, the above theory implies that world GDP growth should be impacted by the current slowdown in the U.S.

Limitation of the impact of the U.S. slowdown

Countries & Industries differ in exposure to business cycle

Increasingly, major emerging markets, like the BRIC and Mexico, are becoming the motor of the global economic growth. Since their economies vary from the U.S. economy (in terms of the dissimilarity in sectors, etc.), their business cycles are relatively different.

The Great Moderation: services are more stable in business cycles

U.S. is increasingly a service-based economy. Since services are more stable vis-à-vis manufacturing and construction with smoother consumption and limited exposure to the investment cycle, current slowdown in the U.S. is expected to be milder.

The Great Moderation: moderate globalization

As a whole, the world is more globalized as a result of trade, investment and capital markets, etc. While it is apparent that the financial markets are highly globalized and thus, a credit crisis in the U.S. has a swift and global impact; in terms of trade, the world is less globalized. As such, a degree of moderate globalization helps avoid more volatile business cycles.

The Great Moderation: Information-based economies

Business cycles have moderated as a result of Just-In-time (J.I.T.) and other Information-Based decision making practices, which assist companies make superior decisions and control their outputs; whereby, helping downturns be milder.

The Great Moderation: monetary policies being run by economists, not politicians

Most major economies have been able to make better use of monetary policy to control fluctuations in business cycles. A separation of political influences from the central banks has greatly assisted economists make better monetary decisions, with limited need to appease the politicians.

Beneficial Effects of Business Cycles

To a great degree, business cycles, including the current downturn in the U.S. can have positive effects on its own economy and the world-at-large. Some of the reasons are: competitive pressures during a downturn can help both American and international companies to innovate, restructure and reorganize and the job movements during cycles lead to a better match of skills (“creative destruction”)

Overall Impact

Business cycles are essential medium-term fluctuations between expansions and recessions that have a fall-out across sectors and countries. As such, the U.S. slowdown should have an impact across other countries. However, as a result of moderate globalization, the net impact resulting from the U.S. slowdown and the emerging market growth, should cushion the overall global GDP growth. Further, better usage of monetary policy in the slower-growing major economies, like the EU and the U.S. should further moderate and shorten the negative impacts of the U.S. slowdown.

So How Should Your Start-Up React?

Diversification

A diversified customer base is always helpful. Ideally, your customers should not only be geographically diversified but also sectorally. If you are in the B2C sectors, is your product base wide enough, to attract a diverse base of clients?

Lean and Mean

If you gained a lot of fat during the comfy years, now is the time to lose some of it. Fire. Streamline. Focus on the bottom line. This actually is one of the benefits of the business cycles – they help us reflect on what is essential and what is not.

Survival of the Fittest

If you cannot survive a modest downturn, truthfully, maybe it makes sense for you to look for something else.

Next Time Around

The dotcom crash taught us a lot. It taught us that good times do not last forever. If you did not learn it last time, this is your chance.