Books: Milton Friedman - The Last Conservative By Jennifer Burns

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Milton Friedman belongs to the most influential economists of the last 100 years. John Maynard Keynes might still have more followers, the Keynesians, but Friedman was more often right. I was so lucky to meet him in the year 1990 at a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in München, when I worked for a German magazine.

Jennifer Burns`excellent biography "Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative" gives an introduction in his life and his work ( amazon). Burns calls Friedman a "conservative" even though he preferred to call himself  a liberal, a believer in limited government, free trade and individual rights. But in America the term "liberal" is used for left of the middle and includes politicians like Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren. 

Friedman was the leading monetarist, preaching the classic quantity theory of money and the insight that "inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon". He declared "too many dollars chasing too few goods cause a general rise of prices". The recent inflation wave, caused by a deluge of money generated by government checks & massive bond purchases by the Federal Reserve, Friedman´s helicopter money, confirms him again.

 

                       Freedom Of Choice 

But he was much more. He had an enormous influence as a classical liberal. He fought (in words) for a philosophy of freedom and was an advocate of individual rights, free markets and trade and limited government. Friedman wanted a political world of maximum individual choice, and an economic system where individuals were likewise free to bargain and to contract at will. As an economist, Friedman tended to see numbers, and as an individualist, he saw people rather than groups. 

Milton published together with his wife Rose the book "Capitalism and Freedom", which they later distilled into their TV show "Free to Chose".  The show, a major platform for Friedman´s view, dovetailing with the emergent anti-government, tax-cutting sentiment in the Reagan era, aired on nearly 75 percent of the nation`s PBS television channels. Each of the ten episodes attracted an estimated three million viewers, while a companion volume was the best-selling nonfiction book of 1980. "Free to Choose" crystallized all the free-floating anti-government sentiment of the era, showcasing inefficient bureaucrats, runaway federal spending, and harried, harassed ordinary citizens struggling against red tape and regulation.

Friedman put price theory into the center of his research and revitalized and popularized the Chicago price theory - the analysis of rational human choice under conditions of scarcity. He taught that the price system - the free interaction of buyers and sellers - could produce better social outcomes than the decisions of politicians and regulators. Friedman claimed that human behavior is shaped by price signals, that people want more of what was cheap and less of what of what was dear, or would prefer (by same risk, stress, time etc) a higher income to a lower one.

 

                     Vanishing Monopolies 

Friedman dismissed the popular view that monopolies are pervasive and therefore require government control, which lead to the Sherman Antitrust Act from 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act from 1914 and today`s huge antitrust lawsuits against Google, Amazon and other big corporation. Friedman asked: "Do monopolies really exist? Were they inevitable and durable, or did they tend to disappear?" He claimed that - government intervention aside - monopolies tend to vanish and competition to revive. 

History gives him right. When a company has success it inspires copycats who want a share from the pie. Who remembers MySpace? The company was once the leading social network and regarded as a monopolist ( theguardian). But then came Zuckerberg out of nowhere and destroyed MySpace`s "monopoly" by creating Facebook. And today the technology sector is shaken up by the rise of AI. "The free market is not only a more efficient decision maker than even the wisest central planning body, but even more important, the free market keeps economic power widely dispersed".

Friedman also critizised the idea that companies are responsible for social issues, today known as DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion): "There is one and only one responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits as long as it stays within the rules of the game. A corporate executive only had direct responsibility to his employers. To divert resources to other goals would be unethical, spending someone else´s money for a great social interest".     

                    

                  Markets For Votes 

Friedman embraced the Public Choice Theory, developed by Gordon Tullock, James Buchanan and others, who taught that "politicians were political entrepreneurs, creating new markets for votes with new programs, industries and special interests trying to influence policy were ´rent-seeking´, hoping to stifle competition, gain advantage, and pass the costs to someone else." Friedman recommended "we shall do far better to seek a change in our effective political constitution that will narrowly limit the power of those whom we elect and thereby alter the incentives of both politicians and voters". 

But - maybe surprisingly - Friedman also sided with some progressives ideas and proposed a basic income which he called "negative income tax". He recommended that households who`s incomes are below a certain low level should not pay taxes, instead they should receive government money to finance their living.  

 

                      Destabilizing Influence 

  

Friedman`s center of gravity was of course the role of money in the economy. He was supported by Anna Schwartz, who was at first Friedman´s teacher and later cooperated with the famous momentous study about the role of money in business circles and the cause of the Great Depression: "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960". Schwartz`s contribution to this work was important because she was buried in data and grasped the granularity of the data in a way and had a love and feel for history that Friedman did not share. 

The book`s centerpiece was its stunning analysis of the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz`s data showed a precipitous 33 percent decline in the quantity of money during what they called "The great contraction". The Federal Reserve, that was founded in 1913 to stabilize the banking system, failed because the agency ignored that money was drained from the banking system and the economy collapsed. What appeared to be a failure of markets was in fact a failure of the Fed. Friedman reached the conclusion that the Great Depression was made great by a severe reduction of money supply, that was caused or at least accepted by the Federal Reserve: "By and on the large the Federal Reserve system has probably been a destabilizing influence during its life and that we might very well have been better off if we had never had it".  

                     Pariah Of The Left  

Unfortunately Friedman became a pariah of the left after he visited Chile where he and other economists - mostly from Chicago, the so-called Chicago Boys -, convinced Pinochet to set on market forces instead of government controls and taught the Chilenian administration how to reduce the red-hot inflation there by slowing the growth of money.

Burns`book is much more than just a biography of Friedman, it is also a history of economics, "the master discipline of the twentieth century". We learn about the work of Alfred Marshall ("Principle of Economics"), Frank Knight ("Risk, Uncertainty and Profit"), Jacob Viner, Irving Fisher and others who influenced Friedman´s thinking. She describes the evolution of the global economy during Friedman`s lifetime and the ancient clash between so-called progressives and classical economists, the changes of the global economy and the developments of the economic science. And Burns elaborates Friedman´s disputes with Keynesians, the left-leaning, universities and professors like MIT and Paul Samuelson & James Tobin and covers the political changes in the US that influenced Friedman or might have been influenced by him. 

The biographer also introduces her readers into the controversy between  "saltwater" and "freshwater" economists. "Saltwater" represents universities in the East Coast, which are leaning on left-wing theories, also called Keynesian theories; while "Freshwater" includes  Chicago, Minnesota and Carnegie Mellon, who - like Friedman - defend the importance of market forces contra regulation & activist government policies. 

Unfortunately Friedman´s opponents and the economic illiterate seem to rule theses days, leading to trade wars, rising regulation and ill advised monetary policy (for instance Fed Chair Powell ignores the role of money driveby).

 

  

 

 

 

Books: Seapower States By Andrew Lambert

 (Drivebycuriosity) - History is fascinating. Among many other things we can learn how cultures rose and fell and we might be able to draw some implications for today´s world. Andrew Lambert focuses in his book "Seapower States" on 5 civilizations: Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Dutch Republic, and England/the United Kingdom (amazon ). These states have in common that they all were relatively small & weak - not really powers - but they  focused on the oceans and gained wealth by controlling maritime trade, at least for a while. And "seapower states give the commercial classes a significant share in political power."

               Source Of Revenue 

 "The volume and value of trade made the sea an attractive source of revenue. Sailing ships needed secure harbors, pushing the developments of port cities, where increased populations provided seafaring manpower for commercial and constabulary functions. Trade enable strategically located cities and states to become rich, spreading people, customs and beliefs, and reshaping regional identities. Merchants gravitated towards cities that offered the best balance between protection, taxation and political participation".

 

We learn about the Phoenicians: Sea trade civilised them by compelling them to settle core values and sustain them by law. As their societies became stable, they shared political power across the populace. Their military forces evolved from chaos to order, from warriors and sea raiders to citizen armies and standing navies,serving the interests of the states, not elite rulers.

The Athenians borrowed ideas and methods from Phoenicia, but heir approach took a more militarized form. Already part of a democracy, the Athenians used a sudden windfall of silver to build a war fleet, which secured their independence, before acquiring an empire to sustain their fleet. The combination of democratic policies and naval might made Athens a great sea power.

 

             Slave-propelled Galleys    

By the fifth century BC Carthage had become a huge city state, powerful at sea, where it deployed slave-propelled galleys to extract tributes from distant ports. The Carthaginian economy was monetarized in the fifth century, primarily to pay mercenary armies. As a sea state Carthage bore the imprint of many cultures: Greek and Egyptian influences distinguished Chartaginian culture from its Phoencian origins. The city grew by assimilating immigrants, and Carthagnians had no ethnic or class restrictions on intermarriage, building a new society with strong north African, Greek and Italian connections.

Carthaginian strategic culture reflected  a commercial/maritime focus, a concern for stability and prosperity over conquest and territory, the combination of wealth and a weal manpower base that emphasized the need for allies and mercenaries, and above all a willingness to compromise to preserve the state.

In 146 BC Carthage and Corinth were systematically destroyed, their books and inscriptions, art and statuary ruined or removed. Carthage was wiped of the map and denied a history. Lambert explains: The Romans concluded that a virulent revolutionary center was being formed on the most northern tip of Africa, close to Sicily and to southern Italy. Roman leaders incited a suitably xenophobic Senate to declare war on a defenseless state. The object was to destroy the very name of Carthage, the physical city, the people and above all the culture that it represented. The last Punic War was  the ultimate response of continental hegemony to a seapower challenge, a shattering clash of culture, land against sea, a landed aristocratic oligarchy against a populist civic assembly, military empire against merchants.

 

                 Obsessive Intelligence 

We learn about Venice: The physical city began as an assembly of tiny local communities on man-made islands, connected by boats, not roads, with foot-paths unsuited for horses and wheeled traffic. In the absence of taxable land the state relied on customs dues, taxes on salt and wine. Venice endured because it adopted an inclusive, oligarchic political structure, relying on elections, checks and balances top secure the Republic against dynastic rule and dramatic shift of policy. Unique among Italian republics, Venetian government was dominated by a powerful and highly legalistic structure.

The head of the state, the Doge, was elected by fellow aristocrats, and from the tenth century his powers were strictly limited.....Venice´s empire "was settled by the logistic of conducting trade with the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea in galleys. These small manpower-intensive vessels needed frequent stops at secure ports, no more than two days apart by oar, to refresh their crews"

"When two major powers collided the Venetians would support whichever was least likely to damage their commerce or provide the most lucrative trade privileges". "Banking system evolved to support costly voyages, while bills of exchange eased the movement of fund".

"The Venetians had long known the importance of recovering information and keeping secrets. Secrecy and obsessive intelligence gathering became defining characteristics of Venice, essential tools for a seapower state facing far larger foes".

 

                      Primus Inter Pares 

We learn about the Dutch seapower: "In the republic, Amsterdam was primus inter pares, not a hegemonic city comparable to Athens, Carthage or Venice, cities that dictate the politics, economics and culture of the state. In the Dutch case a struggle identity pitted a seapower proto-city-state against agricultural provinces that had no interest in the ocean". 

Lambert writes about the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), known as the Dutch East India Company, "which was rapidly evolving into a territorial empire in Asia. Although independent of national government the company was controlled by the men who dominated national politics. The VOC had been built by war, driving the Portuguese out of Asia and dominating the Indian Ocean and the Indonesian archipelago, by harnessing private capital. Authorized to conduct Asian trade, attack Spanish and Portuguese shipping, build fortresses, sign treatises and make defensive war, the VOC was either a state within a state or a semi-detached empire". It became "effectively a sovereign state, with forty or fifty warships and 20,000msoldieres, commanding the trade between northern Europe and Asia"..."The company became continental, emphasizing territorial control and monopolies of supply".

"After 1688 the VOC consistently lost money on Asian trade: costs rose three times more quickly then revenues, despite rising volumes of trade.... Unable to compete at sea and no longer in control of a staple trade, corruption, incompetence and the growing costs of running a distant territorial empire combined with a weak financial bae, reliant on loans to covers operating costs, meant that or the VoC disaster was inevitable."

 

                        National Priority 

Lambert reports about Spain & Portugal: "The Iberian sea empires were directed by royal autocrats who emphasized religious faith over commercial success, continental expansion over sea control, and imposed monopolistic economic models that crushed initiative and enterprise".

We learn about Russia and Tsar Peter I "Peter was a very odd Tsar: He liked ships, sailors and sailing...he went to England. Between January and April 1698 he lived and worked at Deptford Dockyard, recruiting experts to build and sail his ships, teach navigation and create a modern navy... Making the fleet a national priority, working on it with his own hands by way of example, and taking pleasure in mastering the sea world at the heart of his reforms made Peter unique".

We learn about England:  "The foundations of England as a seapower state were laid when Henry VIII removed England from the European system. He declared his kingdom to be an empire entire unto itself.. To secure his new-made state from foreign invasion Henry developed a standing Royal Navy with heavy-gun armed capital units, along with coastal forts and art in which bronze artillery connected ships, forts and royal authority". 

 

"In 1546/t Henry`s fleet defeated as French invasion attempt, and the mythic power of the Mediterranean galley, taking control of the English Channel. Once the seapower strategy could secure England against larger states, insularity could be celebrated".

"The City of London would expect naval protection, whoever sat on the throne. The navy served the City, and the City provided the necessary funds".

 

              Clearing The Land Of The Natives 

And there was much more: 

For instance Lambert refers to Plato and his "anxiety about the ´corrupting sea`. Plato advised to level the city and move its inhabitants 8 mile away from ´corrupting sea, to live as farmers"  "Plato´s ideal society was landed, dominated by peasant labor and aristocratic control".

Lambert writes about the exploitation of America: "The immigrants who left the coast for the frontier were Scots/Irish and German, not English: the frontier made them Americans. The ocean gave way to frontier violence and overland exploration".   

In the 18th & 19th century "Although Americans shared British anxieties about standing armies, they needed them to clear the land of Native Americans"  (page 415 Kindle version.

What did Lambert learn? He writes:

"On its current trajectory Europe will become an empire, not a nation, closer to Russia and China than the liberal democratic nation states that are the legacy of seapower".

 

Economics: Will The Behavioral Economists Shut Up?

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Classical economists like Adam Smith, Hayek and Milton Friedman believed that humans behave rational and follow their self interest. Classical Economics is build on the insight that people want more of what is cheap and less of what is expensive, or would prefer (by same risk, stress, time etc) a higher income to a lower one. But in the recent years it became fashionable to deny rational behavior and a cult named Behavioral Economics gained followers. They claim that humans behave irrational, and Prof. Richard Thaler, one of the loudest deniers of rational economics, received the Nobel Prize for Economics in the year 2017.

Who is right? We can find some answers when we look way back in history. Max Bennett tells in his wonderful book  "A "Brief History Of Intelligence" (amazon ) that the early primates had a unique diet: they were frugivores. "Their fruit-based diets came with several surprising cognitive challenges and require rational conduct", explains Bennett. 

There is only a small window of time when fruit is ripe and has not yet fallen to the forest floor. For many of the fruits these primates ate, this window is less than seventy-two hours. Some trees of offer ripe fruit for less than three weeks of the year. Some fruit trees has few animal competitors (such as bananas in their hard-to-open skin), while other fruit has many animal competitors (such as figs). 

These popular fruits are likely to disappear quickly, as many different animals feed on them once their are ripen. Primates needed to keep track of all the fruit in a large area of forest and any given day know which fruit was likely to be ripe; and of the fruit that was ripe, which was likely the most popular and hence disappear first.

 

                   Planning In Advance  

Bennett also reports that chimpanzees plan their nighttime nesting locations in preparation for foraging on the subsequent day. For fruits that are more popular, such as figs, they will go out of their way to plan where they sleep to be en route to these fruits.  

A frugivore must plan its trips in advance before its hungry. Setting up a camp en route to a nearby popular fruit patch the night before require anticipating the fact that you will be hungry tomorrow if you don`t take preemptive steps tonight to get to food early.     

Other mammals, such as mice, clearly stock up on food as winter months approach, storing vast reserves of nuts in their burrows to survive the long stretch when trees produce little to no food.

 

              Contemporary Studies 

The rational behavior of animals, including humans, is also proven be contemporary studies. For instance the "Guardian" describes the rational behavior of Kelly, a dolphin, who lives in a research institute in Mississippi (   theguardian): 

"All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean. Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on.

…Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.
The dolphins are not only gaming the system they are saving and using a capital structure to increase total output".

      The Rules Of Supply And Demand


Kelly certainly behaves rational. The dolphin is spending energy & time to get more food, a strategy which is called profit maximizing. And dolphins aren`t alone. Researchers from the Max Planck Society discovered that at least some birds, the African Grey Parrots, also behave rational and follow their self-interest (phys.org). 

They report: "The birds have learned how to trade a token for food: one each for a low, medium or high-value food. The task was to choose between an instant food reward and a token that they could exchange for higher quality food. In controlled tasks, however, selecting a token resulted in an equal or lower payoff. The parrots only rejected the immediate reward and chose the token, if the token's value corresponded to a higher quality food compared to that of the immediately accessible food. The results show that parrots are capable of deliberate and profit-maximizing decisions."

Animals also respond to rising prices and consume less of something when it gets more expensive. Animals don´t use money of course, but they pay by burning energy and spending time to get some preferred food. 

The Dictionary of Animal Behavior says, if an animal expends a certain amount of energy on a particular activity, then it usually does less of that activity if the energy requirement is increased (oxfordreference). 

Studies also show that animals invest in auspicious assets the same way stock market investors do. Researchers from the University of British Columbia and Warsaw University of Life Sciences found that dairy cows are willing to expend energy (for instance for opening a gate) to gain access to a grooming brush (phys.org).

 

                 Biological Markets 

 Scientists are observing "biological markets" where animals trade goods (food) and services (grooming, shelter, protection etc.), following the economic rule of "supply and demand" (ronaldnoe). For instance 'helper wasps' raise the offspring of dominant breeders in small social groups in return for belonging in the nest (sciencedaily).  

Scientists from the University of Sussex noticed that "the helper wasps provide less help to their own 'bosses' (the dominant breeders) when alternative nesting options are available. The dominant wasps then compete to give the helper wasps the 'best deal', by allowing them to work less hard, to ensure they stay in their particular nest".

It is unclear if animals really think. They may just follow their instincts which are shaped by evolution. But anyway, if a species would behave irrationally it would lose against their competitors (getting less food and inferior shelter for instance) and would have gone extinct over time. The best strategy wins and their genes survive. This way animals inherited behavior which leads them to act economically.

Will the Behavioral Economists shut up?      

 

   

 

Books: IPA Evolution By Amelia Khatri

(Drivebycuriosity) - Years ago, when I still lived in Germany, I gave up on beer. I found it boring and the drink made me fat. Since I live in the US I rekindled my interest in beer, especially in American IPAs, which are very different from German beers and stronger & tastier. That woke my interest in American IPAs and I wanted to know why do some of the IPAs taste much better than the beer I knew from Germany?.

I found the answers - and much more - in: "IPA Evolution" by Amelia Khatri, which is a very good introduction into this subject. According to the publisher the book was written with the assistance of AI.

Here is what I learned: In the past water was often unsafe to drink, making beer, with its boiled and fermented nature, a much safer alternative. Before the 18th century people distinguished Ale from Beer. While Ale was typically unhopped or very lightly hopped, Beer included hops as bittering and a preserving agent.  

IPAs are based on the traditional "Pale Ale", that is -beginning in the 18th century in England - barley malt fermented with the help of yeast. Ale is different from Lager: Ale ferments at warmer temperatures, which results in a faster fermentation and yield fruitier, more complex flavors, Lagers are brewed at colder temperatures, resulting in a cleaner, crisper, and often lighter-bodied beer.

In the 19th century English brewers started to produce a new version, called "India Pale Ale", specially for the market in India. Before the Suez Canal was opened, the beer had to travel more than 3 months in challenging conditions, especially high heat. Unfortunately beer doesn`t age well. In order to make the beer more resistant the brewers chose a higher alcohol content and added more hops, to preserve it better for bacteria. "The higher alcohol content inhibited the growth of spoilage bacteria, while the hops provided antimicrobial properties and contributed to the beer´s characteristic bitterness." The aging process during the long ship traffic to India "essentially transformed the beer into a distinctly different product than what was originally brewed in England".

 

                    Scent Of A Forest 

The addition of hops did not just to make the Ale more resistant against heat & unfriendly bacteria, it also made it more bitter and spicy. Today hops are also chosen for their contributions to flavor, aroma and bitterness. These contributions stem from from two main categories of compounds: essential oils, responsible for aroma, and alpha acids, precursors to bitterness.

Hundreds of different compounds can be found in hop essential oils, but a select few play a dominant role in shaping the aroma profile. Terpenes are the most abundant class of aroma compounds in hops. Some of the most important terpenes in hops include: Myrcene, which contribute earthly, herbal and slightly resinious aromas. High levels of myrcene can lend a "dank" or "cannabis-like" character in beers. Humulene, which is responsible for woody, spicy, and earthy notes. It is also believed to contribute to hop`s anti-inflammatory properties. Caryophyllene, which boasts a spicy, peppery, and woody aroma. Limonene, which provides bright citrusy aromas. Pinene, which deliver piney and resinous aromas, evoking the scent of a forest. 

Besides the terpenes there are other oil components that contribute to the overall sensory experience: Esters, that are often formed during fermentation, create fruity and floral notes. And Thiols contribute surprisingly potent aromas, ranging from tropical fruit (passionfruit, guava) to savory (garlic, onion). 

There is a chapter describing different varieties of hops and their tastes. Often the hops are named on beer cans, and many pubs also name the hops in the beers they have on tap. Cascade hops is considered the grandfather of American aroma hops. This variety offers distinct grapefruit and floral notes, especially popular in West Coast IPAs. The taste is caused by a combination of limone, myrcene and other terpenes. 

Centennial is known for its pronounced citrus character, particular lemons. Citra delivers intense grapefruit, lime and passionfruit aromas. Simcoe offers a more complex aroma profil, with a note of pine, grapefruit, and passionfruit. Amarillo contributes orange and grapefruit notes, along with a touch of floral aroma.

Another chapter focuses on New England IPAs (NEIPAs) which own a hazy appearance and juice flavor profile. One of the most crucial elements of this kind is the selection of yeast. Unlike traditional yeasts Ale yeasts that ferment cleanly and produce little in the way of flavor compounds, NEIPA brewers favor strains renowned for their ability to produce fruity esters (a chemical compound formed when an alcohol reacts with an acid) - the aromatic compounds responsible for notes of peach, mango, and pineapple. Yeast strains like Conan, London Ale III, and Verdant IPA are popular choices.

NEIPAs rely on heavily and late-addition hopping, meaning that the majority of hops are added towards the end of the boil or even after fermentation has begun (known as dry hopping). This minimizes the extraction of bitter alpha acids, allowing the more delicate aroma compounds to shine through. 

                      Science & Art   

Today IPAs are the product of science & art, especially American IPAs. The scientist in the brewer tries to understand the different varieties of hops that come with different oils that are extracted through the brewing process.  

The beer scientists also varie different kind of yeast, which not only supports the fermentation process, it also added flavors. Last but not least the brewers perform water chemistry. They often adjust the mineral content of their water to enhance the hop aroma and soften the beer`s overall profile. Higher chloride levels, for example, can accentuate the perceived sweetness and juiciness of the hops.

For the production of Hazy IPAs the brewers use protein-rich grains like oats and wheat, specific yeast strains that remain suspended in the beer, and the interaction of hop oils and proteins.

Modern craft brewers are also artists who combine the ingredients to find a balance between the sweetness of the malt and the spiciness and other flavors of hops & yeasts. Today they use technologies like senors & software to measure and fine-tune temperature and status of fermentation process.

Brewers often use a technique called "hop bursting", adding massive quantities of these hops in the final minutes of the boil or during the whirlpool (a process that separates the worst from the spent grain) to maximize aroma intensity. 

 

 

                    Agent Of Transformation

I found much more information, for instance: 

Mashing is the crucial process that transforms malted grains into a sugary liquid called wort. It involves mixing crushed malt with hot water and holding it at specific temperature to activate enzymes that convert starches into fermentable sugars. Different enzymes are active at different temperatures. Mashing at lower temperature (around 148-156 F or 64-69 C) favors the production of fermentable sugars, resulting in a drier, lighter-bodier beer. Mashing at higher temperature (around 158-168 F or 70-76 C) favors the production of less fermentable sugars (dextrins), resulting in a sweeter, fuller bodied beer.  

There are two primary mashing techniques: infusion mashing and decoction mashing. Infusion mashing involves adding hot water to the malt to reach the desired temperature. Decoction mashing involves removing a portion of the mash, boiling it, and then returning it to the main mash to raise the temperature. Decoction mashing can contribute a richer, more complex flavor to the beer. 

Yeast is a powerful agent of transformation, shaping the beer´s flavor, aroma, and overall character. During fermentation yeasts produce specific flavor compounds, like esters and phenols. They also produce alcohols, aldehydes and diecetyl. Diacetyl, a dioketone, can impart a buttery or butterscotch-like flavor.

Prohibition  in the US (1920-1933) decimated the brewing industry. When brewing resumed, only the largest and most financially stable breweries could afford to re-establish themselves, further accelerating the consolidation trend. As larger breweries prioritized Lagers, Ales like IPA were often seen as too niche, too expensive to produce, or too difficult to market. The beer landscape became increasingly dominated by bland, mass-produced Lagers.

The bitterness of beer is measure in International Bitterness Units (IBUs). 

 

The term "session beer" originated in Britain, referring to beers that could be consumed of an extended drinking session without causing undue intoxication  

The popular image of a witch stirring a cauldron is thought by some to be misrepresentation of alewives brewing beer! Their pointed hats may have been worn to stand out in the marketplace, and the "cauldron" was simply the brewing kettle". 

 

 

 

The book has much more information about beers and the complexities of the different brewing processes. There are some repetitions, but the book is elegantly written and partly humorous; it seems that there were human contributions. Unfortunately the publication disappeared from Amazon`s website, but I still could find it on Google. Maybe some AI hating luddites are suing against the publication.

A cheers on AI!

Books: Naming The Bones By Louise Welsh

 (Drivebycuriosity) - A while ago I read '"Tamburlaine Must Die" by Louise Welsh, a novel about the last days of Shakespeare competitor Christopher Marlow`s short life (my review). The fascinating and dark semi-fictional biography and the exquisite style woke my interest into the books of the author and I gave her novel "Naming the Bones" a try (amazon ).

A Edinburgh based literature lecturer is researching for a book about an obscure poet, who had died 30 years ago, searching for those, who might have known his object. Welsh describes the sex drive of the protagonist and his amorous experiences - "the tyranny of sex" - nicely; but otherwise the plot is too slow and too viscous for my taste. She tried to create a mysterious and gothic atmosphere, but she couldn`t convince me - and the ridiculous, melodramatic and ghoulish finish doesn`t help.

But the Welsh is quite a wordsmith. There are sentences like "step quickly ahead and leave the old bastard to ferment in his ignorance". Therefore I am still interested in her books and might try another novel by her in a while. 

Books: Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Michel Houellebecq belongs to the most important contemporary authors. His novels are analytical, philosophical and entertaining. And he likes to provoke. Houellebecq`s latest novel "Annihilation" comes up to his reputation (amazon ). 

The complex plot is set in France around the year 2027 and focuses on a man in his late 40s (this is a spoiler free blog). There are 2 basic threads, one following the protagonist´s professional and the other his private life. He has a well paid job in the French administration, "at the heart of the state apparatus" and is friend with the French minister of Finance. This thread describes political developments in France and the preparations for an upcoming election. 

The private thread focuses on marriage, the lives of siblings and health issues. Parallelly are happening mysterious & scary events and the protagonist has often bizarre dreams.

This is a spoiler free blog, so I won´t tell in which directions these threads lead, but the title "Annihilation" gives something away. Don´t expect an easy summer read. 

As usual with Houellebecq novels that I have read, I am not too much impressed by the plot. But what makes me reading him again and again - and makes me a fan of him - are his his sharp wit and his analytical & precise musings about almost anything.

This novel is of course philosophical - as usual for Houellebecq - with a pessimist undertone. There are intelligent reflections about French politics, industrial politics, global terrorism, old age and more.

 

              No Direct Contact With Matter 

 

Here some examples: 

"Lawyers and journalists were pretty much the same thing, in fact they both seemed to belong in the same disreputable world, in close touch with lies, with no direct contact with matter, reality, or any form of work". 

Baby boomers "weren`t only more energetic, more active, more creative and broadly speaking more talented that us in every point of view".

In the 1980s "things still moved quickly in those days, much less quickly than in the 1960s, of course, or even in the 1970, the deceleration and immobilization of the West, heralding its annihilation, had been progressive".

"The French economy had become powerful and a big exporter, but the level of productivity had increased to insane proportions, and unqualified jobs had almost completely disappeared"  

"Paris was a city with a weak level of social control and a high rate of delinquency".   

"By granting greater value to the life of a child - when we have no idea what he will become, whether he will be intelligent or stupid, a genius, a criminal or a saint - we deny all value to our real actions. Out deeds, whether heroic or generous, all the things he have managed to accomplish, the things we have made, none of that has the slightest worth in the eyes of the world any longer... Devaluing the past and the present in favor of times to come, devaluing the real and preferring a virtual reality located in a vague future, are symptoms of European nihilism."

 

           The Roots Of Nihilism 

Houellebecq is inclined to believe "that the nihilism "began with Christianity, the tendency to become resigned to the present world, however unbearable it might be, as we wait for a saviour and a hypothetical future, the original sin of Christianity".

"The liberal doxa persisted in ignoring the problem, in the naive belief that the lure of material gain could be substituted for any other human motivation, and could on its own supply the mental energy necessary for maintaining of a complex social organization". 

"We always communicate, more or less, within a particular age range; people who belong to a different age range, to whom you are not otherwise connected by a direct family relationship; the billions of people with whom we share the planet, have no real existence in your eyes". 

 

What Made Great Kings Great

"It`s probably normal for old people to take an interest in history, which contextualizes their own passing by retracing the fates of important, illustrious and sometimes even all-powerful people who had nonetheless returned to dust." 

Why the kings of France had gone down in history as great kings: "Not reducing the territory of the kingdom, on the contrary increasing it if possible, either through purchases or more often through wars, while at the same time avoiding increasing the costs of mercenaries to excess, and more generally avoiding any unnecessary fiscal pressure. Avoiding civil wars within the kingdom, in particular religious wars, they had always been the deadliest, which had been achieved by unambiguously designation a single dominant region .....Perhaps increasing the prestige of the kingdom by erecting monuments and supporting the arts. For some centuries this ideal programme had ensured the prestige of the curious partnership of Richelieu and Louis XIII; no one really knew how it worked, but the fact remained that it had". 

"When one is dealing with a pure opportunistic demagogue like Jacques Chirac, or other local personalities on a lesser intellectual scale, who sometimes won certain elections by virtue of their popularity among the very stupid, and who thus saw themselves as being elevated much higher than their normal level via a regrettable fate".       

Houellebecq also adds descriptions of rivers, cityscapes, the taste of pussies, the therapeutic influence of escape literature like Conan Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes stories and much more. 

The image above is taken from the book and refers to parts of the plot. 

Read it! 

Economics: Are Monopolies Real?

 (Drivebycuriosity) - There is a lot ado about monopolies. Since the Sherman Antitrust Act from 1890 US politicians have been fighting alleged monopolies. They claim that there exist corporations that are too big and that these are crushing competition & harming consumers. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ runs now a huge law suit against Google, a corporation that offers search, maps and other services predominantly for free. The DOJ claims that Google maintains a monopoly and they attempt to break up the corporation. Part of the intended breakup would by a forced sale of the Google Chrome Browser.

Last week Perplexity made an offer to purchase Google`s Chrome Browser for $34.5 billions ( cnbc). Who is Perplexity? Perplexity is a start up, an American privately held software company offering a web search engine that processes user queries and synthesizes responses, says wikipedia. Perplexity was founded in 2022!  

Perplexity is a nice example for companies that suddenly come out of nowhere and attack the alleged monopolies. The fact that Perplexity, that exists only for 3 years, expects to get $34.5 billions from investors shows that there is a lot of money available to enter an attractive market and to challenge the leader.

The DOJ ignores that Google, who gets most of the revenues from advertisements on their platforms, is competing against Meta and other giants and is already losing market share to Amazon`s advertising business ( realclearmarket). 

 

 

And who remembers MySpace? The company was once the leading social network and regarded as a monopolist ( theguardian). But then came Zuckerberg out of nowhere and destroyed MySpace`s "monopoly" by creating Facebook. 

When a company has success it will inspire copycats who want a share from the pie. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon in the year 1994 his company was a monopolist, but just for a very short time. Amazon`s success story animated worldwide others to offer similar services.  

Today there are thousands of companies selling online, including giants like Walmart, Target, Best Buy & Costco, who all developed large online departments, and there also exist a lot online platforms like Overstock, Shopify, Wayfair, Etsy & Ebay, who all are successfully copying Amazon.

 

                    Perpetual Struggle  

Amazon was forced to be cost conscious and to become more and more efficient in order to survive the growing attacks. "What doesn´t kill me, will make me stronger", said Nietzsche. The perpetual struggle between innovators who turn into market leaders and their copycats is called competition, the yeast of the economy. The permanent struggle raises efficiency, suppresses costs and constrains prices for the benefit of the consumers.

There exist indeed real monopolies. Only the U.S. Department of the Treasury has the right to print US bank notes, do not try it at home. And there are monopolists owned and protected by the US government, states, counties and by laws, like JFK, USPS, Port of Los Angeles or Amtrak.  

Contrary to them big corporations like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple & Amazon and others all are competing against each others and versus countless challengers. The founders of Sherman Act and today the DOJ have no idea how the economy functions, they are economic illiterate and ignorant of history.