Books: Venice - Pure City By Peter Ackroyd

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Venice belongs to the most fascinating places of the world. Today the city is just an enchanting outdoor museum, but "La Serenissima" was once a global power. Peter Ackroyd describes in "Venice - Pure City" how the mediterranean place evolved over the times (amazon). The book is written like a biography, a pleasure to read and highly informative. Ackroyd informs the reader in an entertaining way about Venice´s economy, architecture, art, cuisine, fashion, social life, her struggle with enemies & competitors, and much more.

The author did not write chronological. He moves back and forth in time and each of the 37 chapters of the book (432 pages) focuses on a special topic. I learned that Venice was once a partner of Byzantium, the second capital of the Roman empire, but it became a rival and eventually overtook the regional leadership as Byzantium`s power declined. Venice benefited from a strong fleet of merchandise ships and a navy which bullied competitors like Genua out of the lucrative trade routs. Therefore Venice could control there extremely profitable trade with spice. Arabic ships brought cinnamon, nutmegs, pepper, cardamon & other spices from India & Southeast Asia to the Arabian coast from where the goods got transported by camel caravans to mediterranean harbors. Merchants from Venice bought the spices there and sold them to the rest of Europe with an enormous surcharge.

Apparently Venice had an industrial advantage over her competitors. At tbe beginning of the twelfth century they began to build the wharf "The Arsenal", which was continually being extended and expanded until it became the greatest shipbuilding concern in the world. According to Ackroyd this wharf was the engine of trade. "It was the foundation of the naval might. It was a token of the supremacy of industrial enterprise. The Arsenal was the first factory established on the assembly line of modern industry, and thus the harbinger of the factory system of later centuries".

Venice wasn`t only a military & commercial power, the city also was a center for printing, even though the technique was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany. Ackroyd explains that "printing linked the various strata of the literate classes of Europe together; otherwise there would have been no such general response to the teachings of Luther. The publications of maps helped to create a new international trading economy. The commercialisation of knowledge, as a consequence of Renaissance humanism, indirectly led to religious reformation and the industrial revolution".

Venice was a kind of democracy with an elected leadership. The doge was the most senior member of the government and the symbolic representative of the Venetian State. He was selected for life, but he was surrounded by restrictions and regulations. The doge could not open his own mail; he could not receive foreign visitors in private. He could not discuss matters of policy without consulting his councillors. He could not leave the city without permission. Many of the doges were in an advanced age, some even their nineties. Ackroyd explained: "A government of young men - we make take as example the medieval English monarchy - creates a culture of impassioned fervour, of sudden violence and intense rivalry".

I had enjoyed Ackroyds similar book "London - A Biography" (driveby ) and liked this history as well. Both books are highly recommended.

Economics: Coronavirus - What Doesn`t Kill China Will Make It Stronger

 (Drivebycuriosity) - "May you live in interesting times" says an old Chinese curse.  These days the People`s Republic is suffering interesting times in truth. The coronavirus - and the drastic measures against it - stopped the economy around Wuhan and other regions. Many people got quarantined and weren`t able to work, to shop, to commute & to travel. But I also believe in another proverb:   Friedrich Nietzsche said "What doesn`t kill me, will make me stronger".

The virus won`t destroy China. The country is way to big and to complex and had survived many challenges over 5 millenials. The number of new infections are already falling sharply and people are returning to their workplaces. iPhone producer Foxcon is offering free transportation to and from work, complimentary meals and accommodation, and bonuses of up to $1,000 to factory workers who earn as little as $4,000 per year. The experience from the SARS epidemic in 2002, which did not stop China´s growth, is encouraging.

China`s economy might even get stronger when the corona crisis has past. History shows that consumer and businesses are more willing to change behavior during setbacks (twitter). Innovations typically gain traction during tumultuous times: they get cheaper, faster, more convenient, more productive, more creative. The government already started a massive economic stimulus program to compensate the economic damages done by the epidemic, including several interest rate cuts and tax reductions (ing.com). Companies are streamlining operations and are getting more efficient & productive as they always do when they are challenged.

Because people were forced to stay at home they used the internet for work, shopping and other activities more intense. This way the virus will boost the digitization process which already has been driving China`s transformation process on her way to become a modern economy where most of the national GDP is created by the service sector (like the USA, UK, Germany and other Western countries). The digitization will drive productivity growth across all industries, leading to more  economic (driveby).

Alibaba`s CEO Daniel Zhang sees opportunities created by the forces of change ( seekingalpha). He reports that "17 years ago, the e-commerce business experienced tremendous growth after SARS. We believe that adversity will be followed by change in behavior among consumers and enterprises and bring ensuing opportunities". Zhang continued that "we have observed more and more consumers getting comfortable with taking care of their daily living needs and working requirements through digital means...Many, many consumers they change their way of living and for many offices many workers they change the way of how to work. So people now work remotely from home. People buy foods, buy fresh products, buy groceries, buy necessities from home".

Zhang declares that "after all is done, I would expect that this is an inevitable trend that more and more business and more and more customers will have a digital life or digital working style. So this obviously will -- in the long-term will be good for the digital pace of the whole society".

I assume that the digitization process, which is obviously spurred by the corona epidemic, will make China´s economy more modern and more efficient and will raise the productivity of China`s companies and so encourage economic growth (reuters).

Economics: Throwing Sand In The Gears Of The Economy

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - The US economy is still growing in spite of the damages done by President Trump`s trade war. The expansion is kept alive, in face of a shrinking manufacturing sector and falling industrial production,  thanks to the advancing service sector driven by the big tech companies. Rapid growth at Microsoft, Apple, Amazon & Google is fueling the US economy and compensating weaknesses in some parts of the US economy. Unfortunately a phalanx of politicians and bureaucrats wants to throw sand in the gear of the economy. They are going after the big tech companies, causing huge costs and are making lives of their CEOs miserable.

President Trump seems to perform a crusade against Amazon and threatens the e-commerce pioneer and other tech companies with extended regulation. The President called the success of Amazon and Google a “huge antitrust problem” and declared "The European Union is suing them all of the time. Well, we should be doing this. They're our companies" (exponents  reason). Trump is reportedly upset that his friends in the real-estate business complain that Amazon is responsible for the decline of the shopping center (nationalreview). 

The conservatives get a lot support from the left. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and other liberals want to break up technology giants like Google, Facebook, Apple & Amazon (stratechery  washingtonpost). Sen. Warren claims: "Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation" (teamwarren). She declares she wants to “ensure that there are more representatives from labor, environmental, and consumer groups than from corporations and trade groups on every existing advisory committee” (vox).

Politicians on the left and right side want to gag the big tech companies, to oversee & to constrain their business. Big powerful American bureaucracies join the crusade. The Justice Department is investigating Alphabet’s Google and Apple while the FTC is probing Amazon & Facebook to determine if they abused their allegedly massive market power, setting up what could be unprecedented, wide-ranging probes of some of the world’s largest companies.  

The crusaders against Big Tech ignore that the power of companies is always constrained by competition. When a corporation has success, her rising profits attract automatically others who want a share from the pie.  The Internet makes it very easy to compare prices and to switch to other shops, news providers & entertainers, sharpening the competition. Customers can choose the company which has the best quality, the best service and/or the lowest prices which gives the consumers a lot power. As a result, customers have more power than the corporations.

Amazon´s success has been animating a legion of copycats who also want to benefit from the ascent of e-commerce. Today Amazon is competing against WalMart, who owns Jetcom, and online buyers can also shop at Target, Best Buy and myriads of other e-commerce companies including Shopify, a rapidly growing e-commerce platform. Even Instagram, owned by Facebook, develops as an e-commerce-platform where producers of consumer goods can offer their products. Amazon`s cloud business AWS is getting challenged by Microsoft, Google, IBM, Oracle and other companies who also want to have a large piece from the pie. Apple, as producer of smartphones, iPads & computers, is competing against Samsung, Huawei and a lot of other technology companies. Google & Facebook depend on advertising dollars. They are competing against each other and myriad of other media companies.

If we believe Warren & Co. big companies are evil. Are they? Big Tech doesn`t need to be our friend, but the tech giants have to behave friendly otherwise they would go out of business. Adam Smith declared “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest”. That is also true for Big Tech. If Amazon would treat their customers unfriendly, if they would sell too expensive, deliver too slow & too unreliable, then customers would buy at Walmart, Ebay or elsewhere. That is the magic of competition. Because Big Tech has to compete against others they have to behave like friends. And competition is fierce as the sharp online revenue growth @ Walmart, Shopify & Target demonstrate.

While politicians on the left and right seem to hate big corporations, the people - the consumers - love them. We all are benefiting a lot from Big Tech. Consumers love to get goods delivered cheap and fast from Amazon, buy gadgets from Apple, search on Google and use the free services from Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. People use Facebook to communicate with relatives & friends for free, they use Instagram to spread their photographs without paying for it. I employ frequently Google maps and other services without getting charged. Amazon translates her experience & efficiency into low prices which forces the competitors also to sell cheaper. As a result Amazon and other e-commerce companies are keeping inflation at bay which translates into low interest rates  - keeping America`s economic expansion alive (Amazon-effect).

I am really happy to buy Kindle e-books for a relatively low prices, why is that a problem for Sen. Warren & Sen. Sanders? Amazon is also a platform which allows even tiny businesses - including many unknown book authors - to sell their products globally. And the cloud services by Amazon, Microsoft and Google - who all are fiercely competing against each other - allow other companies, including tiny startups,  to reduce their expenses for information technologies and to expand their businesses. All these services & products benefit the whole economy and the society.

Sen.Warren claims that Big Tech companies "have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation". Really? Did she ever hear of Uber,  Lyft, Arbnb & Pinterest?  These so-called unicorns came out of nowhere. They were founded just years ago and are already valued $20 billion and more (nypost). Casper, who sells mattresses online, became a brand name almost over night.  Did Amazon stop them? Nope! WeWork, a company that provides shared workspaces, was founded in 2010 — just nine years ago — and was temporarily valued at $45 billion to $50 billion (nypost).

The enormous success of Amazon, Facebook & Google is stimulating talents to start new & disrupting (innovative) businesses (me too effect)  and animates huge venture capital funds to invest massively in newcomers, fueling competition & innovation. It seems we are experiencing a Cambrian explosion. There are so many new & rising companies which are changing society & economy - on the coat-tails of Big Tech.

Warren, Sanders & Co. they don`t care about the beneficial functions of Big Tech, they want to implement more bureaucracy ("representatives from labor, environmental, and consumer groups") which would slow down innovation, reduce productivity and would creative expensive jobs for commissars. Politicians, like Republican Senator Josh, are notching up their career wins by targeting the Big Tech bogeymen (washingtonexaminer). More regulation encourages corruption because powerful politicians & bureaucrats can blackmail corporations by threatening them to regulate them more (ssrn.com).

The implied inquiries & subpoenas employ thousands of high paid lawyers and are burning so a lot of tax payers money which could be used for education or health care. The anti-tech crusade creates a lot of highly attractive job opportunities for anti-trust lawyers and university employees which attracts many young talents. Instead moving into technology, medical research and other sciences, which would benefit the society, these people are wasting their talents in unproductive skirmishes. As a result the anti-tech crusade will slow down economic growth and harm everybody who does not live from the money of the taxpayers

Did Trump, Warren & Co. ever notice that there is world outside of the US? If the US  government would curb her tech giants ore break them up they would support the global competitors.  China has been highly supportive of its own tech sector to foster her economic growth and to catch up with the USA. The Peoples Republic already has fast growing tech giants like Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu & Tencent;  Latin America`s e-commerce is ruled by Mercado Libre and Russia´s Internet is dominated by Yandex. The foreign giants would be happy to inherit the turf of Google, Amazon & Co. and to overtake the global markets. America`s anti-tech crusade is giving China, Russia and other countries a huge advantage.

Antitrust law is designed to protect the consumers. Big Tech are serving the consumers, the society, by spurring price reductions, delivering better quality & innovation. US politicians are making the world a poorer place by fighting the quartet of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.

Books: The Year`s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories Vol. 2

(Drivebycuriosity) -   I love science fiction. But I get often disappointed. Most of the so-called sci-fi books and movies tell just fantasy stories about wizards, dragons & princesses or post-apocalyptic horror stories. It became increasingly challenging to find real "science fiction", stories & novels which have science in it and are not pure fairy tales. So I am searching for hard science fiction which blends entertainment with sciences like physics, chemistry, biology, evolution and more.

Fortunately I found the anthology series "The Year`s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories" edited by Allan Kaster (amazon).  I just finished reading Vol. 2 which presented 9 stories originally published in the year 2017 (397 pages). Many stories are optimistic and deliver a "we can do it" message. They are pro science, pro technology and pro progress.

My favorite is the story "Acadie" by Dave Hutchinson. The author bends quantum physics, relativity theory, genetics and other sciences into a hilarious space-opera. The tale if full of funny ideas, a kind of weird space-punk about evolution & the role of AI and reminds me of Philip K. Dick`s best pieces.


I also like:

"The Proving Ground" by Alec Nevala-Lee deals with global warming. The story is set in a near-time future on an atoll in the South Pacific. Residents and scientists from abroad are trying to adapt the island to the rising sea level. The author delivers a sophisticated story which mixes evolution, technology, international law & more with influences by Alfred Hitchcock´s "Birds".

"Canoe" by Nancy Kress. Here scientists are exploring a moon in a distant sun system and they are confronted with a cosmic issue.

"Holdfast" by Alastair Reynolds. The only human survivor from an epic battle against aliens is stranded on an exotic planet. The survivor is facing the only alien who also outlived of this battle. The story is interesting psychological take on alien encounters and futuristic wars.

“Vanguard 2:0.” by Carter Scholz. An astronaut is working in a space station owned by a futuristic Uber. He is ordered to capture a historical satellite which is still circling around the earth.  "Vanguard" is a philosophical tale about technology, corporation power and political influence.

 "Shadows of Eternity" by Gregory Benford. The author wove an elaborate tale based on cosmology. Not much is happening here but I really enjoyed Benford´s stylish use of science.

"The Use of Things" by Ramez Naan. We follow Ryan who is send to the asteroid belt around the sun. I learned a lot about the physics & economics of space travel and the possible exploitation of our sun system.  

I really enjoyed the book and I learned a lot. I am looking forward to read Vol. 3 of this series. In the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just $4.99.

Heavy Metal: Impressions From Doom City Fest Mexico City

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Heavy metal is global. My wife and I went to Mexico City to see Amenra. The doom-metal band from Belgium was the top act @ Doom City Fest in Mexico`s capital.  We had discovered the band last year @ Psycho Las Vegas (psycho). Since then we adore their spiritual and violent shows & music. The fest, which happened @ Sangriento, a former factory, focused on doom, black & death metal and 9 bands performed on two stages from 4pm till midnight.

The Amenra show was again hyper-intense & hypnotizing (images above). They performed under an open sky between massive walls & silos, covered with murals, which amplified the metallic &  psychedelic effect.  I don`t find words to describe this enigmatic experience, but here some quotes from professional reviewers: “Their unique musical style, characterized by brooding atmospheres and spiritual intensity and their live performances, accompanied by visual art, have been described as entrancing communions” says Wikipedia (Amenra). The Independent wrote that their "avant-garde post-metal" music "pushes the boundaries of extreme music by being heavy in practically every conceivable way; sonically, emotionally and spiritually (independent ).

Even though we arrived there past 7pm we made some discoveries and got new favorites.  I indulged into show & sound by the Mexican doom & sludge metal band Fumata ( fumata). The magazine signos calls them "The Mexican super group of stoner and doom metal" ( signos.fm).  The frontman delivered a diabolical show, supported by incredible massive sounds, which reminded of drown metal bands Sunn O))) and Earth (they have a cooperation - called split - together with an member of Earth). I want to hear more from them!

I also got impressed by the German power-duo Mantar (  mantarband). Their name means mushroom in Turkish (wikipedia). Drummer Erinç Sakarya & guitarist Hanno Klänhard practiced "the modern art of setting ablaze" (the title of the newest album), a kind of post-punk what ever that means. Klänhard can easily replace a band with three or more guitars, his virtuosity & energy seems to have no limits. Together with Sakarya`s staccatos he celebrated a fierce and breathtaking show. Bravo!

Doom City Fest Mexico City was an amazing experience, many thanks to bands,  curators & organizers. I hope to see Amenra, Fumata & Mantar again some day.

To be continued

Contemporary Art: A Visit @ Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo Mexico City

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife and I are again in Mexico City, our second stay in the metropolis since December 2018. Mexico`s capital has an impressive selection of museums. Yesterday we visited the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, which is located in a park in the center of MC (museotamayo ).

The institution - founded by the artist Rufino Tamayo - was the first major museum in Mexico built with private funds. The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) has run the museum since 1986 (wikipedia ).

 

We could see a selection from their permanent collection and some temporary art shows. I display here my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual.

 

Above you can see Francis Bacon`s "Two figures with a monkey" followed by Max Ernst`s "Torpid Town"; Roberto Matta`s "Homo tumultum"; Wifredo  Lam`s "La femme cheval" & Rufino Tamayo`s "Retrato de Olga".

 

To be continued

Economics: Why A Fracking Ban Would Cause A Severe Recession

 (Drivebycuriosity) - America has now 11 years without a recession. The benign period would end if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would become the next US president.  Both candidates announced that they would ban fracking if they would be elected. This step would cause a sudden disruption of the global oil supply which would lead to a sharp recession.

( source)


US  fracking exists for many decades, but it really took off around the year 2012 thanks to technological progress (wikipedia). Since then US production of oil & natural gas rose sharply and the US became the world`s largest oil producer (chart above). Fracking helped the US to overtake Saudi Arabia as oil producer, reduced the power of Opec significantly and stabilized the global supply of energy.

( source)

As a result oil & gas prices dropped sharply. Today oil & natural gas cost about half of the price from 2012 (charts above). US fracking not only made energy much cheaper, US fracking also reduced the risk of sudden oil prices hikes which had caused most of past recessions.  "Rapid increases in the price of oil have preceded almost all U.S. recessions" ( marginalrevolution ). You can see the relation between oil & recessions in the charts below (the dark columns show the recession years).

 ( source)

History shows that periods with cheap oil are prosperous, periods with expensive & volatile oil (like the 1970s and the 2000s) are not. The causal relation between oil and recessions can be easily explained. Americans depend on gasoline. Many live in suburbs and in the hinterland and they need to drive a lot to go to work, to shop & to spend leisure time. High prices for gasoline and natural gas (for heating, electricity) curb their available income. It is not surprising that high gas prices constrain consumer spending, the engine of the US economy.

A fracking ban would cut a large part of the US oil & gas production and catapult global markets into turmoils. Today fracking delivers about two thirds of US natural gas and around halve of US oil ( google). If this these parts would suddenly disappear then energy price would explode, hiking cost for driving, heating, electricity & transportation of food and other bulky goods sharply, hurting especially low income groups. Many would have to cut back, many would go bankrupt - causing a chain reaction like in the years 2008/09. Then the oil price had tripled ( from $50 per barrel to $147). Jumping prices for energy prices played an important role in eventually bursting the US subprime bubble: "In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 a year on gasoline, which rose to $3,196 in 2008" (oilprice). "Rising household energy prices constrained household budgets and increased mortgage delinquency rates" (oilprice). Low income suburban homeowners suffered most from the rising gas prices. If a fracking ban would reduce US oil and gas production to zero, the price hike and the following crash of the economy would be even more severe.

A fracking ban would also change the global political situation drastically. America would lose her energy security and would depend again on foreign powers like Russia, Iran & Opec, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, Russia & Iran suppliers would be the clear winners of an US fracking ban..

Books: Death Of A Red Heroine By Qiu Xiaolong

 

(Drivebycuriosity) -  Do you like to learn something while having fun? If you are interested in China, her culture and her history then the novel "Death Of A Red Heroine" by Qiu Xiaolong might give you both. The plot is set in Shanghai in 1990 and follows Chief Inspector Chen Cao and his assistant Yu who investigate the death of a young woman (amazon).

The basic plot is not really new, I have seen a lot of movies based on the same basic idea, but "Death of" is much more political than the others (this is a spoiler free blog). The investigators have to deal with China`s political situation. The characters are still shaped by China`s history and by the terror and chaos which ruled the country in the years after the communist revolution in 1949. Some are still trying to recover. In the 1990s the political climate has mellowed but people have still to follow the rules  of "the party" and every action has to be political correct, a situation some "progressives" ("BernieBros") want to implement in the US. Chen acts like a chess player who not only considers the results of his movements but also the movements of his opponents.

I am fascinated by Xiaolong´s description of Shanghai in the early 1990s (today China`s per capita incomes are about 7-times). People, even chief inspectors, were still very poor and have to live in harsh conditions but the huge country has already a hybrid economy. There existed official food markets were prices were set by the state, but customers had to wait many hours in line and often things were not available. But the government allowed - and even encouraged - private food markets were goods cost more than six-times the state price - but were available and customers got a good service. I enjoyed how the author pictured psychology & sociology of 1990s China. I liked the humorous portraits of common people and indulged into his frequent & elaborate descriptions of traditional meals. 

Qiu Xiaolong was born and raised in Shanghai but he left China in 1988 and went to the US where he lives now (wikipedia). According to Wikipedia his decision not to come back to China was influenced by the  Tiananmen Square event from 1989. He couldn`t have published a political critical novel like "Death of a Red Heroine" in his home country.  The book is part one of a series and I  might read another Chen novel some day.

Economics: Do We Need Billionaires?

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) - It seems that billionaires are out of fashion. "I don`t think billionaires should exist", tweeted Bernie Sanders (blairbelle). Do we really need billionaires?

I think so. America`s rise was driven by inventors & entrepreneurs who often became billionaires (in today´s money). America benefited from Samuel Slater, who developed a cotton spinning machine in the 18th century and from Oliver Evans, who created a flour mill. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie & Cornelius Vanderbilt created a networks of railroads which had an important role in the development of the vast nation. In the early 1920s Henry Ford, who was obsessed with driving production costs lower, made cars affordable for the masses and created so a huge industry and wealth for the whole nation. The banker JP Morgan used his own huge fortune and his enormous influence on Wall Street to hinder the bank panic from 1907 to evolve into a full-fledged depression.

Yes, billionaires amassed fortunes, but we, the society, gained as well. Prof. Nordhaus, winner of Economics Nobel Prizes 2018, wrote in his 2004 paper “Schumpeterian Profits in the American Economy: Theory and Measurement,” : “Only a minuscule fraction of the social returns from technological advances over the 1948-2001 period was captured by producers, indicating that most of the benefits of technological change are passed on to consumers rather than captured by producers.” (aier.org). According to Nordhaus "producers, on average, capture a mere 2.2% of the total benefits of their successful introduction into markets of technological advances. A whopping 97.8 % of those benefits are enjoyed by people each of whom as a consumer did nothing other than exercise his right to spend his money on those options that he judges best for himself".

Today millions of Americans benefit from Sam Walton, who founded Walmart in 1962, by being able to purchase a lot of things for very low prices, especially people with a tight budget are better off thanks to him. Millions of Germans - and some Americans & British - buy cheap things @ the  supermarket chains Aldi Nord & Aldi Süd, founded & owned by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. Millions enjoy the comfort to have a huge variety of goods delivered fast & cheap to their homes - thanks to Jeff Bezos & Amazon. His obsession with customer service, low costs & prices forces the whole retail industry to get more efficient and customer friendly. It takes only a few clicks to make a purchase that will arrive at their home in about a day in most cases. The Amazon effect is keeping inflation at bay and making the economy more efficient & flexible. Many startups & established companies use Amazon`s cloud computing services (AWS) for processing & storing information. The cloud reduces the costs of managing corporations, researching complicated topics and multiple other complex tasks considerably. Thanks to the cloud, new ideas can spread faster, which is encouraging discoveries and inventions.

I use frequently Google search, Google maps & other Google services for free and I don`t get hurt that Google  founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin became billionaires. More than two billion people are using Zuckerberg´s Facebook to communicate with their friends & relatives worldwide without paying any cent. All these billionaire entrepreneurs made their fortunes because they had ideas,  took risks and worked hard - and they deliver a huge service to the society.

Sanders, Warren & Co. claim that the billionaire`s wealth would be in better hands when they take it away (wealth tax). Does the government really know how to use money better than these billionaires? Gates, Musk, Bezos & Co. have a proven talent for finding and investing in successful technologies & businesses. What business experience do Warren, Sanders & their bureaucrats have?  

Elon Musk invests in the "Boring Company" which builds tunnel boring machines. He wants to dig a network of cheap tunnels which are optimized for electric vehicles. Musk also plans to implement  Hyperloop - a high-speed transportation system ( reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors). All these projects will make transportation much cheaper & environmentally friendly - creating another tailwind for the global economy.

Bill Gates invests a part of his fortune in a series of startups including Grail, a life sciences company working to develop technology that could spot cancer before it's incurable; Varentec, which develops products for electrical grid systems, including a software platform that lets cities more easily manage how power flows & EtaGena, a startup producing ultra-efficient generators that supply power for companies, buildings, and microgrids.

Jeff Bezos puts his private money into a variety of start-ups including EverFi, an online education and certification firm; Unity Biotechnology, a life-extension research firm hoping to slow or stop the process of aging; Juno Therapeutics, which aims to develop a pipeline of cancer immunotherapy drugs & Plenty, an indoor vertical farming company that uses less space and fewer resources to grow fresh produce year-round.

Bezos, Elon Musk & Richard Branson, the British owner of the Virgin Group, are also developing independently from each other rockets for space flights (Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin). The three billionaires aim to make space travel affordable by making rockets reusable. They do a service for whole world by risking their private money for space flights which may give humanity some day more chances to survive.

The investments by Musk & Co. are supporting the world and humanity by fostering innovation, reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, fighting cancer, supporting education and much more. If their money would be taken by the government it would get into the hands of bureaucrats which are less efficient & competent. Transferring money to the government often leads to waste, inefficiency & corruption as you can see in New York City where building a subway costs far more than elsewhere the world (marginalrevolution).

The majority of US cultural institutions depends on charities financed by billionaires. At the end of 19th century people who had build great fortunes - like Henry Clay Frick, John d. Rockefeller &J.P. Morgan - began to found or endow museums, concert halls, orchestras, colleges, hospitals, and libraries in astonishing numbers in every major city (driveby ). The billionaire Carnegie - one of these donators - wrote, that "a man who dies rich, dies disgraced" and gave away  nearly his entire fortune.  Cultural landmarks like Manhattan`s Carnegie Hall are financed by philanthropists. If you visit New York`s Metropolitan Museum of Art - or any huge American museum - you might notice that most of the displayed art works are donated by some wealthy families or individuals (google). Even the running costs (administration etc) are partly financed by donations. Most American universities and hospitals are also funded by donations (forbes). The Rockefeller Foundation, based on the oil profits amassed by the Rockefeller family, has been supporting science, education, culture & health care for decades. Industrialist Peter Cooper initiated New York´s "The Cooper Union", which still the only major college in the US to charge no tuition and John Jacob Astor founded the Astor Library, the core of the New York Public Library, the largest privately financed library in the world. Were would America be without billionaires?

In 2017 Americans gave over $400 billion to charitable causes with the largest growth in contributions coming from foundations created by major philanthropists (i.e. the ultra-rich) ( of dollars). Warren Buffett and Bill Gates developed "The Giving Pledge" in 2010 to encourage the world’s wealthiest individuals to give away more than half of their wealth to charitable causes. To date more than 204 individuals and families have pledged to donate over $500 Billion. Bill & Melanie Gates Bill Gates declared that they are willing to give half their wealth to vetted charities of his choosing (americanthinker). Do Sanders, Warren & Co. really know how to spend this money more beneficial for the society?

Billionaires like Musk, Bezos, Gates are making the world a better place. The government should not try to stop them.

Books: The Silver Swan By Benjamin Black

(Drivebycuriosity) - I just finished reading "The Silver Swan. A Novel" by Benjamin Black (amazon). The book - set in Dublin in the 1950s - is part 2 of a series around Quirke, a pathologist who works in a morgue. Quirke is a twisted and very curious man who develops interest in cases which are not really his business. When he believes that something is not right he starts a personal investigation. In this novel he investigates the case of Deirdre Hunt, also known as Laura Swan, the wife of an acquaintance, who apparently committed suicide, or did she? Soon he discovers surprising & disturbing relationships between unlikely persons  (this is a spoiler free blog).

The book is spiced with strange & challenging characters. I had sometimes problems to believe their interactions, but what do I know, humans  often act weird. Anyway I like Black`s elaborate style and his descriptions of persons & situations, which create a dark atmosphere, and he isn`t afraid of explicit sexual depictions.

Benjamin Black is the pen name of the Irish writer John Banville. I loved his novels "Kepler" and "Wolf on a String" (here my reviews Kepler & wolf ) and enjoyed "Christine Falls" as well, the start of the Quirke series. The second novel of this series is not as strong as the first but enjoyable.