Economics: How Big Tech Saves The World During The Covid-19 Crisis

 (Drivebycuriosity) - There is a crusade against Big Tech. Politicians, antitrust lawyers (trust busters) and so-called "progressives" want to curb power & growth of Amazon, Google, Apple & Facebook. The anti-tech campaign is ungrateful, contra-productive and makes the current Covid-19 crisis even worse.

The pandemic would be even less bearable without products & services from the global mega-companies. Since March many people behave considerate and stay at home; they avoid meeting people to reduce the risk of getting infected.  And lockdowns & quarantines minimize possible contacts with other people even more. As a result many people rely on cheap & fast deliveries by Amazon which keep them fed and supplied while social distancing. In Spring, during the first Covid-19 wave in the US, Amazon prioritized the stocking and delivery of essential items to ensure the fastest delivery of household staples, medical supplies, and other critical products.  Even in the peak of the pandemic Amazon has been capable to support millions of customers and to deliver a huge amount of goods to everywhere in the US in very short time. Amazon could fulfill the gargantuan task of supplying America in a crisis because of her sheer size, a dense network of fulfillment centers and a lot of experience in stocking goods and in logistics.

Amazon saved potentially many lives - especially from elderly and disabled individuals - by making it possible for them to shelter at home during the current pandemic, shop online and receive necessary goods at their front door in a short time. 

Amazon`s success helps many other companies - including small retailers (Amazon`s competitors) - to survive the crisis. Amazon offers a platform for any company (or individual) to sell products online. The e-commerce giant also supplies logistic services for them, including storage, packing and transporting. The giant invested more than $18 billion to help independent businesses grow their sales on Amazon this year. With the help of Amazon other companies, including even small retailers, are also able to sell products nationwide - and often globally. Around 60 percent of Amazon’s sales come from third party vendors — i.e. other retailers — many of whom would not exist but for Amazon’s platform. During this holiday season, American small- and medium-sized businesses sold nearly 1 billion products in Amazon’s store. According to the Financial Times “independent merchants on Amazon’s vast marketplace will make more than $200bn of sales this year, and tens of thousands of them have revenues of more than $1m a year” (ritholtz ). So, far from destroying U.S. retail, Amazon  has enabled U.S. retail to thrive and to survive the pandemic (truthonthemarket).

The global economy gets also a lot support from Amazon`s cloud services (AWS) in the pandemic. AWS gives other companies, even small start ups, cheap access to huge computer power and artificial intelligence (machine learning). Companies worldwide are enabled to process a flood of data created by all the organisatory problems caused by the pandemic. AWS - and other Amazon services - help many companies to stay in business during the pandemic.

Amazon`s success story has also inspired the grocery industry to become more efficient & competitive ( reason.com). Even before COVID upended grocery shopping, traditional grocers were adapting to the popularity of online grocery delivery through services such as Peapod, Instacart, and others. Had Amazon not jumpstarted this process when it acquired Whole Foods and launched its AmazonFresh service, COVID lockdowns would surely have been even more difficult for everyone.

Amazon also supports US job market and added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its work force to more than 1.2 million people globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Its number of workers now approaches the entire population of Dallas, report the New York Times ( nyt). Without Amazon the recession would be even worse.

The other technology giants also deliver valuable support. Staying at home is made easier by Apple`s products & services which are a window to the world during the pandemic. They help people to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive while staying at home. Affordable iPhones, iPads & Macbooks, which possess massive computer power,  make it possible to work at home, to study at home and to entertain themselves. By supporting remote working, which is more efficient & productive than office work (less commuting), the Apple infrastructure fosters economic growth and mitigates the recession.

Google´s  search engines make it easier to keep up with the latest news about the virus (and to minimize risks of infection). Google`s search engines deliver the latest information on COVID-19 cases in local areas, which local businesses are open, or what online courses will help people to prepare for new jobs. Google maps are used to find doctors, testing clinics, shops & restaurants.

Facebook`s & Twitter`s social networks help also people to stay in touch, to share ideas and allow them to gather, exercise, hold business meetings, have happy hours, celebrate special occasions, and console distant loved ones from within their own homes ( reason ). We will likely never know how many lives have been saved by these services, many of which are free of charge (cei.org).

The so-called progressives and other trustbusters claim that Big Tech hurt small businesses and restrain innovation, but - quite contrary - they support them by connecting them to new markets that they could not access before. Today small businesses are able to take advantage of the major tech firms’ size and scale to grow domestically and compete globally with affordable and secure services.  

Without Big Tech more people would get infected, the pandemic would spread even more, more people would die and the recession would be severe.

 
 

Science Fiction: Now Will Machines Hollow The Beast By Benjanun Sriduangkaew

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  Science Fiction has many voices. Benjanun Sriduangkaew, a young author from South Thailand, writes elegant & elaborated novellas and stories. I enjoyed her neo-baroque style already in her novella "And Shall Machines Surrender" (driveby ). I just finished her novella "Now Will Machines Hollow The Beast", which uses some elements and characters from "Surrender" ( amazon).

Sriduangkaew leads her audience again into a bizarre universe, a byzantine cosmos dominated by female humans, cyborgs & AIs. Some of them are very powerful & shrewd. This universe is full of violence, sabotage and treason and tumultuous events are happening. I found it amusing how all these weird beings were interacting, how they fought each other or made love. I might read more by Sriduangkaew some day. 

 

Stock Market: Merry Christmas 2020

(Drivebycuriosity) - This year we experience a very different Christmas. The US & Europe are suffering a new wave of Covid-19 infections with record numbers of known cases & surging hospitalizations. Smart & considerate people stay at home and minimize personal contacts to avoid infecting themselves and others. My wife and I will will skip this night the usual Christmas dinner in a nice restaurant and the following attendance of the Midnight Mass in Midtown Manhattan.

Caution & fear are curbing businesses even more than lockdowns & quarantines ( nber). Many industries, especially physical shops, restaurants & airlines, are suffering. But the US stock market climbed in the recent to new all-time highs anyway. The S&P 500, the gauge for the US stock market, climbed about 14% since Christmas 2019. As usual the market looks ahead. Someday the pandemic will end and the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has already started - albeit very slowly.

The stock market benefits from the huge government stimulus programs, almost zero interest rates & cheap oil. But important are the tailwinds from the accelerating technological revolution which are spurred by the Covid-19 crisis. Internet - and other software applications - are helping everyone to deal with lockdowns and social distancing. Microsoft`s CEO Satya Nadella said that “two years of digital transformation took place in two months” ( microsoft ). The CEO of Bill.com, an online clearing service, said: "We believe the ongoing pandemic has accelerated the need for businesses to focus on digital transformation” (seekingalph). 

The Covid-19 Pandemic changed many habits. The crisis forces many people to work, learn, shop, educate & entertain themselves from home which is fostering digitization and raising efficiency & productivity of the economy ( driveby ). Online sales worldwide are surging, more people are working from home, they are binge watching Netflix & Amazon Prime, listening via Spotify, reading Kindle books, surfing Facebook & Twitter and businesses are running more & more on cloud computing. Not only consumers are changing, corporations adapt as well. We are witnessing an accelerated shift toward digital technologies that are faster, less expensive, more productive and raise creativity. 

I suppose that the stock market will continue the climb in 2021 and beyond. Maybe we are at the begin of a new Roaring Twenties, comparable to the boom phase which happened during the 1920s years after the Spanish Flu. Companies restructured and reduced costs crisis significantly during the recessions of the years 2001/02 & 2008 and the current in order to survive. When Covid-19 is defeated they will be much fitter and more efficient than before. I believe that this learning process will continue and will translate into a long term trend of rising company profits & stock markets.

Happy Christmas!

 

 

 

HBO Max: Binge Watching The Flight Attendant

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - New York City is still paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic - lots of time for movies on TV. In the recent days I have been binge watching "The Flight Attendant" on HBO Max (imdb ). The miniseries is based on the same named book by Chris Bohjalian published in 2018.

Cassie, a pretty young  woman, has big problems. She is a free wheeler and works as a flight attendant.  One of her amorous adventures goes wrong in Bangkok. Waking up in a hotel bed she discovers that her newest hookup has turned into a bloody corps - and a real mess is beginning (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find synopses here wikipedia ).

 It`s much fun to watch the mixture between a thriller and a slapstick comedy. The plot is surprising, very modern & fresh. There are lots of funny ideas. The frequent use of split screens and flash backs - partly deep into her challenging childhood - creates a dreamlike experience. What kind of mushrooms did the producers eat? This very special and dark Alice in Wonderland version is inspired by Hitchcock, "Being John Malkovich", movies by French director Luc Besson and other classics but goes its own ways.

I enjoyed watching Kaley Christine Cuoco, known from"The Big Bang Theory", as Cassie. She is fresh, sexy, spontaneous and blends innocence with cockiness. I find it interesting that her own production company had optioned the rights to the book to be developed into a limited television series and Cuoco became the executive producer of the show. Obviously she has a talent for finding material which fits her perfectly.

 I also liked Zosia Mamet, as Cassie`s best friend Annie, a shrewd, cool nerdy & attorney. Maybe Cuoco`s multi-year experiences with the geeky "Big Bang Theory" show inspired her to integrate this character into her production.The rest of the cast did a good job as well. I also enjoyed the cool impressions from Bangkok, Manhattan & other places.

I am looking forward to more Cuoco productions.

 

Science Fiction: Extracurricular Activities By Yoon Ha Lee

  (Drivebycuriosity) -  Yoon Ha Lee is a new voice in the science fiction genre. The American-Korean author`s has an unique style and likes to write about cross-cultural experiments, not surprising considering her own cultural background. I indulged into her brilliant short story "Beyond the Dragon´s Guide" - a fascinating take on AIs - (my  review ) which draw my attention to her novella "Extracurricular Activities" (amazon ). 

Unfortunately "Extracurricular" is not quite as strong as "Beyond". An undercover agent goes behind enemy lines where bizarre & exotic things happen (this is a spoiler free blog). The story reads like a weird dream and includes many funny ideas. The author muses about goose fat, lubricants, fountains, chopsticks and many other items and there are also some LGBT elements. But the 55 pages of the novella are enough to satisfy my appetite for Yoon Ha-Lee´s speculative ideas for a while.

 

Books: Only To Sleep - A Philip Marlowe Novel By Lawrence Osborne

(Drivebycuriosity) - Lawrence Osborne belongs to my favorite authors. I love his novels "Hunters in the Dark", "The Glass Kingdom"  & "The Ballad of a Small Player" and I also enjoyed his book "Bangkok Days (my reviews: Hunters  Kingdom  Ballad  Bangkok ). The British writer was asked by the Raymond Chandler estate to write a Philip Marlow novel in tribute to Chandler. The result is the book "Only to Sleep" (amazon ). Being also a fan of the American master of hard boiled thrillers I had to read it.

The novel is - of course - told in first person by Philip himself. He had aged a bit; now he is 71 and lives in Mexico & Southern California.  Marlow gets hired - reactivated - by a Californian insurance company  to investigate the death of an American client who´s widow had cashed a huge amount of money. The investigation drives Marlow to several places in Mexico (this is a spoiler free blog).

I needed to read about 60% till I really enjoyed this book. Then I discovered the voice of Chandler served with Osborne´s unique style. Then the novel has Chandler´s characteristic "bewildering dreamlike  plot" blended with Osborn`s dense atmosphere. I still like the above mentioned Osborne novels better - maybe because they are set in exotic Asian places - but reading "Only to Sleep" was a lot of fun as well. Osborne´s Marlow is a creepy and unpleasant person as many characters in Osborne novels, but the book reawoke my appetite for Mexico & Tequila.  I am looking forward to read more Osborne novels.

P.S. Fans of Osborne might want to read his very short story "The White Gods" published in the "New Statesman" - in the moment of writing free on Internet  ( newstatesman ).

 

 

Economics: Why America Is Falling Behind China

(Drivebycuriosity) - The US are suffering spiraling Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations & deaths. The new wave is hurting the American economy, making the recession even worse. Businesses are not only hampered by lockdowns, quarantines & curfews. Many people are afraid of getting infected and avoid personal contacts. They are staying at home and avoid shops, gyms, restaurants, bars and other public places. The US economy is barely kept alive with huge amounts of government checks, zero interest rates and massive Federal Reserve loans. 

When we look to China we see a very different picture. Beijing stopped the pandemic early. Since April the numbers of new infections, hospitalizations & deaths are close to zero (worldometers). Apparently the Chinese have enough self discipline to perform social distancing, mask-wearing & hygiene to end the pandemic. The early success on the Covid-19 front allows the Chinese economy to recover much earlier than the American. China`s recovery happens on own power (in Germany we say "aus eigener Kraft") and it is sustainable - there are no government checks, no massive credit programs and the Central Bank interest rates are around 3%.

China benefits now from the weakness in the US & Europe. The recessions in the West curb prices for materials (oil, iron, coal etc.). Cheap materials raise the profitability of Chinese corporations ( twitter) creating additional tailwinds.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerates a long term trend: For decades China`s economy has been growing much faster than the US. There are many reasons for that. China`s growth story is driven by the secular catching-up process which is fueled by extreme income & wealth differences from the US and other Western nation standards. 

The country has a huge natural resource which is fueling the perpetual growth: A gigantic amount of human capital: There live about 1.4 billion people who are intelligent, work hard and save money to achieve a better life and to reach the living standards in the US and Europe. The Chinese save more than 40% of their income, the American just around 20% (worldbank ). High savings (capital accumulation) and a good education are the base for China`s sustainable economic growth. 

The Chinese economy benefits from an education system which is more rigorous, competitive and success focused than the American and the British (americanaffairs ). Wikipedia counted in 2014 already "2,236 colleges and universities, with over 20 million students enrolled in mainland China" (wikipedia). Fast expanding knowledge is driving science & innovation and fostering economic growth (washingtonpost). Chinese corporations, think tanks & administrations can employ a large number of highly dedicated & educated people - a strong driver of economic growth (scottsumner).

China is transforming from being the work bank of the world (focused on manufacturing & exports)  into a modern economy based on domestic consume & services like the US. The country is also getting more capitalistic and huge publicly noted technology companies like Alibaba, Tencent & Baidu are becoming the engines of China`s economic growth and technological progress (scmp.com). Rainier Zitelmann, a German historian and author, quotes a leader of a private Chinese think tank who is bemused that socialist ideas are experiencing a renaissance in Europe and the United States: “Here in China, hardly anyone still believes in Karl Marx’s ideas.”( fee.org). Elon Musk recently criticized the “entitled” and “complacent” character of people in the United States, and lauded the “smart” and “hard working people” of China ( cnbc ). China´s transformation  is fueled by the technological progress: Rapid advances in software & Internet (including cloud computing), AIs, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and other technologies are all lifting the productivity of the economy (byronwien).  

China’s big advantage is that it has four times as many people as the United States. The country has the potential for about 4-times as many entrepreneurs, scientists and geniuses like Elon Musk. Perpetual growth - and the recent success on the Covid-19 front - show that Beijing - communist or not - is doing a good job in raising the standard of living for more than a billion of people, far better than the governments in the US & Europe. China´s government has a very long-range plan for infrastructure investments, whereas western countries can't see beyond the next election. Move over America!

Netflix: Binge Watching Better Than Us

  (Drivebycuriosity) - Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting more and more important in our lives. AI and smart robots are also gaining more attention in the science fiction genre. There exist already a myriad of movies, novels & short stories dealing with machine learning. I especially enjoyed Ian McEwan´s novel "Machines like me" about a humanoid robot ( my review ) and the amazing film "Ex Machina" (review ).

In the recent days I was binge watching the Russian TV show "Better Than US" on Netflix (in Russian with English subtitles  imdb ). The story is set in a near future Russia where people use human shaped robots who are more or less intelligent for work, entertainment and more. The plot follows a family who got somehow connected with a highly advanced female looking robot (this is a spoiler free blog). It`s about a rational being interacting with people who are driven by emotions.

The show touches some economic & philosophical issues. Will AIs have free will, how will they deal with humans, who owns them, who is responsible for their deeds, will they steal our jobs or allow an early pleasant retirement. There is also the conflict between people who embrace new technologies with militant technophobes (luddites). 

I found the show for a while entertaining and interesting and I appreciate that "Better.." is not the usual negative dystopian tale;  the producers give us a positive view of the future and describe a friendly world where people have the same issues as today. But the show is also a soap opera and the robots are just side supporting acts. After 7 episodes I got a tired of watching the actions of the humans and all their conflicts. I think we will see more and better TV shows and movies about AIs in near future.

Books: Alien Dimensions Science Fiction Short Stories #18

 (Drivebycuriosity) - I like science fiction. Unfortunately most science fiction novels disappoint. Often a writer has an interesting idea which carries a story about maybe 100 pages or less, but when she stretches the plot the story gets thinner and thinner and the text has too many fillers.  Just a minority of authors is capable to keep the tension over hundreds of pages. Therefore I usually skim collections of science fiction short stories in order to find some gems.

 I just finished  "Alien Dimensions Science Fiction Short Stories #18". The little book (just 98 pages amazon) contains 9 short stories by different authors. 

My favorite take is "Gene - Reality" by Neil A. Hogan. A very smart scientist is tinkering with superstrings, the basic elements of our universe (as far as we know), also called the "genes of the universe". Guess what will happen? The very short story (just 4 pages) is a real masterpiece and Isaac Asimov would have been proud of it.

I also enjoyed "Titan´s Spores" by Olga Werby.  Three people are flying to Jupiter moon Titan to start terraforming the trabant. They have colonies of genetic engineered fungi on board which should change the moon`s atmosphere, but ........  (this is a spoiler free blog).

The collection has another strong horror story: "The Pride of Tau Ceti" by Gustavo Bondoni. A spaceship has suddenly stopped on an interstellar flight! Weird things are happening now, leading to sheer horror. 

The rest of the stories are passable and might cater different tastes. In the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just $2.99 - a bargain.

Contemporary Art: Between Friends And Lovers @ The Untitled Space New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art has many faces. At gallery The Untitled Space in South Manhattan I discovered a show with works by Katie Commodore. The exhibition contains "a series of large scale erotically charged figurative tapestries, created with detailed adornments and unique embroideries, along with a number of her signature portraits in gouache, miniature watercolor paintings on ivory, as well as works on paper including intaglio etchings, metallic foil cutouts, and photogravure prints" ( untitled-space).

 

I display here my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual.  On top of this post you can see "That one time I modeled lingerie" followed by "Molly and Erin, No.8" & Molly and Erin, No.6". Let the images speak for themselves.

 

Above you can see "E.D" followed by "Carly" & "Julia"

 

Above "Leather and Lace" & "Julia No.9"

 

Enjoy 

Books: Little Siberia By Antti Tuomainen

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Years ago I enjoyed the Wallander books by Henning Mankell which woke my interest in dark Scandinavian thrillers. In the recent years I watched a lot of Nordic TV-shows on Netflix & Prime - recently the Swedish show  "Before We Die" ( imdb ) and the Finish drama "Bordertown" ( imdb).  Both shows are amazing! This brought my attention to the Finish novel "Little Siberia"  by Antti Tuomainen (amazon ).

The plot is set in a tiny Finish town close the Russian border in the middle of a severe winter ("little Siberia"). The story is told in first person. The narrator is a priest, but a very untypical cleric, almost agnostic, with military combat  & martial arts experiences. 

A meteor hits, a tiny piece of metal, worth about a million euro. Many people need this money and try to get the meteor which starts a chain of incidents (this is a spoiler free blog). The novel is full of surprises & violent actions, but often humorously described. I enjoyed Tuomainen`s style, the weird characters and his depiction of the deeply frozen town & environment. The ending isn`t quite as strong as the beginning (which is exceptional) but still entertaining. I plan to read more by Tuomainen.

Science Fiction: Quarantine By Greg Egan

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Greg Egan belongs to the most ambitious contemporary science fiction writers. Novels & short stories by the Australian author are all based on sciences - real hard science fiction. I just finished his book "Quarantine", written in first person (260 pages amazon). 

The plot is set on a world where the night sky is dark because all stars (but not our sun and the planets of our sun system) had disappeared. The narrator, a former cop who works now as a private investigator, got the order to find a highly mentally disabled woman who had suddenly disappeared from an intensely guarded mental institution (this is a spoiler free blog). Soon the plot dives deep into quantum physics, advanced neurosciences and probability theory - too deep for me, but I browsed through the end. Reading the novel is a real challenge, but also fascinating. Egan plays with a lot of sophisticated scientific ideas, like string & multiverse theories.

 In the moment of writing the Kindle version costs just $2.99.

 

Economics: Rising Antitrust Creates More Bureaucracy, Threatens Productivity And Innovation & Slows Global Economic Growth

 (Drivebycuriosity) - It seems that there is a global spring for antitrust. In China the authorities suspended the IPO of online finance giant Ant Group (with a target of $300 plus billion valuation), claiming that the company may hurt their customers and disturb China`s financial system.  The Chinese government also started an investigation into the e-commerce giants Alibaba (investor in Ant) & Tencent. The regulators want to curb their power, alleging that these companies act as monopolists and that they treat competitors and business partners unfair. Europe is performing a similar attack on the global online giants. The allmighty European Commission began an investigation into Amazon, assuming that they "illegally distorted competition" and abuse their dominance. The authority also started an antitrust investigation in Apple, claiming that they are distorting competition as well. The European Union already extracted about $10 billion from Google for alleged "antitrust violations". 

The American authorities are participating in the global antitrust campaign. Recently a bipartisan group of Washington DC lawmakers, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, published a 400 page report, claiming that Big Tech is abusing their market powers ( cnbc). The paper includes accusations against Google, Amazon, Apple & Facebook and contains plans how to regulate them. The coming Biden administration is expected to regulate Amazon, Google, Apple & Facebook stronger than the previous government. 

It seems there is much in common between American, Chinese & European trust busters. They all want to curb the power & growth of the global mega-companies. Mighty government authorities - and politicians - all over the world are aiming to gain more power and to expand their influence at the expense of the online goliaths. 

Apparently they dislike companies like Amazon, Google & Apple which are huge & growing fast, even though that Big Tech operates efficient and provides valuable services for the community, otherwise they would lose their customers. "Customer trust is hard to win and easy to lose" ( Bezos). The trust busters ignore that the Big Tech companies are the engines of global economic growth because they create value with a rapid speed. The current Covid-19 crisis with lockdowns & quarantines would be even less bearable without cheap & fast deliveries by Amazon, useful information provided by Google search & maps and powerful but affordable devices like iPhones, iPads & Macbooks. Customers love Big Tech, otherwise they would shun them, bureaucratic regulators hate them.

The antitrust campaigns are throwing sand into their gears of the global economy and creat friction (washingtonpolicy). The crusade leads to more  bureaucracy which " is the death of any achievement” according to Einstein. New regulations and inquiries reduce the productivity & efficiency of Big Tech companies; they shrink their abilities to further innovate because they are occupying management capacities and are slowing decision processes.  

The Big Tech`s strategic thinkers will be preoccupied with new regulations & inquiries and will have less time & energy for innovations. Instead of thinking about new products & services for their customers and to improve existing ones the strategists will have to think about new laws and how to comply with external bureaucrats and investigations. The anti tech campaigns also come with high costs which will lower the capabilities to hire new talents, they also will curb salaries of the employees and translate into higher prices for the customers. Costs & bureaucratic frictions create headwinds which will slow growth of innovative & successful companies and with them the global economy.

There is a negative side effect as well. The anti-Big-Tech campaigns in East & West employ thousands of high paid lawyers and are burning so a lot of tax payers money which otherwise could be used for education or health care. The anti-tech crusades create a lot of highly attractive job opportunities for anti-trust lawyers and bureaucrats which attract 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 global economic growth and will harm everybody who does not live from the money of the taxpayers.

 

 

Economics: In Praise Of My Ebook Reader

(Drivebycuriosity) - Some years ago I moved from Bonn, Germany, to New York City. My library of 1,000 plus books had to stay behind, not enough space in the small Manhattan flat where I am living now. Since then I buy & collect just ebooks which I read on my Amazon Kindle.

Ebooks take no place, an important issue in Manhattan. They are often cheaper than the printed version. When ebooks are published than they usually cost about the same like the paperback version, cheaper than a hardcover (prices are set by the publisher). I notice that prices for ebooks on my Amazon wish list often get reduced after a while, then they are even cheaper than paperbacks. And there are myriads of self published books, novellas & short stories which cost less than $3, often just 99 cents.

Ebooks have just the weight of one Kindle - less than many books, very fortunate when I am traveling. Wherever I am with my ebook reader I have access to myriads of books - no trouble of carrying too much weight on a flight. This is also an advantage when I am sitting in a park and I am reading there.

Ebooks don´t need an extra light. When I am reading in the night I don´t trouble my wife too much with a reading light, no need to steal her sleep.

Now I am trying to survive through the Covid-19 crisis. I had to skip my travel plans for the time being and I reduced going out & shopping to avoid infection. Thanks to my Kindle there is no need to take a risk and to go to a bookshop (if they are still open). The ebook reader gives me access to libraries of books which I can instantly download & read, very fortunately when there is not much else to do.  The Kindle became a really good friend in the Covid-19 crisis.

 

Stock Market: Happy Thanksgiving 2020

 (Drivebycuriosity) - This year we experience a very different Thanksgiving. The US are suffering a third wave of Covid-19 infections with new records of known cases & surging hospitalizations. Smart & considerate people stay at home and minimize personal contacts to avoid infecting themselves and others. Caution & fear are curbing businesses even more than lockdowns & quarantines ( nber.org). Many industries, including physical shops, restaurants & airlines, are suffering. 

But the US stock market climbed to new all-time highs anyway. The S&P 500, the gauge for the US stock market, gained 12% YTD and climbed about 15% since Thanksgiving 2019. As usual the market looks ahead.  Someday the pandemic will end and a row of vaccines are in the making, creating the hope that the crisis will soon be finished.

Economy - and stock markets - are getting a lot of help from an accelerating technological revolution spurred by the Covid-19 crisis. Internet - and other software applications - are helping everyone to deal with lockdowns and social distancing. Microsoft`s CEO Satya Nadella said that “two years of digital transformation took place in two months” ( microsoft ). The CEO of Bill.com, an online clearing service, said: "We believe the ongoing pandemic has accelerated the need for businesses to focus on digital transformation” (seekingalph). 

The Covid-19 Pandemic changed many habits. The crisis forces many people to work, learn, shop, educate & entertain from home which is fostering digitization and raising efficiency & productivity of the economy ( driveby ). Online sales worldwide are surging, more people are working from home, they are binge watching Netflix & Amazon Prime, listening via Spotify, reading Kindle books, surfing Facebook & Twitter and businesses are running more & more on cloud computing. Not only consumers are changing, corporations adapt as well. We are witnessing an accelerated shift toward digital technologies that are faster, less expensive, more productive and raise creativity.   

I suppose that the stock market climb will continue in 2021 and beyond. During the recessions of the years 2001/02 & 2008 and the current crisis companies restructured and reduced costs significantly in order to survive. When Covid-19 is defeated they will be much fitter and more efficient than before. I believe that this learning process will continue and will translate into a long term trend of rising company profits & stock markets.

Happy Thanksgiving

Science Fiction: Beyond The Dragon's Gate By Yoon Ha Lee

  (Drivebycuriosity) - Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting more and more important in our lives. AI is also gaining more attention in the science fiction genre. There are already a myriad of novels & short stories dealing with machine learning. I especially enjoyed Ian McEwan´s novel "Machines like me" about a humanoid robot ( my review ).

 I just finished a very short story (16 pages $0.99) by the American-Korean author Yoon Ha Lee with an interesting new take on the topic (amazon). The plot is set in a war in some future. Anna Kim, a scientist & software expert, got kidnapped by the military and trapped in a spaceship, an orbital star fortress. The military are in a deep mess because the AIs who had controlled their hyper-sophisticated spaceships and fought their wars suddenly committed suicide and sacrificed their ships. Anna gets the order to communicate with the last remaining AI and to find out what happened in order to prevent the total disaster.

There is not much happening. But I enjoyed Yoon Ha Lee´s style and how she described Anna`s world, the strange spaceship and the even weirder AI. The story woke my appetite for more tales by the author.

 

 

Contemporary Art: All Figured Out - A Group Exhibition @ Zürcher Gallery, New York

 

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(Drivebycuriosity) - Covid-19 or not, Manhattan`s art galleries are open again, at least some of them. The ambitious Zürcher Gallery (33 Bleeker Street New York) hosts a group exhibition focused on figurative paintings, called "All Figured Out" (through December 20, 2020 galeriezurcher ). I display here my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual. 

On the top of this post you can see an image by Marc Desgrandchamps followed by 2 works by Lois Dodd.

 

Above 3 images by Matt Bollinger. I had already reported about Bollinger`s 2017 show @ Zürcher ( driveby).

 

Above 2-times Kyle Staver.

 

Last but not least: Charles Garabedian.

 

To be continued.

  

 

Netflix: Binge Watching The Queen`s Gambit

  (Drivebycuriosity) - In the recent days I have been binge watching the biopic "The Queen`s Gambit" on Netflix (imdb). A girl, nine years old, became an orphan and lands in an orphan home where she get`s introduced into chess. She has lots of talent and develops an obsession for the game which starts an astonishing chess career. The show follows her personal development & struggles and her steep rise in the world of chess (this is a spoil free blog. You can read a synopsis here wikipedia).

It was a real joy watching Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, the chess prodigy. She had me already impressed as leading character in "The Witch" (driveby ). The character is mesmerizing, super smart, sexy & highly ambitious; the beauty and the genius - and maybe a little bit also the beast. Tyler Cowen and other commenters see some Asperger traits, but why not ( marginalrevolution valneil  ). 

 I had fun observing her when she destroyed her opponents in the tournaments, but I also liked other characters like the stoic Soviet champion Vasily Borgov (incarnated by Marcin Dorociński), her sweet, generous & caring foster mother, who acted almost as the big sister, (Marielle Heller as Mrs. Alma Wheatley ) and the geeks who supported Beth mentally and gave her advice.

The tournaments are dramatically staged - the camera often focuses on Taylor-Joy`s amazing eyes - waking my appetite to retry the game again sometimes. The cinematography captured the 1960s perfectly with fancy clothes and decadent Parisian hotels & bars, supported by a wonderful soundtrack with an eclectic selection of contemporary songs.

It seems that the fictional story seems got inspired by the career of legendary Bobby Fisher, the American answer to the Russians who dominated the world of chess then (wikipedia ). The show is a must see.

Economics: China`s Strong Economic Recovery Is Organic & Sustainable

 (Drivebycuriosity) - China`s economy is continuing her strong recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. This night we learned that China´s industrial production grew in October 6.9%, retail sales advanced 4.3% & foreign direct investment gained 6.4% - all numbers YoY ( tradingeconomics).

 

( source)

 

 

 The US might even have better recovery numbers for retail & GDP but there is a huge difference. America needs huge stimulus programs by the government to recover and pumped some trillions of dollars into her economy while keeping interest rates at zero. China abstained from such measure. China does not have huge stimulus programs and government checks and China´s benchmark interest rates is still 3.85% ( cnbc). China´s economy recovered on her own strength (aus eigener Kraft).

 China´s fast recovery from the corona crisis is no surprise. Beijing responded early, fast and consequently to the pandemic. Apparently the population has enough discipline for hand washing, mask-wearing & social distancing. As a result China´s numbers of new infections, active cases and deaths fell to almost zero (worldometers ).

The success allowed the quick reopening of China`s economy and the return to normality. 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. Innovations typically gain traction during tumultuous times: they get cheaper, faster, more convenient, more productive, more creative.  Companies are streamlining operations and are getting more efficient & productive as they always do when they are challenged. China will overtake America sooner than many think!