Science Fiction: To Hold Up The Sky By Cixin Liu

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  Cixin Liu belongs to the brightest stars on the firmament of science fiction. His novel "The Three-Body Problem" won 2015 the Hugo Award for best novel, the Oscar in the sci-fi world. The book is the start of the trilogy "The Remembrance Of Earth`s Past" (my review ). The Chinese author wove a huge space opera - a scifi epic on a grand scale comparable to Homer´s Odyssey and  Richard Wagner´s Ring cycle.

I just finished the anthology "To Hold up the Sky" which collects 11 short stories by Cixin Liu ( amazon). The compilation shows the bandwidth of his talents & interests, but also his writing skills. The stories - most are written decades ago - are mostly hard science fiction, based on physics, cosmology and other sciences. The stories also "have a strong Chinese flavor, imbued with the culture, history, and present reality of China". Cixin Liu tried to imagine "the direct, tangible relationship between people and the universe".

What will happen when the universe stops expanding and starts to shrink? What will happen when some activists shut down the complete global electronic networks? What will happen when engineers set a coal mine on fire to provide cheap energy? What will happen when Russia is getting invaded by NATO troops? What will happen when an alien super power intends to destroy the earth?

"To hold up" is cutting edge science fiction, entertaining with a lot of food for thoughts.

Contemporary Art: Come To Me Again @ Gallery Perrotin New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Do you like abstracts? Recently the ambitious gallery Perrotin on Manhattan´s Orchard Street had an exhibition with work by Bernard Frize (perrotin ). The show was called "Come to me again".

 

 

According to the press release, "for four decades, Bernard Frize, born in France 1949, has been developing his signature style of process-oriented abstraction". The gallery displayed a selection of his abstracts on 2 floors. A display here my favorite images, as usual a very subjective selection.

 

The paintings are acrylic and resin on canvas and created in 2016-2021.

 

 

   

 

Some of the images remind me of the final minutes in Kubrick`s "2001: A Space Odyssey " when the audience could watch a spectacular interstellar (or even inter galactic) flight with bizarre optical impressions.

 

  

  

To be continued

Economics: Will The Antitrust Crusade Make Inflation Even Worse?

  (Drivebycuriosity) - Inflation is red hot. To make things worse, President Biden started an antitrust crusade which could make the inflation even worse. The POTUS appointed Lina Khan, a "progressive" activist who became famous with an anti-Amazon pamphlet, to chairperson of the powerful Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America´s antitrust authority. Instead of fighting against price hikes Lina Khan and other Big Tech crusaders fight against low prices. Biden protege Khan laments that Amazon is too cheap which is bad (yalelawjournal reason).  She claims that Amazon`s low prices squeeze competitors out of the market and create a monopoly (lawyers call this predation). If Kahn, the FTC and other trustbusters get their will, Amazon will be forced to reduce their services and to raise prices.

Senator Klobuchar - supported by senators from both parties - started a bill which aims to reduce the services by Apple, Google, Facebook & Amazon and might even break these companies up (klobuchar medium aier  thehill  springboardccia). Klobuchar & Co. attack companies which have been curbing inflation by being efficient and offering cheap - and often free - services and products, like e-commerce, search, maps, entertainment etc. The bill would limit the size of mergers and acquisitions, outlaw firms from using their own platforms to advantage their own products, and give more enforcement powers to federal regulators. If Klobuchear & Co. get their will some of these services will disappear - like Amazon prime - , others will get more expensive ( ppi).  

Some of the crusaders also want to reanimate the Robinson-Patman Act from 1936, which President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law (hbr.org   ). They criticize that powerful buyers — such as Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other chain retailers - force their suppliers to sell to them relatively cheap. When I lived in Germany I bought food and many other things at Aldi - and millions of other consumers did so -  which offers very cheap products. Aldi has low prices because the chain is efficient and forces their suppliers to deliver cheap products. Millions of consumers - including myself - benefited from Aldi´s low prices. This way Aldi, Liedl and similar supermarket chains keep a lid on Germany´s food prices. The suppliers of Aldi, Liedl and similar chains adapted to the requirements and became very efficient and cost conscious themselves in order to keep their prices low. If the US government would prevent Amazon, Target, Walmart & Co. to purchase for low costs the change would raise prices for almost everything - which would reduce the standard of living for low income groups. The change also would reduce the pressure to produce efficiently and with low costs and would so encourage waste and inefficient behavior.

The antitrust crusade aims to throw sand into the gears of the economy and causes a lot of extra costs. The crusade is creating friction and friction creates heat (physics). In the economy friction reduces the amount of available goods & services and raises the price level. 

Books: Holly Orders By Benjamin Black

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - I like well written crime mysteries with a touch of high literature. In the recent years I have been reading a series by Benjamin Black. The novels - set mostly in Dublin in the 1950s - follow Quirke, a pathologist who works in a morgue.

Yes, not the usual detective or private eye is the main character and investigator. 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, whatever it may cost him.

 I just finished just "Holly Order, book 6 of the Quirke series (amazon ). A man was murdered, his tortured naked body was found in a pond. It turns out that the victim was a journalist, a character who had appeared in earlier books of the series. This makes the book a bit difficult for me because I did not like the character. 

The novel is darker & more pessimist than the former books. I did not like the story line which was not very plausible for me. But the weakness of the plot got more than compensated by Black`s intense style. Again the author focused on his leading character, his dark past and the social & political situation in Ireland in the 1950s. I am looking forward to follow up with book 7 of the series.

 

 

Books: The Anomaly By Hervé Le Tellier

 (Drivebycuriosity) - An anomaly is something extremely rare or unique, something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. The novel "The Anomaly" by French author Hervé Le Tellier describes a very freakish incident which changed radically not only the lives of many people it also caused a global upheavel (this is a spoiler free blog   amazon.).

The novel, a piece of speculative fiction, develops in short chapters and follows a row of people who have  nothing in common with each other in the beginning. "The Anomaly" is partly a thriller with scifi elements (but not really based on science).

The plot reminds me a bit of the TV show "Lost" even though the story is very different. The early parts are well developed and kept me on the edge, but later the plot got a little bit tedious. The story became a bit surrealist - like absurd theater - and got soaked with psychology, religion, philosophy & metaphysical ideas. Anyway, the book is a pleasant beach reading.

Contemporary Art: Give It All You Got @ PPOW Gallery New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - New York City is not only based on finance, entertainment & tourism. Big Apple is also a mecca of art. The Broadway is famous for the Midtown musicals, down in Tribeca you can find the PPOW gallery which focuses on contemporary art (ppowgallery). Recently I saw a show with works by Chris Daze Ellis, called "Give it all you got". According to the press release the Ellis started his career as graffiti artist, which is reflected in this exhibition (exhibition ).

 

 

On top of this post you can see "Reflection in a golden eye" (1992, oil, spray paint, mixed media on canvas on wood) followed by "Emerald Night" (194, spray paint on canvas) & “The explorers” (2021, spray paint, acrylic, pumice on canvas).

 

 

 

 

Above follow “Untitled (city)” (spray paint, acrylic, collage on canvas); “Daily Commute” (2021, spray paint, acrylic on canvas) & “Pigeons in the Tunnel” (2019, oil, acrylic, spray paint on canvas).

 
 

Then follow “Chambers Street” (2018, oil, spray paint, acrylic, glitter, pumice on canvas) & “Central Park” (2020, spray paint, acrylic, pumice o canvas).
 

To be continued

Economics: Will The Biden Inflation Cause A Biden Recession?

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Inflation in the US is red hot. Consumer prices jumped 7% annually - the highest rise in 40 years. The price explosion is partly caused by the Federal Reserve who pumped trillions of dollars into the US banking system to counter the economic damages from the pandemic. But the inflation is made worse by the Biden administration. The government hiked government spending massively and send $1,400 stimulus checks to everyone. So trillions of dollars went immediately to the consumers & businesses and induced a massive wave of spending. Biden´s stimulus programs worked like showering the economy via helicopters (Milton Friedman`s famous helicopter money).

Unfortunately the demand push, caused by the explosive money growth & massive government stimulus programs, meets a restrained supply of goods & services because the pandemic interrupts many supply chains. As a result the demand for goods & services rises much faster than the supply which is getting compensated by rising prices.

( source)

The jump of the inflation rate is supported by sharply rising prices for oil & gas, partly caused by anti fossil energy politics which discourage oil & gas production.  "The Biden administration exacerbated the inflation of gas prices by both restricting the supply of oil and pressuring banks and asset managers to divest from traditional energy projects" writes The Hill. The magazines adds: "The rise in prices can be attributed to political pressure from the administration to reel back oil and gas production. Christopher Wood, Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jeffries, claims that the “political attack” on oil and gas “has removed the incentive for investment in the sector despite its lingering importance” ( cnbc ). 

The Fed must stop the accelerating inflation before it gets out of control. Therefore the monetary authority has to hike interest rates significantly to break the inflation expectations. Sharply rising interest rates may create a shock and could slow down consumer spending & investments considerably. A restrictive Federal Reserve policy (interest rate hikes) has been historically the main cause for a recession - next to oil price hikes. In 1980 the Federal Reserve hiked her interest rate (federal funds rate) to a high of 20% to combat a double-digit inflation which caused the "double-dip" recessions of 1980 & 1981/82 ( wikipedia). 

Unfortunately the Biden administration is forcing the Fed by starting an antitrust crusade against Amazon and other companies which have been curbing the inflation by being very efficient and are offering low prices. The crusade is throwing sand into the gear of the economy and could make a recession even worse (driveby ).

Contemporary Art: Helen Oliver`s The Open Road @ Howl! Arts New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - .- Contemporary Art is often strange & avantgardistic. Recently I spotted an interesting show called "Homo Eruptus at gallery Howl! Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the past and celebrating the contemporary culture of the East Village and Lower East Side (howlarts). The displayed works by Helen Oliver.

 

 

 

The show is called "Open Road" (open ). Oliver´s style reminds me a bit of Egon Schiele. But let the images speak by themselves.

 

 

 

  

 

To be continued

Economics: Are Big Tech Corporations Really Monopolies?

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is a crusade against Big Tech. Politicians and journalists claim that Amazon, Apple, Google & Facebook are monopolies. Senators like Klobucher and Lina Khan, chair woman of the power Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America´s antitrust authority, state that Big Tech corporations abuse their power, harming their competitors and damaging the society.

They are wrong. Big Tech ain`t monopolies. Since Amazon started in the late 1990s the number of competitors has been swiftly climbing year over year. Amazon`s success story inspired myriads of copycats to offer similar services. There are now 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 copying Amazon`s success. The online giants Facebook & Google also provide online shopping on the websites. The number of foreign online shops like MercadoLibre, Alibaba, Tencent & Rakuten (Japanese) is also expanding. Many of these competitors are growing faster than Amazon (emarketer ). And Amazon`s cloud business (AWS) is competing against strong competitors like Microsoft, Google, IBM, Oracle and others.

Lina Khan claims that Amazon`s low prices drive competitors out of the market and lead to a monopoly ( yalelawjournal reason consequences ). Khan is wrong. Amazon`s success - and low prices -  did not hinter potential competitors, quite the contrary, their number has been rising year over year. A former Amazon employee used his knowledge to start in 2012 Instacart, an online grocery with annual revenues around $1.5 billion. These competitors all are getting better over the time, challenging Amazon more and more. Apparently Chair woman Khan and her fellow crusaders lost the sense of reality.

The other Big Tech companies aren`t monopolies either. Apple has a lot competition for their iPhones, iPads, iMacs, MacBooks and services. Customers can purchase similar products & services from Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Huawei and a lot of other technology companies. And customers can choose between Apple´s iOS, Google`s Android, Windows other mobile operating systems. 

Google`s & Facebook`s business models are based on advertisement. Both are fiercely competing against each against other and against myriads other ad-based companies for user numbers & advertiser billions. Google`s search engines are competing against similar services like Microsoft`s Bing, DuckDuck Go, Yandex & WolframAlpha. Google Maps are competing against Apple Maps, MapQuest & TomTom. And YouTube competes with Rumble and other video platforms.

 

 

 (active users, billions source )

Meta (mother of Facebook & Instagram) competes against media services like Tiktok, Snap and many others. The recent quarterly numbers from Meta show that the compitors of Facebook & Instagram are catching up (chart above). Years ago I give up Facebook and I am using Twitter instead. Did I go to prison for that? Nope, Facebook does have no power over me. Data privacy? Try that with the IRS. Government authorities can force you to give them your data, Big Tech can not!

The Big Tech haters ignore, maybe even don`t understand, that the power of companies is always  constrained by potential competition (except competition is forbidden by patents or other laws. Don´t print US Dollars!). When a corporation has success, her rising profits attract automatically others (copycats) who want a share from the pie. There are myriads of investors, including big funds, who are happy to put their money on the next Amazon, Google, Facebook etc. It is very easy to finance to new ideas. 

And the Internet makes it very easy to compare prices & services 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.

The crusade against Big Tech, known as hipster antitrust, is based on economic illiteracy, ignorance and hatred for successful companies. 

Books: Tamburlaine Must Die By Louise Welsh

  (Drivebycuriosity) -  Christopher Marlow was a poet, playwright and colleague of Shakespeare. He became popular with his play "Tamburlaine", wrote an early version of "Faust" and other pieces. Marlow might have become as famous as his competitor, but his life ended early under unknown circumstances. Not long ago I enjoyed the novel "The Tip of the Hangman" by Allison Epstein, which described Marlow´s career as a spy for Queen Elizabeth (my review ). The novel woke my interest into the life of the playwright.

"Tamburlaine must Die", by Louise Welsh tells the last - very dark - days of Marlow ( amazon).  The compact novel (around 130 pages) is written in first person and begins with the statement:"Whatever the future be, if you are reading this, you read the words of a man who knew how to live and who died an unnatural and unjust death".

We learn about Marlow`s relation with his patron Lord Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth`spymaster, his friends & foes, his ambitions and a lot about his fears. Welsh wrote in a poetic style inspired by Marlow`s writings and created a menacing atmosphere. Even the very explicit and elaborately described sex scenes read like poems.

The novel is a travel back into very sinister and dangerous times.

Contemporary Art: Gosha Levochkin`s Last Element @ The Hole Gallery New York

(Drivebycuriosity) -  Some galleries have funny names. "The Hole" on Manhattan`s popular entertainment mile Bowery (312 Bowery, New York  theholenyc) seems to specialize in experimental art. They have frequently interesting shows. Recently I saw the debut solo exhibition by Gosha Levochkin, called “Last Element”.

The press release explains:"Russian constructivist shapes, zips of electric current, swirls from his mother’s pastries and computer game characters unite, clash and reverberate in Gosha’s explosive compositions. For his first New York solo show this Moscow-born, Brooklyn-based artist has elaborated his signature repertoire of human comedy, infusing it with allusions to fire, water and mystical digital symbols rendered in acrylic paint on canvas".

 

Above you can see "When Will We Start Moving" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 65 x 76 inches, 165 x 193 cm) plus a detail of it.

 

  

Above follow "Down" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 50 x 42 inches, 127 x 107 cm) & "Loading" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 78 x 90 inches, 198 x 229 cm).
 
 



 

 

 Above: "Hybrid Power" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 42 x 58 inches, 107 x 147 cm).

 

 

 

 Above "Stuck In The Middle" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 47 x 36 inches, 119 x 91 cm) followed by "Don’t Worry It Will Hold" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 47 x 36 inches, 119 x 91 cm); "When You Picked This Restaurant Did You Look At The Menu" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 58 x 47 inches, 147 x 119 cm); "Been Here Before" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 72 x 60 inches, 183 x 152 cm); "Don’t Get Sucked In no Chose We’re Moving Closer!" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 58 x 47 inches, 147 x 119 cm) &  "Found Nothing Splash" (2021. Acrylic on canvas. 73 x 60 inches, 185 x 152 cm).
 

To be continued