Street Art: Marvels Of Los Angeles - A Photo Collection

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - It seems that street art is everywhere. Wherever I travel I find interesting pieces of urban art. During my recent visit in Los Angeles I spotted a lot of fascinating murals. Here are my favorites.

I really enjoy the large scaled murals like the faces on a wall behind a parking place in Downtown or the red lady in the fledging art district.

Above more murals from the art district.

The murals above I found again in the art district and in Litte Japan.

Enjoy!

Books: Are The Publishers Irrational?

(Drivebycuriosity) - I like ebooks. I can get almost any book published in a minute, I can carry a whole library with me without doing heavy weight lifting, I don´t have to rent an extra room for my vast book collection and ebooks used to be cheaper than the printed version. But, suddenly a major advantage disappeared: Many ebooks cost about the same as their paperback version and some are even more expensive (screenshots below), even that there are zero expenses for paper, printing, storing and distributing.

Amazon wanted to sell ebooks cheap, thanks to the lower costs, but Hachette, Macmillan and other publishers started a war (books), supported by New York Times, Atlantic Magazine, "The New Yorker". "Fortune", "The New Republic" and other media (economy). The publishers won the war. Now the publishers set the price for books sold on Amazon, not the online company. The victory of the publishers let to a price hike for many e-books.

I am reluctant to pay $2 extra for an ebook just because the publisher prices it higher than the paperback. So I often skip the overpriced books, usual from well known authors (like New York Times bestellers) and focus on books which are still cheap. As a result I buy less ebooks as I would have if they would have been reasonable priced ($9 and below). Obviously the majority of other book lovers respond the same. The sales of ebooks are shrinking (consumerist goodereader ). This response had to be expected, consumers alway reduce their purchases when prices are rising. Most customer have just a limited budget and expenses for books are competing with expenses for movies, traveling and other purposes. So, the publishers shot themselves into the foot.

The book culture - and the literacy of the general public - also got a dent. The New York Times and others, who had supported the publishers in the ebook war, had claimed that Amazon is destroying the book culture by selling books cheap! But the shrinking ebooks sales show quite the opposite: The publishers are destroying the book culture by overpricing their products and so are reducing the demand -  people are reading less and less people are buying books. It seems the book market is becoming elitist again. Books are for those who can afford the high prices, people with a tight budget read less.

Thank you publishers and thank you New York Times & Co.

Economy: The Most-Hated Bull Market In History

(Drivebycuriosity) - This is the most hated bull market in the history of Wall Street, writes USA Today (usatoday).  Since spring 2009 stocks have been climbing against a wall of skepticism and disbelieve. Since then Marketwatch, Bloomberg, Business Insider and other media platforms have   frequently published articles about an alleged immediate end of the stock gains and have been a platform for a legion of crash and recession callers  (driveby ). And the statistics show that many people missed the gains because they didn`t invest into stocks or had sold already in the recent years.

Why is the bull market so unpopular? I think there are several reasons.

1.  The bull market created many losers. Many, including fund mangers and other professionals, missed the stock market gains because they are/were to pessimistic for the economy & the company profits. Now, they are angry because they have lost so money. For years they have been waiting (hoping) for a major decline to get on the train, but that never appeared. Now they have bad feelings and the underperforming fund manager and other professionals are criticized by their investors.

2. A legion of professionals, including hedge fund managers like George Soros, have been betting against the stockmarket for years (driveby). They put their money into puts (put options) which climb with falling stock prices and fall with rising or they borrowed stocks and sold them immediately in the hope to buy them later for a cheaper price (short selling). Those people suffered high losses which have been accumulating over the time. They must be very angry now.

3. Professional advisers dislike bull markets in general (thereformedbroker). When stocks are climbing and everybody can make profits, who needs than their expensive advise? This professional claim to offer security in rough times. Who needs security in a perpetual bull market?

3. Many people are generally pessimistic and skeptical ("I am only happy when it rains"). It could be in their genes. For these people the glass is always half empty, they doubt good news and expect always something bad comin..

4. There is an anti capitalist sentiment. Many journalists - and even fund managers - don`t believe into the maret economy, they distrust corporations & dislike profit thinking and the whole economy.

It seems paradox, but the hate keeps the bull market alive because professional are under performance pressure and stocks are cheap and have room to grow.

Economy: Don`t Depreciate China

(Drivebycuriosity) - If we believe the media China is about to crash. But the reality refutes the gloomy predictions. This morning we learned that China`s economy (gross domestic product) grew 6.7%  in the first quarter from a year earlier (bloomberg). Retail sales rose 10.5 % a year earlier in March and industrial production expanded 6.8%. Both numbers were better than in the January/February period before (charts below, source  trading  trading ).

The data show that China manages the pursued soft landing. The country is transforming from an industrial & export-focused economy into a modern system like the US, where most of the GNP is fueled by consumer spending. The strong retail growth - stronger than production & export - indicates that China`s transformation makes progress.



                                                Secular Catching-Up Process


I believe that China`s economy will even get better in the coming months. The huge country is still in the begin of a secular catching-up process which is fueled by extreme income & wealth differences to the US and other Western nation values. Today China has about $7,500 income per capita, the US number is  $54,600 (worldbank). China doesn`t have much commodities but there is a huge amount of human capital: 1.3 billion people who are intelligent, the Chinese work hard and save money to achieve a better life.  Wikipedia counted in 2014 already "2,236 colleges and universities, with over 20 million students enrolled in mainland China" (wikipedia). This fast growing knowledge is driving science & innovations.

And Beijing is continuing reforms which the government had started in 2013, including a liberation of stock trading between Hong Kong and mainland China, and announced more investments into airports, railways and other infrastructure.

China´s growth should be supported by the technological progress and advances of Internet, automatization of industrial production and 3D-printing. These developments raise efficiency and  productivity of China´s economy.  I think that the many official stimulating programs (lower interest rates, billions into infrastructure and more) and cheap oil & other commodities will generate enough tailwinds to keep China´s still exceptional economic growth alive. 




PS for illustration I chose an image of the Chinese top model Liu Wen as an example for the modern China.

Contemporary Art: Post Paintings @ Rachel Uffner, New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) -  Contemporary art is evolving all the time. Artists are trying to distinguish themselves with new ideas and new methods.  You can see  that @ Rachel Uffner Gallery (170 Suffolk Street  racheluffner). The art dealer shows new works by Strauss Bourque-LaFrance. The exhibition is called "Post Paintings" (through May 15, 2016  detail). Does that describe the time after paintings? Maybe. But the title is also literally. The artist painted on posts where he had glued parts of the New York Post (press release ).

Anyway. I like his colorful collages and playful ideas. I show here my favorites from the exhibition, as very subjective selection as usual. I made picture of the complete works and added details of them to show

On top of this post (oops) you can see "American Ritual" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 32 x 22 x 2 inches, (81.3 x 55.9 x 5.1 cm) followed by "The Purple Guillotine" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 40 x 28 x 2 inches, (101.6 x 71.1 x 5.1 cm) .

Above this paragraph you can see "Repairing Your Signs" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 29.75 x 16.25 x 2 inches, (75.6 x 41.3 x 5.1 cm); "Where the Fuck Did Monday Go?" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 48 x 24 x 2 inches, (121.9 x 61 x 5.1 cm) & "Bonnet for the Best Shaker" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil stick, wax, New York Post, 34 x 20 x 2 inches (86.4 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm).

Above "Hillary for Halloween" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 26 x 14 x 2 inches, (66 x 35.6 x 5.1 cm)

"Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain" (2016, basswood, stain, acrylic, oil pastel, wax stick, New York Post, 38 x 24 x 2 inches, (96.5 x 61 x 5.1 cm)

Above some more details.


Enjoy!