Category Archives: Atlas Shrugged

Speaking of prophets, theologian Paul Tillich asked, Is it a sign of patriotism or of confidence in ones people, its institutions and its way of life, to be silent when the foundations are shaking? Is the expression of optimism more important than the expression of truth?

The three Cs climate change, critical race theory and COVID-19 are not what they purport to be.

The threat/crisis presented by each to our socio-economic and body politic are being exaggerated for nefarious reasons. That is, the climate is always changing; no culture, empire or civilization was ever without some form of racism, prejudice and bigotry; and mankind will ever be afflicted with various diseases, plagues, viruses and infections.

There is, after all, nothing new under the sun.

Accordingly, the three Cs do not warrant their prescribed remedies.

Ergo, we do not need to abandon nor destroy the following: our energy sources and economy for climate change; our constitution and institutions in the name of critical race theory; or our personal and economic freedoms for COVID.

America is mortally threatened by the three Cs due to a dearth of critical thinking skills, abandoned historical values, our compromised institutions of church and state, and an atrophied spirit of faith and freedom.

The following prescient warnings speak to our dire situation.

For example, the Brannon Howse documentary (via Janet Levy in American Thinker), Brainwashed in America, is concerned with the 12-step process of brainwashing aimed at affecting a Marxist revolution in America. (Brainwashing is defined as a method that manipulates and modifies a persons emotions, attitudes and beliefs to induce them to give up basic political, social and religious beliefs and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.)

The documentary observed the following: 1) removing principled leadership; 2) encouraging the questioning of values, convictions and the American worldview; 3) presenting revisionist history that portrays the free market system as oppressive; 4) propagating moral relativity to cloud the distinction between right and wrong; 5) extolling consensus and collectivism while declaring individualism dangerous; 6) focusing on emotions over facts, reason, and context; 7) fostering anxiety, confusion and social turbulence; 8) concealing the ultimate agenda.

The documentary also observed these trends: 9) using trusted individuals and institutions to enhance credibility; 10) using informants to zero in on those who dont comply; 11) rewarding compliance and punishing dissent; and 12) winning public trust by manufacturing chaos to lay the groundwork for a benevolent-seeming rescue.

In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan wrote: I have a foreboding of an America in my childrens or grandchildrens time when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when our critical faculties decline, unable to distinguish what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites, lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

Finally, theres this from Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged: When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing. When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors. When you see the men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws dont protect you against them, but protect them against you. When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice.

You may know that your society is doomed.

Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of The Andy Caldwell Show, airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.

Excerpt from:

Of prophets, patriots, demons and the three C's - Santa Barbara News-Press

When you make $3.6 million a year and when you hold a Designated Player status in MLS, there is naturally going to be more scrutiny on your game than some of the teammates around you. When you get into a highly publicized argument with your head coach, that scrutiny increases. When that argument leads to you being banished from the team, and sent off to train alone (presumably not on the clay tennis courts of Roland-Garros), that scrutiny reaches almost peak levels. When the head coach gets fired, and the President of the club reaches out to you to welcome you back into the fold? Well, then the scrutiny goes full Spinal Tap. It gets turned to 11.

Look, its very much simplifying the issue to suggest Jozy Altidore outlasted Chris Armas, and that hes the last man standing, but its hard to look at Altidores Instagram the day after the Armas firing and not believe that was exactly the narrative Jozy was selling here, isn't it?

Altidore said all the right things in his press conference, but if there is anything we have learned from professional athletes, its that they are absolutely driven by perceived slights, whether real or manufactured. Heck Michael Jordan, as we learned in his Netflix docuseries, even made up stories about other players in his head, just for that added extra motivation. In this situation, Jozy doesn't need to invent any slights or disrespect, he has a case ready made for him after being told by the ex-coach to essentially go take a hike.

Coach and player did not get along. Why? We do not exactly know the reasons but theres probably a fair bit to glean from the way things were proceeding. Armas had deployed an offensive style that seemed exactly ill-suited to the playing style of Altidore and in return, Jozy gave minimal effort to make that press style work. Meanwhile after just a few games, Jozy found himself where Jozy has often found himself of late...on the physio table. It could be understood why Armas was hesitant to upend his system in favour of Jozys whims and likes, because its one thing to suit your system to the talents of Robert Lewandowski, and another to tailor your system to someone who has three goals in the last two MLS seasons combined. These two were on an ideological crash course, and it was never going to work out again between them.

Well, thanks to DC United, and a record setting 7-1 thrashing, Armas found himself fired, and Altidore can begin the Jozy Altidore Vindication Tour, with possibly a stop in Toronto to kick things off. He is the last man standing...for now.

The problem for Jozy is that there is very little leeway for him in his return. If he comes back and stumbles again, and the last two years aren't an aberration, but rather the status quo where he inadvertently proves Armas correct and cements his exit away from the club at the end of the season, this time, there will be no Armas, or Taylor Twellman or Alexi Lalas to blame. If Jozy doesn't start performing againat some reasonable level of expectationit will only be himself to blame. The coach is gone, Alejandro Pozuelo and Yeferson Soteldo are back, and there is a young & hungry striker in Ayo Akinola who has certainly made the case for his inclusion into the starting XI.

The next few games, once Jozy is back, will be legacy defining for him. He will either ride into the sunset as a Toronto FC legend, or as someone who was a shell of his former self, as someone who left the game bitter and lacking all introspection, and of someone whose fondest memories are already three years into the rearview mirror.

Thats the problem when you get into a showdown and youre the last man standing. Theres no one else to shoulder the blame with you. Jozy Altidore, in my opinion, is always a player that takes a certain joy in silencing the haters, heck its one of his trademark gestures after scoring a goal. Theres been a lot said and written about him recently in regards to the problems between he and Armas; now would be the perfect time to put that index finger to the mouth and shush the crowd. The slights can be made into painful crow to swallow.

Clock is ticking Jozy. Your Toronto FC legacy is in your hands, and no one else's. Dont shrug it off.

Read the rest here:

Atlas Shrugged: All eyes on Jozy Altidore - Waking The Red

The tenth Anthem Film Festival will run liberty-oriented films in Rapid City, South Dakota, from July 21-24. The festival, part of FreedomFest, the worlds largest Libertarian financial and political conference, has undergone major changes over the years. I spoke with festival founder and director Jo Ann Skousen about the festivals evolution.

Eight years live in Las Vegas, one year virtual and now Anthem is in Rapid City, South Dakota. What happened?

We fully expected to be the only liberty conference meeting live in 2020 during the COVID lockdown. We met several times with the hotel staff in Las Vegas leading up to the festival and complied with every mandate regarding distancing and room capacity. Then, just ten days before show time, Governor Sisolak decided to reinterpret the rules to allow no more than 49 people per event in the conference center, despite allowing hundreds of people in the casinos right next door. That was a killer. We had to close down.

Rapid City is generallymore expensive for many of your long-term attendeesthan Vegas. Will you be moving back?

Most people have loved the idea of coming to South Dakota. Theyre excited about the travel excursions as well as the conference. In fact, we sold out of our hotel block in March and had to add rooms at ten more hotels!

And the film festival will be held in the beautifully restored 100-year-old Elks Theatre instead of a conference room. Its a far cry from the small banquet room on the 26th floor of Ballys Hotel where we held our first festival! So overall, the move has been a big success. In fact, I think its going to be our second largest attendance ever. But youre righttravel costs escalated around April, and hotel costs doubled after our discount deadline ended. So, we arent going to get our usual bump in attendance at the door. Well be back in Las Vegas next year, but were looking into doing events at other locations in the future.

In 2013, you said that you started Anthem Film Festival in order to encourage filmmakers to consider libertarianideas. Have you seen an increase in libertarian films?

Absolutely! Were really overbooked this year 39 films! and I worry about staying on time with our Q&A and shortened panels. Even then, I had to turn away some films I would have eagerly accepted in previous years, simply because I had so many great entries. Many come from think tanks that have discovered the power of movies to present a message. Others come from independent filmmakers who have learned theres a market for movies about individuality, choice, and accountability. And Iranian filmmakers have discovered our festival as well. So, while the major Hollywood studios still love to hate on business and individuality, Im pleased to see the universe of libertarian films continuing to grow.

Will any Anthem alumni be attending?

Were bringing back several of our favorite films from previous seasons as part of our tenth anniversary celebration. Bob Bowdon will be there with our very first Grand Prize winner, The Cartel, and Corey DeAngelis, the super star of school choice, will join him for a post-screening discussion on the state of education today. Mark and Gabi Hayes are bringing back Skid Row Marathon, our 2018 Grand Prize winner. And were reprising some short films as well that are particularly timely in todays political climate. John Kramer is bringing back his award-winning short narrative Everything, about a mothers desperate search for a bone marrow transplant for her daughter.

In past years, Anthem has featured mostly shorts and documentaries, but few features. Will it be different this year?

I love narrative features, and Im ecstatic when good ones end up in our inbox. Do you remember the remarkably quotable Re-Evolution we showed in 2017? Kind of a John Galt Meets V for Vendetta vibe, and it was made on a budget of just $10,000! And the luminous Bassilaora we showed last year that was part documentary, part scripted narrative. What a beautiful film!

The three feature narratives were presenting this year are excellent. Speed of Life, a sci-fi, time-travel rom-com set in a dystopian future, was our Best Narrative Feature in 2020, and were bringing it back as part of our Best of the Fest. The movie version of our namesake, Ayn Rands Anthem: The Animated Movie, was submitted just in time to coincide with our tenth anniversary. How serendipitous was that? And wait till you see our animated libertarian rock opera, Rocket Stahrs Death of a Rock Star! The director, Cole Gentles, spent thirteen years animating it, writing the music, and recording it. Quite a feat!

Nevertheless, I think we will always have more shorts and feature documentaries because of our association with FreedomFest. Our audience tends to be looking for meaty, informative material with hard-hitting panels after the screenings. We tend to save our narrative features for the evenings, and we have just three evenings at the festival.

Do you do anything to encourage and support the filmmakers who attend Anthem?

I spend a lot of time with my filmmakers leading up to the festival, and we often end up becoming great friends. Sometimes I offer suggestions about the films, if theyre open to it, but I always do it sensitively, acknowledging their creative authority. The Locastro brothers sent me their short documentary Seized several months ahead of time and asked for my advice. I made several suggestions on how to tighten the story and shorten the film. Not only did it win the award for Best Short Documentary at our festival, but it went on to win an Emmy! Ive also tried to connect filmmakers with possible distributors and additional filmmaking jobs. This year the Harmon brothers will be part of our Filmmakers Reception and Master Class, and I expect they will provide concrete support for libertarian filmmaking.

Looking back at the previous years, what stands out as a highlight in your memory?

Without question, the highlight for me was 2014, when we had nearly 1,500 attendees at our opening night screening of Atlas Shrugged 3. It was such an emotional moment to look out over that vast crowd and realize how far we had come from the 26th floor of Ballys in just four short seasons. John Aglialoros heartfelt acceptance speech for the films Best Narrative Feature award was also very moving. That season really moved us into the spotlight as the most unique and significant new feature of FreedomFest.

Was there anything that backfired that you learned from?

I was thrilled to have Little Pink House as our opening night feature in 2017. It was just about perfect, with a strong cast, strong music, strong story, strong message, and a big enough budget for director Courtney Balaker to do a first-rate production. The main players on whom the movie was based Susette Kelo, John Kramer, and Scott Bullock were at the festival. We arranged for red carpet photo opportunities with them during the cocktail reception before the screening, and we had posters strategically placed to remind people of the film. After our huge success with Atlas Shrugged 3 and the Dinesh DSouzas America: Where Would the World Be Without Her? in 2014, I fully expected a similar crowd.

But I assumed people were reading the emails and social media posts I had been sending out. I assumed they knew that this opening night film was the best of the festival. Wrong. I needed to do more, on the spot. We had several hundred people in the audience that night, but not the 1,500 it deserved.

If I had that to do over again, I would have invited Susette Kelo to tell her story on the main stage before the cocktail reception so people would have understood the significance of the film and flocked to meet her, the way they did after the screening that night. Those who watched the film stayed for over an hour, buying the book, getting her autograph, and taking pictures with her. The film received our highest Audience Choice rating ever, with only one person giving it a 4 and everyone else giving it a 5. Those who missed it missed something truly special. I really flubbed that one. Since then, I always arrange to have 15 minutes during the opening session to bring our biggest star onto the stage.

What should attendees look forward to the most this year?

Ive really worked at curating the films thematically this year into two-hour sessions instead of just scheduling them according to their length. Viewers will need to move from the civic center to the theater three blocks away, so they need to commit themselves to more than a 20-minute movie. We have sessions about education, individuality and self-expression, medical marijuana, the rising threat of socialism, entrepreneurship, and the pandemic lockdown, cancel culture, and outrage journalism, and much more.

Whats the one film everyone should see this year?

We have so many standouts this year! Partly thats because were bringing back half a dozen of our previous winners. How can you go wrong? All 39 films are wonderful. I would suggest that you make a point of attending all the evening features. They start at 9 pm every night, with Q&A or panel discussions following the films.

And honestly, those first sessions every day are outstanding too. I know, it seems kind of strange to be sitting in a darkened theater at 8:30 in the morning, but wait till you see Rush to Judgment and the panel following it about cancel culture and outrage journalism. Or the outstanding session on education and school choice Thursday morning. And so many films about the unintended consequences of business regulation on Saturday morning that it spans two sessions! And if youre concerned about Critical Race Theory permeating our culture, dont miss Better Left Unsaid with its panel that includes Phil Magness, Rob Montz, Bob Bowdon, and Gloria Z. Greenfield.

Why do you think your festival is significant?

Do you remember the old phrase, Banned in Boston? Several of our films have been banned from traditional festivals, either because the directors are too male, or the messages are too libertarian. One was withdrawn from Amazon Prime just before it was set to open. I snapped it up.

The discrimination is so bad that many of our filmmakers have started using pseudonyms when they work on libertarian projects. That isnt a problem at Anthem! For ten years weve created an environment where filmmakers feel safe to come out of the libertarian closet. Their works are praised and embraced. Theyre able to add laurels to their projects that help them get accepted into other festivals and secure funding for future projects. And theyve discovered skilled, like-minded colleagues when they attend one anothers screenings and hang out at our reception. Sometimes when the credits scroll on a new submission Im watching Ill see several names I recognize from previous individual films, and now theyre collaborating together. That makes my heart happy.

You can find out more about Anthem at its website and Facebook page.

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Exclusive Interview: Anthem Film Festival's Jo Ann Skousen - Ten Years, Ten Questions - Blogcritics

The logic espoused by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged and taught in business schools is followed by a large segment of society, though successfully applied by relatively few. It dictates three steps: (1) that every opportunity for personal gain should be seized; (2) the benefits extracted in a manner hostile to restraint and empowered by ownership until exhausted; and (3) leave a bankrupt corporate shell and poisoned nature behind to move on to the next opportunity: another bioregion to drill, mine, or monocrop. If you dont, someone else will; its money left on the table!

A thought experiment: assume a world populated by creatures living in hull-side cabins below the waterline of a great ship. They profit, peculiarly, by harvesting seawater (think fossil energy) through holes they drill in the hull. When that worlds population was much smaller and drilled smaller holes, a form of equilibrium existed. Now that their numbers have grown toward eight billion, aided by aggregations called corporations that compete to drill bigger holes, they wallow, slowly sinking in a sea of vast and complex energies.

Ms. Rands adherents are certain that they must increase their drilling, mining and monocropping ancient bioregions. Its logic.

Or is it?

Bill Appel

Friday Harbor

Continue reading here:

Life lessons from Ayn Rand |... - Journal of the San Juan Islands

After a year spent sequestered away in our respective living rooms, large portions of the United States have emerged from other side of the pandemic and moviegoers are slowly but surely returning to the air-conditioned embrace of their favorite theaters. Despite mixed reactions, F9 bounced back at the box office with nearly $70 million at the box office Vin Diesel said da movies and people showed up to da movies.

Here at Polygon, we love the movies so much so that just last week, we put together a list of some of our favorite movie theater experiences. But there is an inevitable side of co-existing in a dark, enclosed space alongside a mass of complete strangers. What happens when the vibe is not only off, but goes all wrong?

As a counterpoint to last weeks roundup, this week weve put together a list of some of the movie theaters experiences that made us wish we had just stayed home and watched Netflix. If nothing else, at least these abysmal times at the movies make for some entertaining conversation fodder. Commiserate in the comments about your own woeful moments.

Two years ago my friend Axel and I went to the Logan Theatre in Chicago for a special screening of Akira. What with it being one of our all-time favorite movies, we were ecstatic to go see Katsuhiro Otomos magnum opus for the first time on the big screen. Unfortunately, if theres one thing Ive learned in my 30 odd years of life, its that sometimes ... look, otaku just dont know how to act right in public.

The movie was great, unsurprisingly, that is up until a man two rows in front of us chose to start being both very loud and very wrong during the sequence where Tetsuo is being tested by the clandestine government agency tasked with keeping tabs on potential Espers, insinuating that Otomos 1988 post-apocalyptic action film had somehow (impossibly) ripped off Mamoru Oshiis 1995 cyberpunk classic Ghost in the Shell. Strike one. Next, this man had the audacity to start sighing loudly before starting to fiddle away at his phone on full brightness in the middle of a sold-out theater, demonstrating not only candid disregard for his fellow patrons but for the film itself. Strike two. Nevertheless I remained committed in my attempt to ignore him because again, this is one of my favorite movies and I will not allow anyone to kill my vibe that easily.

I kept on getting distracted by the nagging glow of his phone screen in my periphery. Against my better judgement, I finally glanced over and my jaw dropped. This dude was scrolling through NUDES ON HIS PHONE. Strike three, I had enough. I let out the longest brruuuuuuuuuuuh under my breath as I leaned over to my friend to ask them if they wanted to leave, which we promptly did. Even if we got the guy kicked out, there was just no restoring the vibe at that point. Toussaint Egan

Almost an hour into Interstellar, an older couple came into the theater. I was sitting next to my dad, whod already seen the movie but insisted that I come with him during my Thanksgiving break because it was exactly the type of movie that he wanted to see with me (dont get me started on father-daughter space movies). Anyway, the older man eyed me and at first I didnt think anything of it. But he and his wife kept hovering over our seats, muttering to each other.

Finally, the man sat on me. Like, he looked between me and my father, decided hed take his chances humiliating the college student instead of sitting on the tall, buff Eastern European man, and decided to sit on me.

He got really rude at my surprise, saying that we were sitting in the wrong seats. And as it turns out surprise! it was actually he who had the wrong seats (we were in, like, nine and 10 and he and his wife were looking for one and two). Of course, he didnt apologize or anything, which just pissed me off even more. I told him to fuck off, then got in trouble with my dad for using bad language, which kinda dampened the whole father-daughter bonding experience.

Good movie, though. It really broke me (in the best way) and as I drove back to university the next day, I couldnt stop sobbing. Petrana Radulovic

I dont put much stock into spiritual ideas like omens and foreshadowing, but all the signs were there the night we went to see Rush Hour 3.

We shrugged off Omen #1 in the parking garage. As we made our way toward the theater, we saw a group of men passing around a bottle of Malibu rum to one another. We laughed off the absurdity of several men drinking straight liquor out of the trunk of someones modest midsize sedan.

I mistook Omen #2 for a blessing. After we bought tickets, I noticed how the other people in the lobby were congregating and chatting it up. I decided to take advantage of everyones gabbing by making our way to the auditorium first. We ended up getting the best seats in the house. I would see these people again soon.

I thought Omen #3 was more of an odd set of coincidences than a warning. As folks entered the theater, they came in waves, all clearly together. Not only that, each new groups appearance was met by hollers and greetings from other filmgoers. This happened nearly a dozen times. Were we the only group of friends that didnt know each other?

Omen #4 shouldve been an obvious sign but I dismissed how almost everyone in the room was having full volume conversations during the trailers. Surely, they would be quiet during the film. Thankfully, I was half-right. As the film began, with a cheerful and silly opening with Chris Tucker, the crowd was silent, except for their appropriately loud laughter.

Immediately following the films intro is where everything deteriorated.

What happens next in the movie, and I can only assume this is what happens because I wasnt really paying attention, is that Jackie Chan meets someone important and then I think they blow up? My memory is foggy because the moment Tucker was off screen and Chan was on, the auditorium resumed their conversations. One such conversations volume amped up so much that a group near the talkers began arguing with them. Their arguing turned into shouting and eventually, a full-scale brawl among the entirety of the bottom section of the theatre. It was like a Looney Tunes fight where arms and legs came poking out of a large cloud of smoke.

Not to be outdone by the lower section, the upper sections patrons, all of whom were sitting next to us, decided to join in. Completely full and massive sodas were thrown into the brawl like fizzy Molotov cocktails. A poorly thrown plate of nachos with cheese pelted our friends girlfriend in the back of the head. As pretzel bites, Whoppers, and Junior Mints flew from our section like catapult fire, we decided to exit the theater as quickly as we could. Outside, we spoke to the theaters management who offered us either a refund or tickets to another screening. We decided to see Superbad instead. It was OK. Jeff Ramos

When you buy tickets to a movie, your main hope is that the movie works. When the lights finally go down, the title card will appear and everyone will enjoy the film together. But that didnt happen when I went to see Blade at my local, and now defunct, Alamo Drafthouse.

It was 2019 and Id somehow avoided seeing Blade for 25 years. My wife Jamie my fiance at the time loved Blade, and began questioning the wedding we were planning when she discovered my dark secret. Naturally, I immediately got us tickets when I saw our Alamo Drafthouse was doing a screening.

But when the lights went down and the movie opened on the Blood Rave, the sound was only coming out of a single speaker located somewhere in the bottom corner of the theater. Have you ever watched the Blood Rave from Blade in almost complete silence? Where you can hear the person next to you breathing slightly louder than the rave music? I have.

A few moments in, an Alamo employee slightly raised their voice over the one speaker, telling us they were working on it. Minutes later, they revealed that the movie was just gonna be like that for the entire runtime. We decided to bail, which came with a lot of fun refunds and check signing, as one traditionally orders food to go along with their movie at the Drafthouse. My wife dumped her boozy milkshake into a to-go cup and we slipped out the back.

For all the disappointments that came with our Blade experience, we salvaged the evening by renting Blade at home and ordering pizza. So the next time you hear a theater fill with sound and think this is maybe too loud, consider the alternative and enjoy your film. Ryan Gilliam

Is there really any more you need to know about this? Almost exactly a decade ago, I went on some dates with a libertarian film major. On one of those dates, he took me to see Atlas Shrugged: Part I.

The one thing I will say in his defense is that he told me up front that the movie was going to be terrible and hed gotten the tickets for free. We will leave the idea of accepting free tickets to a screening of an Ayn Rand-inspired movie unexamined in this writing.

The movie was, indeed, terrible. You dont have to take my word for it, Roger Ebert said it was the most anticlimactic non-event since Geraldo Rivera broke into Al Capones vault. But Roger Ebert didnt stand on the subway with his date afterward, making a mental note not to invest any capital in this relationship. Susana Polo

Ive written about this one before in response to this exact question back when I worked at The A.V. Club, but hey, its been 12 years, I wouldnt hesitate to retell a story I last told at a party 12 years ago. My husband and I used to go to a charmingly run-down Chicago music venue called The Vic pretty regularly for cheapo last-run double and triple features, accompanied by terrible pizza and overpriced drinks. They called it Brew & View at the Vic, and it was normally an extremely chill time with a quiet crowd, watching sometimes ridiculously awful movies to go with the awful pizza. Think A chance to revisit 2001s Friday the 13th movie Jason X since we somehow missed it in theaters level of bad.

But one weekend, they had a special event, a Quentin Tarantino double feature of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, hosted by a local shock jock. The whole thing was a mess because the radio personality was there, the security and weapons checks were much more thorough than usual, and we spent an hour and a half in line for a venue we usually just walked into at showtime. There was a liquor store across the street from the line, and it was a bitterly cold Chicago winter, so people were regularly seeking liquid warmth, and getting blotto in the process. I remember a young woman in a miniskirt behind me miserably pressing her bare legs against her companions, trying to get warm, then snuggling up to an active radiator inside the venue, and burning herself, and barely feeling it because she was so drunk and numb from cold.

Anyway, by the time we all got in, there was a lot of seething resentment in the crowd and a lot of people had pre-gamed hard with bottles of hootch from across the way, and the crowd mood was mean and ugly. And people started screaming at the screen from the get-go, cheering on any act of violence, and yelling for worse. I particularly remember during the scene where Bruce Willis is trying to evade Ving Rhames, and a passerby gets shot, hearing a cheer go up, and a howling group chant of Shoot the fat bitch! Shoot the fat bitch! And a little later, when the rednecks are raping Ving Rhames, the group chant was Fuck the N-word! Fuck the N-word! My husband and I quietly slipped out of that theater as soon as we could. Ive never been in a movie theater that felt so much like the moment before a riot. Tasha Robinson

Remember when 3D was all the rage? You dont, because the technology never quite took off. Not that the movie studios didnt try to make fetch happen. After the success of Avatar, every major release received a 3D version to lure in viewers and score a few extra bucks. There were movies that put the effect to great use Martin Scorseses Hugo, the Ghostbusters remake, and Wim Wenders Pina come to mind but 3D, and specifically the post-conversion process, was mostly a cash-grab, and it rightfully burned the fad to the ground. Heres hoping James Camerons Avatar 2 proves why 3D has a place at the movies, occasionally.

My worst moviegoing experiences are tied to 3D. Coming in number two: Seeing the post-converted Captain America: The First Avenger in a multiplex where the air conditioning was out and the theater was sweltering hot. I could barely see the picture half the time due to foggy 3D glasses. Layers of miserable.

But the number one offense was the Clash of the Titans remake. As Tasha detailed in our story about our favorite moviegoing experiences, Clash is an idiotic, bombastic Greek mythology action remake that is prime for post-drinks viewing. I saw the movie stone-cold sober, and just weeks after Warner Bros. Pictures announced that the film would arrive in 3D, despite not being planned as such. You have to remember, Avatar was such a phenomenon that, despite there only being a few weeks before Clash of the Titans planned release in 2010, a studio was willing to throw ungodly amounts of money and crunch-time labor to capitalize on the 3D buzz. But Clash director Louis Leterrier hadnt conceived a single shot for the 3D effect, and with most of the movie rendered with hyperactive CG and shaky handheld cameras, the post-conversion effect created a retina-tearing hell. I have never had such a viscerally awful time in a theater, and Ive seen several Human Centipede movies. This was the blockbuster equivalent of Un Chien Andalous opening scene, except I was the animal eye and blurry Sam Worthington was the razor blade. I love movie theaters, but this era was torture for anyone paying premium price just to watch the damn things. Matt Patches

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Our worst movie theater experiences, and the movies they ruined - Polygon

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Out of the many different ways we can adapt our beloved books, video games are top of my list. They give a certain level of agency, placing me directly in the drivers seat of my favourite characters. Some might feel like the car is on autopilot, but most allow me a say in the decision process. If anything, they help build on the story I love so much. What surprises me is how many video games are based on books! If you want to encourage your fellow gamer to pick up a book instead, take a look at this list.

Full disclaimer: There is microscopic diversity when it comes to video game creators and the authors who influence them. This is not new in the literary industry and it is definitely not new in the gaming industry. If you have any suggestions for the best video games based on books by women or authors of color, please shout them out on our social media!

This fairly new game is available on Switch/Steam/iOS/Google Play from indie developers La Belle Games and Arte France. It is a gorgeous retelling of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, allowing the player to be the Creature and rediscover the world around you. It is a casual adventure game with puzzles and narrative direction to retell Shelleys story from a more innocent view. Its not just based on Frankenstein; it is everything we love about Frankenstein from the other side of the window.

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If you like the idea of rewriting your favourite characters, check out Austen Translation from Worthing & Moncrieff. Its a parody strategy game set in the world of Jane Austen, available on Steam. You have the role of an innocent young woman in need of a wealthy husband to escape a future of poverty and destitution. Presented as a visual novel, I love the cute paper doll art. There are also plenty of plot twists to send Mrs Bennett for the salts! The replay value is high; a perfect palate-cleanser between Pride and Prejudice and Emma.

80 Days from inkle is a steampunk expansion of our world, as inspired by Jules Verne. Its the perfect game for any travel geeks grounded due to COVID-19. (Yes, that would be me.) The same characters are there and the same wager is still causing problems. You play as Passepartout, the loyal valet of Phileas Fogg and manager of the finances, health, and travel plans. Its a race against the clock with an interactive story based on your choices throughout. Different choices lead to different endings and naturally, you will want to reread Around the World in 80 Days to compare notes.

My fave adaptation of Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and possibly the most unique ever. Its a 3rd person action-adventure game, published by Electronic Arts (EA) and released all the way back in 2000. The game is a dark and violent twist on the classic story, founded in a fantastical world of chaos and psychological trauma. Alice was left in a catatonic state after a house fire kills her parents and leaves her with serious burns. In her mind, Alice escapes to Wonderland to find it broken and despondent (much like her). Though very much outside Carrolls original childrens story, American McGees Alice is a brilliant example of how a great classic story can transcend across time and space. American McGees Alice is now available as part of EA Play on service on PS4/5 and XBox One/Series consoles as well as XBox Game Pass.

A Little Lily Princess is a narrative simulation game available on Steam, based on A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. While the game loosely follows the story, the main focus is on the relationships you build between the characters. As per the source material, Sara has arrived at a boarding school in Victorian England and starts a new chapter in her life with all the wealth she could ever need. However, when tragedy strikes, Sara must rely on her relationships within the boarding school to survive a harsh new world. Being a Lily adaptation, there is F/F romance, depressive thinking, and some questionable events from history. However, the game is more of a narrative exploration of opportunity, allowing players to discover more about the characters themselves. A Little Lily Princess truly honours the original story and presents a really sweet visual novel that allows the characters to grow.

For even older classics, Unruly Heroes brings to life the main characters from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, attributed to Wu Chengen. There are a few good video games based on three of the Four Classical Chinese Novels, but I will always have a soft spot for Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. This is a platform adventure game, available on Steam/Switch/Xbox One/PS4 and allows you to play all four of the main characters: Sanzang, Wukong, Kihong, and Sandmonk. The game is far more lighthearted than the source material and more suitable for family game time.

There are plenty of video games based on comic book superheroes. I have been a fan of the LEGO versions of DC and Marvel for many years. However, my favourite video games based on comic book superheroes is Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Marvel). Its a 3rd person action-adventure game with all of the usual style and flair you expect from a superhero. While the character is based on the Miles Morales we already know and love, the storyline is unique. The vibe is very akin to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, leaving you with plenty of material to read before, during, and after you play. Being the Spider-Man franchise, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is only available on PS4/PS5.

Speaking of heroes, it should be no surprise there is a video game based on the hit manga series, My Hero Academia by Khei Horikoshi. What was a surprise to fans was how GOOD the game is. Designed as a 3D arena fighter, you can choose from a cast of the favourites to fight against a range of opponents. And yes, you can call up sidekicks for help too. I really enjoy the ability to play as either hero or villain, giving some great perspective from both sides. If you love your MHA kids, you will get a real kick out of this game. The original was released in October 2018 for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Windows. A sequel (My Hero Academia: Ones Justice 2) was also released in March 2021 for Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. If you want a refresher on the MHA characters, check out our earlier Book Riot article here.

The world of HP Lovecraft seems perfectly created for some weird messed up video games. There have been a few attempts over the years, but none have looked quite as beautiful nor tormented as Call of Cthulhu. This adventure RPG is available on Steam/XBox/PS4 and is based on The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft. Set in 1924, you play as Private Investigator Pierce, who is looking into the tragic death of the Hawkins family. Filled with shadowy characters, cosmic horror, and enough puzzling storytelling to freak you out, it plays like a tabletop adventure and leaves you wanting more books to read.

The Witcher video game series is the perfect example of when you really arent ready for the end. There are three games in the series, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt considered one of the best video games ever made (despite its infamous horse glitch). The games are based on the novel series The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski. Officially, the games are not canon. It is probably best to call them honourable fan fiction. If you are looking to read the books after playing the game, check out our guide here.

It would be remiss of me not to include BioShock in this list. As mentioned by fellow Book Rioter Dan in a previous article, BioShock has a strong relationship with the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. There are easter eggs throughout the game connecting it directly with Rands work (and to some extent, Rand herself). Bioshock is set in 1960, and you are Jack. Jacks plane crashed in the ocean near a bathysphere terminus leading to the underwater city of Rapture. The city was built by Andrew Ryan (hello, Ayn Rand), has since gone defunct, and is now filled with possessed enemies and a few sane survivors. This FPS (first-person shooter) was first released in 2007 and is so good, it has been remastered for every gaming platform. It has been especially praised for its morality-based storyline (also influenced by Rands work) and the absolutely stunning graphics, considered a demonstration of video games as an art form. Thats definitely a big deal.

Dont be too excited for this: the game was only released in Japan for the Nintendo Wii back in 2009. However, it is the 20th Anniversary of Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa. Plus, Arakawa has very recently hinted at a new project this year. The 2009 video game was an original story set before the 16th volume and considered canon within the FMA universe. You could take control of either Edward or Alphonse and interact with various people around Central City. The game is more narrative than action, built on mystery and character interaction. While fans are eager to see more stories from Arakawa, I would also be very happy with some fresh gameplay perhaps on the Switch with its touchscreen capability creating some awesome moves with spell-casting.

There are more video games based on books, with the style of game playing varying greatly between straight-up narrative games to obtuse yet inspired. When video games are inspired by our favourite books, it shows our passion and desire to play an active role in their world. There are even more books out there waiting for their video game adaptation. Check out fellow Book Rioter Zoes suggestions here.

Read the original here:

12 of the Best Video Games Based on Books - Book Riot

Ive just begun to re-read Ayn Rands 1,200-page behemoth Atlas Shrugged. The book left such a positive impression on me six years ago when I read it for the first time that I vowed to re-read it every five years or so to keep picking up on new things.

In the meantime, I became a little curious to see what other people online had to say about the book. Ive long heard the rumor that Atlas critics give such undue hostility to the book that its plausible to imagine that most of them never read it in the first place!

Atlas Shrugged is a vast and complex forest but Hartmann is peering only at a couple of the trees.

Thom Hartmanns Distortions of Atlas

It didnt take long before I came across a couple of videos and articles from Thom Hartmann, a popular far left-wing commentator, and I knew my suspicions were justified. As youll see shortly, his descriptions of Rand's classic novelare so extremely caricatured and unfounded that you really have to doubt his claim that hes actually read the book.

(In fairness, he claims to have read the book in high school, which would have been more than 40 years ago. Perhaps the following is a fault of memory)

Atlas Shrugged Is about the Importance of CEOs

Hartmann: "Do you really think if all the CEOs went on strike that society would collapse? This is the basic premise of the book.

Yes, exactly! Atlas Shrugged: the tale of a societys downfall when its CEOs skip work for the golf course!

This, of course, isnt what the book is about. It is true that some of Rands protagonistsHank Rearden and Ellis Wyatt, for examplewere heads of large and important companies. And yes, these innovative corporate leaders did eventually go on strike, but it is also true that some of Rands villainsJames Taggart and Orren Boyle, for examplewere presidents of large and important companies as well.

So, what actually caused the strike and ensuing collapse in Atlas? Altruism.

Any conscientious reader would have observed at least somewhere between page 1 and 1,200 that had the latter, and not the former, gone on strike, society would never have collapsed. This explodes the idea that Atlas was some sort of apologia for CEOs in specific and the rich in general.

Atlas Shrugged Is about Billionaires Who Don't Want to Pay Taxes

Hartmann: "So, in Atlas Shrugged, when the billionaires, tired of paying taxes and complying with government regulation, go on strike, Ayn Rand writes that the American economy promptly collapsed.

Atlas Shrugged is such a vast and complex forest, yet Hartmann is peering like a hawk at only a couple of the trees. Taxation and regulation are both separate elements in the books periodic table, but together they are not enough to cause the explosion of society.

So, what actually caused the strike and ensuing collapse in Atlas? To answer this question is to get to the basic theme of the book, a theme that is present on every single page: altruism.

Its absurd to think Rand labeled anybody over a certain income threshold as a producer.

Atlas Shruggedhas to do with the differences between a society based on altruismin which the masses are told that their noblest deed is to sacrifice for othersand a society based on individualismwhere individuals are respected as ends in themselves and free to pursue their own interests.

Through policies such as the Equalization of Opportunity Act and the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, people who embody altruism treat the individualists as mere pieces on a chessboard, to be manipulated and harassed as the altruists please (since its in the name of others).

Eventually, a mysterious man named John Galt persuades the most innovative and oppressed individualists to simply go on strike. This puts society in the hands of the Altruists, who know nothing of how to produce wealth, only how to redistribute it and that is why society collapses.

As Galt lays out:

Weve heard so much about strikes, and about the dependence of the uncommon man upon the common. Weve heard it shouted that the industrialist is a parasite, that his workers support him, create his wealth, make his luxury possibleand what would happen to him if they walked out? Very well. I propose to show to the world who depends on whom, who supports whom, who is the source of wealth, who makes whose livelihood possible, and what happens to whom when who walks out.

Atlas Shrugged Is about the Rich Producers vs. The Poor Looters

Hartmann: "On one side are the billionaires and the industrialists. People like Dagny Taggart, a railroad tycoon, and Hank Rearden, a steel magnate On the other side are the looters, or everyone else who isnt as rich or privileged, or who believed in a democratic government to provide basic services, empower labor unions, and regulate the economy.

Once again, any detailed reading of the book would quickly reveal the sloth resting in this cartoonish summary. First of all, based on the fact that many of the villains in Atlas are wealthy, its absurd to think that Rand indiscriminately labeled anybody over a certain income threshold as a producer.

Secondly, Rand had nice words for the middle class, which she termed as the heart, the lifeblood, the energy source of a free, industrial economy So this idea that Rand would have considered you a moocher if you werent a rich industrialist is just plain old propaganda.

Conclusion

Hartmann and similar critics of AtlasShrugged seem to be so wrapped up in a class-conflict outlook that they struggle to comprehend an author who judged individuals with standards having nothing to do with their current economic status.

Atlas Shrugged is many pages long, but well worth the effort. All sorts of themes exist within its pages, just waiting to challenge the readers understanding of himself and the rest of the world.

Read the rest here:

What the Critics Get Wrong About Atlas Shrugged | Nate Russell - Foundation for Economic Education

FRANKFURT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The annual reports inform that the production and, thus, sales grew significantly whereas the audience preferences veered round into health and relations fields.

Besides, in 2021, the publishing house plans to acquire new genres in non-fiction and cooperate with new promising authors, retailers, and markets.

Although the circumstances made the editorial team work remotely, the number of published audiobooks did not diminish but increased. In particular, 109 books were recorded in 2020. The company published, among others, such bestsellers as Educated by Tara Westover, Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (German); Money. Master The Game by Tony Robbins, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, and Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (French); Atomic Habits by James Clear, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza (Italian).

Additionally, in 2020, the publishing house started acquiring new languages producing books in Swedish, Turkish, Spanish, Norwegian, and Japanese.

The increase in production led to the rise in sales, logically. The sales report for 2020 showed a growth of 60 per cent, comparing to 2019. As mentioned, the listeners downloaded more books about health and relations, which is evidence of a slight change in audience preferences.

Further, in 2020, ABP Publishing worked on its ABP Verlag, ABP Editions, and ABP Editore brands. Every subsidiary got a new logotype and site. Moreover, each of the ABP Publishing books can be associated with the publisher, thanks to the standardised cover design.

Following the listeners' interests, in 2021, ABP Publishing plans to release audiobooks in fields and topics the company did not work with before, for instance, publicism and fiction. As an example, the German division has already published Demi Moore's autobiography while the French department is preparing the timeless classic bestseller Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Besides, the publisher increases the number of titles in relationship and parenting and popular science genres. It is important that despite the growing number of titles, the company keeps the high quality of audiobooks, practising an attentive approach to the voice-overs cast and music and dramatic audiobooks style.

Nevertheless, in the coming years, most publishers in the digital field will face the expansion of subscription and streaming model of distribution. The listeners appreciated the profit of the unlimited access to audiobooks, whereas the publishing houses are switching to a new reality reluctantly. Anyway, all the publishing companies will have to find a balance between listeners' wishes and desirable income. ABP Publishing believes that the changes will be advantageous for all the market participants and cause the better quality of published audiobooks in competitive terms.

Here is the original post:

ABP Publishing Reports the Sales Increased 60% In 2020 - Business Wire

By Jeff Kauflin, Maria Abreu and Antoine Gara

In the summer of 2012, David Vlez moved to SoPaulo with a newly minted Stanford MBA and a plum job as a Sequoia Capital partner. Douglas Leone, the head of Sequoia, had recruited the then-30-year-old Colombian to stake the venture capital powerhouses claim in Brazila youthful, resource-rich country of 200 million that had grown 4% a year for a decade to become the worlds seventh-largest economy. But on October 1, Leone called Vlez with bad news: After considering the uninspired pitches from Brazilian entrepreneurs and hearing that top-ranked University of So Paulo had produced just 42 computer science graduates the prior year, he was pulling the plug. Sequoias Brazilian adventure was over.

It was the day before my birthday and it was a bit of a shock, Vlez admits. Still, he had always wanted to launch his own startup and saw opportunity in the very dearth of Brazilian innovators that had turned his VC compatriots off. You want to position yourself on the side of the market where theres scarcity, Vlez explains. In the U.S., theres an oversupply of good entrepreneurs. Somebody with my experience and background is a commodity. In Latin America, there was significant scarcity.

Before long, he had a target: Brazils big andto hear Brazilians tell itbulletproof banks. Yet as Vlez saw it, the banks, with their notoriously high fees, poor service and seeming obliviousness to new technology, were sitting ducks. And they were. Less than a decade after its founding, Vlezs So Paulobased Nubank has 35 million customers and is valued at $25 billion. Vlez, who is Nubanks CEO, retains a 23% stake that Forbes values at $5.2 billion. Whats happening in Brazil is nothing short of a real revolution. And its waking up the incumbent banks, who have had the going really easy for a long time, says Nigel Morris, the cofounder of Capital One and a Nubank investor.

David is going to build a $100 billionplus financial powerhouse in Latin America, predicts TCV partner Woody Marshall, another one of the investors who have poured a total of $1.2 billion into Nubank. Among the billionaire-backed firms betting on Vlez: Yuri Milners DST Global, Peter Thiels Founders Fund, Chase Colemans Tiger Globaland yes, Leone and Sequoia.

Equally impressive, Vlez built his fintech juggernaut while previously booming Brazil suffered through recession, corruption scandals and Covid-19. And he did so despite warnings from Brazilians that the banking establishment would block himor worse. Theyre going to kill you, Vlez says one friend told him. Theyre going to kidnap your kids.

Growing up, Vlez saw how entrepreneurs persevere through adversity. Born in Colombia in 1981 into a family of small-businessfolk (his fathers 11 siblings are mostly entrepreneurs), he watched as his hometown of Medelln was ravaged by drug wars. He remembers leaving a shopping center with his family minutes before it was bombed. After an uncle was kidnapped and rescued, the then-9-year-old Vlez, his parents and his two sisters (both now also entrepreneurs) moved to Costa Rica. There, Vlezs dad, who had co-owned a small button factory with two brothers in Colombia, built a new one.

Vlez attended a local German-language prep school, graduating as valedictorian and winning admission to Stanford, where he majored in engineering and yearned to join Silicon Valleys startup frenzy. But while Google had been birthed in Stanfords dorms, as an undergraduate Vlez couldnt come up with his own big idea. So he played it safe after graduation, taking an investment banking job at Morgan Stanley. Two years later, he joined private equity firm General Atlantic to build up its investments in Latin America. In 2010 he returned to Stanford for his MBA and, he hoped, to develop the concept for his own startup and the killer instincts to execute it. But while still a student, he was recruited by Leone to develop Sequoias Latin American business. When that opportunity evaporated, Vlez retreated to his parents Costa Rican home to plot his assault.

Rebel Leader: If banks are Darth Vader, credit cards are the Death Star, says Cristina Junqueria, Nubanks cofounder. Theyre the horrible weapon the banks used.

Vlez is an unlikely assassin. Hes an even-keeled manager who, before the pandemic, began meetings with a minute for meditation. In his spare time, he reads fiction. His favorite novel is Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude. But hes also a fan of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged, and he learned in his VC and Stanford days that an entrepreneur can hit it big by using technology to take out fat, complacent incumbents. Whats the biggest industry in Brazil? Banking. And whats the most profitable? Banking, he says.

Back then, five banksIta, Bradesco, Santander, Banco do Brasil and Caixacontrolled 80% of the Brazilian market, earning massive profits by lending at high interest rates and charging exorbitant fees while providing lousy customer service. Brazilian banks suck. It has always been like this and will always be like this, Vlez says one Brazilian friend told him.

But in the early 2010s Vlez saw broadband internet and smartphones spread quickly across the enormous country. You had these gigantic opportunities [to disrupt] industries like banking that no one was really looking at because nobody thought it was possible. He adds: Nubank could never have been started by a local. . . . It required a Silicon Valley investor who has seen this story of the tiny ant going against the elephant and succeeding. A Latin American investor sees that and says, No way, the elephant is going to crush you.

Vlez spent months chatting up Brazilian bank insiders and studying digital bank upstarts like Capital One in the U.S. and ING Direct in Europe. He began to chart his course. Nubank would start with credit cards and then expand to other services, using technology to undercut the big banks fees and beat them on convenience. He returned to Sequoias Menlo Park, California, offices, securing $1 million from his mentor Leone and his former VC partners. Argentine venture firm Kaszek pitched in another $1 million.

Sequoia partner Roelof Botha told Vlez that he needed a cofounder with banking experience. Through an acquaintance, Vlez met and recruited Cristina Junqueira, a 30-year-old Brazilian engineer with an MBA from Northwesterns Kellogg, who had just quit her job running Itas largest credit card division. To build Nubanks technology, he recruited as the third cofounder an American he knew from his Sequoia days, Edward Wible, a 30-year-old Princeton computer science graduate.

Brazilian banks, with their notoriously high fees, poor service and seeming obliviousness to how technology was quickly changing consumers expectations, were sitting ducks.

The trio set up shop in a rented So Paulo house, with Wible living upstairs. In August 2014, they raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia, with Nigel Morris buying in through his specialty fintech VC firm, QED. To close the deal, Vlez took papers to the hospital for Junqueiras signaturewhile she was in labor with her first child.

The next month, Nubank rolled out its first product: a credit card. Nubank couldnt start with bank accounts because it faced a high hurdle to getting a bank chartera Brazilian constitutional provision barring foreign bank ownership. But it didnt need a banking license to offer credit cards. Plus, Brazilian credit cards had sky-high interest rates, then running 200% to 400% a year, meaning customers would either have to pay off their cards in full each month or pay Nubank a small fortune. While Vlez aimed to make money primarily from interchange feesthe 5% of credit card sales merchants kick back to issuers and the bankshe wasnt going to be shy about penalizing late payers with interest and fees.

Rather than burn scarce cash on marketing, Nubank used the velvet rope strategy common in Silicon Valleyat the start you had to be invited by a friend to apply for its credit card. Faux exclusivity aside, the appeal for Brazilians was obvious: Nubank charged no annual fee and handled applications entirely through its app. Those who qualified were notified within minutes, and the eye-catching purple credit cards arrived as soon as two days later. Plus, everythingfrom credit-line increase requests to bill paying and fraud reportscould be done through the app.

By contrast, almost all Brazilian banks charged annual fees for even basic credit cards$20 the lowest. And that was just the start; the banks also charged monthly fees for everything from fraud protection to text-message alerts. In 2019, fees made up nearly 40% of Brazilian banks revenue, compared with 15% to 20% for banks in Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile, according to a JPMorgan analysis. The big banks are still resisting, but Nubank is putting those fat fees under tremendous pressure.

Brazil is the country of the future and always will be, the old saw goes. That captures both the boom-and-bust nature of its resource-based economy and a sense that its vast potential has repeatedly been squandered. The fact that everybody sees the macroeconomic picture and 99% of people get scared means its an opportunity for us to play the contrarian, Vlez says. We think that over a period of ten or 20 or 30 years, Brazil will find its way.

At the end of 2014, Brazil slipped into a deep recession. Yet just 12 months later, more than a million people had applied for a spot on the Nubank cards waiting list. To protect itself from losses, Nubank approved only 20% of applicants and gave some ultralow spending limits of $14, raising that only if payments were timely. And Nubank continuously tested new ways to use data to gauge riskfor example, considering not only an applicants own credit history, but the payment record of the referring customer.

Trifecta: Nubank was able to be in the right place at the right time with the right strategy, says cofounder and CTO Edward Wible. All banks are becoming software companies.

In 2016, Nubank hit 1 million accepted credit card customersalmost entirely through word of mouth and referralsand Vlez was ready to step on the gas. That December, he closed an $80 million funding round led by Yuri Milners VC firm. To put the sheer size of that in context, by PitchBooks count, the rest of Brazilian startups combined raised just $340 million in venture capital that year. Vlez used his portion of the stash to hire hundreds of tech workers, opening an office in Germany to get access to additional talent.

Finally, in May 2017, after a presidential decree gave it an exemption from foreign ownership rules, Nubank received a Brazilian banking license. Now it could offer its checking and savings accountsall digital, naturally. While established banks were then charging as much as $10 a month per accountwith extra fees for ATM withdrawals and other basic servicesNubanks accounts were free, save for a passed-along $1.20 charge to use other banks ATMs. Within five months, 1.5 million of Nubanks 4 million credit card customers had signed up.

Nubank was growing fastit booked $523 million in revenue, with a $78 million loss, in 2019when the pandemic hit. Then it started growing faster. Like other fintechs serving consumers, it benefited mightily from lockdowns and fear, as even older Brazilians took to banking via mobile phones and the web. In 2020, Nubanks revenue nearly doubled, to $963 million, while losses narrowed to $44 million.

Not surprisingly, copycat digital banks are cropping up in Brazil, and the old-line banks are investing more heavily in technology. Some are even launching their own digital-only services. In response, Vlez is piling on new features. Last year, Nubank acquired a pioneering digital investing platform and rolled out a life insurance product, selling 100,000 policies in the first two months.

Such diversification is a holy grail for digital banks, but few have done it so successfully. Nubank is the exception that proves the rule, says QEDs Morris. Customer satisfaction remains strong. In a recent JPMorgan survey, Nubanks net promoter score (a measure of satisfaction) was 86, compared with 53 for Ita and 43 for Bradesco. With Nubank, they show you what you can do, you press a button and it works, says Bruno Alves, a 28-year-old customer from Salvador, a city in northeastern Brazil.

Nubank required a Silicon Valley investor who has seen this story of the tiny ant going against the elephant and succeeding. A Latin American investor sees that and says, No way, the elephant is going to crush you.

Nubank expanded to Argentina and Mexico in 2019, and into Vlezs native Colombia last year. While most meetings are conducted in English to accommodate its international staff, Vlez has no plans to compete north of the border.

Vlez met his wife, Mariel Reyes Milk, in 2013 at a gathering for international business types in a So Paulo bar. They are a global-village power couple: She has an American mother and Peruvian father and has lived in Uruguay, the U.S. and the Philippines while working for the World Bank. Their three young children hold Brazilian citizenship; Vlez himself is a citizen of both Colombia and Costa Rica. My wife and I usually say that we have no nation, no roots, he joked to a Brazilian magazine in 2019. We have lived in so many places and are considered gringos in all of them.

So while Vlez doesnt plan to set up shop in the United States, hes considering taking Nubank public there, mostly as a marketing event. But hes in no rush. Were in the first second of the first minute of the first half of the soccer game, the congenial assassin says. You always have to use a soccer analogy in Latin America.

More:

How David Vlez Built The Worlds Most Valuable Digital Bank And Became A Billionaire - Forbes

For artists whove never had any interest in picking up an economics book, nows the time to get interested.

Guest post by Rebecca Day of the Foundation for Economic Education

On March 2, online publication MusicRadar covered a report released by the University of East Anglia detailing independent musicians dwindling incomes. The report stated two major factors are at play.

First, artists who belong to major labels have a distinct advantage over independent musicians when it comes to earning potential from streaming. Platforms like Spotify and Apple favor major labels for several reasons. The main reason is that major labels have a ton of money invested in streaming platforms. Naturally, companies are going to give perks to those who offer them the most capital. Hence, its no secret that major labels like Sony and Universal (two of the four major labels left) own streaming.

But theres another reason for shrinking incomes thats mentioned in the report. Artists receive measly earnings from streaming. Even major artists admit streaming doesnt pay the bills.

So where does this leave independent artists sandwiched between an industry still held captive by gatekeepers, and products with earnings that dont even begin to cover investments?

Despite the mystery and secrets of the industry, much of the confusion can be solved by understanding the sound laws of Austrian Economic Theory. For those artists whove never had any interest in picking up an economics book, nows the time to get interested because free market economics is the single most important driver of your business. And whether you like it or not, whether youre a musician, writer, or painter, youre a business if you take in income.

The Subjective Theory of Value comes from the father of Austrian Economics, Carl Menger, who stated that individuals value things at different prices at different times for all different kinds of reasons. This went directly against the Labor Theory of Value, a popular economic theory which states products should be priced according to labor put into them.

While subjective values are often talked about purely from the consumers point of view, it is important to understand this economic law plays just as important a role for an entrepreneur.

As business owners, musicians are constantly investing in their work. Studio time for recording, new instruments and equipment, and travel expenses are just a few goods and services musicians buy on a regular basis.

Even though these goods and services appear to be from different industries, they all have one thing in common. Their prices are directly tied to what consumers are willing to pay for them. If you are touring and need a hotel room, you will search for the cleanest one at the best price. Find one with tons of amenities but too steep a price, and youll move on. Find a dingy one with a killer rate, you may move on from that too. The winner will be the hotel with the price which makes the troubadour think, I value this hotel room more than the hundred dollar bill in my pocket.

This same process goes for music stores. Ive seen time and again customers and store owners haggle over numbers until they come to a price that suits them both a price which reflects that the store owner values the $1,000 dollars more than the guitar hes selling, and vice versa.

Things get confusing when you step over to the realm of music production and distribution. Artists are often so emotionally tied to their end product, they fail to make wise investment choices from the start. While its great for the recording studio who gets $10,000 from an independent artist for an EP recording, its not so great for the artist, who even after recording still has to pay for distribution, physical CDs, vinyl, and touring expenses to promote the album. With streaming services like Spotify paying an average of $0.003-$0.005 per stream, this doesnt seem like a justifiable investment.

Because books and music are all around us now, available for our immediate consumption, the prices consumers pay for the products have been significantly reduced.

The Subjective Theory of Value came into play with my music business not too long ago when my band had new music to record but the recording studio wed been recording at for years had gone up in prices (good for them for increased demand). When I ran the numbers against what we generally make each year from music sales, I had to make the hard decision to pass and come up with a new plan. Due to competition, I have options. I could go find a new studio to record at with better rates (and hopefully no sacrificed product quality.) Or I could even take the time to build my own studio and learn the ins and outs of music production (the most cost-effective).

Not only did I come to the conclusion that I valued keeping the money I would have to pay for the recordings more than the recordings themselves, but I also understood I could take that money and invest it in other resources that had more potential to grow my business and directly generate income.

But many musicians dont realize taking a continued loss on investment project after project is not a sustainable way to run a business. They get caught up in the novelty of recording in Nashville. Or they think more expensive means youll be taken more seriously by industry professionals.

Couple this business model with myriad artists who have operated this way for years and its no wonder musicians are having to take day jobs just to pay the bills.

Another economic theory Carl Menger coined is the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. This economic theory can be clearly seen everywhere in the entertainment industry. An article published by Electric Lit stated in 2019:

[Books] used to be much more difficult to obtain; you couldnt flip through Monets or read some Robert Frost poems while standing in line at the grocery store, and as a result we did what we do with many rare things we intellectualized them and tried to ascribe them meaning.

Because books and music are all around us now, available for our immediate consumption, the prices consumers pay for the products have been significantly reduced. This goes in line with the example often used when explaining the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. People often ask why diamonds are so much more expensive than water when water is a critical need and diamonds are a luxury.

It wont be some union that saves musicians. It definitely wont be outdated entertainment law written during the 1920s music landscape.

The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility states that the more units of something someone has, the less value they ascribe to it. If Farmer Bob has one apple, that apple will have the highest price compared to the second, third, fourth apple and so on as he obtains more.

This not only solves the water-diamond dilemma, but it plays a direct role in artists earnings as well.

The easier it is for consumers to get their hands on more books, music, and cinema, the less they will value it from an economic standpoint. Therefore, they are willing to pay less for it.

The arts industry can be predatory. Artists are a different kind of entrepreneur because their products are deeply rooted in their emotions and psyche. Industry professionals know this and have figured out many ways to take advantage of this vulnerability.

Because of this, its important to hold Reason at the forefront of each business decision we make. This can be the hardest lesson to learn as a creative entrepreneur and one we have to work at mastering our whole life.

If we continue approaching the issue of dwindling arts incomes from the standpoint of emotionalism, of blaming capitalism, or the industry, or streaming services, we are leading the charge for an irrational battle cry.

For if there is more tragic a fool than the businessman who doesnt know that hes an exponent of mans highest creative spirit its the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.

Though consumers determine prices, its important to understand we have to say no when the investments we make in our products are continuously greater than our return. We say no by taking advantage of all the market has to offer. Many artists are already doing this. Theyre recording their own albums. Theyre taking advantage of live streaming. Theyre foregoing 360 deals with record labels that result in them losing rights to their music.

These smart business decisions dont solve the overall problem overnight. But its a step in the right direction.

As the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises once said, All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.

It wont be some union that saves us. It definitely wont be outdated entertainment law written during the 1920s music landscape.

It will be the individual artist, the writer, the musician, who understands and champions art as business, and makes rational, economically sound decisions to reflect that philosophy.

This understanding executed via the free market will ultimately be what corrects horribly low streaming payouts, incredibly high investment prices, and artists relying on the heart instead of the head to make art profitable.

Richard Halley, a character in Ayn Rands monumental novel Atlas Shrugged, said it best.

For if there is more tragic a fool than the businessman who doesnt know that hes an exponent of mans highest creative spirit its the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.

RebeccaDayis an independent musicianand writer, and enjoys applying the principles of Austrian economics to her businesses. More information about her music and writing can be found atrebeccadaymusic.com.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

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