{"id":3171,"date":"2019-12-08T15:07:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T14:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2019-12-08T15:15:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T14:15:37","slug":"lesen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/blog\/2019\/12\/08\/lesen\/","title":{"rendered":"Read!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If the D’Kart newsletter comes exceptionally on\na pre-Christmas Sunday, it’s for a good reason. To wish you a pleasant Sunday,\nto remind you of looking at the entries in the 2019 Antitrust Advent Calendar and\nfor the purpose of literary criticism: a very well-known colleague has\npublished a novel (in German), and you rightly want to know what it is like on\nthe day of publication. Rupprecht Podszun read it for you. And since you are\nnot going to buy this novel anyway, Adrian Deuschle recommends another\ncolleague’s book (which is also in German).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2640-future of\nantitrust law<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Our 2019 Antitrust\nAdvent Calendar has already triggered a discussion that can only take place on\nTwitter: Is the future of antitrust law female? There are grounds to believe so.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look\nat the entries published so far. As a reminder: this year (after the 2017<\/a>\nand 2018<\/a>\neditions, which in my opinion are still delightful to read) we asked a younger\ngeneration of competition lawyers what was particularly remarkable in this year\nof antitrust. And now, seven of the eight entries are by women! Higgledy-piggledy!<\/em> The gender balance,\nwhich at times was different in this blog (see e.g. the very beautiful but very\nmasculine photo at\nthe bottom of this article from 2017<\/a>), threatens to tip in the opposite\ndirection! In short, it’s worth keeping an eye on developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way,\nwe have smuggled some very prominent faces into the calendar in between. We\nasked them what they recommend to young people who are now starting their\ncareers in antitrust. The start of this exercise was done on December 6th with\na professor of antitrust law who is known all over the world. For decades, she\nhas stood up for international cooperation and, with untiring optimism,\nencouraged researchers (and politicians) all over the world to advance\nantitrust law. But you can read all this yourself. Here!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Dan Brown, it\u2019s Dan Zimmer<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Daniel Zimmer, then head of the German Monopolies Commission, a government think tank, and a renowned professor for competition law and many other things at the University of Bonn, gave an interview that caught my eye: he said he was collecting material for a novel, it was his after-work-pleasure to write \u201cas a dabbler\u201d, a story on fraud. He also said he took notes when having interesting experiences with other people\u2026 (Ever since I was on my guard when meeting Daniel since I did not want to end up as a joke figure in a novel.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Daniel Zimmer. Photo: Barbara Frommann<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In March\n2016 Zimmer resigned from his post as head of the Monopolies Commission,\nbecause he saw no sense in an advisory committee of the Federal Government,\nwhen this government ignored the advice. The case in point was the merger of\ntwo major German retailers, Edeka\/Tengelmann<\/em>,\nthat the Bundeskartellamt had banned. Minister of Economics Sigmar Gabriel authorised\nthe merger although Zimmer and his colleagues had strongly opposed this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cheered\nas I read the news of Zimmer\u2019s resignation \u2013 now he would finally have time for\nhis novel! But then Daniel Zimmer became dean of the large law faculty in Bonn.\nThis is an administrative position in Germany that usually rotates amongst\nprofessors, and as someone who has not yet been a dean, I imagine it does rob\nyour time, and maybe even a bit of your imagination\u2026 The project fell into\noblivion until a few days ago I read a plea\nin German daily Frankurter Allgemeine\nZeitung<\/em><\/a> by Daniel Zimmer, in which he advocated European standard setting\nfor the regulation of algorithms. That reminded me of the novel. When I asked him\nwhat became of that he sent me an advance copy. And, very quickly, we set up\nthe D\u2019Kart Literary Review editorial office and so we can today, when the book\nis finally out, give you the first review: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zimmer, Daniel: “M\u00f6bius and the art of cheating”, 257 pages<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I’ve never read a text by Zimmer that fast. Sure, his papers are worth reading, too, yet they are not what you would call a “page-turner”. Zimmer’s novel wasn’t a “page-turner” for me either, but that’s simply because I read it as a PDF where I had to scroll: It’s a “page-scroller”! A story that first made me laugh out loud, then you breathlessly follow the storyline, and it finally gets a surprising twist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor M\u00f6bius, Annabel\nand the Nutella Woman <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\nprotagonist is Professor Felix M\u00f6bius, who teaches law at the University in\nBerlin. The forty-year-something is mildly frustrated in his marriage, and so\nhe falls head over heels for the student Annabel. (I\u2019ve heard rumours that this\nhappens to professors once in a while.) Apparently, M\u00f6bius and Annabel have\nwhat other what people would call \u201csexual activity\u201d, but Zimmer unfortunately<\/s>\nluckily<\/s> does not go into details. In a second narrative strand, M\u00f6bius\nagrees to give his good name as a professor for a fishy expert opinion in an\nexpensive court case. Such unethical behaviour is also said to happen\noccasionally among law professors (I only know this from hearsay, of course).\nWhat unfolds in this constellation \u2013 there is a politician (the \u201cNutella Woman\u201d)\ninvolved and two computer science students who are more knowledgeable in Berlin\u2019s\nBerghain club than in computer sciences \u2013is a story with a lot of fraud here\nand there, so that soon it is no longer clear who is actually cheating on whom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zimmer is\nof course an intelligent author and crochets the strands together in such a way\nthat reading is fun and still needs some attention. The tone is a certain\nironic distance of the authorial narrator. Here and there the professor appears\nin the novelist, who still includes a little cultural history of cheating, going\nfrom biblical Jacob to Oskar Schindler. And when you wonder how the author\nintends to unravel all this, he drives the story forward: suddenly, the reader races\nfrom Berlin to the C\u00f4te d’Azur, where Mediterranean lightness occasionally\nchanges life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything you always\nwanted to know about law professors, but\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the\nfirst two thirds of the book I am very biased: everything Zimmer describes is\ntoo much a report from the life of a professor. Happy if you can laugh about it\nwith no asking yourself whether Daniel took that from talks with you\u2026 Those who\nonly know law faculties or the twists of law firms with professors from a\ndistance may think that this is satirical escalation. But Zimmer actually stays\nclose to the realities (for example when describing endless meetings of the faculty\ncouncil). The fact that German law faculties are already suitable for\ncaricature without exaggeration should give food for thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The actual revelation is the surprising last third of the book. If “M\u00f6bius” had so far been at the level of a very entertaining campus novel, this suddenly leads to a completely different literary journey – all further information would be spoilers, and I shouldn’t do that to the readership of this blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote at\nthe beginning that you won’t buy this book anyway. The reason is simple: you\ncan\u2019t. Zimmer, who apparently has internalized the “economics of\nfree”, put the novel online for free. Is this an attack on other\nsuccessful business models that have achieved sales with free services? The\nwebsite’s privacy statement does not seem as exploitative to me as Facebook’s –\nbut the Bundeskartellamt should keep a watchful eye on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you\ntoo: at www.kunstdesbetruegens.de<\/a>\nyou can download and read the new Zimmer free of charge (if you are able to\nread German)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achim Wambach and the state of digital affairs<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

What to do\nwith the money saved? Adrian Deuschle<\/em>\nhas a recommendation for you \u2013 Zimmer’s successor in the Monopolies Commission\nalso wrote a book, and even though this one was published in 2018, it is still\nsuitable as a Christmas present for loved ones who should get to know your area\nof expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wambach, Achim; M\u00fcller, Hans Christian: “Digital prosperity for all: An update of the social market economy is possible”, 222 pages, Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt\/New York (2018)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Achim\nWambach and Hans Christian M\u00fcller present in their book the transformation of\nthe social and economic order through digitisation. The laws of the social\nmarket economy described by Ludwig Erhard in his book “Wohlstand f\u00fcr\nalle” (“Prosperity for All”) to increase prosperity for the\nbenefit of all must be renegotiated in the age of digitisation. According to\nthe authors, the big tech players (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook),\nwhose monopolisation was favoured by network effects in the platform economy,\nlack competition. Their supremacy is undeniable, so they say, since they are able\nto buy off emerging competition through killer acquisitions and \u2013 also thanks\nto a low tax burden \u2013 are filling up their deep pockets more and more. Their\nmarket power is also used to favour themselves in other markets in order to\ngenerate market shares there as well. The data collected in this way enables\ndigital companies to hold their gatekeeper positions, and play out targeted\nadvertising at consumers. This is the view set out by Wambach who is the\nleading economist in the government\u2019s advisory council Monopolkommission<\/em> (that according to Zimmer\u2019s experiences is not\nlistened to anyway).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labour\nmarket, so the authors say, will also change as a result of digitisation. Many\nprofessions will no longer exist in the future (good lawyers are of course\nalways needed!), but at least as many new ones will be created. Politicians\nmust therefore support lifelong learning and increasingly promote the study of\ntechnology and natural sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Achim Wambach<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Achim\nWambach is chairman of the Monopolies Commission and head of ZEW, his co-author\nHans Christian M\u00fcller is a journalist with Handelsblatt<\/em>.\nThe symbiosis between a renowned economist and a polished writer leads to a\nsuccessful combination: high level, easy to read. The transformation of our\neconomy is easy to understand. Wambach\/M\u00fcller show that the promise of the\nsocial market economy can still be fulfilled. However, this requires targeted\nregulatory intervention on the part of the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus\nof the publication, readers of this blog will be pleased, is on competition\npolicy, which is attributed an important role in taming digital corporations.\nEssential problems of current competition law are presented on the basis of\nwell-known cases. But tax and social policy are also subjected to a critical\nanalysis. Some very concrete proposals are made. However, the authors are aware\nthat not every new phenomenon requires new regulation. Thus the proposed\nchanges (quite in the sense of good old ordoliberalism) are limited to the\ncreation of a framework for digital competition. The fact that new business\nmodels lead to upheavals in the economy is basically nothing new and part of\nthe “creative destruction” described by Schumpeter. How this creative\ndestruction in the digital world could be cushioned by the state is illustrated\nvery clearly in this book. A good and provocative read!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these two recommendations for the long\ndistance and with the recommendation of the daily short read in our Advent Calendar,\nthe D’Kart-Team wishes you a nice start into the new week!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Rupprecht Podszun is the literary editor\nof D’Kart Literary Review, Adrian Deuschle is responsible for the non-fiction section.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the D’Kart newsletter comes exceptionally on a pre-Christmas Sunday, it’s for a good reason. To wish you a pleasant Sunday, to remind you of looking at the entries in the 2019 Antitrust Advent Calendar and for the purpose of literary criticism: a very well-known colleague has published a novel (in German), and you rightly want to know what it is like on the day of publication. Rupprecht Podszun read it for you. And since you are not going to…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,304,163],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","tag-antitrust-advent-calendar","tag-books","tag-monopolkommission"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"en","enabled_languages":["de","en"],"languages":{"de":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3182,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions\/3182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}