Channeling Victor Frankenstein

Welcome to This Week’s Leyendecker View

Success is being excited to go to work and being excited to come home.
– Will Ahmed

FAVORITE READ OF THE WEEK

AI is way less important and impressive than indoor plumbing, by Freddie deBoer.

THINKING OUT LOUD

Channeling Victor Frankenstein

In 1818, Mary Shelly published the classic book, Frankenstein. Hard to believe it was published so long ago.

The Frankenstein story is pretty simple. Victor Frankenstein, a “genius” scientist, uses body parts from various dead people, puts them together to make a “whole person” and then makes him alive by stimulating his body with high-voltage electricity captured from a lightning storm.

Once the monster is brought to life, Frankenstein abandons him, fearful of his creation. Over the course of the book, the monster struggles to assimilate into society. This leads him to murder several people out of frustration, grief and anger. He isn’t normal. He will never be normal. At the end of the story, the monster vows to burn himself alive in a pyre.

Victor Frankenstein went on to lead a very troubled life. At first, he fled from the monster. Later he chased the monster, hoping to destroy his creation. Along that path, he died of exhaustion.

One way to reflect on this narrative…

Just because you can create something doesn’t mean you should.

Just because you can create life from death, as Frankenstein did, doesn’t mean you should. Doing so comes with consequences, and more often than not these are unintended consequences.

J. Robert Oppenheimer’s story, played out in a recent film, has a similar thread—except true.

The government tapped Oppenheimer to lead the physicists in Los Alamos in pursuit of the first atomic bomb. He was driven by a mix of patriotism, scientific curiosity, and the pressure of wartime necessity. However, after witnessing the bomb’s destructive power, particularly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he expressed deep moral concerns, famously quoting the Bhagavad Gita in an interview: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Across human history, innovation has come with consequences. It’s guaranteed, the natural order of things. And often these consequences, unless stopped and reversed, have a way of building on themselves, of exponential escalation.

What’s been the consequence of the atomic bomb? The development of more and more advanced weapons systems. Is this a good outcome? Or just the path to the bomb’s ultimate consequence, mutually assured destruction?

What was the consequence of gunpowder? Mass destruction via war? The effort to build more and more lethal military weapons?

What’s the consequence of the miracles of modern medicine? Life extension and a population explosion that’s resulted in more modern disease that requires more modern medicine.

If you’re a subscriber to human-created climate change, then you’ve found the consequence of using hydrocarbons to create energy. What are the consequences of abandoning them?

Consider the consequences of social media. Ever growing psychological challenges across our population.

Consider the consequences of artificial intelligence. What will people do when AI replaces white-collar jobs and robots replace blue-collar jobs?

Surely there have been productive outcomes from our quest for ever more “progress” but we seem to embrace the rush to grow power and wealth much more than reflect on the consequences.

What’s the Frankenstein lesson?

Just because you can create something doesn’t mean you should.

It’s like human curiosity is so boundless that we just have to keep on doing, keep trying to create something new.

Maybe that’s why we have the old saying, It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is permission.

THE RANDOMS

If you think we need to eliminate or significantly reduce the government’s influence on our world, a judge’s block on Trump’s spending freeze tells you how deeply rooted the deep state is.

Could the “no-buy 2025” trend lead us to a recession?

Will AI create deflation?

Last week, I suggested we were so enthralled with inauguration and Trump’s first days in office that we may be missing a potential Black Swan. Just one week later, China’s DeepSeek AI turned American AI on its head. What’s next?

Argentina’s Milei suggests his economic and market reforms have the country poised for an economic boom. But it might actually be the release of the country’s vast oil and gas reserves that’s the driver of an economic boom.

I mentioned this a while back, but it is worth mentioning again. Spain’s GDP per capita ($32,676), Italy’s GDP per capita ($38,373), France’s GDP per capita ($44,460) and the UK’s GDP per capita ($48,866) are below Mississippi’s GDP per capita ($53,061), and Mississippi has the lowest GDP per capita of any US state. Do you think Europe’s desire for global influence is delusional?

Lots of people have wondered who ate the first oyster. But perhaps just as interesting is who first milked a cow. I guess there are always a few “brave” humans willing to risk life or limb for fun or progress.

Ambition might be a double-edged sword. It can inspire you to do great things. But it can also inspire you to lie, cheat and achieve at all costs.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Economy
Trump gets a running start.

US economy on solid ground
Does the Fed sound hawkish?
Consumer confidence falls more than expected
Credit card debt keeps growing
Government Motors reports a loss
Boeing follows suit
Will Boom be the next Boeing?
Consumer Price Index moves higher

Labor
Labor needs more wages.

Costco raises pay to $30 an hour
Whole Foods workers in PA form union
Blackstone’s intense CEO hiring process
Tell your kids to be Walmart managers
AI is creating hiring chaos

BUSINESS

Finance
High interest rates are not PE friendly.

Investors are unloading PE stakes
PE experiencing a wave of bankruptcies
SEC says banks can hold crypto

Real Estate
Only the rich can afford to own.

Existing home sales still in a slump
Is multi-family building a bubble?
Living small, less can be more
Yes, it really can

Tech
Are we hitting peak tech?

Apple teams up with Starlink
VC startup world is floundering
Kids are getting sick of screens
Nvidia chief sees a robot future

AI
Is AI the new alchemy?

AI has a left-leaning bias
China’s DeepSeek blows US AI away
US businesses love cheaper DeepSeek
Did DeepSeek steal from OpenAI?
Alibaba claims its AI better than DeepSeek

Energy Transition
Climate change heads to the back burner.

Regulators stymie US nuclear energy
LNG vessels are in oversupply
Judge dismisses NYC Exxon suit
Storm shuts down UK wind farms
Underground hydrogen, the next energy race

THE NATION

The Washing-Tone
Trying to change the world in two weeks.

Quinnipiac poll is enlightening
Trump seeks to expand school choice
Federal workers offered buyout
Trump really wants Greenland
Rubio halts US foreign aid
But not to Israel and Egypt
Ukraine may get a pass
More exemptions follow

The Tariff War
Canada and Mexico need a last-minute fix.

Tariff threats may be working
The race for trade deals
Countries seek lobbyists with Trump ties
Canada and Mexico at tariff risk
They’re now trying to appease Trump
Trump’s shortest trade war

Social Trends
Why are Americans getting dumber?

DEI will not be missed, says NYT opinion columnist
American kids getting worse at reading
900MM foreigners want to move to USA
Are parents’ tech habits worse than teens’?

GEOPOLITICS

Europe
In the economic doldrums forever?

German economic model is broken
ECB cuts rates as growth stagnates
Is Europe’s defense spending enough?
Lithuania and Estonia pledge defense money to Trump
Davos hits peak European pessimism

Global
Waiting for trickle-down Trump.

Are left-wing politics dying?
The global natives are restless
Trudeau failed Canada
Canada exporting fentanyl to US
Pakistan’s military takes over economy

Ukraine
Jockeying for the ceasefire deal.

EU won’t ban Russian LNG
Russia is running out of cash
Bankruptcies are surging
Will Europe send in troops?
Ukraine hits Russian oil refinery

Middle East
This fire is nowhere near out.

Hamas tests the limits of Israel’s patience
Iran sends Hezbollah suitcases of money
More hostages are dead than thought
Palestinians are returning to Gaza
Clean out Gaza, says Trump
Lebanese ceasefire on fragile ground
Israel to keep troops in Lebanon

War Creep
How slippery is this slope?

China builds giant war center
US is working on space lasers
Here come US hypersonic missiles
Who is cutting Europe’s undersea cables?

China
Can we trust what China says about DeepSeek?

China knows what you do on DeepSeek
Property developer takes huge loss
China takes the lead on fusion
China tries to rein in crypto
China welcomes back Hollywood

MAKING A BETTER YOU

Mind
Get more quiet time.

Nordic secrets for a balanced life
The unexpected secret to happiness
Religion makes you happier

Body
Get more outside time.

The 5 best full-body exercises
Best pre-workout breakfast
7 keys to longevity

FUN STUFF

Let your hair down, baby! Even if you’re all alone.

The Extraordinary

$5,800 a pound for cow gallstones!?!
Our place in the universe is special
The biggest fungus in the world

Music That Found Us

50 years of SNL music, wow!
Billy Joel transformed, “And So It Goes”
Space-age bachelor pad music, Esquivel was ahead of his time.

Worth a Watch

Love Me trailer looks interesting.
Popcorn fun Prime Target trailer.
The Present, an amazing story.
Population 11 trailer, quirky fun.

The Yum Yums

The best marinara sauce
Dubai chocolate, the world beater
Yammy no-knead bread
Red wine short ribs
Creamy, cheesy polenta

PARTING THOUGHTS

Even the CEOs who are engaging in the race have stated that whoever wins has a significant probability of causing human extinction in the process, because we have no idea how to control systems more intelligent than ourselves.

– Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the UC Berkeley

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Cornerstone of MAGA
January 24, 2025

The Lessons We Learn, or Not
January 17, 2025