Today, tortured and with tears in my eyes, I finished my first marathon.
I'm pleased with my time (4:30:40). If I keep running, maybe I can beat 4 hours next year.

OK, I will fall asleep now and pray that I can still walk tomorrow.

Labels: Patrick

My friend Konrad and I occasionally compare our living costs in German and Austria. Communication costs are particular interesting. Since years, we find broadband internet to be cheaper in German, while mobile telephony is cheaper in Austria. Why that?

Let's try some back-of-the-envelope calculations:

• Population density and broadband internet: Wiring a highly populated area is cheaper (per head) than wiring a low populated area. Population density turns out to be more than double in Germany than in Austria. 231 people/km² in Germany vs. 99 people/km² in Austria.
• Competition and mobile telephony: Higher competition means lower prices. Austria has a 12 times higher ratio of mobile phone companies per people. 4/82m in Germany vs. 5/8m in Austria.

If we follow the Voice-over-Internet trend, it's save to say that telephony is moving online. So cheaper internet, gives Germany an edge. But new technologies like HSDPA offer broadband on a mobile device. So, Austria with cheaper mobile communication, may have the better deal after all.

Labels: Economics

China's share of world GDP is nearly four times more than it was in 1980. Measured at purchasing power parity, it approaches that of the world's rich countries. It's just a matter of time* before China returns to it's ancient status as the Central Kingdom.

*Goldman Sachs predicts that China's GDP will overtake the US GDP (in PPP terms) by 2011.

Labels: Asia, Economics

International newspapers only write about Austria in their culture or travel section. If it does come up in the politics or business section, it's usually rather embarrassing.

Last weeks edition of The Economist had a fun (but sad, since true) sentence, stating that "the elan of Austrian business was stifled for many years by a bloated public sector, Kafkaesque bureaucracy and politicized boardrooms".

Examples of Austrias Kafkaesque Bureaucracy:

• Office Hours (Parteinverkehr): Mo, We, Thu 8-12am
• Tenant's rights (Mieterschutz): Enjoyed by renters, but dare you if you think about renting out yourself.
• Government Expenditure: 49% of GDP (that's 66billion Euro).
• Civil Servant (Beamte): Learn to deal with them (they make up half the employed population). If you need something, prepare compliments and little presents like a cake or wine.
• Documents (Akten) must be long and hard to read.
• Labor law (Arbeitnehmerschutz): Better not to hire.
• Community housing (Gemeindewohnung): Apartments which are partly paid for by the government. Mostly for civil servants or their closest relatives.
• ??? (Kommerzialrat): Someone who has been civil servant for a long time.
• Post office: To get the full Kafkaesque experience, try sending a letter to Asia on a Friday around 5pm.

*The impossible fight against government regulation and monopolies, as described in Franz Kafka's "Das Schloß" and "Der Prozeß".