Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 4 2025

Hollywood Hills is synonymous with wealth and exclusivity, but California's wildfires could become one of the most expensive natural disasters in US history in terms of insured losses. Forecasts by Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs estimate potential insured losses of up to 30 billion US dollars.

The fires are putting further pressure on the already ailing property insurance sector in California. Many property insurers, including Allstate and State Farm, have withdrawn from states such as California, Florida and Louisiana after years of losses. They cite statutory price caps as the reason, which make it difficult for them to operate profitably in high-risk areas such as California. For many homeowners, this means that they are dependent on the state insurance system “Fair Plan”.

In the long term, the situation will have a significant impact on economic growth in the region. High construction costs and rising insurance premiums further increase the financial burden for homeowners. At the same time, banks will not grant real estate loans without building insurance, which puts pressure not only on the real estate market but also on the entire financial system.

On Saturday, the European Capital of Culture 2025 - Chemnitz - celebrated the start of the Year of Culture together with 38 surrounding cities and municipalities. An impressive program with hundreds of cultural projects - including concerts, workshops, performances, exhibitions and much more - is on offer. Among other things, the Gunzenhauser Museum is showing the exhibition “Unwritten” on the topic of youth and growing up until March 16, 2025. Here, 20th century artists such as Paula Modersohn-Becker and Gabriele Münter enter into a dialog with contemporary positions.From August 10 to November 2, the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz will devote itself to Edvard Munch and focus on his anxious and melancholy side.The occasion for this is a visit by Munch, who came to the Saxon industrial city in 1905 at the invitation of textile entrepreneur Herbert Esche. So this year, a trip to Chemnitz is particularly worthwhile - even if the connection to the long-distance transport network is not yet really worthy of a capital city.

Unlike in South Korea, a convicted criminal who cannot be prosecuted further due to his office will assume the presidency in the capital of the United States today. His supporters will probably continue to share dances of joy on a Chinese social media platform. Instead of a TikTok video, Dr. Zilkens has written a letter from Vietnam.

With this masterful segue, the Zilkens Fine Art team wishes you a wonderful week.

Letter from the Editor

Dear readers of Kobel's Art Week,

On the day of the second inauguration of Donald Trump, I find myself in Hué, a city of strategic importance to the American army during the Vietnam War. In 1975, the US was forced to leave the country defeated. Depending on who you listen to, Vietnam's military conflicts with Cambodia and China continued until 1990. Since then, peace has prevailed here and the weaknesses of the neighbours are exploited to make a profit. Although it is a socialist people's republic, the country appears much more capitalist than Laos. They are dealmakers – in principle nothing different from what the future American president will do. Smart and Deal will be his guiding principles. Ethics, morals, laws apply to others, not to him and his entourage. It could become the Russification of America if the Supreme Court allows it - but with so much pessimism, a third term for Trump is also conceivable.

Europe has little to counter this, because there those who shift posts without real professional experience ultimately mercilessly execute the bureaucratisation and thus the suffocation of a great idea. In Germany, there will be elections soon. No party is visibly propagating the reduction of public sector jobs. Others, however, know how to use the bacillus of envy to capitalise on it. However, Kamala Harris has already failed in this regard because the American middle class does not support capital gain tax. Let's see how the German Greens fare. Some public sector employees and civil servants (and here really of every gender) from their core clientele are supposed to build up part of their pension on shares…

Let's remain optimistic: undesirable developments have been corrected again and again in history - even if it sometimes took decades.

Stay with us

Kind regards, Stephan Zilkens.