patrick.net

clambo says

I just saw about some idiotic cartoon art (Ape Yacht Club) selling at Sotheby's for millions of dollars.

The art world is a scam. The "worth" of a painting is nothing more than a ponzi scheme and its heavily connected to the underworld to launder money.

If somebody purchases a painting from "a famous artist" for example, they will put up the painting they already own - anonymously (because they anonymously bought them) and buy the painting themselves for a higher price. This doesn't only "increase" the value of their painting which they bought from themselves, but it also increases the artwork of the artist, of which they sponsor increasing the value of their entire collection.

Another scam is you buy a piece of "art", and then lend it to a museum you control - in order to reduce your taxation.

It's all just a bunch of scams. So when you see something ludicrous selling for insane valuations - that's what you are seeing. Today, art has no actual intrinsic value because it can now all be duplicated easily. The only artwork that has any real value is antique art. Artists would spend YEARS working on a painting, they wouldn't pound it out in a week. Some legitimate artists only have a few dozen paintings they've made. Materials were expensive, and it requires years of study.

Most legitimate artists never made any real money doing it, although a few did. It was profession for basically the upper class. Here's a piece of work from a FAILED artist:



It's Madonna with Child - I've been tempted to make a Christmas card out of it, but I don't think people would get the joke. The joke is Adolph Hitler painted that. He actually wasn't a bad artist.

Here's a great example of some artwork by Jean-François Millet



This is "The Angelus" - it depicts some peasants praying over a harvest of potatoes - or at least it does now. He struggled as an artist, and what the painting originally was, was a child's coffin. Millet decided that would not sell well, so he modified it but the painting has been inspected with xrays and other techniques and it does reveal a coffin. What that painting actually depicts is the grief of mother and father over the death of their child, not the gratitude to God on having received a minimal harvest.

The pretentious and sophomoric creations today, are best representative of what sort of person is buying this fake market, but the market lasts so long as the public keeps buying into the fraud.

I hope the guys bid up a painting I'm sending to Sotheby's then. It's not a Picasso or Gaugin, etc.

On the subject of artwork, it's funny; I have found 4 great oil paintings in second hand stores. One was in Santa Cruz, the others in Florida.

I googled the artist's signature on one of them and a Christie's auction of another of his paintings came up; sold for $6000 or something.

I paid a few bucks for it. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Asset deflation. Any assets purchased with loans or supported by borrowing - the price goes down as rates go up, ceteris paribus.

Goods and services, especially in light of supply chain fuckups, sanctions, closing pipelines, etc. - not so much. Unless demand gets destroyed enough.

richwicks says

The art world is a scam.

Agreed.

Like the cryptos and NFTs, it's a "relief valve" for excess money.
Maybe mostly not from the same source as the money printed by central banks, but same denominated currency nonetheless.

So a "relief valve", - better to go there than into the consumer economy.

#18
They give their money to chicks.

Luckily he retired from Merrill Lynch before it went bankrupt from its own stupidity and greed and US taxpayers saved it.

I'm down 18% but I'm not living on capital gains rather dividends and interest, so I'm not in danger of having to get a McJob.

I'm hoping things get better in November.

I'm also grateful that most of my stocks pay dividends. I can afford to wait quite a while.

On the other hand, I really got killed on SHOP, which is down from 1,762 to 340.

The p/e is now 14.85, which is insanely cheap for a stock which still sees massive revenue growth each year. I don't understand it.

1. "What to do with $1000 today?"
If it's for retirement, invest it for capital appreciation
If it's for income, buy a fund that pays you income; e.g. Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund.
Mutual funds are the essence of investing.

2. I briefly worked "in the business"; one of the top guys previously sold cars.

In defense of the guy, he likely had graduated college, I think it was a prerequisite of working at the company.

Guys in the business are constantly selling to get new business, this is their daily activity; actual financial planning isn't a big part of their day.

What is complicated is how to get people to save and invest while spending is more fun.

From the art comments above. Isn't it a weird asset class for tax purposes? I recall reading/seeing something recently that buying art is some weird fucking loophole where you can write off a bunch of taxes in the high end art market against your income.

nothing going up till end of year. unsure after.

resign yourself to temporary losses

Re: Art.
I don’t know about others, but I inherited the painting I will sell.

I think that I will be taxed on the “gain” since I inherited it.

Auctions like Sotheby’s also are a racket; I think they charge a 20% sales commission.