Skip to main content

You know there's a bubble when...

Here's a fun piece from Bloomberg columnist Mark Gilbert which takes its cue from Jeremy Grantham's recent remarks about the world's "first truly global bubble".

In, "Champagne Cheaper Than Vinegar = Bubble", Gilbert lists his seven signs that the world has gone bubblicious and completely off its rocker. The world of contemporary art provides us with one prime example:

Skullduggery?

Take a life-sized platinum skull that looks eerily like Hedge-Fund Guy. Stud it with 8,601 diamonds weighing 1,106.18 carats. Give it a snappy title such as ``For the Love of God'' and, as long as your name is Damien Hirst, you have a recipe for turning $20 million of materials into a $100 million windfall.

``You have to get the price right, or it will come back into the market,'' Hirst told Bloomberg News reporter Linda Sandler. ``A lot of people buy things and flip them.''

You know there's a bubble when artists are trying to set their prices so high that there won't be a secondary market for their work.

Enjoy the article! And for more on the chutzpah of Hirst and other signs of our frothy times, search the blog.

Popular posts from this blog

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4. ...