I've often wondered how much of that is either money laundering or some kind of taxable asset shell game.
Back a while there was a K5 Blazer than sold for $495k at Barrett-Jackson. It was a really nice truck but there was nothing rare about it except for the builder. A person could have recreated that exact truck, including labor, for about 1/2 the price.
Like lukypunchy, I suspect many parties have great interest in “pushing-up” asset values although the extraordinary increase in the money supply over the last quarter-century is also significant, most of the increase in the hands of a relative few. Some years ago there was a minor scandal in the art business when it was revealed high-end auction houses were loaning millions to customers bidding on works, the advantage being the inflated prices meant a “rising market”. A variation of the technique is Nvidia loaning money to the AI companies buying its chips although that fiscal churn is in the billions.
I hadn't heard about that art auction news... dang, the number of ways the rich try to use tactics and strategy to get richer... is ridiculous. Similar tricky things were done during the dot com bubble, and the SEMPRA scandals during the "energy crisis" of 2000-2001, and the many insider tactics that caused the housing market crisis? It's absurd how devious the rich are for no purpose other than to get richer, like there is a finish line for the wealthy to achieve a goal, where then they could be satisfied.
I've often wondered how much of that is either money laundering or some kind of taxable asset shell game.
ReplyDeleteBack a while there was a K5 Blazer than sold for $495k at Barrett-Jackson. It was a really nice truck but there was nothing rare about it except for the builder. A person could have recreated that exact truck, including labor, for about 1/2 the price.
Like lukypunchy, I suspect many parties have great interest in “pushing-up” asset values although the extraordinary increase in the money supply over the last quarter-century is also significant, most of the increase in the hands of a relative few. Some years ago there was a minor scandal in the art business when it was revealed high-end auction houses were loaning millions to customers bidding on works, the advantage being the inflated prices meant a “rising market”. A variation of the technique is Nvidia loaning money to the AI companies buying its chips although that fiscal churn is in the billions.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about that art auction news... dang, the number of ways the rich try to use tactics and strategy to get richer... is ridiculous. Similar tricky things were done during the dot com bubble, and the SEMPRA scandals during the "energy crisis" of 2000-2001, and the many insider tactics that caused the housing market crisis? It's absurd how devious the rich are for no purpose other than to get richer, like there is a finish line for the wealthy to achieve a goal, where then they could be satisfied.
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