In Pandemic, Stocks Fuel Billionaire Boom, Millions Out of Work, Global Super Rich Buy High-End Art

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Tue Aug 18, 2020, 11:13 AM - Edit history (2)

- 'Even in a Pandemic, Stocks Are Fueling a Billionaire Boom.'- Even with tens of millions out of work, billionaires are spending record sums at high-end (socially distanced) art auctions. By Sam Pizzigati, Institute for Poicy Studies, July 2, 2020. Originally in Inequality.org.

For the world’s super rich, the thrills don’t come cheap. But they do keep coming — even amid a pandemic. Case in point: this past Monday night’s historic Sotheby’s art auction, the first-ever “hybrid” sale of high-end artwork. On site in London, Hong Kong, and New York, socially distanced Sotheby’s specialists took in phone and online bids for four-and-a-half hours of often breathless auctioneering.

The evening’s bubbling bidding would set a new world’s record “for the most expensive work ever sold to an online bidder” — and then, on another piece, go on to set another. The most dramatic action came on a triptych — a three-panel painting — from the avidly collected British artist Francis Bacon. The bidding started at $48 million, then settled into a cat-and-mouse duel that involved a mystery online bidder from China who kept trumping the previous highest bid by $100,000. The work finally sold for nearly $85 million.

Another spirited round of bidding involved a “brightly colored forest scene” by an artist who committed suicide last fall. A work by that artist, Matthew Wong, had never sold before this week for over $62,500. At Monday’s pandemic-time auction, his forest scene went for $1.8 million. Irrational exuberance, anyone?

And what has the world’s rich so excitedly exuberant? The stock market. In 2020’s second quarter, the world learned Wednesday, the shares of America’s 500 largest publicly traded corporations soared 20 %, this century’s highest-ever quarterly S&P 500 ascent. That rates as good news for anybody with appreciable dollars invested in the stock market — and particularly good news for the richest of the global super rich, the sort of folks who collect multimillion-dollar artworks as casually as the rest of us accumulate refrigerator magnets...

More, https://ips-dc.org/even-in-a-pandemic-stocks-are-fueling-a-billionaire-boom/

https://ips-dc.org/

Top 12 U.S. Billionaires Surpassed A Combined Wealth of $1 Trillion: First Time In U.S. History
https://democraticunderground.com/1016266234

[safeinOhio]

1. Seems to me, the rich have way more money than they

will ever need. Now they are fixed on making everyone else poorer just to put more distance between the rich and poor.

[appalachiablue]

2. The gulf between rich and poor, w/o even

a healthy middle class anymore to bridge the divide is evident. And economic and class division is well known for being detrimental to social stability. Until the last 20-40 years of hyper neoliberalism, the US was a leader in ways namely democratic values, opportunity and prosperity. The transformation of the last several decades is oblivious to many, or accepted by others; and conditioning has been effective to a large degree. Many people have enjoyed enormous gains while others struggle.

Separate neighborhoods, schools, incomes, lifestyles, consumer habits, transportation, media, and medical treatment contibue greatly to divisions, the absense of unity and common purpose, and national cohesion. Extreme income inequaility and class conflict historically lead to undesirable outcomes. Don't we know it from the past and looking around the world today. One can hope things change for the better for all, people and planet.

[yankee87]

4. Wealth Tax

This country needs both a wealth tax and a progressive income tax. Heard it on the sexy liberal radio show, after a billion dollars worth of wealth, 100% tax and give them a flag saying they won the capitalistic race

[appalachiablue]

5. A flag award-incentive sounds good..'Build back bettter'

[dalton99a]

3. The French used to have an elegant remedy for this obscenity

a bit messy but simple and effective

[appalachiablue]

6. Yeah, and I love art but Francis Bacon for $85 mill?! Lol