I've been honing some other ideas about art and entertainment which I will post soon, but for now the BIG news is the falling stock market. Charlie Finch has lucidly taken a bite of the crumbling cake of the Hedge Fund August Surprise. Well actually it's not such a surprise - at least not to the guys running the hedge funds. It seems the Bear Stearns guys cashed out just before their funds deflated like day old party balloons. Nothing illegal mind you - but the odds are always stacked in favor of those in the know.
"...Nonetheless, their timing last winter was notable for its good fortune, if nothing else. Once again it shows that company insiders seem to prove pretty good at knowing when their own stock is overvalued and when the future risks do not justify the price." Ouch!
As Charlie states in his article the art houses have been trying desperately to model themselves after the hedgers. If this holds true there might be a lot of secondary sales activity coming up in the fall season as collectors scramble to recoup on most of the art they've bought in this subprime or at best Alt-A art market glut. Which is not so great for the artists who will get tarred with this brush. There is a lot of competent product being made. A lot of it gets seen and a lot of it gets sold. However the differences between competent product and art are staggering (we will discuss this another day.) In the meantime a lot of artists who will be affected by our market will be going through what Cramer is going through with his. It ain't gonna be pretty.

ps. The Times has a quick article on the current crisis here.