The Quiz
If you’re interested in the structure of the art market I recommend this piece. And the specific little part that I want to talk about is this:
You can argue the toss on some of these, but the main thrust is clear: the value of a work of art is to a very large degree a function of the city where it’s being sold. New York’s at the top of the heap (or, to be precise, Manhattan); Berlin punches well above its weight; Paris, the erstwhile center of the art world, is conspicuous by its absence.
Something obviously happened to topple Paris from its place at the centre of the global art market. We could all argue about what that was but I would put forward the idea of the droit de suite. This was a tax, a charge, placed upon art of suitably recent manufacture when it was resold. This charge then went to the artist or their estates. Now it seemed fair when it was brought in, after WWI. For there were those who had bought art ten, twenty, years previously and were making vast profits while the artists’ families were living in poverty. But what seems fair and how things play out don’t all that often connect in the real world. Paris is no longer the centre of the art world and (well, until the EU imposed the droit across the EU, meaning that all of the EU is likely to have this problem in future) as little is sold there little is collected for the starving orphans.
The larger issue, the one we really want to take note of (not really being all that worried about what happens to Damien Hirst’s heirs) is that small changes in regulation, small changes in taxation, can indeed move markets over time.
The Eurobond markets are in London simply because the US used to have a with holding tax on bonds issued “onshore” in the US.
There are two things that can happen, as above. A market might move geographically over time in response to regulation or taxation: or new markets might arise elsewhere, having the same end effect of draining activity from the original place.
No, I don’t expect bonus limits of 50% taxation levels to denude the City of London of its activity (and, recall, the huge tax revenues to the Treasury) overnight. But changes, regulatory and tax, will lead to a reduction in the City that we might have had without them.
Kevin Carson on the hero Bradley Manning
My true love sent to me: eight maids a-milking. In the Christmas song, A Partridge in a Pear Tree, these may signify the eight beatitudes or blessings in the Sermon on the mount: blessings to the poor, the meek, those who mourn, the just, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who suffer persecution.
Milton Friedman pointed out that when the American colonies were first settled, roughly 95% of the people worked in agriculture, sustaining a population of around three million. Today, less than 5% are in agriculture, yet American agriculture feeds not only a population of 300 million, but millions of other people around the world too. It just showed the kind of rapid technological, productive and distributive productivity growth that relatively free markets could produce, he thought.
Less than 3% of the UK population is involved in agriculture, but we seem to be able to feed ourselves, even without the wine lakes and butter mountains built by an earlier phase of EU agriculture subsidy. No, the people who do most milking these days are those in the political class. Politics and current affairs has become a major industry. The 24-hour news networks need political news, while politicians need the networks to get our their ideas and puff themselves up. Then there are think-tanks and lobby groups, (nearly) all pushing for new laws that help their particular client base. And there are journalists, whose career are made by getting exclusives.
Luckily, exclusives are just what politicians want, so they can spin the story their way before it gets into general circulation. So it’s you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Write some nice pieces about us and we might leak you the unemploymenf figures (with our take on them) a little early. So what if it’s public information – it’s valuable stuff, and by selling it we can curry favour with a newspaper and get our own spin put out too. Utterly corrupt, of course, but thats how it works. Or has done; but I get the feeling that this too is changing. A bit.
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“A healthy society cannot come about when people study not for the purpose of gaining wisdom and knowledge but for the purpose of becoming government officials.” – Ye Shi, Chinese philosopher (Hat-tip, The Economist) Join the discussion and post a comment Related posts:China and the Development Myth “Feser on Rothbard as a Philosopher,” by Gerard Casey [Libertarian Papers, Vol. 1 (2009), Art. No. 34] Deregulation Reduces Racial DiscriminationRelated posts:
- China and the Development Myth
- <a href='http://blog.mises.org/10428/feser-on-rothbard-as-a-philosopher-by-gerard-casey-libertarian-papers-vol-1-2009-art-no-34/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: “Feser on Rothbard as a Philosopher,” by Gerard Casey [Libertarian Papers, Vol. 1 (2009), Art. No. 34]‘>“Feser on Rothbard as a Philosopher,” by Gerard Casey [Libertarian Papers, Vol. 1 (2009), Art. No. 34]
- Deregulation Reduces Racial Discrimination
Only one violent incident was reported today. In it, gunmen attacked a Garma checkpoint, where they killed a soldier and wounded three others. Several stories about Iraq’s future prospects surfaced as well. For women and Christians the future looks bleak, but it may be the children of Fallujah who will suffer the most in the coming years as a surge in birth defects looms over them.
First, take stock of how far you’ve come in the last year, says Mark Sisson.
And why the US State is so bitter. Article by Glenn Greenwald.
David DeGraw on mainstream journalism’s disgraceful sham.
The meme goes on, says the Daily Bell.
Consider these survival radio options.
The short- and long-term analysis by Morris Hubbartt.
Yes, says Pat Buchanan.
Peter Dale Scott on Afghanistan, Colombia, and Vietnam.
Albert Jay Nock on the American appetite for self-punishment.
So are prosecutors, judges, and the Justice Department. Article by Bill Anderson.
Gary North also appreciates strip malls, chain restaurants, Wal-Mart, and other glories of capitalist civilization.
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