. . . the record we find most intriguing is in the art market. Overall, the Mei-Moses art index rose a record 22%. In the summer, a Gustav Klimt sold for a record $135 million. No one had ever paid that much for a painting. And then, a few months later in the year, along came someone with more money to spend. He laid out $140 million for a Jackson Pollack.

And here, we have to sit down and compose ourselves, our pulse races so. The buyer chose to remain anonymous. What a shame. Anyone who would spend $140 million on a dreadful painting deserves notoriety. In fact, more than that…he deserves clinical study. That amount of money would produce about $7 million in income each year, if invested at 5%. What kind of person could get $7 million dollars worth of pleasure from looking at a Jackson Pollack painting each year? What kind of person would be willing to look at it at all? We need to know more. Is this person normal? Is he allowed out in public? Is he human? Obviously, he has a lot more money than we do. But if he is so rich, how come he's not smart? Or are we the dumb ones?

If he cannot get $7 million in annual satisfaction from the painting, perhaps he can rent it out. Yes, dear reader, maybe you will have the opportunity to rent it. Let's see, the daily rate should be something like $20,000. Surely you'd pay $20,000 to have an oeuvre of Jackson Pollack's on your wall for 24 hours. Who wouldn't?

Unless the owner can get a return of $7 million…he must be counting on something other than yield. He must be counting on capital gains! He must be counting on an even higher price…and an even greater record! He's probably betting that there is an even greater fool.

And he may be right. . .

Editor's Note: Bill Bonner is the founder and editor of The Daily Reckoning. He is also the author, with Addison Wiggin, of The Wall Street Journal best seller Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century (John Wiley & Sons).

In Bonner and Wiggin's follow-up book, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis, they wield their sardonic brand of humor to expose the nation for what it really is - an empire built on delusions.

This information has been re-published in it's original form from The Daily Reckoning Web site.  It is re-published according to the guidlines presented on their web site.  To visit their web site and learn more about Bill Bonner or The Daily Reckoning, please visit:

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