If you want the epitome of what is wrong today with investment banking, market analysis and the socioeconomic gap all wrapped up in one sentence this is it, the headline in a Bloomberg article about secondhand Rolex watch prices. I had to doublecheck it wasn’t April Fools Day.
We are talking Morgan Stanley here, not the 47th Street Pawn Shop.
Given that people are going to struggle to heat their homes this winter (it’s already “heat-or-eat” time in Europe), this “report” is up there on the asinine social deafness scale along with Marie Antoinette’s cake. And we all know how that ended.
My thoughts exactly when I saw that article... What's an investment house doing following the Rolex grey market? Maybe it's due to the insane highs that market reached during the bubble...
ReplyDeleteI believe it’s a misbegotten sense of entitlement that runs through the top 1% of the population, by wealth. And the Morgan Stanleys of the world are there to serve them, no matter what. They truly do not see the popular anger that such behavior may engender, and where it may lead. The French royals and aristocrats didn’t see it, the Romanovs didn’t, the Shah of Iran didn’t, etc etc. H.
DeleteAgree. The "everything bubble" mentality dies hard...
Deletehmmm... not sure I know anyone that wears a rolex regularly... always figured it is a gangster thing... maybe a bond vigilante thing?
DeleteIt's not about wearing one. (Personally, I have always found most of their watches rather gauche, particularly the gold and diamond ones, male and female models. One of the wealthiest persons I know regularly sports a Mickey Mouse watch :)
ReplyDeleteRather, it's about "investing" in Rolex and Patek Philippe watches as an "alternative" and having MS produce analyses on the "market". Think about it... what sort of sign is this? What does it say about financial markets overall? How overbought were (are?) they if legitimate investors reach to such "alternatives"?
ah... next, there will be Rolex swaps... then Rolex futures... someday, you will be able to trade Rolex that are not yet produced... makes as much sense as anything these days...
ReplyDeletebtw, thanks for the clarification... makes more sense now.... =)
Better yet, Rolex NFTs. Your metaverse avatar could own several of them, all purchased from the secondhand Rolex NFT market, followed by an AI analyst employed by a metaverse investment bank. Ohhhhh boy, Matrix here we come.
Delete“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
ReplyDeleteREALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather