Art Market Update

The Economist's review on Pop art collectors was brilliant.

Gursky is not simply a photographer fiddling around in Photoshop. You need to think about him as a classical painter and a master of the impossible perspective. That’s why he broke the ceiling of photography prices. When his works were selling for $100,000, I thought it was crazy, then when they hit a million, it didn’t seem so strange.
- Andrew Renton

The Israel Diamond Institute's Together Works Program

I thought IDI's (The Israel Diamond Institute) YouTube channel was interesting. Definitely an out of the box approach to promote the diamond sector. Hats off to IDI!

Useful link:
www.israelidiamond.co.il

Jewelers Ethics Association

Information. Education + mediation for consumers and the industry.

Useful link:
www.jewelersethicsassociation.com

The True Blood Jewelry Collection

Udi Behr's 'True Blood' jewelry line was intriguing. www.loveandpride.com

Symmetry

Symmetry by Hermann Weyl has great ideas addressing core issues in philosophy, math and markets. A must read.

Random Thoughts

According to the energy economist Phil Verleger, a $1 tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would raise about $140 billion a year. If I had that money, I’d devote 45 cents of each dollar to pay down the deficit and satisfy the debt hawks, 45 cents to pay for new health care and 10 cents to cushion the burden of such a tax on the poor and on those who need to drive long distances. Such a tax would make our economy healthier by reducing the deficit, by stimulating the renewable energy industry, by strengthening the dollar through shrinking oil imports and by helping to shift the burden of health care away from business to government so our companies can compete better globally. Such a tax would make our population healthier by expanding health care and reducing emissions. Such a tax would make our national-security healthier by shrinking our dependence on oil from countries that have drawn a bull’s-eye on our backs and by increasing our leverage over petro-dictators, like those in Iran, Russia and Venezuela, through shrinking their oil incomes.

- Thomas L Friedman
www.thomaslfriedman.com
www.pkverlegerllc.com

Spot on.

Precious

Precious has won the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival. It tells the story of Harlem teenager Precious, who is illiterate and expecting her second child. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.weareallprecious.com
www.tiff.net

Random Thoughts

Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won't pay for content anymore. At least, that's how they see it. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more? A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page. The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents a page. Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper. Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost of producing and distributing books. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics.Economically, the print media are in the business of marking up paper. We can all imagine an old-style editor getting a scoop and saying "this will sell a lot of papers!" Cross out that final S and you're describing their business model. The reason they make less money now is that people don't need as much paper.

- Paul Graham
http://paulgraham.com

So true!