Friday, May 18, 2007
The most honest title yet!!!!
Guardian: June 1, 2007: The crash begins?
Crash, mayhem, disaster . . . estate agents and surveyors were in full-on apocalyptic mode this week.
Posted by nearly30 @ 08:18 PM (357 views) Add Comment
15 Comments
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1. nearly30 said...
Oh - and - House price crash coming - official (Will Hutton says so)
See: City Wire
'The risk of history repeating itself is known, but too few people believe it,' he tuts. 'House prices are now six times average incomes - 20 per cent higher than before the calamity of the early 1990s.'
2. nearly30 said...
Seemly related to the whole its 1980s all over again:
Art of detecting a bubble from Daily Mail
The last time the art market went this crazy was in 1987 when a Japanese insurance tycoon paid £20m at Christie's in London for Van Gogh's Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers.
Ah I remember it well!!!!
3. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
4. Pr said...
Hips won't help, are poorly timed, but will only be part of the cause, prices are already falling! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/houses.stm
The government has shot itself in the foot tho and will get the blame, I blame BOE for being too cautious with rates over the past 2yrs, tho Brown has pumped too much money in public services in a way that has not sufficiently raised productivity.
5. japanese uncle said...
Van Gogh's Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers. This was bought by Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance, but later proved to be fake. at least there was a very strong rumour to such effect. Anyway I am afraid Britain is repeating exactly the same process as Japan experienced, as I have repetitively mentioned here. How cataclysmic the 'lost decade' for Britain would be, is simply beyond our imagination, after years of phony prosperity driven only by the 'gift of the gab'.(well said). Sterling can be devalued by 50%! as I hope.
6. Scott said...
I was having dinner today with most of my colleagues in London, like me they are not from London. We never stopped talking, then one of us said "So does any one of you actually like London"? There was a silent pause for a whole 10 seconds. We all see it as a means to an end, but when the crash happens and this excuse erodes, London will experience a bigger exodus than it did during the war when the kids were evacuated.
7. paul said...
JU, are you sure? You don't buy that kind of work of art before ascertaining its authenticity.
If Yasuda Seimei were happy to pay $32m (if I remember correctly) they would have paid a few thousand dollars for someone to confirm it was genuine first.
Evidence, JU, please!
8. paul said...
That being said, the point of the article is nonetheless the same.
9. paul said...
And (ahem sorry to butt in again), the point about the UK blindly repeating Japan's mistakes is noted as well.
The idea in the UK that we (condescendingly) could never repeat the errors of "those crayzee far easterners" in different decade is lost completely. We will repeat it and look back in history to say "we should have learned from Japan's mistakes. Doh!"
10. japanese uncle said...
Paul; It was not Yasuda Seimei (life insurer) but Yasuda Kasai (Fire & Marine (non-life( insurer). They obviously did (could) not appreciate works of art at all. They seemed to have been stupid enough to invest such huge amount, without even proper authentification. This is a true story as far as I know, though this topic is a taboo in Japan, actually, with too huge a potential impact. Such was the excessive liquidity in Japan, in those days. That is my point.
11. paul said...
Ahh okay. I saw Van Gogh's sunflowers at the Yasuda building many years ago.
Give me proof.
You absolutely know I want to believe you, but I won't do it unless you can point to a Japanese or English article that substantiates your claim that their Sunflowers is fake. They are not stupid, and even if they were they have the money to pay for experts.
I want your proof ojisan.
12. japanese uncle said...
One of the largest weekly maganizes in Japan 'Shukan Shincho', carried the article, alleging that it was a fake. If this allegation was unsubstantiated, then Yasuda Fire should have brought some action in court or else, against the publisher. Nothing happened, so many insiders believe there was no valid procedure to authenticate this painting before purchase. Naturally there must have been a criminal element involved. This topic still remains a mystery. Frankly I am not sure it is a fake or not.
13. japanese uncle said...
Further to the above, this scandal was originally reported by the Sunday Times. I rectify records.
14. pedagog said...
http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/vang0898.htm
15. paul said...
Hmm.
The crux of this story is this (from pedagog's link)
"In questioning the Yasuda Sunflowers, Bailey leans mainly on two outsiders he calls "amateur detectives" who claim it is a fake. They are Ben Landais, identified only as "a Frenchman based in the Netherlands," and Antonio de Robertis, called "a Milan-based enthusiast," who waged a campaign on the Internet. Both "detectives" claim they are crusading against the establishment, and that seems to be the extent of their expertise.
Although Landais and de Robertis don't offer actual fakery proof, Bailey appears to give them credibility by quoting them, and by picture caption. Under Bailey's photograph of the Yasuda Sunflowers, the caption says only: "Landais even rejects the Yasuda Sunflowers," giving a reader the impression that this is supposed to be major news from a major expert branding the picture a fake. "
In other words, the story that Yasuda's Sunflowers is fake looks very much like a well crafted lie itself.