Oct
30
2008
In Richistan, I wrote about a new political divide emerging among the wealthy. While most Lower Richistani’s ($1 million to $10 million in net worth) were voting Republican, most Middle-and Upper Richistanis (those worth $10 million plus and $100 million plus) were voting Democrat.
Lower Richistanis tended to vote almost exclusively based on taxes. But Upper [...]
Oct
26
2008
Mayor Mike has soared to the No. 8 spot on the Forbes list of richest Americans.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right, and artist Olafur Eliasson, tour one of Mr. Eliasson’s waterfall projects, center, at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
According to Forbes, Michael Bloomberg had the biggest wealth gain of anyone on the list this year, with [...]
Oct
25
2008
Economic populism is back, with attacks against inequality and the “greedy rich” back in style. But at the very moment that the public is outraged over the rich getting richer, the rich might actually be losing their share of the nation’s wealth.
Fred Bell, a one-time millionaire and now unemployed, sells apples at his stand on [...]
Oct
25
2008
Crisis, schmisis. When super wealthy car freaks want something, money is no object.
According to press reports in London, Aston Martin already has buyers lined up for its entire production of the One-77, a 200-mph car that is expected to be launched next fall. Sticker price: $2.04 million. That blows past the Bugatti Veyron’s once-shocking price [...]
Oct
25
2008
A year ago, Wealth Report readers told me how much money it took to be considered “rich” in their town. The answers ranged from a $500,000 income in Manhattan to $1 million to $2 million in total net worth in Kansas City.
The point, of course, is that wealth is relative. Being “rich” depends on where [...]
Oct
23
2008
With markets continuing to swoon, the next shoe to drop is likely to be hedge funds. That means tough times for hedge-fund filled Greenwich, Conn. (As Nick Paumgarten wrote in the New Yorker magazine recently, “If New York City is the heart of the marketplace, Greenwich is the liver, where toxins are processed and rich [...]
Oct
22
2008
For the past year, I have been predicting (wrongly) that the art market will correct. It defied the financial odds in part because the crisis hadn’t reached the super-rich and because a fresh wave of oligarchs and Middle Eastern sheiks hoisted their bidding paddles to save the day.
Gerhard Richter’s “Claudius” displayed at Christie’s auction house [...]
Oct
22
2008
Last week, Damien Hirst sold more than $200 million of pickled animals and splatter paintings in London. A unnamed buyer recently paid $28.5 million for a vintage Ferrari 250 GTO in a private sale, according to knowledgeable chatter on FerrariChat. A single bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée Conti 1962 fetched $13,310 (against an [...]