Subscribers are well aware of our position on the relevance of the luxury boom, which is covered again in this month’s issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast (see chart and discussion titled “In the Lap of Luxury” on pages 3 and 4). Versace jet planes and helicopters are the latest sign of a new all-time high for the great binge. Here’s some further thoughts from Matt Marks, Managing Director, Marks Strategies, that concur with EWI’s take the significance of the high-altitude indulgence:
BUT THIS TIME IT'S DIFFERENT!
Versace-trimmed helicopters and the bubble that keeps on growing
Working on Wall Street when the tech wreck happened in 2000 was a lesson in the first rule of market corrections. They just happen. Sure the danger signs are there but all those market strategists who were talking new paradigm the previous week were suddenly talking an overdue correction the day after.
No-one ever gets it right; there are those who warn of excess and those who ignore it. Harvard MBA grads are falling over themselves to get jobs at the world’s leading private equity funds and global hedge funds. Harvard grads are a great indicator of corrections as they all flooded into dotcoms in 1999 and Investment Banks in 1987.
Perhaps though it is when financial market excess spills over into popular culture and the fashion industry that you truly know the correction is near. I remember once sitting on a flight in the US next to a senior executive from Neiman Marcus who recalled the Tech Boom days when dot-commers would send back $25,000 watches because they were not "big" enough. His observation was telling. When you can start telling story after story of excess in high-end retail something nasty is coming.
Versace announced in March an arrangement with the Italian company AgustaWestland to produce tailored helicopter interiors for their range of commercial and personal helicopters. The Versace CEO was quoted as saying, "Interior design for helicopters is a natural extension with the Versace world."
Oh, but things are "different" this time. There is of course no bubble. |
