Scott Moore: Bailout Art
By Barry Ritholtz - July 12th, 2009, 11:30AM
We mentioned Scott Moore, a Laguna Beach artist, earlier this year.
He wanted to depict the stock market debacle and Bailouts via his painting. He documents the economic crisis here in the United States by using vintage toys — banks, cars, houses, piggy banks — to represent various areas of the bankrupted/bailed out economy. (You can see the entire process of how this was created via his website here).
Scott now has prints available of the work.
>
>
Great stuff Scott!
Sign me up for a print . . .
July 12th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Ritholtz, the mere availability of this type of art in the United States reminds me that – whatever our national debt and account deficit may be -
The illusion of wealth beats abject poverty any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
July 12th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
it should show the pigs crushing all the pawns.
July 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I’m thinking all those things should be dead weights pulling down to the rocks below a balloon with ‘American Dream’ written on the side
July 12th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The pigs sure look happy!
July 12th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
@ben22
The pigs wouldn’t be able to crush the pawns…
You see, if you look closely, the pigs are actually PIGGY BANKS (with the slot on top to drop coins in)…
The gravity necessary to bring these piggybanks down to earth with crushing force would imply that they were actually FULL of coins…
As we know that is not the case…
July 12th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Actually – the face on the tethered pig looks like the expression of the “Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man” (in the movie “Ghostbusters”) as he was tearing down Manhattan…
July 12th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
The black bishop is about to take the white rook…
July 12th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
cvienne,
I think you understand what I’m saying though right?
July 12th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
…and in the distance, there’s a black knight about to take a white queen…
looks like black is pretty well set up on this board.
July 12th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@ben22
I DEFINITELY understand…I’m just funnin’ as usual…
Why cry when you can make jokes?
July 12th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
[...] Via The Big Picture comes the interesting artwork of Scott Moore. One of Moore’s most recent projects has been depicting the financial crisis and resulting massive bailouts through a painting. The process to get to the finished product on a single canvass was extremely extensive. [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
cv,
nice eye, though, you missed the Black Pawn fixin’ on the White Knight.. (:
the only upside, from White’s perspective, is, in the Distance, the White Bishop trained on Black’s ‘Castle’.
maybe H.R. 1207 will be passed, afterall..
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1207
July 12th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
” the White Bishop trained on Black’s ‘Castle’”
Oh yeah…I didn’t see that far in the distance…
Well, clearly, if it’s BLACK’s next move it’s KNIGHT takes QUEEN…
WHITE is still screwed because it has to move the QUEEN one diagonal square (to shadow KNIGHT & therefore freeze it or else it exposes the ROOK)…But by doing so…black BISHOP takes white ROOK)…
so white either loses a ROOK or a QUEEN in either scenario…
July 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
but then white BISHOP takes black ROOK (so it evens out)…
Sounds like H.R. 1207
July 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
While the people in these sectors who were responsible for allowing this can be assumed through portrayed objects, I see no reference to the government. Unless its the man with the rein on the pig. But I see him as the taxpayer. NO?
July 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@Pat G
If it were the taxpayer as the guy with the tether, instead of him holding it tight in his fists, the rope would be around his neck in a noose and he would be flying through the air choking…
July 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
@ cvienne
OK. I saw your post about “talking their books” the other day and I agree but isn’t everybody doing that? I read from a few sites that I’m not particularly fond of but I do it so that I get a wide range of perspectives in order to argue against my own hypothesis. A wide variety of my positions I can defend but occasionally I can’t. I figure that person is probably more experienced than I because I have never claimed that I know everything about everything. Just sayin’
July 12th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
@Pat G
Re: “talking their books”
—
I’ll reply directly to that…I’ll preface this by admitting that it’s a ONE DIMENSIONAL argument (but something that occurred to me nonetheless)…
I’ll say this…I respect Dougy Kass’ views very much…
Yet since he made the “generational bottom” call back in March he has me scratching my head…Look, it’s WAN’T that hard a call to make (for one who’s a contrarian)…There were NUMEROUS signs that the market was technically oversold at that point…
The MOST REVEALING of all was that the 666 level was an EXACT .618 fibonacci technical retrace from the 1982 low (the start of the current “generational bull” market, which has many, like WB himself, seem like geniuses in the process)…
So now e get to “talking your book”…Why do you think that WB is ALL IN for new stimulus? Answer: because without it, it would hurt his book & reputation going forward…WB did nothing more than pile in at the beginning of a credit driven supercycle (which is now unwinding)…
As for Kass?
In April (after a run to 800+) he was already quoted as hedging…Then, in May, he reversed that and put 1,000+ on the table…Wow Doug, you get to be right from 750-1,000 now…congratulations!
But recently, DK nominally defended his “generational bottom” call (although he sure didn’t sound as rosy about it as back in March)…
His most recent HEDGE is that he’s going long SELLING PREMIUM…
So actually, I understand that call…If DK “piled in” at 666 and rode a 40% run-up…His “book” could effectively endure selling premium for the next 2-3 years (while the market MAY sell down to 576…to 480…then rebound back to 666)…He could pile his PREMIUM into averaging down long positions and eeek out a profit over these years…
It’s not such a bad idea…If you’re DK…
But if you were a different fund manager and didn’t participate from March to June…Instead, you might be in full SELL mode right now…You’ll probably be out of business by the end of the year…
Or, if you were someone IN BETWEEN (and, say, were in CASH at the beginning of the year, and managed to get a 10-15% juice during the rally)…You could SELL your equities at this point, and pile into Govvies for the balance of the year at 4-6 basis points below par…
When you crunch all the scenarios, it is easier to understand who may be “talking their books”…
1. The slowpokes (back in March), need a further equity rally
2. The DK’s are probably happy for the market to trade sideways
3. The rest may actually want a SELLOFF, and to make some $$ in govvies & buy lower down the line…
BTW – I know nothing about nothing either…this is all just my hypothesis…
July 12th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
@ cvienne
Thanks for clearing that up. I think? Too funny sometimes how serious our conversations can become here.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Great stuff, I thought of Pink Floyd…
but it’s not a dream.
July 12th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
“Wish I wasn’t here”
July 12th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
He sold the pig original for $65,000! Good to see an artist making some money.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
[...] By Scott Moore [HT: MR] [...]