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Salvador Dali - Central Banker?
Submitted by Monty Pelerin via Economic Noise blog,
Would Salvador Dali make a better Federal Reserve Chairman than Janet Yellen or Ben Bernanke before her?
If that seems far-fetched to you, read on to understand the benefits Salvador Dali might provide for the Fed. Yes, Mr. Dali is no longer of this earth so you should feel free to substitute someone with similar skills. The point is that a man with his talents might be a better Fed Chairman than the economic hacks that are appointed.
Banking
Few topics are less understood (and more boring) than the mechanics of banking. Anyone who has taken an economics course was exposed to the bank-multiplier effect — how banks can “create” money via lending in a fractional-reserve system. John Kenneth Galbraith, a witty economist (no, that is not an oxymoron), said of money:
The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.
The simplicity of this process is understood by few non-economists. For economists the process is “so simple.” Those who understand the process and its implications may be “repelled,” although it is doubtful that the creation of money was what Galbraith had in mind. As a true Keynesian, Galbraith was in favor of utilizing money, particularly its creation, to manage and manipulate macroeconomic outcomes.
Salvador Dali as Fed Chair
Analogies can be effective in communicating otherwise complex topics. Dante Bayona provides a particularly valuable one using Dali as the vehicle:
There is a story about the great Catalan surrealist painter Salvador Dali. It is said that in the last years of his life, when he was already famous, he signed checks knowing that they would not be submitted to the bank for payment. Rather, after partying with his friends and consuming the most expensive items the restaurants had to offer, he would ask for the bill, pull out one of his checks, write the amount, and sign it. Before handing over the check, he quickly turned it around, made a drawing on the back and autographed it. Dali knew the owner of the restaurant would not cash the check but keep it, put it in a frame, and display it in the most prominent place in the restaurant: “An original Dali.”
It was a good deal for Dali: his checks never came back to the bank to be cashed, and he still enjoyed great banquets with all of his friends. Dali had a magic checkbook.
Isn’t this same scheme employed by the Federal Reserve? Isn’t their scam only good for as long as the “checks” are not cashed? Mr. Bayona adds:
But what would have happened if one day art collectors concluded that Dali’s work really did not capture the essence of surrealism, and therefore that his art was not of great value? If that had happened, every autographed check would have come back to the bank (at least in theory), and Dali would have had to pay up. If Dali had not saved enough money, he would have had to find a job painting houses.
Dali was providing something of value, at least in the minds of the restaurateurs who considered his check more valuable as a work of art than traded in for money. Would Dali’s scheme ultimately have failed? Probably. There were obvious limitations as to how far Dali could employ it. He was limited in the sense that he probably could not utilize it effectively twice in the same restaurant. How many framed objects of checks can be hung in a restaurant as “art.” There is diminishing marginal utility from more of any good. That is likely especially so for framed checks as rare art, all from the same patron.
The point is that Dali’s ability to do this was limited by supply and demand. This same constraint of supply and demand is a limiting factor on the Fed’s ability to continue their scheme, although it may be less obvious. Each dollar suffers from the same diminishing marginal utility as do Dali’s checks. It may be less obvious and take longer, but the same process applies.
Bayona concludes:
Salvador Dali had devised an ingenious method for not paying his bills. Similar stories are told about Pablo Picasso. But the Fed does not produce tangible items that people would rather hold on to, like an original Salvador Dali. The Fed does not produce work or items of value. The Salvador Dali effect, i.e., the ability to prevent checks from being cashed by creating something of real value, does not apply to the Fed. That is why it is good to remind the Fed, and the government, to be careful with the expenditures when partying, just in case the magic checkbook disappears.
There were limiting factors on Salvador Dali’s check-writing. Similar constraints limit the Fed. It is only a question of time before their scheme fails. Perhaps that is the reason why QE is supposedly on its way out.
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Better facial hair than Bernanke.
Yep, nice stash and I really like his art, but he was a crazy ass motherfucker ! ! ! !
You ever read Secret Life of Salvador Dali ?
Yep...arrogant crazy ass motherfucker that smeared feces all over his body to impress Gala, who was married at the time to a guest at his abode ?
Yep.....sounds like central banking to me !
It is rumored the Bernank smeared FRNs all over himself in an attempt to woo Yellen.
it is also said, by the man himself, that he liked to masterbate while watching her copulate with someone, usually someone he knew.
His greatest skill was self-promotion, but he did come up with a few good ideas.
Loved his couch!
http://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali/mae-west-lips-sofa-1937
DALI was genius . He painted some of the best canvases ever offerred to general humankind. Dali questioned reality and painted in incredible colour. I have many faves BUT 2 that need to be looked at are his crucified Christ in the sky and juxtaposition is the young boy lifting up the tide.
never mock this man. Take a look at his art. Unbelieveable talent. Takes my breath away.
Swans Reflecting Elephants is one of my favourite Dali works.
When it comes to Surrealists, Magritte's work stands out.
take a look at The Dream, from 1937, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1946, but definitely Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937 and The Great Masturbator , 1929
Would Salvador Dali make a better Federal Reserve Chairman than Janet Yellen or Ben Bernanke before her?
Well, the FED nowadays looks more and more like the "Giraffe in Flames", so yeah...
"DALI was genius"
He was a genius at self-promotion, that's for sure. He found a formula that worked, and stuck to it. Fortunately for him his technical skills were up to the task, and to this day most people still believe that his work represents something more than his insatiable desire for self aggrandizement.But forget the art. What about the man himself?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/12/06/salvador-dali-fascist/
"Dali supported the fascist coup by Franco; he applauded the brutal repression by that regime, to the point of congratulating the dictator for his actions aimed "at clearing Spain of destructive forces" (Dali’s words). He sent telegrams to Franco, praising him for signing death warrants for political prisoners. The brutality of Franco’s regime lasted to his last day. The year he died, 1975, he signed the death sentences of four political prisoners. Dali sent Franco a telegram congratulating him. "
I was there, in Madrid, in 1975. I saw first hand the anger of the Spanish people and their total disgust with Dali's callous disregard for human decency. He may have the rest of the world fooled, but the Spanish people know better.
http://disinfo.com/2013/04/orwell-dali-and-degenerate-art/
It is perhaps ironic that Dali’s work was so roundly derided at the Nazi’s Munich exhibition shortly before World War 2. After all, while Dali wasn’t a Nazi, he was clearly sympathetic to fascism with his support for Franco, congratulating the dictator for his brutal efforts “at clearing Spain of destructive forces.” He also referred to Hitler’s program to exterminate the Jews as the best solution to the Jewish question. (Hitler, it seems, may have also shared Dali’s predilection for faeces, although his alleged coprophilia remains open to debate.)
Yet his art nevertheless endures, popular today amongst a wide variety of people who would never consider themselves sympathetic with fascism (and probably find nothing about excrement arousing). This seeming contradiction – or at least, concession to abhorrent political views on the grounds that, along with art and morality, art and politics also don’t mix – is perhaps best summed up by Orwell himself, who wrote of Dali: “One ought to be able to hold in one’s head simultaneously the two facts that Dalí is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being. The one does not invalidate or, in a sense, affect the other.”
Hitler was a good draftsman too. Fascists are nothing if not precise.
probably..
WTF?
YES!
My dog could do a better job
How about Bob Ross? He doesn't believe in mistakes and his pace is unprecedented.
Print those happy little stacks!
I am a serious kinda painter and love Bob Ross. Mr. 2" brush and "happy trees". I get such a kick out of him.
An old Bob Ross TV episode paired with cup of coffee and a Sunday morning 'wake-n-bake' has an amazing ability to ease into a hangover.
Every time Bob cleans his brush a happy little bush is born.
I think the banknotes would have been more interesting to look at!
The government knows that without the fed, their big spending jig is up. The jet rides, limosines, fabulous junkets, obscene pensions, and the endless supply of sycophants looking for special favors, would all be gone. The Fed likes to loan enormous amounts of money to the government and get paid interest, especially when they create the credit out of thin air to begin with. It's a huge racket and they like it that way. It makes them feel powerful and important. They will never willingly allow it to end, even it if means war and millions dead.
Oh - looks like somebody on ZH finally realised the Fed may actually have it's back to wall in a corner because of reckless demands for government spending and money creation to feed the Free Shit Army.. The Fed was supposed to be a private capitalist banking system - that was hijacked a long time ago by a government spending frenzy .. Ooops. Yeah blame the Fed. Again... Yawn .......
Thanks for the history lesson on Dali.
I know this much.
Not only does Yellen and all that have come before her on the last train ride to Armageddon in 2008 suck at economics and banking, but I guarantee they probably all draw at a 3rd grade level!
The Dali tale is taken almost word for word out of Robert Newman's "History Of Oil" from 2003, stripped of satire and rephrased just enough to differ from the original transcript. No credit is given to the author which Dante Bayona is not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpm_8v80hw&feature=youtu.be&t=22m46s
I highly recommend the Dali Museum in St Pete FLA if you like his art.
Fucking amazing.
All this other drivel is just that.
Sounds more like a capitalist than central banker.
He PRODUCED SOMETHING.
+100 he produced something that would attract more clients into the restaurant - and made the restaurant owner very happy as well - bonus!. Surely that is the very essense of value / wealth creation in full effect ? - even if it was just a scribble. He clearly knew the dynamics of supply / demand curves , do not oversupply a restaurant with artwork on the back of a cheque , rendering it ultimately useless. Unfortunatly , Central Banks will learn this lesson the hard way. But thinking about it , Central Banks actually have no choice whatsoever in the matter. To taper a Ponzi scheme means destroying it. Ooops.
By the way , I would personally recommend a visit to The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família.
Here's a good starting point. (!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia#mediaviewer/File:Sagr...
Thanks for the tip.
A few years ago there was some mook running around the US who would draw up big denomination bills on napkins or whatnot and use that to pay for meals and stuff, and they were reputedly so good people accepted them.
Hey Banzai, ever try that?
Word is that some of these sawdust joints actually now accept the Bitcoin as a payment as well , of course they don't cash them in for Fiat they frame the QR code on the wall.
Got to love Salvador Dali; eccentricity is a sign of intelligence and character.
Bland conformity is a sign of the opposite (Bernanke, Yellen, Corzine, Dimon, etc.).
Laugh all you want but I bet old Sal got a lot of fine looking tail, certainly more than any of those aforementioned boring tiny-peckered hooknosed scheister banksters.
..
see my comment above, Dali liked to pleasure himself, while watching others in the act. he didn't really go in for the whole coitus thing.
Dali also cashed pre signed blank paintings for everybody to paint his own genuine Dali.
In contrast to central bankers he did not take so seriously his own actions.
If you want some insight to how the 'real' surrealists thought of him, read Luis Bunuels autobiography.
granted, un chien andalou was shocking for its time, but was perhaps more Bunuel than Dali.
so for the good stuff, watch the Bunuel films, L'Age D'or is an early one, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie is excellent, That Obscure Object of Desire and of course Belle de Jour, with Catherine Deneuve.
No, I'd say it is the perfect expression of Dali; absurd, surreal, contentious, preposterous, intolerant, perverse, unanchored and highly diverting until they tell you you still haven't paid for it.
cheque writing requires paper, pen and handwriting. since we can't limit ink and paper I propose ISIS approach and remove everyone's hands instead.
Dali, Central Banker?
More like Dali, Fascist Thug.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/12/06/salvador-dali-fascist/
Dali can burn in hell along with his "art" which is also a fraud.
"Persistence of Memory" would be painted as "Persistence of Stimulus" : instead of people enveloped by 'soft watches', we'd have fixed income savers with odd, softened Bernanke/Yellen combo forms draped over their backs (with hands around their necks), while atop a mountain a Catalan bull snorts fire straight up into the sky, as stocks rage forward.
Dali and Magritte created illusionary art. The Federal Reserve does the same by counterfeiting money from thin air
"La única diferencia entre los surrealistas y yo, es que yo soy surrealista"
("The only difference between surrealists and me is that I am surrealist")
S.Dalí.