If this isn't Peak Stupid then shoot me now

Two of the most cited examples of Peak Insanity of a market mania are 1) Pet Rocks in 1975-76, and 2) the Dutch Tulip mania of 1637. With the benefit of hindsight, no one with half of a mind today would think that either rocks or tulips would make sense as investment vehicles today.
Amirite? Well, am I?
No, I'm not right. In fact, it's much, MUCH worse than that.

tulips.PNG

An NFT collection of pixelated flowers inspired by the Dutch tulip bubble is attracting crypto buzz, with one selling for more than $55,000.

The collection of 50 NFTs, launched on Monday, are an explicit tribute to the 16th-century Dutch mania that saw multicolor tulip bulbs sold for massively inflated prices before crashing. At the peak of the bubble, one tulip bulb sold for 20 times the yearly income of a skilled worker, according to the BBC.

The collection - pitching itself as paying "homage to the investors who risked it all to make a fortune" - sold out on NFT marketplace OpenSea within hours, according to the artist.

Take a moment to absorb this. This a bubble that is inspired by a more famous bubble.
At least the Dutch used actual tulips.
What "investors" are buying today is essentially clipart.

Wait! It gets even more stupid.
How much would you pay me for this drawing of a rock?

prock.PNG

I'll sell it to you for a cool $1.3 Million.

rock.PNG

Mark the date: August 25, 2021 — the day we finally admit defeat and throw ourselves at the mercy of the Non-Fungible Token gods... Why? Because this otherwise free clipart drawing of a rock sold on the blockchain for $1.3 million dollars...
Literally described as “pet rocks on the blockchain,” each EtherRock image is the exact same clipart, each with a slightly different hue. Of course, instead of paying $1.3 million for “EtherRock 42,” you can download the original file right here for free. Go ahead — it’s what we did for the story you are currently reading, because last we checked zero is much less than 1.3 million. You can even tint it whatever goddamn hue you’d like, too. Most likely also for free. We won’t stop you.
Make it stop

I realize that like space and time, stupidity has no limits.
But for Eff's Sake! Have people completely lost their minds?
There is absolutely nothing going on here except the Bigger Fool Theory.

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21 users have voted.

Comments

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I want to be rich, and making random art is definitely something I am capable of doing.

You're telling me I could make $1,000,000+ overnight just for a single silly, unique CGI? What am I missing here?

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12 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Pricknick's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat
Whoever pays you will eventually lose their investment.
You will then be hounded by lawyers demanding you make up for the losers loss by suing you for false marketing of an imagined treasure.
In the end, only the lawyers will win, which is what someones so-called god of capitalism demanded.
It's so much better to laugh than invest.

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9 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick plaintiffs, pricknick. The ones getting rich are the Plaintiffs. Lawyers only get rich with enough greedy clients and enough winning suits.
Not all lawyers are rich. I have first hand knowledge, being a lawyer for over 35 years.

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12 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@Pricknick

stupid. "This is a 'non-fungible creation'. It has no value except such value as potential purchasers assign to it by auction;

Gullibility Toke(n1)


Because I created it and because it is the first I have created, I can and do arbitrarily set the minimum bid at $453.59"

nothing actionable there.

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4 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

convert the Ether coins into $1.3 million actual dollars. If that was a real cryptocurrency transaction and not a hoax, the buyer might be telling everyone something.

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10 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

More money than brains.

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12 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

QMS's picture

@Lily O Lady

see it quite a bit
in the Newport crowd
thinking ? how the f can that dead head afford to drive a rolls?
inherited 'float in the clouds' kinda wealth

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7 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

very, very close to peak stupid.
On the other hand, people who can buy a cartoon picture at those prices know what they are doing, or they would be poor. amirite! lol!

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9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp

with that kinda money
feed the f'ing poor
cartoons are for dreamers

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5 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

joe shikspack's picture

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9 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@joe shikspack
-
-

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with whom I can be what I want to be

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5 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

mimi's picture

be pretty dead around here. It's always good to know what is stupid. So thanks.

you better stay alive.

BTW I will throw this Scheiß-laptoü away and get myself a Unix system. I have had it with them stupid Windows OS.

Revolution - mimi-style.

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13 users have voted.
CB's picture

@mimi
I think something got lost in the translation. Smile

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4 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@CB
it is not my fault when it does. All this code for nothing but ...
whatever got lost, don't look for it.

Good Night from here. Long day.

Survive the catastrophes that are coming.

Be well.

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6 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi
Scheißblatt.jpeg

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4 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@mimi

a "correction"?

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

all pretty dead here. Stupid things are all Scheiße, and it is good to understand what Scheiße is.

Scheiße is that your video is not available in MY country.

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5 users have voted.
CB's picture

This is definitely an analogue to the Dutch Tulip Bulb Market Bubble. And, just like that bubble, a "fool and his money are soon parted".

NFT sales surge as speculators pile in, sceptics see bubble

LONDON (Reuters) - Non-fungible token (NFT) sales surged in August, according to the largest platform for the burgeoning digital asset class, as speculators bet growing interest across the art, sport and media worlds will keep prices rising.

The niche crypto asset, which is a blockchain-based record of ownership of a digital item such as an image or a video, exploded in popularity in early 2021, leaving many confused as to why so much money was being spent on items which do not physically exist.

The frenzy has now reached new highs. Sales volumes recorded on the largest NFT trading platform, OpenSea, have hit $1.9 billion so far this month, more than ten times March's $148 million. In January 2021, the monthly volume recorded on the platform was just over $8 million.

Rabobank's head of financial markets research for Asia-Pacific, Michael Every, said that he was "gobsmacked" by the "bubblicious stupidity" of the NFT market.
...
Every said NFTs were a bubble which would "absolutely" pop.

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4 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

why so much money was being spent on items which do not physically exist.

Perhaps nobody is aware of the existence of futures? How about notional principal contracts? And what about futures on notional principal contracts?

I used to say that if one could create a valuation methodology for a thing, any thing, if only by the boxcar, like maybe used wine corks, then one could set up a market to speculate in them and in their derivatives. If I had the bux and the savvy about how to get into the whole blockchain gimmick, I assure you that I would be working to create a market for NFC futures, which, thanks to Bill & Hillary, couldn't even be regulated. You could bet on the average value, one year from today, on individual NFCs, and on the entire NFC market. You could also bet on the future value of some of the more famous specific NFCs. I assure you that it would be quite busy. Set it up like the options market where you don't pony up dollar for dollar, but maybe pay 50$ per bet "option" at the strike price of your choice; who could buy and sell calls and puts under what conditions needs to be worked out, but it would work pretty much just like pork bellies.

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

CB's picture

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8 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@CB

on this Apple Mac jistion

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4 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

CB's picture

@QMS @QMS
The caption under the photograph says: Biden Forgives Taliban After Discovering They Also Enjoy Ice Cream
Here's another article about it.

Was the Taliban trolling Joe Biden with an ice cream pic?

The far-right thinks Taliban-ice cream photo is secret message to POTUS.
David Covucci

If there’s one thing President Joe Biden loves, it’s chomping down on some ice cream. Pictures of him enjoying a cone constantly go viral, it’s become a comparison meme, and he once managed to deflect a question about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but saying he was just trying to get some ice cream.
...

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5 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@CB

because the pleasure of eating ice cream by a syncophant
(see Nan Pelo) for another example
is more important than the issues in the cone?

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4 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

CB's picture

@QMS
and you can make what you do (or not) with them.

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3 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@CB

almost makes sense that way Wink
as our dearly departed leaders used to say
about info on the inner tubes

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4 users have voted.

truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

CB's picture

@QMS

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2 users have voted.
mimi's picture

I never wanted to say something mean to you, but CB told m, I may have done so and better rephrase my comment.

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3 users have voted.
CB's picture

@mimi
gjohnsit knows you don't have a mean bone in your body. That's why I put the smiley at the end. I was just playing with words in a fun diary.

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2 users have voted.

@CB
I don't see a reason to apologize, or anything to even acknowledge.

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3 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

NFCs are also. Pet Rocks were never seen as an investment, just a "cool thing" to own. Nobody expected them to appreciate in value price or even be resellable. They were crazy, but not stoopid.

be well and have a good one

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5 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --