1% of the 1%

This week's 60 Minutes segment on the contemporary art world was interesting for several reasons.

First, is suggested that the 1% of the 1% are doing very well thank-you and have been spending money like water throughout the recent recession.

Second, I was struck by the passing similarity of a market driven by speculation and in which products are idiosyncratic and therefore can't be priced on a market (prices of works of contemporary art, according to the piece, are negotiated bilaterally between buyer and seller) to those for exotic derivatives, such as the notorious credit default swap: and by the the possibility that the same people who sold in the latter are buying in the former.

Another example of "Mornington Crescent" I wonder?