According to Laurence Fink, the chairman of global asset manager BlackRock Inc., luxury real estate in New York City and London (and contemporary art) have usurped gold as the primary means for storing wealth. The rationale, Fink explains is that, "It's become much more accessible for global families worldwide to store wealth outside their country. And they don't have to own gold." Look, nobody has to own gold—it's just good fun. And if we replace all the gold with apartments, does that mean we have to start burying apartments in the woods and melting apartments down after we buy them on the black market? Are pirates going to sail around with chests overflowing with apartments in the hulls of their ships? Is Scrooge McDuck going slide down a pile of deeds? Nobody seems to understand the magnitude of this crisis.
· New York Apartments, Art Top Gold as Stores of Wealth, Says Fink [Bloomberg, via The Real Deal]
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