It now appears that after spectacular rises in recent years, art prices are falling. To get a fast sale these days sellers have to be prepared to reduce prices.  The buzz that you hear all over the art market is the 'right price' and 'value for money,' as though these were new, ground breaking concepts. Could it be that the "show-y off-y" art world now wants to be more discreet?

The decline in art prices is part of the luxury goods downhill spiral in recent months. Business jet travel was down 16% in December. And there is a glut of second-hand Falcon jets for sale. Ho, hum. I say it's a good thing, too. I was getting bored with the excessive good fortune of others.

I sat next to a hedge fund manager at a wedding dinner last weekend. To my astonishment, it didn't seem to have dawned on him that the world had changed and that investors no longer want to entrust money to the likes of him.  He was especially in denial about the fact there could be prosecutions for white collar crime. He began to look about nervously when I suggested that investigations had begun into "suspicions of criminal action," focusing on the question, "Where exactly has the money gone?"

When I continued that I had heard from an insider in the industry that veteran bankers are leaving Wall Street to join start-ups and foreign companies as financial institutions face federal limits on compensation and bonuses, he politely excused himself. Waving exuberantly towards another table, he quickly exited.

Still I hear that the hedge fund charity ball The Arc is scheduled to go ahead this summer. I wonder if this shouldn't be called the "Emperor's New Clothes" Ball, where hedgies dress up and pretend the streets are still paved with gold, fooling only themselves?