To any art patron, the names of Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol are enough to illicit excitement. The artworks of two of the world’s most talented post-modern artists are highly sought after and the moment any of their works are put up for sale, it’s sure to get sold immediately.

That is, if there’s no global financial crisis to worry about. In a recent auction held at Christie’s New York, artworks by both Basquiat and Warhol were left unsold. It sounds unprecendented to me especially since these are pieces that would usually command great prices and a feeding frenzy from art patrons around the world. Basquiat and Warhol not selling just means that even the filthy rich are also working on a budget right now. I dunno if this realization makes me feel better or bad.

Because of the shrinking Japanese economy brought about the global financial crisis, the Japanese are now beginning to feel the pinch and are making some drastic changes in their lifestyle — namely, scrimping up on luxury brands.

Japan’s economy has shrunk by 5.7 percent this year and because of this spending on luxury items in the country is likely to drop to 14 percent or $28. billion from a high of $22 billion in 2005 and 2006.

The Japanese are very brand conscious and most of the top-tier designer brands in the world have flagship stores in Japan. But because of the belt tightening measures that everybody seems to be doing, the Japanese are doing it to. They’re probably not using Gucci belts for their own belt tightening.

Analysts think that this downtrend will continue for a couple more years, which now means the Japanese will have to forego their Chanels and Vuittons for a few more years.

If there’s one piece of tech gadgetry that is expected to grow significantly over the next couple of years it will be the e-book reader.

Despite what many people say are the underperforming features of the current crop of readers, it is still not deterring consumers from buying them. In fact, it is expected that millions of consumers will be buying these readers this Christmas season. Forrester Research has also raised the 2009 estimates for the US sales for readers by 50 percent. The Forrester people also mentioned that sales may even double next year.

It will be interesting to find out if Amazon’s Kindle will maintain is new leadership status for in the market or whether Sony will be able to become resurgent and kick up sales again.

One thing’s for sure, these readers might finally entice people to read. Nothing changes attitudes more than being part of the “in-crowd”.

Hi. I’m a Facebook user and I’m a Mafia Wars addict.

I’ve never been big Facebook user until after I actually discovered Mafia Wars. That game really hooked me on Facebook, and in the process I discovered how cool this social network is in finding long lost friends. And Facebook seems to have realized that Mafia Wars and the other games in the site is the ticket to profitability.

Facebook is currently testing a new payment scheme where it will get a cut each time a player buys an in-game item on the site. This will potentially earn Facebook a yummy piece of the financial pie that is already in the hundreds of millions being taken by Zynga, Inc., the creator of the some of the most popular games in Facebook, like Mafia Wars, and Farmville. Another company, Playfish, Inc., which makes Pet Society, is also a part of the pay system being tried out. With the social games market predicted to grow three-fold to $2 billion by 2012, this is the perfect time for Facebook to get in on the action.

The company is testing a payment system to gain a cut each time an online-game player buys a digital tractor, weapon or hat on the site. That would give Facebook a piece of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being pulled in by Zynga Inc., creator of “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars,” and Playfish Inc., maker of “Pet Society.” The social-games market will almost triple to $2 billion by 2012, estimates ThinkEquity LLC.

Both Zynga and Playfish allow Facebok users to play its games for free but rely on selling virtual goods as part of its revenue. These items are sold through microtransactions. The companies’ success has made Facebook the largest game portal with over 100 million users.

The system being used by the site is Facebook Credits. The payment service will allow users to buy credits that they can use to buy items in different games. This is different from the present system where a player can only buy credits through the game he’s playing and only be able to use it in that game and nowhere else.

With new games coming (Civilization is particularly exciting), it will be awesome if Facebook finally earns some money from the social-network addicts that have made Facebook their virtual home.

There has been a number of vocal Americans who think that this whole outsourcing business is taking away jobs from them and giving it to people in other countries.

I wonder what they’ll think of the news that an Indian company is now hiring Americans.

Wipro, Ltd., one of the largest software services provider in India, is planning to get the services of more workers in the US as a way of gaining more traction in the face of a rebounding technology market.

Wipro CEO and Chairman Azim Premji thinks that getting US employees will help his company gain more local orders and also gain more contracts from the federal government. This is significant given that the US provides the company with half of its yearly revenue.

Wipro plans to hire 500 employees for its new services center. The company declined to reveal where the new center will be located but it already has one center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Those vocal Americans must be thinking of another thing to complain about.