amazoncom inc amzn founder jeff bezos got into a bit of a twitter spat back in may with president joe biden over whos to blame for the recordhigh inflation in one tweet bezos said inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent pointing out that inflation has more of an impact on lowerincome households than it does those in higherincome classes this is one reason consumer discretionary stocks tend to perform poorly during periods of high inflation while investments in assets that are more exclusive to wealthy buyers produce massive gains the sp 500 consumer discretionary constituents are down 31 since the beginning of 2022 compared to the sp 500 which is down 1821 meanwhile indices that track assets like art and fine wine are having some of their best years in recent history the livex fine wine 1000 is up 141 ytd while the regional burgundy 150 index is up 276 for the year wine is a unique asset class in that each vintage has a diminishing supply with the demand for certain bottles increasing as they approach maturity the art market is also having an impressive run with the artprice contemporary art index being up 138 over the past months in fact 2021 was a recordbreaking year in the global art market in terms of total auction turnover and the number of lots sold related how contemporary art has outperformed the sp 500 for the past 25 years while there are several factors contributing to the growth in these markets one reason is that the wealthy individuals purchasing these assets arent nearly as impacted by inflation or even a recession so while many americans are struggling to pay for a tank of gas or to fill their refrigerator the worlds billionaires arent slowing down on their bluechip art and fine wine purchases the problem that most individuals face is that investmentgrade art and wine havent been easily accessible asset classes for retail investors however the fractional investment model has opened up securitized shares of fine wine collections and even multimillion dollar paintings dont miss how investors are now buying shares of rental properties with as little as 100