The Pulse

The state of money

• Fed Balance Sheet (Total Assets) 6,740,619 -24.8% from its all-time peak
• US 10Y-2Y Spread 0.32 lower than 383 of 1,058 readings, since 2022
• US Core CPI 2.76 lower than 421 of 823 readings, since 1957
• US Consumer Sentiment 55.2 lower than 661 of 675 readings, since 1952
• US 10Y Treasury Yield 4.96 lower than 2 of 1,058 readings, since 2022
• US Unemployment Rate 4.1 lower than 770 of 943 readings, since 1948
• Gold ETF (GLD) -3.12 over the last 30 days
• Bitcoin 23.63 over the last 30 days
• VIX Short-Term Futures ETF -6.51 over the last 30 days
• S&P 500 ETF (SPY) -1.53 over the last 30 days
• Europe ETF (VGK) -3.12 over the last 30 days
• EUR/USD (FRED daily) 0.11 over the last 30 days

Countries gaining attention

• Germany +56.0% 142 → 226 mentions

  Driven mainly by: Alte Pinakothek (Munich) — 5 → 8; Galerie Buchholz — 3 → 7; Galerie Max Hetzler — 2 → 7; Documenta 14 — 3 → 6.

• France +36.6% 330 → 460 mentions

  Driven mainly by: Louvre (Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois) — 74 → 94; Centre Pompidou-Metz (Metz) — 4 → 9; Château de Versailles (Versailles) — 7 → 9; École des Beaux-Arts — 3 → 9.

• Switzerland +19.9% 85 → 104 mentions

  Driven mainly by: Kunsthaus Zürich (District 1) — 3 → 6; Kunsthalle Basel (Basel) — 4 → 4; Art Basel (Basel) — 28 → 33; Fondation Beyeler (Riehen) — 12 → 24.

• Spain -19.0% 121 → 100 mentions

  Driven mainly by: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) — 7 → 8; Guggenheim Bilbao (Bilbao) — 8 → 8; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid) — 10 → 7; Reina Sofía (Madrid) — 4 → 7.

• United Kingdom -8.7% 985 → 918 mentions

  Driven mainly by: Sotheby's (London) — 69 → 97; Royal Opera House (City of Westminster) — 8 → 8; Lisson Gallery (City of Westminster) — 8 → 8; V&A East Storehouse (London Borough of Hackney) — 15 → 8.

Themes on the move

• festival-fair +86.9% 369 → 557 stories
• award +61.4% 135 → 176 stories
• institutional +57.7% 219 → 279 stories
• ai-technology -48.1% 4,236 → 1,777 stories

Side by side

Attention on Germany moved +56.0% over 30 days. Over the same period that country’s stock market moved -2.8%.

These are two measured facts placed side by side. We do not claim one explains the other.

How these numbers are calculated

Attention shifts compare the last 30 days with the 30 before. They are measured as a share of our archive total, not in absolute numbers: the archive grows, and in absolute terms everything would grow with it.

For countries we count mentions of their art institutions — museums, galleries, foundations, biennials, fairs, auction houses — excluding news outlets. Only countries with at least three institutions on record are included: one represented by a single museum would move on a single exhibition.

Financial data comes from the Federal Reserve (FRED), Finnhub and CoinCap. Each figure’s historical context is computed over the full available series, which for some starts in 1942.

This page describes the present and does not forecast the future. It asserts no causal relationship between financial conditions and attention shifts, and does not separate seasonal effects: with eight months of dense history, a forecast would be a bet dressed as data.