No wonder the Financial Times is making a fuss about the downturn: our readers are suffering more than most. That, at least, is my conclusion after reading the research of two economists from America's Northwestern University, Jonathan Parker and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen. Drawing on US data, they found that the biggest spenders are those whose spending fluctuates a lot. The consumption rates of the top 10 per cent of households fluctuate 10 times more than those of the majority – the bottom 80 per cent of households. So a fall in overall consumption is a blip for most people, but a slump for those near the top. (We're not just talking about Russian oligarchs here: spending of just over twice the average is enough to place you in the top 10 per cent.)
難怪英國《金融時報》對經濟低迷大驚小怪：我們讀者的比大多數人損失更爲慘重。這至少是我在讀過美國西北大學(Northwestern University)兩位經濟學家喬納森•帕克(Jonathan Parker)和安妮特•維辛-喬根森(Annette Vissing-Jorgensen)的研究報告之後得出的結論。根據美國的數據，他們發現開銷最大的人羣，消費波動很大。最富裕的10%家庭消費水準的波動幅度，比大多數家庭——底層的80%家庭——高10倍。因此，對於多數人來說，總體消費的下降只是一種短暫的偏離，但對於接近頂層的人羣而言，就成了一種暴跌。（這裏我們指的不只是那些俄羅斯寡頭：哪怕你的消費水準僅僅超過平均水準的兩倍，也足以使你進入前10%的行列。）