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考研英语阅读押题 | 精读《经济学人》奢侈品熊市，掌握考研英语经济话题核心表述

Annie出海

2025-10-16

导读：The Economist | Why the ultra-rich are giving up on luxury assets?

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Why the ultra-rich are giving up on luxury assets

文章来源：经济学人

A bottle of Château d’Yquem 2010 is a fine thing. Apricot, toasted almond, citrus zest, juicy lemon, white truffles: it is all there. Until recently, the cost of the world’s finest sweet wine rose steadily. By 2023 a given bottle from the producer went for 60% more than in the mid-2010s. At the time, all forms of opulence were becoming more expensive. Vintage cars, aged whiskies and enormous mansions shot up in value. From 2015 to 2023 a “luxury-investment index” produced by Knight Frank, a property firm, rose by 70%.

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一瓶2010年份的Château d’Yquem是件精品。杏子、烤杏仁、柑橘皮、多汁柠檬和白松露的香气：一应俱全。直到不久前，这款世界顶级甜酒的价格一直稳步上涨。到2023年，该酒庄单瓶售价较2010年代中期上涨60%。彼时所有奢侈品都在涨价——古董车、陈年威士忌和豪华宅邸价值飙升。2015至2023年间，房产咨询公司Knight Frank发布的“奢侈品投资指数”累计上涨70%。

🌟 vintage

adj. 老式的，优质的

n. 古着；特定年份（或地方）酿制的酒

🌟 opulence n. 奢华，富丽

opulent adj. 豪华的

🌟 shoot up 急剧上升

🌟 property firm 房地产公司

同义表述：real estate agency

And then something changed. From its peak in 2023, the index is down by 6%. The price of Bordeaux first growths, including Lafite Rothschild and Margaux, has fallen by 20%. In America the price of private jets and boats is down by 6%, official data suggest. Rolexes on the second-hand market change wrists for nearly 30% less than in 2022. Fine art is in a slump. According to Savills, a real-estate firm, prices of the very best properties in global cities are barely rising. The price of “prime” housing is falling in London and Paris. Two years ago a house on San Francisco’s “Billionaires’ Row” went on sale for $32m. The sellers have now cut the price to $26m.

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随后形势发生变化。自2023年达到峰值以来，该指数已下跌6%。包括Lafite Rothschild和Margaux在内的波尔多一级庄葡萄酒价格下跌20%。官方数据显示，美国私人飞机和游艇价格下降6%。二手劳力士手表转手价格较2022年下跌近30%。艺术品市场陷入低迷。房地产咨询公司Savills指出，全球顶级城市高端房产价格几乎没有增长。伦敦和巴黎的“黄金地段”住宅价格正在下跌。两年前旧金山“亿万富翁街”一栋豪宅挂牌3200万美元，如今业主已降价至2600万美元。

🌟 peak n. 峰值

peak season 旺季

peak performance 最佳表现

🌟 change wrists 转手

🌟 slump n. 暴跌，萧条

🌟 prime housing 黄金地段房产

prime location 黄金位置

🌟 go on sale 挂牌出售

🌟 cut the price 降价

Why is there a bear market in plutocratic assets? The most obvious explanation would be that the super-rich are struggling—but that is hard to sustain. There are more than 3,000 billionaires across the world, according to Forbes, a magazine, up from 2,800 last year. The richest 0.1% of Americans now hold 14% of the country’s household wealth, the most in many decades. San Francisco, the place where no one wants to buy a mansion, is minting millionaires daily, owing to the AI boom. In contrast with poorer Americans, the richest 3.3% have greatly increased their outlays since 2022, finds Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, a research firm.

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为何富豪资产遭遇熊市？最显而易见的解释或许是超级富豪正面临困境——但这一观点难以立足。据《福布斯》杂志统计，全球亿万富翁数量已从去年的2800人增至3000余人。美国最富有的0.1%人群目前掌握全国14%的家庭财富，创下数十年来新高。在无人愿购豪宅的旧金山，人工智能热潮正每日催生新的百万富翁。研究机构Moody’s Analytics的首席经济学家Mark Zandi发现，与较贫困的美国人形成鲜明对比的是，自2022年以来最富有的3.3%人群大幅增加了支出。

🌟 bear market 熊市

指持续下跌的市场

反义：bull market 牛市

🌟 sustain v. 维持；支撑（观点等）

sustainable development 可持续发展

🌟 mint v. 铸造（钱币）

引申为“大量创造”

举例：The AI boom is minting new millionaires.人工智能热潮催生了新的百万富翁

🌟 outlays n. 开支，支出

同义词：expenditure, spending

Instead, the bear market is occurring because the economics of luxury are changing fast. To understand why, consider the writings of Thorstein Veblen, an American economist who was most prolific in the early 20th century. He argued that luxury depends on scarcity and rivalrousness. A good is truly luxurious not just because it is costly, but because one person’s consumption diminishes others’ ability to have it. In today’s economy, what counts as scarce and rivalrous has changed profoundly.

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实际上，熊市的出现是因为奢侈品的经济逻辑正在快速变化。要理解其中缘由，可以参阅20世纪初多产的美国经济学家Thorstein Veblen的著作。他指出奢侈品的价值取决于稀缺性与竞争性——一件物品之所以真正奢侈，不仅因价格高昂，更因个人消费会削弱他人拥有的可能性。在当今经济中，构成稀缺与竞争的标准已发生深刻变革。

🌟 the economics of... ...的经济逻辑/经济学原理

🌟 prolific 多产的

同义词：productive, fruitful

🌟 scarcity n. 稀缺性

反义词：abundance 充裕

🌟 diminish v. 削弱，减少

🌟 profoundly 深刻地

形容词形式为 profound

profound impact 深远影响

The problem, at least for the ultra-rich, is that fancy goods are everywhere. Lots of countries make great wine; is the best Bordeaux really that much better? Lab-grown diamonds are indistinguishable from the real thing. The growth of second-hand marketplaces means that anyone with a bit of dosh can get their hands on a Kiton jacket or even charter a private jet. Art-world innovators talk of “fractionalising” old masters, with hundreds of people owning a tiny piece of a Rembrandt. These days everyone enjoys the finer things in life—and they post about it on social media. Such things no longer seem scarce or rivalrous. So they no longer seem as luxurious.

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至少对超级富豪而言，问题在于奢侈品已随处可见。众多国家都能酿造美酒——波尔多顶级佳酿真的更胜一筹吗？实验室培育的钻石与天然钻石别无二致。二手市场的发展意味着稍有积蓄者就能入手Kiton西装甚至包租私人飞机。艺术界创新者提出将古典名作“份额化”，让数百人共同拥有伦勃朗画作的微小份额。如今人人都能享受精致生活——并在社交媒体上晒出来。这些事物不再显得稀缺或具有竞争性，因而也不再如往昔般奢华。

🌟 ultra-rich 超级富豪

🌟 indistinguishable 无法区分的

be ~ from 与...无法区分

🌟 dosh n. [英式俚语] 钱

🌟 get one's hands on 获得，弄到

🌟 charter v. 包租（交通工具）

charter flight 包机

🌟 fractionalise v. 份额化

The rich are therefore spending on bigger and better things; things that are often services, rather than goods. We constructed an ultra-luxury-services index, including everything from a ticket to the Super Bowl to eating in a three-Michelin star restaurant. We chose experiences that had both global recognition—these are not just nice, but the best of the best—and where it was possible to unearth reliable price data over many years. The index, according to our calculations, has risen by 90% since 2019. And even as goods prices have fallen since 2023, it has continued to surge (see chart).

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因此，富人们正将资金投向更宏大、更精致的领域——这些往往是服务而非商品。我们构建了一个超豪华服务指数，涵盖从超级碗门票到米其林三星餐厅用餐等所有项目。我们选择的体验项目需兼具全球认可度（不仅是优质，更是顶尖中的顶尖）且能够挖掘到多年可靠价格数据。根据我们测算，该指数自2019年以来已上涨90%。即便在商品价格自2023年开始回落的背景下，该指数依然持续飙升。

🌟 ultra-luxury 超豪华的

🌟 global recognition 全球认可度

🌟 unearth v. 挖掘，发掘

🌟 surge v. 急剧上升 n. 激增

Soaring luxury-services prices reflect the very same dynamics that have harmed luxury goods. Consider Le Bristol, perhaps Paris’s finest hotel. There is global demand to swim in its roof-top pool, which boasts a view of the Eiffel Tower. Many of the guests on its leafy terrace spend more time photographing their cocktails than drinking them. Yet there are fewer than 200 rooms at Le Bristol, making accommodation intensely rivalrous. A night there now costs twice as much as in 2019.

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奢华服务价格飙升的背后，正是那些曾损害奢侈品市场的供需法则。以巴黎最顶级的勒布里斯托酒店为例：其可眺望埃菲尔铁塔的屋顶泳池享誉全球，吸引着世界各地的游客。绿荫环绕的露台上，许多客人拍照鸡尾酒的时间远多于品尝时间。然而该酒店仅有不到200间客房，使得住宿资源极具竞争性。如今入住一晚的价格已是2019年的两倍。

🌟 soaring 飙升的

同义词：skyrocketing, surging

🌟 dynamics n. 动力，机制

market dynamics 市场机制

🌟 boast v. 吹嘘，夸耀

🌟 rivalrous 具有竞争性的

Many people would like a maid to make their house look nice, but the best are hard to find. In America, their salaries are about 50% higher than in 2019. Housekeepers in Palm Beach, a ritzy part of Florida, now routinely pull in more than $150,000 a year. You can resell a watch, but you cannot “resell” a day spent on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Since 2016 the price of a five-year debenture at issue, which entitles the holder to a ticket, has risen from around £50,000 ($67,000) to well over £100,000. The price of a ticket to the Super Bowl is double what it was a few years ago. Attending the Met Gala, if you can get a ticket, costs over twice as much as in 2019. The price of the menu at Benu, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco, has risen by 78% since 2015. Was it worth the more than $500 that your correspondent paid to eat the food? Maybe?

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许多人希望有管家打理家居，但顶尖管家千金难寻。在美国，他们的薪资比2019年高出约50%。佛罗里达富豪区棕榈滩的管家如今年收入常规超过15万美元。你可以转售手表，却无法“转售”在温布尔登中央球场的观赛体验。自2016年以来，可凭券观赛的五年期债券发行价从约5万英镑（6.7万美元）飙升至逾10万英镑。超级碗门票价格已是几年前的两倍。若能获得邀请，参加大都会艺术博物馆慈善晚宴的成本较2019年翻倍有余。旧金山米其林三星餐厅Benu的套餐价格自2015年来上涨78%。花费逾500美元品尝这些菜肴是否值得？或许值得？

🌟 pull in 赚取（收入）

🌟 debenture 债券

corporate debenture 公司债券

🌟 at issue 发行的

securities at issue 发行证券

🌟 entitle sb to 赋予...资格

But when eating at the restaurant, you are not just buying the food—you are buying the knowledge that, for those few hours, nobody else on Earth could sit at your table. New York and Paris fashion weeks, exclusive fundraisers, the NBA play-offs: there are no good deals any more, which makes it even more satisfying to tell others that they were not there. Goodness knows how much a resale ticket to next year’s football World Cup final, to be played near New York City, will cost. That is a large part of the appeal. When you could be one of a handful of people seeing Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé face off, why would you bother with a bottle of Château d’Yquem?

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但在餐厅用餐时，你购买的不仅是美食——更是确认在这几小时内，全球其他人都无法坐上你的座位。纽约与巴黎时装周、独家筹款活动、NBA季后赛：这些活动再无平价门票，而向未能参与者炫耀这份独家体验更令人满足。天知道明年在纽约附近举行的足球世界杯决赛门票转售会高达何价——而这正是其吸引力所在。当你能成为亲眼目睹贝林厄姆与姆巴佩对决的寥寥数人之一，又何必费心于一瓶Château d’Yquem？

🌟 exclusive 独家的；排外的

反义词：inclusive 包容的

🌟 fundraisers 筹款活动

🌟 play-offs 季后赛（体育赛事）

regular season 常规赛

🌟 face off 对决

🌟 bother with 费心于

🌟 a handful of 少数的

重点表述总结

slump n./v. 暴跌，萧条

surge n./v. 急剧上升

scarcity n. 稀缺性