经济危机中 英国的百万富翁少了一半

Suddenly everyone is talking about disappearing millionaires.
突然之间，人人都在谈论不断消失的百万富翁们。

Tuesday there was The Wall Street Journal talking about the vanishing Maryland millionaires. Now comes word that Britain has lost about half its millionaires.
周二，《华尔街日报》有篇文章谈到了美国马里兰州百万富翁越来越少。现在有消息说，英国的百万富翁人数减少了约一半。

The reason isn't emigration or tax revolts. It is personal finances.
这并不是因为富翁们移民或是避税去了，而是个人财务状况出了问题。

As I have been writing for the past year, the rich have been hammered by this crisis, largely because of the plunge in the value of their investments and real estate. As a result, the millionaire population (especially the lower end) is taking a dive.
正如过去一年中我所写的，富人们在此次危机中遭受了重创，原因主要是他们的投资和房地产的价值锐减。正因为如此，百万富翁（特别是富翁中的“贫困户”）的人数骤减。

Early estimates say the millionaire population in the U.S. fell 30% last year. Now, it seems Britain's millionaire population has fallen an astounding 50%.
根据初步估计，去年美国的百万富翁人数减少了30%。如今，看起来英国的百万富翁人数减少了50%，太令人震惊了。

The number, from the Centre for Economics and Business Research, is surprising for several reasons. Britain's Rich Listers lost about 38% of their wealth. And I would have expected America's millionaires to have done just as poorly as Britain's have - if not worse, given that the U.S. is the epicenter of the financial crisis.
这项由经济暨商业研究中心(Centre for Economics and Business Research)公布的数据令人吃惊的原因有几个。英国富人损失了约38%的资产。鉴于美国是金融危机的重灾区，我本来预计美国的百万富翁境况会和英国的一样糟，甚至更遭。

Charles Davis, an economist at CEBR, gave me two reasons for why the U.K. is losing more millionaires than the U.S. First is the issue of timeframe. The CEBR data are for total millionaires lost from 2007 through May 2009. The U.S. data, showing the 30% loss, cover just 2008. So, 2009 is likely to show more losses in the U.S.
该中心经济学家戴维斯(Charles Davis)向我说了两个原因，解释英国消失的百万富翁为什么比美国多。首先是统计时间的问题。经济暨商业研究中心的数据包括2007年至2009年5月期间消失的百万富翁总数。而美国的显示百万富翁减少30%的数据却只是2008年的。所以，2009年的数据很可能会显示美国损失了更多的百万富翁。

The second reason is that more British millionaires owed their newfound fortunes to real estate. British millionaires had about 42% of their assets in real estate in 2007, according to CEBR. That compares with about 25% for American millionaires, according to the Federal Reserve.
其次，英国的百万富翁中有更多的人财富来源于房地产。据经济暨商业研究中心的数据，2007年他们约有42%的资产为房地产。据美联储(Fed)的数据，美国百万富翁约有25%的资产是房地产。

Property prices have fallen about 20% from the peak in the U.K., thus stripping many newfound millionaires of their millionaire status.
英国的房价较峰值降了约20%，因此“夺走了”很多新晋富翁的百万富翁地位。

'In the U.K., quite a lot of people drifted into that millionaire band inadvertently based on property prices,' Mr. Davis says.
戴维斯说，在英国，很多人无意之中被房价推到了百万富翁的行列。

Now, they have inadvertently drifted out.
如今，他们又无意之中脱离了这个行列。

Do you think the ranks of U.S. millionaires will also fall 50% by year end?
读者们，你们认为年底前美国的百万富翁人数也会减少50%吗？