The other half are having it tough too, you know, and no better barometer of their suffering than the weekend’s Financial Times which urges its readers to consider a caravan as their new second home.
It also reports that Mukesh Ambani, boss of India’s Reliance Industries, is docking 60% of his pay “to set a personal example of moderation in executive remuneration.” (You remember Mukesh, he’s the chap building a $1 billion 27-storey house for himself and an Airbus jet for his wife, and still be good for $18 billion in loose change). Elsewhere in the FT Magazine, Sterling Montague offer a bespoke search service for ‘distress’ sales of new and pre-owned yachts and jets.
Sadly, the downturn has failed to dent the ‘collectable’ watch industry which continues to advertise some of the most grotesque bad taste outside of Moroccan souks, with the jewel-crusted crap and Dali-esque multi-dialled competing with uber-cool see-through confusions led by Cartier’s Santos 100 Skeleton 9611 MC Calibre, its movement which – visible through a micro drain cover – offers visible ‘polished angles and file strokes’ but, with a nod to the global recession, has to be wound manually.