Suddenly everyone is talking about disappearing millionaires.
突然之間，人人都在談論不斷消失的百萬富翁們。
Tuesday there was The Wall Street Journal talking about the vanishing Maryland millionaires. Now comes word that Britain has lost about half its millionaires.
週二，《華爾街日報》有篇文章談到了美國馬里蘭州百萬富翁越來越少。現在有訊息說，英國的百萬富翁人數減少了約一半。
The reason isn’t emigration or tax revolts. It is personal finances.
這並不是因為富翁們移民或是避稅去了，而是個人財務狀況出了問題。
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.
正如過去一年中我所寫的，富人們在此次危機中遭受了重創，原因主要是他們的投資和房地產的價值銳減。正因為如此，百萬富翁（特別是富翁中的“貧困戶”）的人數驟減。
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%.
根據初步估計，去年美國的百萬富翁人數減少了30%。如今，看起來英國的百萬富翁人數減少了50%，太令人震驚了。
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.
這項由經濟暨商業研究中心(Centre for Economics and Business Research)公佈的`資料令人吃驚的原因有幾個。英國富人損失了約38%的資產。鑑於美國是金融危機的重災區，我本來預計美國的百萬富翁境況會和英國的一樣糟，甚至更遭。
