女孩的内衣你别猜，你猜来猜去也不明白！

译者 炫耀至极

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is a fan of themen's underwear indicator.

 

The theory:men extend the lives of their undershorts during tough times to save money.

  

    美联储前主席阿兰·格林斯潘是“男士内衣指数”的忠实fans，该理论认为，在经济不景气时，男士们会通过延长穿内裤的时间来节省开支。

  

And when demand falls, prices usually fall.

  

    当然，内裤的需求量小了，价格也就减低了。

  

But there's something weird going on with women'sunderwear.

  

    但是如果我们拿女士内衣来看的话，事情就变得很奇怪。

  

The New York Times' Floyd Norris was digging throughsome inflation data when he unearthed an interesting nugget.

  

    《纽约时报》的佛洛依德·诺里斯从一些通货膨胀数据中发现了一个有趣的现象。

  

Women's underwear prices are up 32.5% since December2007, the beginning of the last recession.

That's an annual underwear inflation rate of 7.8%.

Prices are far outpacing CPI and even women'souterwear.

  

    自最近的一次经济衰退，也就是2007年12月开始，女士内衣的价格上涨了32.5%，也就是说，年均通胀率为7.8% 。价格变化远超消费价格指数（CPI）甚至女士外衣价格变化的幅度。

  

Underwear cost inflation doesn't sufficiently explainthe higher prices because cotton prices are actually lower.

  

    内衣成本的上升不能有力地解释价格的上升，因为棉花的价格实际上还降低了。

  

Perhaps this unexpected trend can be better explainedby Leonard Lauder's lipstick indicator, which suggests women turn to low costindulgences during tough times.

Anexpensive brassiere will cost less than an expensive handbag.

Perhaps Victoria's secret is that she's takingadvantage of this behavior...

  

    或许里奥纳德·兰黛提出的“口红指数”才能更好地解释这个出乎预料的现象，“口红指数”建议女士们在经济不景气时期减少消费高成本商品。一款高档胸罩比一个高档手袋花费的要少得多。好吧，如果这样的话，估计“维多利亚的秘密”可就笑惨了。