Recession and the Rich

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Some of the very rich have devised more ingenious methods to beat the cost of living. One of the Beautiful People, Manhattan's Suzie Frankfurt, a designer-collector, returned recently from a five-month tour of the Far East with her two young sons, examined the exchequer and decided that drastic measures would have to be taken if the family were not to resort to, well, frankfurters.

So Suzie Frankfurt sent out invitations to her 500 nearest and dearest friends, opened up part of her five-story, 16-room Manhattan townhouse and held a Garbage a la Rummage (pronounced Gahrbage a la Koomahge) sale. Some 3,000 nearest and dearest attended her sale, snapped up varied costly tric-a-brac—all for around $ 15,000.

$333 a Foot. Some of the rich, fearful that inflation will continue to balloon for the out-of-sight future, are living as high as ever; they believe that now is the time, as one wealthy Easterner puts it, "to turn cash into reality." Manhattan's Tiffany's reports that its bestselling breakfast item is "Diamonds by the Yard," a gold chain interspersed with diamonds that sells for about $333 a foot.

Rolls-Royce dealers say that sales are rolling as high as ever. Says a Park Avenue millionaire: "Today's inheritors of big money have a totally different attitude from their grandfathers. Grandpa tightened his belt temporarily during lean times because he perceived the System as basically stable. Today the wealthy are preparing for revolution or Communism or whatever, and want to use the cash while it will still buy something. The more they speak poor, the more they are spending rich." The scion, who has homes in Manhattan and Bermuda, is shopping for a new yacht.

"Who knows?" he philosophizes. "You might never have another chance to buy one.