Crisis Metrics
by Dave Essel
Russia may be trying to ostrich away the crisis and claim that its crisis is just part and parcel of the world economic crisis. But metrics are everywhere and crop up in the oddest of places.
Here is a metric from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry that shows that Russia is suffering worst by far – naturally.
The poor oligarchs and would-be oligarchs for whom a 20-grand Swiss watch is an entry symbol are cutting back big-time on their Piagets and Patek Philippes.
Russia claims its rightful place as the biggest loser in this as in most everything else. And so it goes…
La Russophobe 
One day you critisize The Economist for using Big Mac-index to measure real value of a currency, and the next day you use “Swiss watch”-index to prove that Russia suffers worst from the crisis. Are you being inconsistant or is this just a light joke to follow up the “double-digit recession” post that comes to the same conclusions using serious methods? :)
You misunderstand the context. It would actually be quite interesting to have some data on the per capita consumption of Big Macs in Russia over a span of years and to compare such data to that of other countries. But that isn’t what the Economist study did, it merely discussed price, and did so in a totally bogus manner.
Think a little more before you comment, it will help you look a bit less foolish. And if you have any data of BM consumption, do let us know!