Reply #23: YECH! More from the article:

[Lorien]

Luxury stores like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and small designer boutiques are enjoying robust sales of such items as $8,000 mink ponchos, $1,000 snakeskin handbags, $200 crystal-studded jeans and $25,000 bejeweled bangles as their well-heeled shoppers have benefited from a recovering economy.

An influx of foreign tourists taking advantage of the weakened U.S. dollar also has helped boost sales at high-end stores - as has a fixation among some consumers, no matter what income, that they need products with status labels, even if it's a box of $30 French chocolates from Bergdorf Goodman.

"There is this quest of who is going to have the shiniest, boldest and brightest status symbols," said Gerald Celente, director of Trends Research Institute, in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

(snip)

What vile,shallow fools!