Last week we reported on the strange launch of a new magazine for Russia’s ultra wealthy called “Snob.” Now the wealth report blog over at the Wall Street Journal checks in…

At the American Express Luxury Summit in California recently, I got a scolding from a Russian billionaire. Roustam Tariko, the fun-loving, vodka-insurance-credit-card-and-banking magnate, told me that I was being too dour about luxury demand. Far from entering a period of quieter consumption, he said, status spending was poised for a boom. “People are still spending,” he said. “They want the biggest and the best.” He added: “Mr. Frank is wrong.”