填空题

If an economist were asked which of three groups borrow most—people with rising incomes, stable incomes, or declining incomes—he would probably answer: those with declining incomes. Actually, the answer was: people with rising incomes. People with declining incomes were next and people with stable incomes borrowed the least. This shows us that traditional assumptions about (36) and spending are not always (37) . Another traditional assumption is that if people who have money expect prices to go up, they will (38) to buy. If they expect prices to go down, they will postpone buying. But research (39) have shown that this is not always true. The expectations of price increases may not (40) buying. One (41) attitude was expressed by the wife of a mechanic in an interview at a time of rising prices. "In a few months," she said, "we’ll have to pay more for meat and milk; we’ll have less to spend on other things." Her family had been planning to buy a new car but they put off this (42) . Furthermore, the rise in prices that has already taken place may be resented and buyer’s resistance may be (43) . (44) . The investigations mentioned above were carried out in America. Investigations conducted at the same time in Great Britain, (45) . The condition most conducive to spending appears to be price stability. If prices have been stable and people have become accustomed to consider them right and expect them to remain stable, they are likely to buy. Thus, it appears that (46) .