Similarly, unless your consumption pattern includes weapons and vodka, giving up Russian goods is easy but pointless.

ECONOMIST: Europe.view

Consumers can interrogate this server from a PC or iPhone to see not only the consumption pattern of various appliances attached to smart plugs around the home, but also to send instructions back to switch them on or off.

ECONOMIST: The much-talked-of smart grid prepares to enter the home

Even so, your correspondent would like to know more about his pattern of electricity consumption.

ECONOMIST: The much-talked-of smart grid prepares to enter the home

Though Croatia came in only at No. 5 in terms of per capita consumption, the risky drinking pattern of its population, as well as high death rates from cirrhosis, put it at the top of our list.

FORBES: Europe's Biggest Drinkers

Note that all this counts only the so-called static gains from trade: the effects of a once-and-for-all shift in the pattern of production and consumption.

ECONOMIST: Profits over people

But any broad-based consumption tax will generate roughly the same pattern.

FORBES: Do Republicans Really Want to Cut Taxes on the Wealthy and Raise Them on Everyone Else?

Another measure of core inflation that we monitor closely, based on the price index for personal consumption expenditures excluding food and energy, shows a similar pattern.

NPR: Bernanke: U.S. Growth 'Moderate' as Inflation Rises