SIMON SHUSTER — MOSCOW (Reuters) — The global financial crisis cast such a pall over Moscow's Millionaire Fair this week that even the yachts were two-for-the-price-of-one. And nobody was buying.

Instead, members of the crisis-hit Russian elite congratulated each other on simply finding the courage to attend what is usually a glittering show of ostentation.

"We're going through a murky and complicated period," socialite Ksenia Sobchak, the master of ceremonies, told the guests at the opening of the fair.

"Everyone is a superhero for finding it in themselves to come here tonight, to try to bask in the luxury."

With a helicopter and two dazzling sports cars greeting the guests at the door, there was plenty of luxury up for sale. But the main attraction seemed to be the central bar, where free champagne was served until around midnight.

September's prices were down in all 20 cities, compared to both August 2008 and September 2007, the data showed.

The largest decline in September was found in the San Francisco metropolitan area, where prices fell 3.9%. In the past year, Phoenix has had the largest decline -- 31.9%.

For the original 10-city index, prices declined a record 18.6% in the previous 12 months. For the third quarter, there was a record year-over-year decline of 16.6% in the national home price index.

"The turmoil in the financial markets is placing further downward pressure on a housing market already weakened by its own fundamentals," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's.

All three Case-Shiller aggregate indexes, as well as 13 of the 20 metro areas, saw new record rates of decline, Blitzer noted.

George Soros, famous investor and chairman of Soros Fund Management, has warned that the economy could enter a depression.

Testifying before a US Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the financial crisis, Mr Soros said "a deep recession is now inevitable and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out."

Mr Soros, who reportedly earns more than $100,000 an hour as a hedge fund manager, said the large, high-risk hedge funds will be "decimated" by the financial crisis.

The 78-year old, made famous by his market know-how and support of decriminalizing drugs, predicted hedge funds will loose up to 75 percent of their assets.

Recent holiday shopping forecast raises fears that the economic crisis will lower the amount of money consumers spent over the Internet. However, high prices for gas are expected to maintain the growth of e-commerce, though not as much as it was earlier.

Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research firm that gives advices to clients about the influence of technology on business and consumers, announced that the e-commerce spending would register a 12 percent increase compared to 2007. The company's analysts expect that sales in e-commerce would reach $44 billion. Although this number is not that high, experts say that it is more than half as much increase compared to the figures registered last year, when e-commerce spending increased by 20 percent from 2006.

The chairman of Gazprom, which is world's largest extractor of natural gas and the biggest company in Russia, Alexey Miller, stated that the three companies were creating a "big gas troika". He mentioned that the decision to create the carted would mean increase in prices for hydrocarbons.

The representatives of Mazda, the Japanese car manufacturer with headquarters in Hiroshima, denied a newspaper report regarding its plan to erect the company's second plant in North America. It is worth mentioning that a newspaper released a report according to which Mazda had scrapped plans to construct a second car plant in North America and that the idea came as a result of the company's low demand in the region.

According to the Japanese automobile manufacturer it currently doesn't have any plans to build a second car factory. Mazda already has one car-making facility working in Michigan.

According to the report presented by Interbrand, a brand consultancy company, the image of Coca-Cola Co. was overall the most valuable for eight years in a row. It is worth mentioning that the consultancy company ranked different brands according to the revenue of each company.

The number one search engine, Google, was the one to register the most impressive increase in value. This is mainly because the company introduced some of its news features, including Google Mobile, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Google Book Search. According to Interbrand, Google's new features allowed the company to increase its value by $25.59 billion.

According to the watchdog of People's Republic of China, he country is going to apply anti-monopoly rules in evaluating the bid of Coca Cola Company to purchase Chinese juice firm called Huiyan. The United States popular drinks company Coca Cola looks forward to swallow the Chinese company is a bid that reaches $2.5 billion.

The move of the American company will be closely monitored due to the fact that such case is the first under China's new antitrust laws.

The Boeing Company, whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early Saturday, when the union that represents 27,000 machinists in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job.

The union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said its members struck Boeing at 3:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time after last-minute talks, held in Florida, failed to bring an agreement. No new talks were scheduled.

Two brewer companies, Anheuser-Busch, based in United States, and InBev, a Belgium firm, reached an agreement that would set up a new beer maker, which is believed to be the largest in the world.

InBev's takeover bid totals $52 billion. Anheuser accepted the offer of the Stella Artois beer maker. The newly established company is going to be called Anheuser-Busch InBev. It is worth mentioning that the U.S.-based Anheuser-Busch is the producer of America's most popular Budweiser.