Big Mac Currency Index

Currencies out of whack, says Big Mac

A McDonald's Big Mac burger is over-valued by 50 per cent in the eurozone when compared to its price in US dollars and under-valued by 49 per cent in China, the Economist magazine says.

The magazine wrote that according to its Big Mac Index, which compares exchange rates that should leave a Big Mac burger costing the same in US dollars everywhere, "many currencies look more out of whack than in July 2007, when we last compared burger prices".

A Big Mac costs on average US Dollars 3.57 in the US.

But in the eurozone a consumer with the US currency in hand would have to change $US5.34 to buy a burger in euros.

For the two currencies to have the same purchasing power at McDonald's, the euro should be worth $US1.06, rather than $US1.57 at present, suggesting that the single currency is over-valued by 50 per cent against the US dollar.

But the Economist found that "the dollar buys a lot of burger'' in Asia, concluding that the Chinese yuan for example is undervalued by 49 per cent against the US dollar.

Elsewhere, the survey found that the Swiss franc is over-valued by 78 per cent against the US dollar, the British pound 28 per cent and the Norwegian krone 121 per cent.

UBS to Close Down its Swiss Banking Operation in the US

Tidbit: UBS has agreed, apparently under threat of losing its license to operate in the US, to close down its Swiss banking operation in the US, meaning accounts in Switzerland for US residents. The WSJ says this will affect some 20,000 US clients with about $20 billion in assets presumably including those who did pay taxes on interest and other earnings. This is seen as a move against tax cheats but it also a restraint on American freedom to move money abroad, at least with this bank and this country.

Hmm.

Pounds to Swiss Francs last

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