Value Meal?

Money was top-of-mind for lots of Davos visitors, and not only during their WEF seminar sessions. Those paying in currencies other than the Swiss franc suffered from major sticker shock as a result of a big change made in mid-January by Switzerlands central bank. The Swiss National Bank unpegged the Swiss franc to the euro , causing the franc to shoot up in value. With no cap on the exchange rate , everything has become very expensive for visitors from other countries paying with outside currencies like the dollar. Costs increased by 20%.

Tom Keene, an editor for Bloomberg News who is in Davos this week, shared with Here & Now radio host Jeremy Hobson a good example of the severe financial effects of a stronger Swiss franc. In this case, Keene represents the export economy, by which a country grows when it sells its goods and services. But when those goods and services are extremely expensive, fewer people are likely to buy, thus hurting the economy . I had a No. 2 Value Meal at the McDonalds next to our Zurich news bureau and it came in at $14.93 for a cheeseburger, small fries and a Coke, noted Keene. What might he pay for this in the U.S.? $4.95. You see the Swiss export economy, added Keene. They are crushed by a stronger Swiss franc.

This brings us to even juicier economic news hitting the headlines in the last several days. Call it global exchange rates to go. The Economist magazine published its latest Big Mac Index, a guide that uses the price of a McDonalds Big Mac to help us understand whether currencies around the world are at their correct levels. The index is used to measure the purchasing power parity between nations, using the price of the Big Mac as the benchmark. Purchasing power parity is the economic concept that over time, different currencies should adjust so that a basket of identical goods costs the same everywhere. In this case, that basket is the Big Mac burger. The Economist explains it like this:

Buying a Big Mac in Denmark, for example, costs $5.38 at market exchange rates compared with $4.79 in America, so our index suggests the Danish krone is 12% overvalued.

What country has the most expensive Big Mac? You got it Switzerland.

The average price for a Big Mac in Switzerland in January 2015 is $7.54 or 6.50 Swiss franc, compared with $4.79 for a Big Mac in America

. The same burger costs 57% more in the Swiss currency, making the franc the most overvalued currency in the Big Mac Index. You can get a great deal on a Big Mac by paying with your U.S. dollar in Ukraine, where McDonalds signature burger will cost you $1.20. According to The Economist, the latest Big Mac Index does suggest some interesting world currency trends over the last six months: Currency markets have bubbled like potatoes in a fryer as the oil price has fallen to finger-licking lows and central banks have cooked up new monetary stances.

Discuss:

1) Research the Big Mac Index (see link: http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index) Which countries have undervalued and overvalued currencies? Where will the U.S. dollar get you the most value?

2) Have you had any personal experience with exchange rates when you travel? What were they? What did you learn?

3) Oil prices are mentioned a few times in the article. Research the economic impact of falling oil prices (see link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/beyond-gas-pump-new-world-order-oil/) . What might that mean for the world economy?

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