/**adsense code here for header
Big Mac Index 1986 September 6, 1986
Big Mac Index 1987 January 17, 1987
Big Mac Index 1988 April 2, 1988
Big Mac Index 1989 April 15, 1989
Big Mac Index 1990 May 5, 1990
Big Mac Index 1991 April 13, 1991
Big Mac Index 1992 April 18, 1992
Big Mac Index 1993 April 17, 1993
Big Mac Index 1994 April 9, 1994
Big Mac Index 1995 April 15, 1995
Big Mac Index 1996 April 27, 1996
Big Mac Index 1997 April 10, 1997
Big Mac Index 1998 April 9, 1998
Big Mac Index 1999 April 1, 1999
Big Mac Index 2000 April 27, 2000
Big Mac Index 2001 April 19, 2001
Big Mac Index 2002 April 25, 2002
Big Mac Index 2003 April 24, 2003
Big Mac Index 2004 May 27, 2004
Big Mac Index 2005 June 9, 2005
Big Mac Index 2006 May 26, 2006
Big Mac Index 2007 July 5, 2007
Big Mac Index 2008 July 24, 2008
Big Mac Index 2009 July 16, 2009
Big Mac Index 2010 March 17, 2010

Buying a house in college

May 4, 2013

This is the summary …. 1.  Searched Craigslist for home sellers willing to sell their house on a land contract and eventually found one that made financial sense (see below for details on land contracts). 2.  Borrowed $5,000 from my parents and used $10,000 that I had saved up as a down payment.  The sale [...]

Read the full article →

Big Mac Index 2013

January 27, 2013

Click here to download the complete spreadsheet. Big Mac Index information is from the Economist, click here for the Kindle version of the Economist. Country Big Mac prices in local currency Big Mac prices in dollars* Implied PPP† of the dollar Actual dollar exchange rate January 2013 Under (-)/ over (+) valuation against the dollar, [...]

Read the full article →

McDonalds locations per person

December 1, 2012

According to the Malaysian Insider … Switzerland has one McDonalds location per 52,300 people. The United States had one McDonald’s location per 24,585 people. McDonalds is setting their sights on China as the next big area for growth. For more info, see here.

Read the full article →

World’s most expensive cities … Big Macs and Iphones

September 24, 2012

It takes on average 18 minutes of work to buy a Big Mac in Norway (according to the 2012 Big Mac Index) and 36 hours to buy and Iphone.  Zurich is the second most expensive city polled.  Tokyo?  Only 9 minutes to buy a Big Mac … not to shabby.  Nairobi?  Yeah, that will take [...]

Read the full article →

China, Romney, and the Big Mac Index

September 10, 2012

So is the China bashing coming out of the republican party justified?  The charge is that China is using their foreign reserves to keep their currency, the Yuan, undervalued.  This stimulates their exports by making them cheaper to foreign purchasers.  The problem is … according to the Big Mac Index of 2012, this is becoming [...]

Read the full article →

How well is the Euro priced? Pretty well according to SocGen.

September 4, 2012

Check out the following chart which was compiled by SocGen and used data from the 2012 Big Mac Index.  Apparently the Euro is priced correctly according to the Big Mac Index.  That’s pretty interesting considering the turmoil surrounding the Euro.  As the article states “The Euro’s problems are not with “valuation”, but with “survivability”.  

Read the full article →

Big Mac Index and the British Economy

August 28, 2012

Is the British Pound a “shadow of it’s former self?”  Possibly, if you take the Big Mac Index as an indication.  In reality, that actually depend on the goals of the central banks.  Sure, the Pound went from 18% overvalued to 4% undervalued in a matter of 5 years, but is an undervalued currency necessarily [...]

Read the full article →