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The Price Of A Big Mac Is Now $17.19 In Zurich
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man
The price of a Big Mac is now $17.19 in Zurich
Just a quick thought on a ridiculously volatile day:
One of the things that people pick up on very quickly as they travel are how different price levels are around the world. I've been to roughly 100 countries, and I still find it amazing how much variance there is among things like food, property, and entertainment prices.
There are certain places-- Cambodia, Ecuador, Tanzania-- that are so jaw-droppingly cheap that it almost seems unreal. And you wonder how these people could possibly ever survive if they came to your country.
Well, the United States has just joined this proud cadre banana republics... at least if you're from Switzerland.
You see, the Swiss franc is one of the few currencies that have given investors some sense of comfort recently; Switzerland inspires confidence and stability, and the worse things get in the United States and Europe, the more investors pull their money out of the dollar and euro, and park it in the Swiss franc.
It's all about supply and demand. Increased demand for the Swiss franc coupled with expanded supply of dollars and euros has caused the franc to surge over the last weeks and months. It wasn't too long ago that it would take 1.20 francs to buy a US dollar. Now it takes $1.40 to buy a single franc.
I can think of a lot of words to describe the performance of the US dollar. Farce. Joke. Lunacy. Embarrassment. Disgusting. But it's more clearly summed up like this: the price of a Big Mac is in Zurich is now so high (at $17.19) that a minimum wage employee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, would have to work for nearly 4-hours in order to afford it.
This is what stability looks like to Ben Bernanke.
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Shades of 2007 x 2.
I was in Korea in ~Oct. 2007. Just arrived from China where a Starbucks grande coffee was $1.80. In Korea it was $3.50 (the next day practically).
Sat at the bar and had a pint of Guinness- $17! The Brit neext to me could not beieve he was paying 10 pounds for a Guinness.
In January 2008 I started www.siv0.com (now Derivatives Collapse).
We were at a bar in Paris and had a Leffe and a Guinness. I put down a 20 Euro note. It just sat there until I put out another 10. Two beers, right off the Champs Elysee were 21 Euros. We live in New York and we thought that was expensive. No wonder the bar was empty.
I sucked the juice out of fish eyes...
What color of eyes.
should have bought silver with those 21 euros
The Landing: Lake Jordan (pronounced jer-dahn) Alabama.
The bar is always full from April to November; and, idiot, you're always welcome.
Bud: 1.75
yengling: 2.00
hein: 2.25
all day, no happy hour.
we have a left bank, too -- but no one's reading proust...hell, no one's reading anything but this, "We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. Our exclusive Beechwood Aging produces a taste, a smoothness and a drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price"
and the trains run like snakes/
through the pentacostal pines/
filled up with cotton and dime-store gin,
janus
August 1983 Manila Philippines an ice cold San Miguel Pale Pilsen cost 5 cents in USD or a Half Peso.
Today 1 Philippine peso = 0.0235 US dollarsI used to drink San Miguel in the US occasionally. It was tasty (slightly sweet, but not unpleasantly so).
There's a Spanish and a Filipino one. No idea if they are brewed the same.
I was there in '84 and it was still the same. you could add a hooker, washing and pressing your uniform and a kings breakfast for +/-$3US. That place was great.
stoo megoo!
Well, CHF is being bid up by the Euro disaster and no one is running to the dollar because of well, everything. I think it's more a reflection of not buying dollars rather than outright selling dollars.
What is the price of a Big Mac in Israel?
31 Shekels and an Oy Vey!
You should try the double bacon cheeseburger.
It comes with a free EKG.
I'm not sure any Bankster in Zurich gives a rats arse what a big mac costs in US Dollars.
He's more freaked out about the fact that a huge chunk of the loan portfolio of Swiss banks is in loans they made out to the non Euro denominated eastern Europe countries.
The strong Franc will destroy the Swiss banks when poor schmucks in Hungary, Slovenia, etc.. see the mortgage bill double in 3 months. They get paid in local currencies but owe in Swiss Francs. They are all underwater on Swiss Franc loans.
What happens when one of these countries decides not to pay on the loan for the brand new autobahn the Swiss financed, are they going to go reposes it?
Join the Brussels Repo gang to get their stuff back ?
So Switzerland is our 1931 Austria?
I would assume they used a currency swap or forward contract to hedge, wouldn't you?
Ya, the CDS on MickieDeeZ macadooz have widended by 9.4#
Just FYI,a gallon of "Gas" in the Uk tonight at my local station was £1.39/litre- $10.30 a uk gallon - $8.60 a US gallon.
A big mac costs £2.50 -$4.08.
£/$=1.63.
"The bad news is we are laying you off and moving your job to Walmartland. The good news is you won't be paying those high prices at the pump for your commute."
what's happened with Swiss Franc which forces a 'price' like that in US$ is emblematic of the insanity in forex right now ... and suggestive that Euroland may be in greater peril than anyone knows ...
...and/or else somebodye is putting on a mighty trade on a currency that can be whip-sawed
Indication of the total overvaluation of the CHF. I can buy a new mercedes in Germany for 55% of the swiss price.
When do all the foreigners realize that the SNB sold half of it´s gold reserves in 2004 and is sitting on hundreds of billions of crappy fx reserves. Additionally the SNB is practically guaranteeing bailouts of UBS and CS which probably are as big as 8 times of Switzerlands GDP.
Who the fuck wants to own such a currency? Buy gold if you own swiss francs right now. It barely moved since 14 months (trading range 1250-1300).
Something tells me that some big organizations will make a fortune off of Switzerland in the short-term and butt-fuck the population in the long-term.
hence all the swiss tourist shoppers in konstanz, milano etc. they prefer new clothes over gold and silver.
JBGOCA and JBSICA are USd/CHF hedged physical metal investments..
Clothes hold their value better than precious metals. Just think of all the cool stuff you can buy with a pair of bell bottoms.
'pends on how she looks, don't cha' know
Exactly right. Swiss Franc is hugely overbought. A sa matter of fact, I use my Swiss Franc savings to buy Thai baht and Malaysian ringit. And this character Simon Black is just a fraud. Shame that this website continue to reprint all this garbage from his blog (which, by the way, is heavily censored in terms of allowed feedback).
Venezuela's bolivar is backed 150% by gold.
"What happens when one of these countries decides not to pay on the loan for the brand new autobahn the Swiss financed, are they going to go reposes it?"
Let them eat Big Macs.
As long as it comes with a Guinness (or a San Miguel).
I think European social overhead is more responsible for the high price of stuff in Zurich than our (admittedly piss poor) exchange rate.
I was in Lugano 2 weeks ago. 4 individual pizzas (awesome) 8 beers (good).
USD240.00 INSANE.
on the company dime though.
On the way home flying through Vienna bought a ham and cheese sandwich at the airport. After I paid for it I asked for mustard and they wanted EU 0.50 for a pack of fucking mustard.
This will soon hit the US shores in full force, just you wait.
That's cheap
Last month we came from Norway.... Making 6 figures here+ we could not afford a single restoran
Mac is 23$ and for the 2 weeks we were there, we were eating Hotdogs ( 16$ a pop) from gas station. If you would like to have ketchup with that, add another 50 cents to a 1$
one day we could not force our self anymore into hotdogs and we got a pizza from a chain. 1 large pizza plus 1 glass of beer ( we split for 2) was ( damn waitress offer us a souce on the side , who knew it was 5$ extra) = total cost 82$
think Swiss got somm me room go.
PS. Pack of cigarette 17$, small can of beer 9-12$, Bottle of water 4-7 $
At those prices I would just quit eating. Seriously.
That's what we practicly did, till we came home to US
Don't you just love the welfare states of europe?
PIA,
if i didn't believe you made six figs, i wouldn't believe a word you say.
seriously, though, that's just insane. i wouldn't stop eating, but i damned sure would be one hell of a criminal.
damn it feels good to be a gangstah,
janus
This is sounding a lot like 2007/2008 folks.
(That's all folks!!!!)
serve them a trillion $19 shit macs, payoff some debt
and depopulate a bunch of fat bastards at the same time.
;) winning...
"I can think of a lot of words to describe the performance of the US dollar. Farce. Joke. Lunacy. Embarrassment"
Misleading... It's not about DOLLAR check AUDCHF, CADCHF, anythingCHF besides JPY, you will see exactly the same picture. Damn speculators holding Swiss hostage, and ruining their Export and Economy into the ground. What kinda idiot will pay 1.40 to buy stupid Frank? It's when people get insane they will pay anything, kinda Internet Bubble stock era. Swiss Frank it's a small spare change currency unit, should be cost no more than 0.25c I'm thinking about ones the trade reverses this will create the biggest opp. ever, Ones risk appetite will rise high enough, CHF will tank.
In fact, I do have 3 coins 5 Frank each in my home, Do we have $5 coin in USA in retail circulation? I was in Swiss when Dollar USDCHF was 1.22 and that's was way too expensive 1 shot of Vodka cost me $8 then and now? what? $14? F*ck that, they can forget about tourists, it's a robbery. And about Taxi rides. Ride from Airport to hotel takes about 10 min and cost me $60 then, now probably $100+?, same fare in US cost $20.
Big Mac arbitrage is a winning strategy these days. No HFT bots killing the profits.
+1
Ouch, this might be a look at the future of big mac prices here in the U.S.!
I spent a month in Switzerland this last spring. No doubt even then I felt the pinch everytime I had to open my wallet. I have relatives there. How do they do it???
They demand more from their government, for one thing. They have a true majority middle class. They have a great educational system. They have a model public transportation system. If you want to work, you will find a job and get paid a good living wage. Upon retiring you are guaranteed $3000. CHF.per month minimum. Healthcare is included in the federally run and mandated insurance/ retirement system, and is equal to none. Their farms are small and family run, fertilized naturally. The soil after having produced for thousands of years is still as good as it was thanks to these methods. I could go on.
We could learn a few things from their model. Bigger is certainly not always better.
"How do they do it???"
They get paid in Swiss francs. The prices are actually going down on many imported items because of the strength of the franc. If they converted their wages to dollars, they make twice as much as Americans.
No it isn't. Here is a big mac in Zurich, price 6.50 CHF.
http://www.mcdonalds.ch/de/menuekarte/burgers-wraps/big-macr
That's $8.99. Not even close. ZH jumps the shark, which would probably be tastier than a Big Mac.
Is that with a combo and super-sized?
Interesting. This guy's blog claims he just paid $30 for 2 value meals:
http://www.derekfranklinonline.com/2011/08/sorry-i-had-a-slight-detour.html
And here's a photo of a menu taken back in March:
http://nikkilovesfood.com/2011/03/09/a-mcdonalds-menu-in-switzerland/
well in 2007 a Big Mac meal in the US was $3.85 on average, now it's $5.45. that is a pretty big increase. if you get the standard meals at almost any fast food joint you can't get out for less than $12 for two people.
The moral of the story is even if your stocks doubled it costs you twice as much or more than it did half a decade ago to buy almost anything so you really didn't make any money at all.
Thank you Osama Bernakladen.
we need massive deflation but the Fed will not let that happen. Imagine how much the fat cats could buy if the cost of every product dropped in half.
I recall fast food actually cooked to order in a few minutes back in the 60's and 5 bucks fed three kids and two parents with some careful selection of french fries and other items.
Pulp Fiction:
That's Amsterdam. Wrong country.
Who cares?
Le Big Mac is French anyway.
are the employees, who work at the mcdonalds in zurich , all white people? just curious.....
are the employees, who work at the mcdonalds in zurich , all white people? just curious.....
1, yes they are. 2, they make $15.00 an hour, and their healthcare is 100% taken care of, there is no such thing as going bankrupt there from unpayable medical bills.
And how does that work over there and why are we not doing the same damn thing here?
Now you know why a BigMac costs so much there.
And no, they aren't ALL white people. In Basel last week and the counter was being run by barely literate Africans. I ate elsewhere, thanks very much.
Everyone who works, has to have private medical insurance (mine is 250chf a month) . The company you work for picks up your accident insurance. The state/the covers the unemployed and the insurance companies cover the oldies.
The US did send a delegation here a while back to study the system, but I guess they just wanted a free ski holiday and didn't do bugger all with the info they got.
Oh yeah? Well our economy has proven we can round up 1 million people anxious to serve them a $17.19 Big Mac on very short notice!
Its less than $9.00 US dollars. IF IT WERE $17.xx then no one would buy it and the price would come DOWN TO $9.00, or less. In 07, a McMansion cost $450,000.00 and now it costs $179,000.00 so that $1.50 increase in the 'big mac' really isn't all that bad, for some. McDoubles are STILL $.99. Mcdonalds is STILL making record profits, food has only gone up for some people, not all. We are entering a period of rapid DEFLATION on certain items. Mark these words, housing,energy and food will all cost LESS, 12 months from now. Go ahead and send the price of something up too high, and watch it fall to lower than where it began. Its coming, and nothing can stop it.
DEFLATION and STAGFLATION Bitchez
I used to fly aerobatics once a week (Sports-pilot, Australia)
but with avgas going through the roof in Australia and outside the US
due to US Bernake's QE bugger thy Neighbour sscheme,
I now started gliding and hardly use the car, so fuck you Bernanke
and fuck you USA for devaluing the USD and inflating everyones cost around the World,
even food, thereby fucking up peoples lifes.
Avgas cost 6 USD/Gallon (no fucking way!)
so yes, everyone I know has put on the brakes
and it is Deflating prices in Australia big time !
Australlia had negative growth last year and is staring at a Recession now
Mc Donalds in Australia is very cheap, their prices are deflating...
thanks for fucking up my lifestyle with your low USD,
hope you crash and burn ,bugger thy Neighbour AA+ Assholes !
Avgas (100LL) costs $6 US per gal. in many places in the US now too. TPTB don't seem to want the proles to fly little airplanes anymore.
see my response below..... $10.68 per gallon now here in Swissland.....
mcdowell's
Beef will go up. I am in Texas and the state is in a historic dry and heat spell. Feed is at least double from last year. Hay is scarce. Cattle dead from heat. Your hamburger price is going to be up also.
i too am in texas...my family has been for 100+ yrs...ranchers bitchez...
acres?
west texas shit kicker?
south texas shit mongers...what???
Victoria? isn't that where they do that big-time rattler rodeo?
Quick story:
1994...America is still awsome; God is in His heaven; the earth is on its axis; and janus is on the throne:
on my way to laredo del sur (the laredo story(s) are WAY bettah), we stopped in victoria (hwy 72 i think) and restocked on beer, cigs...you know, supplies (college frat boys). anyway, during that stop, i came to discover that your parts are peopled by german immigrants, and while they're good folks -- as far as good folks go -- they don't know how to take free-wheelin waspy southerners who've been raised to believe that everything and everyone is in some fashion their property, especially when one of them decideds it'll be the acme of hilarity to start ribbing them about their germaness...who knew germans took that stuff so seriously? anyway, a few miles down the road, janus is pulled over.
local sherriff deputy: outta the car, boys.
janus: problem, officer?
local sherriff roots around the Bronco, makes a cursory inspection of our eyes and manner, and then says, "you boys just throwing back some buds and burnin down?"
janus: yessir. (if you're white, young people, just be honest with cops -- it usually goes bettah...if you're black or mexican, run like hell)
sherriff's dep: eunice, back at the quick-mart, (no shit, "eunice") said y'all wuz doin COcaine.
Janus: not today, your honor. (he didn't think this comment so cute)
[and then there's a spell of friend makin; he goes through his list of mississippi folks one of us may know;then all the sudden we're buddies]
sherriff's dep: did you boys know there's a rattler round up in bee'sville today (THAT's IT BEESVILLE!!! not victoria...but the scene did take place in vic -- the rattlers were in beesville)?
so we went to the rattler rodeo as guests of dep sherriff ******.
see, folks, texas ain't so bad.
and i can sing all dem songs about texas/
and i still do all the sad ones that i know/
they tell me i look like merle haggard/
and i sound a lot like david allen coe/
yeah, my long hair just can't cover up my redneck,
janus
Eat Mor Chikin
That's no shit.
We are down to just trying to keep the trees alive.
I left a dripping faucet into a pan for the squirrels and possums. They are looking bad.
I hear you. My water bills are budget breakers. We have used the water trough for a month now. Try to keep the cows away from the pond so they dont get stuck. Had to pull 2 out. Pond goes down, mud gets sticky. Fabric tow strap works for cars and cows.
The correct price is about HALF of what the author claims ... $8.06
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/big-mac-index
Let them eat peas! Neutrality, bitchez.
The Big Mac Index in "The Economist Magazine" is great!
Author has his stats all wrong. A single big mac definitely does not cost CHF12 to come close to the current $17.19 number
The link above to Nickie's web site clearly shows that a Big Mac in Swissland costs 11.50 Francs which is prettty close to 16.10 USD. That is just for the burger, not a meal deal.
http://www.mcdonalds.ch/de/menuekarte/menus/big-macr-menu
Nope. 11.50 is for the small meal "deal." Of course, if I were to get 2 medium meal deals and two Happy meals to feed the whole family, that would be 39,20 CHF = over $50 US. I don't think I'd be eating at McD's very often.
Never mind frikkin big macs.....what about petrol/gasoline??!!
1 gallon = 0.2642 L
Price here is 2.10chf per litre......
= 2.10chf x 3.785litres = 7.9485chf per gallon
= $10.68 per gallon.
Ride your bike bitchez....
Lot of gullible people on here. Try a currency converter. You must be getting ripped off a lot at home, too. Geez.
Article is wrong. A big mac in Zurich right now is 6.50 CHF ~ $9.00 USD.
..... Either way, make mine two hamburgers and a small coke I don't want to break a $50.
I think this tells more about "Simon Black" than anything else. If he exaggerates about something like this, then I wonder what else he makes up? Methinks he is a bit of a fraud, sitting in a basement somewhere while claiming to be a jetsetter.
Also Zerohedge loses credibility by re-printing this kind of garbage.
This article just goes to show the herd mentality at work. No one does any real checking of the facts. The price of a BIG MAC in Zurich is 6.50 CHF which is $8.95. Check the link here at McDonalds CH: http://www.mcdonalds.ch/fr/carte-menu/sandwiches-wraps/big-macr
A BIG MAC Menu, which includes fries and a drink is 11.50 CHF or 12.70 CHF depending on the size, small or large.
This works out to either $15.84 or $17.50
Don't get me wrong..the USD is a shit currency, and I am long silver to death, but I wish people would be accurate or fact check before posting such misleading headlines.
yo the prices in switzerland are pretty high.
one pizza margeritha (only cheese and tomatoe) ~22 Euros.
so if you want to go out for dinner with a friend and you eat and drink something you can expect to pay 100 euros / 140 usd...
;-)
but the quality is very very(!!!) high, best big macs in the world :P
The parabolic USDCHF is so oversold a corrective crash (up) is possible.
My long term indicators still warn of USD rally and EURUSD weakness.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
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