The Big Mac as a measure of International purchasing-power

The world can be measured by the cost of a Big Mac

Excerpt:

It’s a term recognized around most parts of the world: The Big Mac. In more than 116 countries and with over 34,000 locations around the globe, McDonald’s (MCD) products are as common worldwide as they are in America. The Economist takes it one step further, using the iconic burger as a measure of global inflation. Yahoo! Finance’s Jeff Macke says The Economist's Big Mac Index measures “your buying power. It's a cute way of looking into what you can buy with a dollar…you can’t really feel that buying power until you go overseas.” The concept for the index is simple: it measures the price of a Big Mac around the globle (except in India where the Big Mac is not offered; India's Maharaja Mac, a chicken sandwich, was substituted). It tests the economic theory of purchasing power parity -- that the same item should be priced the same around the world, as long as exchange rates equalize. The beefy data reveals exchange rates and inflation are not normalized across international territories and the U.S. dollar has not been sharply devalued, as many predicted when the Fed began its quantitative easing program. In the United States, a Big Mac is priced at $4.80. But in the Ukraine, the price of a Big Mac can cost as low as $1.63. In Norway customers pay $7.76. The price of a Big Mac in China is 43% lower than in the U.S. What does this tell us? First, Norway's kroner is inflated in value versus the dollar by 65%. Second, Ukraine's hryynia is the most undervalued currency (in relationship to the ones used in the index).

Comment: More on (From "The Economist"): here and here.

2 Tablets of Truth or 2 Patties of Meat?

Survey: More Americans Familiar with Big Mac Ingredients than 10 Commandments

Excerpt:

Despite living in a country with a rich and still prevalent Christian heritage – as evident from the Pledge of Allegiance to the nation’s motto, “In God We Trust” – Americans were found to be more familiar with the ingredients of the McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger than some of the Ten Commandments.

In a new study conducted by Kelton research in conjunction with the upcoming release of the animated feature film, The Ten Commandments, 80 percent of respondents knew "two all beef patties" were among the ingredients of the Big Mac but only six out of ten could identify "Thou shalt not kill” as one of the Ten Commandments. Also, while 43 percent of respondents – including those who regularly attend worship – could recall Bobby and Peter, two of the least-recalled names from the Brady Bunch, they were less familiar with two of the least recalled commandments – "Remember the Sabbath" (34 percent) and "Do not make any false idols" (29 percent).

“This gradual erosion of our knowledge of the Ten Commandments is a pretty serious issue,” said Paul Lauer, founder and president of Motive Entertainment, the group marketing the Ten Commandments film. He adds that he was shocked because these were statistics coming from a country that is known as “a Christian nation.”

Lauer, along with makers of the Ten Commandments movie, say they hope the film will inspire Americans to improve their literacy of the Ten Commandments and the Bible. The film, produced by Promenade Pictures, is slated to hit theaters Oct. 19.


Two all beef patties Slogan

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." is a trademarked slogan first used by McDonald's in 1975

Comments:

1. The Ten Commandments: Exodus 20:2-17
   
2. Big Mac image from ABCNews.
   
3. Ten Commandments image from Wikipedia.