How the mighty have fallen

haha

haha

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I was watching an old Roger Moore episode of the saint last night. Black and white, so likely late 50s very early 60s. Simon was impersonating a murdered Italian who had planned to sell some jewelry to a dealer in Geneva. The dealer first quoted some astronomical number of lira, then converted to 400,000 CHF, or $100,000. So I thought I would compare to todays exchange rate. Actually, it is now inverted. Instead of one USD getting you 4 Swiss francs, it takes $1.07 to buy one Swiss franc. So if Simon Templar's jewels still fetched 400,000 CHF, that would bring not $100,000 USD, but $428,000.

I guess the moral is, don't vacation in Switzerland, and be careful of what may happen to your USD cash balances over time.

Ha
 
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HaHa
I recently bought a collection of Leslie Charteris' The Saint novels. ER to me now is a time to read, instead of more frequent travel after the collapse of the American dollar against other currencies. You can use as your example the exchange rate between the USD to the AUS dollar since 2000 as well.
 
bondi688 said:
HaHa
I recently bought a collection of Leslie Charteris' The Saint novels. ER to me now is a time to read, instead of more frequent travel after the collapse of the American dollar against other currencies. You can use as your example the exchange rate between the USD to the AUS dollar since 2000 as well.
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I have never read any of these, but I have been thinking of doing so. I love these old episodes.

Ha
 
haha said:
I have never read any of these, but I have been thinking of doing so. I love these old episodes.

Ha
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I think he wrote about 50 of them. Overall I prefer Ian Fleming or Le Carre, but the Saints are easy read pulp fictions.
 
Hopefully once the US economy recovers fully and QE is well and truly over, the USD will crawl back up. Just read today that for ever 1cent rise in the AUD against the USD, it costs Australians major miners BHP and RIO TINTO, USD 120 in clean profits. As a shareholder, that hurts:(
On the flipside, when I last vacationed in the US in 2002, the Aussie $ was buying US 56 cents, now it buys US $1.05. Expect to see plenty of Crocodile Dundees vacationing in your neck of the woods:)
 
jag
At the present exchange rate, it is hard to afford a good vacation in Australia, one of my very favorite places to visit , so I hope you are right.
 
bondi688 said:
jag
At the present exchange rate, it is hard to afford a good vacation in Australia, one of my very favorite places to visit , so I hope you are right.
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+1

We went to Australia at Christmas for the first time in about five years and were staggered by the cost. A can of coke in a convenience store costs about double what you pay in Hong Kong. Just about everything seemed very expensive compared to what we pay in Hong Kong (HKD is pegged to the USD).
 
traineeinvestor said:
+1

We went to Australia at Christmas for the first time in about five years and were staggered by the cost. A can of coke in a convenience store costs about double what you pay in Hong Kong. Just about everything seemed very expensive compared to what we pay in Hong Kong (HKD is pegged to the USD).
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Yes - it's not cheap here anymore. The mining boom took care of that. The younger ones are finding it difficult to get into the home buyers market. Sydney average house price is now over $500k. You need 2 solid incomes to get into property, unless you receive a boost from mum and dad.

Like I said , the flipside is overseas vacations are cheap. Trainee - we were in HK in Nov last year. had a blast. Love the food. Delicious and cheap. The people are fantastic
 
haha said:
I was watching an old Roger Moore episode of the saint last night. Black and white, so likely late 50s very early 60s.
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That series ran from '62 - '69. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saint_(TV_series)

There was also a series of B&W B-movies from '38 - ~'41 that shows up occasionally on TCM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saint_(film_series) Those starring George Sanders as Simon Templar were, IMO the best. At least one is available on The Archive: The Saint in Palm Springs (1941). : dali : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Tyro
 
When someone who is used to the price of things in HK complains about prices in Sydney, it is time to take note. $42 for fish and chips? Was the vinegar made by Chateau Lafitte?
 
haha said:
I guess the moral is, don't vacation in Switzerland, and be careful of what may happen to your USD cash balances over time.

Ha
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In Switzerland last summer; pretty much to just transit the country. Couldn't wait to get to Italy to get a decent meal. Not for the quality of the food, but for an affordable restaurant.

Sobering to wander the streets hungry feeling we really didn't have enough money to eat. For example, FF at a kiosk were $9 USD.

Curious about the discrepancy in the valuation of currencies between Switzerland and neighboring countries, spent a little time on the net once home. From memory ... Switzerland's intact infrastructure post-WW 2 ... positioning in high-value industries (e.g. banking) were cited. Too, discretionary income was said to be high due to subsidized education, health, pension systems. (Not sure how the last would differentiate the country from surrounding European neighbors?) Even so, thrifty Swiss shoppers living close to borders pour into France, Germany etc. for Euro-denominated groceries.

As for our food, made it out of the country on airplane snacks, prepaid B&B breakfast, and take-out gyros. :dance: Lovely, lovely place and sorry to leave, but time to eat.
 
You wonder if the significant depreciation of the American dollars is a deliberate and underhanded way to depreciate the massive national debt, but that made our purchasing power lower, especially when one goes abroad.
 
haha said:
I guess the moral is, don't vacation in Switzerland
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I love vacationing there: some of the best hiking available.

Switzerland makes so many great products, too. Think IWC, Rolex, Victorinox, Caran d'Ache, Nestlé, Pilatus, SIG, etc.
 
The $428,000 will do you no good once Uncle Guido finds out you murdered his nephew to get his jewelry. Family is everything.
 
Looked it up on the Fed site. The 1970's were very kind to the Swiss Franc.

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Invest in Swiss stocks. The best of both worlds.
 
I know this is not the point of this thread, but I love Switzerland at any price.
 
I lived near Geneva from the 1970s to the 1990s. I still visit the area at least once a year and own some real estate there. Switzerland is known the world over for the stability of its currency (low inflation). I do question the benefits of such stability for the citizenry though. Because of its strong and stable currency, living in Switzerland is very pricey (Geneva and Zurich often top the world's most expensive cities list). Swiss citizens are pouring into neighboring France in record numbers as they are being priced out of their own country. And despite the large devaluation of the USD vs the Swiss Franc, Americans have successfully maintained a very high standard of living, even relative to the Swiss. So the exchange rate (to me at least), does not tell the whole story. On a purchasing power parity basis, it seems like the mighty might still be doing OK.
 
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FIREd said:
.... And despite the large devaluation of the USD vs the Swiss Franc, Americans have successfully maintained a very high standard of living, even relative to the Swiss. So the exchange rate (to me at least), does not tell the whole story. On a purchasing power parity basis, it seems like the mighty might still be doing OK.
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I'm wondering how this could be. If the inflation rate in Switzerland is on a par with the US (I don't know if this is really true), wouldn't the currency changes work against the US dollar and US citizens? Or are there other factors? Just curious as I probably won't be vacationing in Switzerland anytime soon.
 
Lsbcal said:
I'm wondering how this could be. If the inflation rate in Switzerland is on a par with the US (I don't know if this is really true), wouldn't the currency changes work against the US dollar and US citizens? Or are there other factors? Just curious as I probably won't be vacationing in Switzerland anytime soon.
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The weaker USD has an immediate impact for the US citizen who needs to convert his dollars into Swiss Francs or vice versa. But comparing a US citizen spending his dollars in the US and a Swiss citizen spending his francs in Switzerland, the deep slide in the exchange rate between the USD and CHF does not seem to have had a profound impact on the relative standard of living in both countries. In fact, correcting for purchasing power, the US and Switzerland are still neck and neck when it comes to GDP per capita:

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll let people smarter than me debate why that is.
 
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Of course, a weaker dollar is good for any US worker who competes against foreign workers - at least in terms of getting a job. Most people who post here are either retired or have jobs that don't have a lot of foreign competition.
 
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