Item — HN Reader

PPP says essentially to "divide by the cost of a BigMac." A BigMac might cost more in Europe, but they don't eat them. It's silly.

The result of PPP is that it makes the poorest states in the US appear to be richer than places like Switzerland. Go visit Switzerland, then Louisiana, and come back here and we'll talk.

1 comments

PPP is indeed a silly measure as practiced. McDonalds has almost no competitors in Switzerland (no In&Out, Jack, TacoBell or Subway across the street) - therefore a BigMac costs at least 5 times more than in the US. There are other measures that suck as well - e.g. external debt. OMG, Switzerland, Monaco and Luxembourg are completely screwed ... or are these popular banking places, that own foreign investors money that they actually are hording and did not spent it in the Looney-Tunes store at the local mall?