This past week's issue of The Economist (July 7th-13th) contains their latest Big Mac Index---first published in 1986. It is a simple way to note the valuations of other currencies against the dollar and is a quick, painless way to determine where to go to get the most/least for your dollar.
Where would your dollar go the farthest? A Big Mac that costs $3.41 in the United States costs $2.67 in Argentina, $4.01 in Britain, $5.08 in Denmark, $1.68 in Egypt, $1.54 in Hong Kong, $1.76 in Indonesia, $2.29 in Japan, $3.59 in New Zealand, $7.61 in Iceland, $6.88 in Norway, $2.72 in the UAE, and $1.84 in the Ukraine.
Wikipedia has an understandable explanation of the Big Mac Index and currency valuations and here is the link to the list of the past Big Mac Indexes at the Economist. I think a free registration is all that is required to access The Economist articles.
In looking at the April 9th 1998 Big Mac Index, I was surpised to note that the price of a Big Mac has gone up less than I suspected---from $2.56 to $3.41. Also, the price differential between the United States and Britain has stayed somewhat the same. From listening to a friend talk about the decline in the dollar, I assumed the price of a Britain Big Mac was nearly double our's.
4:11:52 PM 
