4 thoughts on “Best sad but true line of the day, so far”

  1. When I read people talking about how lazy the French are, and how they can’t be bothered to work a 40-hour work week, I’m always puzzled, because I know that every dollar I earn is only worth .89 euros.

  2. This doesn’t make sense. The dow is an index. It doesn’t change with the currency.

    If Tobias means the price of the DIA which is based on the index then the price of 100 shares of the DIA’s when the dow was 11000 (Aug 2006 with Euro=.79) was 8,690 Euros. If sold when the dow reached 14000 (Aug 2007 with Euro= .74) the profit in Euros would have been 10,360-8690=1670 Euros for a 19.22% gain.

    Not too shabby over one year.

  3. The DJ is an index, true — an index based on the price of a share of 30 selected stocks (and a factor to keep changes in the stocks used constant over the years).

    Tobias’s comparison is to Bush’s election in 2000.

    The DJIA was at 11,000 when Bush was elected or 12,941€.

    The DJIA was at 13,500 on the day this was posted, yesterday, or 9,440€.

  4. Tobias himself clarified Monday (October 22):

    A couple of you questioned the math. But here’s what I meant. At the same time the Dow was 11,000, in November of 2000, the euro bought only 85 cents. If it still did, then it would be fair to say that – to someone holding euros – the Dow had risen smartly to 14,000 . . . which nominally it has. But the euro does not still buy only 85 cents, it buys about $1.42. So the euro has appreciated 67% against the dollar. Or, looked a different way, the dollar is down 40% versus the euro. If you knock 40% off 14,000, you get 8,400.

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