Blog Post
The Big Mac, a (nearly) perfect form of global currency
by remnil
Have you ever exchanged your dollars for a different currency? I don't know about you, but I'm always confused as to how much I'm actually getting. If I can trade one dollar for 0.75 euros, can I still get as much stuff as I would with a dollar (which, admittedly, is not that much)?
For over 20 years, The Economist has been giving a clever answer to this complex question: Big Macs. The Economist's Big Mac Index compares the prices of that beloved artery-clogger around the globe, and in the process helps show just how much you can get for your dollar. Or franc. Or rouble. In their latest index, you can get a burger in the U.S. for about $3.41. But in China, it will only cost you $1.45. If you're traveling to Norway, though, it will cost you a whopping (pun intended) $6.88!
The Big Mac isn't a perfect way to measure exchange rates and purchasing power. After all, you can't trade them across international borders (eww!). But they have the advantage of being made the same way no matter where you go, an elusive quality in international markets.
Want to find out more about the Big Mac index, or any number of other current events or international trade topics? As an AADL cardholder, you can actually access The Economist in its full-text glory in General OneFile, one of our great research databases. You will need to login to your aadl.org account to follow the database link.
Blog Post
Participatory . . . lending?
by remnil
The Web 2.0 revolution has brought user participation to a new level. Thanks to sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and the newly announced Media Predict, mere mortals can create and judge content previously controlled by large media companies.
But according to a pair of segments on the July 4th episode of Marketplace, the participatory mantra is coming to an unlikely sector: banking.
Prosper.com and Kiva.org both connect borrowers directly with lenders, without bank intermediaries. Prosper allows users to solicit lenders by posting their need and fully explaining their situation. They can then borrow from (or lend to) multiple individuals, at various dollar amounts and interest rates. Taking a similar approach, Kiva puts a slightly more philanthropic spin on participatory lending: it facilitates microlending. You can make small loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations, where access to credit is difficult to come by.
What do you think? Would you borrow/lend on such a site? Should banks be afraid?
Blog Post
Value Line
by amy
Value Line is now available from a computer at any Library branch. Value Line is an investment advisory service that rates hundreds of stocks as to safety, timeliness and projected price performance. It's best known for the Value Line Investment Survey, a comprehensive source of information and advice on approximately 1,700 stocks, more than 90 industries, the stock market, and the economy.
Blog Post
Historical Stock Prices
by Van
AADL Select Sites: Money and Investing
With the arrival of income tax preparation season comes the need for historical stock quotations to arrive at the basis for determining gain or loss from the sale of securities.
Two websites may help. Both have historical stock quotations available. The dates of coverage are not uniform for all stocks. Both have symbol lookup searches to help find out the stock symbol.
Big Charts has historical stock quotations available from as far back as January 2, 1970. Just enter the stock symbol and the date to find out the opening, closing, high, and low prices for that date.
Yahoo! Finance has historical stock quotations available from as far back as 1962. Enter the stock symbol in the search window, press "GO". The next screen has a link under "Quotes" for "Historical Prices".