Because you take it as axiomatic that anything American is inherently better, stronger, bigger, etc? And you wonder why most of the world hates you?
(One of my most memorably shocking experiences in HK was on the morning of 9/12 being told by the random taxi driver who took me to work that the US had got what they deserved at last.)

And as an investor it is not inherently obvious to me that an environment with a reasonably managed and predictable devaluation of 35% over 18 months is in principle less attractive than one where the exchange rates swing quite rapidly and less predictably across a 35% range.

It is not clear to me how I changed the meaning of JonNYC's statement. Please could you clarify this for me. What I wrote was exactly how I understood (and still understand) his original statement.

My apologies for misquoting the rate for the mglob34 - my success in investment decisions and management of multiple currencies means that I have never bought economy class RTW tickets - I generally buy AONEs so I automatically thought of that price.

Finally, I have real and extended experience of living in a country undergoing major currency trauma (far, far more major than the minor managed devaluation in Egypt), being Russia which was my home during during 1993-1995, so I am very familiar with how a grey market in "hard" currency works. This includes being robbed with violence while negotiating an unofficial currency transaction. Your experience is?

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 09-10-2003).]