Zero sum game

Modern economists have spent the last few decades trying to get people, particularly those weaned on the class-warfare theory of Marxism, to understand that economics is not a zero sum game -- that is, that there need not be a loser for every winner.

Still, there are some economic examples of just that very phenomenon.

One is the exchange rate. The American dollar has now taken its epic plunge to record levels against most foreign currencies. Today you need $1.36 to buy a Euro, which six years ago cost around ninety cents. A British pound just broke the two-dollar mark, so if you thought London was expensive before, now the weak dollar has added a 25% markup on absolutely everything. Most importantly for us, the dollar is now worth less than six Norwegian kroner for the first time in memory; the average has been around seven and a half for a long time, though it was up as high as nine and change when we got married six years ago. At that time Dad remembers just knocking the last digit off the prices to get an idea of the cost in "real money." Now knock off the last digit and divide by two.

So back to the zero sum game: the US is now really, really cheap for us, and when we were in the States a couple of weeks ago we were buying everything in sight with our Norwegian credit cards. The flip side: anyone who comes to visit us is going to find that everything is 25% more expensive than the last time they were here.

Sorry about that. This is one time everyone can't win.