BobHarris.com - Fun with inflation (or: hey, did I just lose a third of my stuff?)

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Fun with inflation (or: hey, did I just lose a third of my stuff?)

Tag it now -

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

I was just fooling with various inflation and exchange rate calculators. Since we all know basic math, absolutely nothing in this post should be surprising. And yet...

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” premiered in 1999. Not exactly a long time ago, but adjusting for inflation, to receive an equivalent grand prize, a 2007 contestant would have to win about $1,240,600.

But let’s not forget the steep drop of the US dollar against most foreign currencies. In 1999, for example, the euro was worth an average of about 94 cents. In 2007, it’s worth $1.35. (This neglects the euro’s own inflation, which is a bit fuzzy, given the lumping together of many economies; if we accept the official target rate of two percent, total euro inflation seems reasonably approximated at a little under 20 percent or so during the period.)

So in constant 2007 dollars and euro, a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” winner in 1999 could have bought over 1.1 million euro worth of stuff. A 2007 winner can only buy about 740,000 euro.

Yikes. Is that right? If my math isn't utterly screwy (which is entirely possible, although I think this is close), your dollars have lost one third of their buying power compared to the euro, just since you first heard Regis say “is that your final answer.”

While we’re at it, George Washington was offered a salary of $25,000. He declined, since he was already extremely wealthy, but that would be about $285,800 in 2007 dollars.

George W. Bush, on the other hand, gets paid $400,000 per year.

Adjusting for inflation, then, we pay George W. Bush about 40 percent more than George Washington was offered.

Make of this what you will.

CORRECTION: Turns out I was looking at the wrong numbers on the George Washington example. His $25000 actually would be more like a half-million in today's dollars. My bad. So Bush is not being paid more than Washington was offered. And balance has been returned to the universe.