Ronald McDonald says the world is lovin' the greenback more The dollar is getting stronger in much of the fast-food eating world, according to the Big Mac Index. The Economist magazine tracks the U.S. currency's ups and downs in some 50 countries by looking at just one item, a Big Mac, as a standard measure of value. The latest reading indicates that despite the Federal Reserve's effort to suppress interest rates, the global value of the dollar is rising. The average valuation of the currencies in the index moved from roughly neutral in 2009 to about 15 percent undervalued against the dollar this year. The Big Mac Index converts local prices for the burger to see whether the dollar is over- or undervalued. In July, for example, a Big Mac sold for 48 kroner ($7.77) in Norway but $4.80 in the U.S., meaning the kroner was overvalued by 62 percent. The same burger costs $1.62 in Ukraine, which makes the local currency, the hryvnia, the weakest currency in the basket.
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- John W. Schoen, CNBC.com