Exchange Rates

[doubtingmichael]

I walked past the John Lewis bureau de change today. It had a big sign in front, saying "Trust is the most valuable currency". Which immediately brought two questions to mind

Comments

[ms_cataclysm]

John Lewis's rust is clearly infinitely valuable and cannot be obtained by mere mortals.

[drplokta]

Let TU be the amount you trust the UK government, measured in whatever units you care to use. Let TR be the amount you trust the Russian government. Then TU-TR is worth around (0.1217 - 0.0138) x £1.3 trillion (the difference in five year bond yields between those two countries times total UK government debt outstanding). Or in other words, the additional trust placed in the UK as opposed to the Russian government is worth about £140 billion.