Wii Points Index

I recently got a Wii. How I am going to find time to play it is irrelevant, I just wanted one.

Those who have one, or may have been following its progress, would probably know that Nintendo has a Wii Points system to allow players to purchase retro games from its online channels. The games are priced by Wii Points, with the more popular/more recent games obviously charging higher prices.

That, and my great admiration for The Economist's Big Mac Index, gave me a thought: how much do these Wii Points cost in different countries? Clearly every Wii Point is exactly the same, and should theoretically be worth exactly the same. In practice, regional restrictions mean there are no arbitrage opportunities. In any case, I started with what I could find off the net, as follows:

Cost of 2000 Wii Points
Country	Local Currency	Store	Price (in local currency)	Implied FX Rate to USD
US	USD	Toys R Us	21.9900	1.0000
UK	GBP	Woolworths	13.9900	1.5718
AUS	AUD	EB	35.0000	0.6283
CAN	CAD	Sears Canada	24.9900	0.8800
JAP	JPY	Indicative	2,000.0000	0.0110
Country	Local Currency	Current FX Rate (USD equiv) www.xe.com	Implied Price based on Current FX Rate	Over/(under) pricing relative to current FX rate
US	USD	1.0000	21.9900	N/A
UK	GBP	2.0609	10.6701	31.11%
AUS	AUD	0.8770	25.0741	39.59%
CAN	CAD	0.9895	22.2233	12.45%
JAP	JPY	0.0092	2,390.2174	(16.33%)

So the lesson isn't so much about international economics and arbitrage; it's simply that UK and AUS gamers are clearly being ripped off by local retailers, who aren't passing on the benefits of a weaker USD. Time to campaign, geeks. Japanese players, as usual, are treated to an entirely different echelon of gaming goodness. I would move there just to be hooked into Nintendo nirvana.

Highly doubt this will replace the Big Mac Index; for one, it does not account for the "basket of goods". Still, makes you realise why game console makers continue to maintain region coding even though there are clear benefits to gamers to remove them (i.e. being able to import hot games from overseas, rather than relying on the pitiful supply from local distributors).

Bring Green Pencil To Voting Booth!

Can't decide the lesser of several evils in this election?

Vote Laberalocrats First - with a green pencil! The ultimate fence-sitting vote, and it's QUINTUPLE VALUE voting!! (Take that, cheap Greenies with your double value voting.)

How To Lose $3 Billion in 21 Days

Well, banker karma got to me. After the last post which arose from superchronopossession, three deals dropped on my desk at the same time, and closing pretty much one after the other (which was last Friday). Hence the extended absence of tales of Rockett Fuel office shenanigans.

Since the last post, Messrs E Stanley O'Neal and Charles O Prince III (no, the OTHER Charles) will, sadly, be leaving the great ships Merrill Lynch and Citi. In a loving tribute, both were handsomely rewarded as a result of the deft management. If you think it is easy to lose tens of billions of dollars, think about this: you have 24 hours to spend $5 million, and not a cent less, and you can't keep a cent or keep anything you buy with it or make any money out of it. Yes... not so easy to think of how to make $5 million disappear into thin air. It takes a special kind of leader to do the almost-impossible.

But my oh my, aren't we all blessed in our lifetimes to see two high-profile leaders achieve exactly this. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, they will be walking away with roughly $200 million, give or take a lazy few tens of millions. It takes talent, it takes bravado, and unrivalled knack for timing the market (i.e. jumping into high-risk debt and structured products at the exact time they were turning unsustainable). You and your silly quant models could not have timed it any better. Unless you are Bear Stearns.

Why I now dislike redneck unemployed lying useless lazy criminal borrowers even more than I did before (subprime crisis impact - it's PERSONAL)
Keeping it brief due to propensity to cry when thinking about it:
- not happy* with bonus
- not happy* with pay rise
- pay rise actually lower than that offered by competing bank earlier in the year, when I was as green as Link's costume
- making me think... can one actually do a valuation on loyalty, and therefore, did I overvalue it?

* NOTE: gross understatement of the night.
** The irony of my situation, in light of the above take on Wall St maths, is not lost on me. Please do not rub it in by pointing it out.