Posted on 01/23/2015 9:37:19 AM PST by Steelfish
At Davos, the Rich and Powerful Pay $43 for a Hot Dog BY MATT CLINCH AND LAWRENCE DELEVINGNE
Full of global leaders, policymakers, business gurus and the odd music star, the attendees at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos aren't short of a dollar or two. But they might well be at the end of the week -- with some of the food prices around town proving to be a little hard to stomach.
At the posh Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère, a conference hotspot, even humble menu items can be astronomically pricey. A hot dog with pickles, fried onions and mustard is priced at 38 Swiss francs (about $43.50). It's 48 Swiss francs for a chicken Caesar salad with parmesan (about $55) and a draft beer at a local restaurant - in a pint-sized glass - can cost 6.50 Swiss francs, about $7.50.
Some items seemed priced just for the billionaires floating around WEF but it's a very different mood in the nearby shopping promenade.
Bruna Minelli runs a women's clothing shop. The knitted couture that she sells comes from Italy, meaning the sudden appreciation of the Swiss franc last week - and the cheaper euro - has left her with more than a few problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
They think the peasants should eat corn mush probably
Of course. The Masters of The Universe must have their steak prepared by heavenly chefs while the peasants go on to vote them into office.
What is this? Wealth envy?
Where were these a holes when I was selling real estate ?
Must be all-beef hot dogs. Have you seen the price of beef lately?
Ramen noodles for thee
Davos nosh isn’t cheap.
You mean folks that can afford to fly fully fueled private luxury jets can’t afford food?
I know food prices prices in Europe are astronomical but...
No bread?
With a wistful gesture to all the sound and fury of Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan money-printing of the past six years, Mario Draghi today announced a relative whimper of a “quantitative easing” bailout for Europe’s banks, but one which will suffice to drive down the euro and destroy the Eurozone. The desperate Wall Street and London-centered international banks did not think it nearly enough, however; Société Générale, speaking on their behalf, immediately issued a memo saying that the bailout had to be twice or three times as large as Draghi promised.
In a typically sardonic press conference, the gimlet-eyed chief of the European Central Bank (ECB) announced an 18-month program, beginning in March and continuing to September 2016, of buying EU60 billion/month of securities from the big banks — to give them cash, as he repeated several times, which they would no doubt want to invest (some of, surely) in the European economies. The great majority of the securities will be government bonds held by those megabanks. Eighty percent of the buying will actually be done by national central banks with ECB approval, and 20% by the ECB. No government should get the idea that this money-printing, virtually zero-interest-rate environment means they can spend any money, said Draghi; “structural reforms must be continued.”
And Greek bonds, he replied to a question, would not be bought until “perhaps July,” and then only if a new Greek government does nothing to displease the ECB or IMF before then, so that the ECB’s current “quality waiver” on Greek bonds could continue. Otherwise, other ECB board members have threatened, all credit to Greece and Greek banks will be cut off.
Thus ECB President Draghi thought to commute the sentences of the megabanks, while condemning the nations and their citizens.
But he and French board member Coeuré have both been saying they wanted to raise the ECB’s balance sheet to EU4 trillion, and this program won’t bring it even to EU2 trillion. So it appears Draghi announced only what German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Schäuble allowed him to announce.
The euro fell sharply from just under $1.16 to below $1.14, an 11-year low, and this will continue. Severe upward pressure on “surrounding” currencies continued, with the Swiss, Danish, Finnish, and even Turkish central banks now cutting their interest rates weekly to hold their currencies down. As leading German economist Hans-Werner Sinn pointed out, the bankrupt European megabanks will “be glad to have the cash,” but will invest it in Swiss, Danish, U.S., Chinese, etc. currencies, not the Eurozone.
All these results tend toward disintegration of the Eurozone and further impoverishment of its national economies.
The next act in the drama is the Greek national parliamentary election, set for Sunday Jan. 25.
Not envy, I don't think. More an awareness of how irrelevant and inconsequential us little folk are to the Gods who ascended to Davos this week.
At the posh Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère, a conference hotspot, even humble menu items can be astronomically pricey. A hot dog with pickles, fried onions and mustard is priced at 38 Swiss francs (about $43.50). It’s 48 Swiss francs for a chicken Caesar salad with parmesan (about $55) and a draft beer at a local restaurant - in a pint-sized glass - can cost 6.50 Swiss francs, about $7.50.
...
Those prices are a good deal if they include carbon credits.
I presume they eat them from the side, Nelson Rockefeller style?
Hmm..tell us more about N.R.’s eating style? We do know that he died of low blood pressure; it was a case of 70 over 25 (snirk).
Anyway, I could scare up a grilled beef frank or brat on a Kaiser roll or similar, with hot mustard, fried onions & sauerkraut, with a Bitburger pils for maybe.....five bucks U.S. or even less.
And enjoy it right here in the good old U.S. of A. Who needs Davos?
“We do know that he died of low blood pressure; it was a case of 70 over 25”
I don’t remember how much a “Dodger Dog” costs, but IIRC the priciest doggie I ever bought was an 8 dollar version at some Hawaiian beach hotel at poolside...the old captive audience thingie.
“Nelson thought he was coming, but he was going.”
“Nelson died happy, but what about Happy?”
(Google is such fun!)
(You don’t realize what you have unleashed)
“What’s the difference between the Israeli prime minister and Nelson Rockfeller?”
“One’s Menachem Begin, the other’s `been hockin’ Megan’.”
;^)
Famous tale about Nelson Rockefeller, when he was running for Governor of New York, going to Coney Island and posing for a photo-op eating a Nathan’s hot dog (a virtual requirement to become Governor of New York, I’m told)
Of course Platinum Spoon Boy had never eaten a hot dog in his life. So he bit into it from the side, not from the end as the entire hot dog eating world is known to do.
An aide rushed up and whispered in his ear. He quickly turned the dog around and continued eating it from the end.
“...a draft beer at a local restaurant - in a pint-sized glass - can cost 6.50 Swiss francs, about $7.50.”
Still a couple of bucks cheaper than buying one at an American football stadium.
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