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	<title>Comments on: Short the Czech Koruna for &#8216;Earth-Shattering&#8217; Profits</title>
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		<title>By: Luboš Motl</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/short-the-czech-koruna-for-earth-shattering-profits/6812/comment-page-1#comment-5866</link>
		<dc:creator>Luboš Motl</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:07:06 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>I&#039;ve lost a lot by not caring about the right currency but I still think that your expectations are silly. 

You have already missed the opportunity to short CZK. All risky things got cheaper by 40% or more in USD, for a few months, since August. We should have shorted them in August. But now it&#039;s already too late and get ready for the ride in the opposite direction than you say. The Czech crown will never return to those low exchange rates from 2001. It used to be 44 CZK per USD but it will never be above 25 CZK per USD again. Get ready to revisit 15 CZK per USD in a year. 

This development has good reasons. The crown was weak because we were emerging as a screwed post-socialist country. But we&#039;re getting back to normal Europe where we belonged before the WWII. So a good working hypothesis is a homogenization with Germany - we used to have the same GDP per capita as Germany before the war and there&#039;s no reason not to return to this expectation. Eventually, within a decade or two, the nominal salaries in the Czech Republic will be essentially identical to those in Germany. This will be partly because of wage inflation - which doesn&#039;t seem to be visible in Czechia - and strengthening of the currency. The nominal wages are about 5 times lower than those in Germany. So don&#039;t expect a significant weakening of CZK in a year or more (decade).

In the era of hysteria, one could bet against currencies with a lot of debt, like the forint, and even that was risky because of the possible interventions - but Czechia has a low external debt, about 4 months of GDP or so, twice or thrice smaller than countries like the U.S. Also, we largely ignore the &quot;crisis&quot;. You may be lucky by chance but I expect that your recommendations are likely to lead to losses for your readers.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve lost a lot by not caring about the right currency but I still think that your expectations are silly. </p>
<p>You have already missed the opportunity to short CZK. All risky things got cheaper by 40% or more in USD, for a few months, since August. We should have shorted them in August. But now it&#8217;s already too late and get ready for the ride in the opposite direction than you say. The Czech crown will never return to those low exchange rates from 2001. It used to be 44 CZK per USD but it will never be above 25 CZK per USD again. Get ready to revisit 15 CZK per USD in a year. </p>
<p>This development has good reasons. The crown was weak because we were emerging as a screwed post-socialist country. But we&#8217;re getting back to normal Europe where we belonged before the WWII. So a good working hypothesis is a homogenization with Germany &#8211; we used to have the same GDP per capita as Germany before the war and there&#8217;s no reason not to return to this expectation. Eventually, within a decade or two, the nominal salaries in the Czech Republic will be essentially identical to those in Germany. This will be partly because of wage inflation &#8211; which doesn&#8217;t seem to be visible in Czechia &#8211; and strengthening of the currency. The nominal wages are about 5 times lower than those in Germany. So don&#8217;t expect a significant weakening of CZK in a year or more (decade).</p>
<p>In the era of hysteria, one could bet against currencies with a lot of debt, like the forint, and even that was risky because of the possible interventions &#8211; but Czechia has a low external debt, about 4 months of GDP or so, twice or thrice smaller than countries like the U.S. Also, we largely ignore the &#8220;crisis&#8221;. You may be lucky by chance but I expect that your recommendations are likely to lead to losses for your readers.</p>
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