just to note that a lot of the hidden assumptions that Paul has been talking about in the context of PPP figures are actually there when you're comparing figures for the same country over time. I wrote a piece for my weblog this morning (http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002321.html) about the fact that the change in the income of the lowest quintile between 1978 and 2001 was $726, measured in 2001 dollars. Since a Starbucks latte costs about 2.80 2001 dollars, this means that the lucky duckies in the lowest quintile in 2001 were able to buy the 1978 consumption bundle, plus 259 cups of coffee (roughly one every weekday).
dd
