So, what’s the millionaire’s trip about? Apparently Indonesian Rupiah is one of the least valued currency units; got myself 1.9 million Rupiahs (~US$200) the other day, which literally makes me a millionaire just like many others lol.

In case you are wondering, the world’s least valued currency is the Vietnamese đồng, which took over the #1 spot in April 2009 from the suspended Zimbabwean dollar, which had a 100 trillion dollar banknote (~US$33) at some point.

Going on a millionaire’s trip from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Currency fluctuation is the major factor for the ups and downs; London, Seoul, and Sydney etc. are dropped significantly because of weakened currency.

10 most expensive cities in 2009 [2008 ranking in brackets]

1. Tokyo, Japan (2)
2. Osaka, Japan (11)
3. Moscow, Russia (1)
4. Geneva, Switzerland (8)
5. Hong Kong, China (6)
6. Zürich, Switzerland (9)
7. Copenhagen, Denmark (7)
8. New York City, USA (22)
9. Beijing, China (20)
10. Singapore (13)

Tokyo is world’s most expensive city (2009) from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Singapore and Korea are second and third respectively on the chart, but significantly behind Japan in numbers [illustration by Mike Vella; more on IEEE]

Japan has highest industrial robot density from YeinJee's Asian Journal

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Credit crisis explained from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The shopping vouchers (Image by James Tung)

Taiwan’s citizens and eligible residents (foreign spouses etc.) are receiving shopping vouchers worth NT$3,600 (USD107) from the government, regardless of age and financial capability (wealthy people are encouraged to donate the vouchers though).

The distribution has started on January 18th, just soon enough for Chinese New Year spending spree. The vouchers are valid until September 2009 and not exchangeable to cash… so the people are ‘forced’ to spend on it.

USD107 might not seem much, but for a small family of four… it added up to USD428, which should be quite useful during the current economic situation.

Taiwanese get free vouchers from government from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The 100,000,000,000,000 dollar note (Image via Chinanews (Cn))

100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The annual report assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, which in turn depends on how productively a country uses available resources. Thus, the index measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity.

The top 10 overall ranking are USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Germany, Japan and Canada.

The top 10 Asian economic entities are Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China and UAE.

Singapore tops Asia in competitiveness report from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Mercer’s survey is arguably the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

The survery covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Top 10 most expensive cities in 2008

Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong (China), Copenhagen (Denmark), Geneva (Switzerland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Milan (Italy).

Surprisingly US have only one city in the top 50 (New York at 22nd)… and Canada don’t even make it into top 50. Perhaps we should migrate to that region instead lol.

Moscow is world’s most expensive city (2008) from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Vietnamese Dong (đồng), if not mistaken, is the second least valued currency behind Zimbabwean dollars. The face value of Dongs started rising since late 80s because of inflation; in 1985 the largest banknote was 500, but now 500,000.

Despite the high inflation rate, Vietnam’s economic growth is quite decent over the time span… most Vietnamese are probably living better now as compared to a decade or two ago.

Who wants to be a millionaire? from YeinJee's Asian Journal