An Eventful Walk

The Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's central thoroughfare, is about a mile and a half in length. You can judge the state of the Ukrainian economy by the fact that, when I walked along it last night, the offered exchange rate in the booths at the start was 8.30 hrivnia/dollar, while by the time I had reached the other end the booths were offering 8.75. If I had been nimble enough, there might even have been opportunities for backwardation, as we used to call it on the London Stock Exchange in my distant youth - i.e. buying dollars at one booth and selling them for an instant profit at another. The pound sterling of course is not as fragile....yet.