U.S. Celebrity’s Endorsement of Currencies

Word yesterday an NFL Player is getting paid half his salary in Bitcoin. (it’s not true actually) But I thought it would be interesting to go back and look at a very famous endorsement of non-USD by a celebrity: Jay-Z and the Euro.

In Jay-Z’s “Blue Magic” video, instead of showing off those Franklin’s with small faces (aka “Money Ain’t A Thang”), Jay-Z flashed 500 Euro Notes.

How did that work out? Well, let’s see what the Euro/$ exchange rate did after the video.

The Euro topped out just a few months later and is still about 30% lower in value today then back in 2007. (I’m even ignoring the negative German bond yields.)

Bottom line: Jay-Z made the classic naive investor error: Buy high.