Reader Tom McC objected to Frida Ghitis's Jewish New Year article on Israel's currency. He wrote: “High prices for 'stuff' is a sign of a low value for the currency. A highly valued currency would bring low prices for things.”

Frida claimed she just meant that her fistful of US dollars and credit cards was not going very far in the Holy Land. But I think both of them are missing the contradictory forces at work when the Israeli Central Bank decided to raise rates.

With the open global Israeli economy one of the few looking good these days, the CB has to keep buying dollars to prevent the shekel from appreciating. The higher shekel results from the CB's earlier move pushing interest rates to fight inflation.