Swiss central bank could take negative rates lower

The issuance of the ninth banknote series was concluded on 12 September 2019. The Swiss National Bank intends to communicate the statutory recall of the banknotes from the eighth series two months in advance in the first half of 2021.

Update May 18, 2020: Reopenings in the U.S.
Sight Deposits have risen by 4.4 bn CHF, this means that the SNB is intervening and buying Euros and Dollars: The change is +4.4 bn. compared to last week.
Market sentiment have become positive during the last 2 or 3 weeks. But for many conservative investors the Swiss franc still serves as safe-haven.

Die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA veröffentlicht eine weitere Aufsichtsmitteilung im Kontext der COVID-19-Krise. Sie passt darin die Fristen von diversen, bereits erteilten Erleichterungen an und präzisiert die Berechnung der Finanzierungsquote NSFR.

Interview with Robert Hartmann, Co-Owner ProAurum, Over the last couple of months, we’ve witnessed unprecedented changes in the global economy, in the markets and in our societies. The corona crisis and the governmental measures that were introduced had a dramatic and direct effect on all of us, as investors and as citizens. 

Risk-off sentiment has intensified; as a result, the dollar is getting some more traction. Fed Chair Powell pushed back against the notion of negative rates in the US; US Treasury completed its quarterly refunding. Weekly jobless claims are expected at 2.5 mln vs. 3.169 mln last week; Mexico is expected to cut rates 50 bp to 5.5%

There was a time when any Tom, Dick or Harry could create (or “mine”) bitcoin with a modified PC. Now only warehouses packed full of specialised computing gear stand any real chance. The bones of defunct crypto mines litter the Swiss Alps.

Any economy that concentrates its wealth and income in the top tier is a fragile economy. There are two structural reasons why consumer spending will not rebound, no matter how open the economy may be. Virtually everyone who glances at headlines knows the global economy is lurching into either a deep recession or a full-blown depression, depending on the definitions one is using. Everyone also knows the stock market has roared back as if nothing has happened.

Economics has lost its way and the study has become both impotent and lacking in relevance. It’s easy to see how and why once we recognize that proper economic thinking takes place two steps beyond the apparent. Noneconomists typically take none of these steps, while modern economics has lost the ability to go beyond the first.