SNB & CHF

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The oft repeated generalization about the dominance of low paying jobs is not true for the last few years. This does note refute the disparity of wealth and income in the US. There is a restructuring taking place that favors educated and skilled workers.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Each quarter, the SECO estimates the GDP and its components. The main purpose of these estimations is to provide data that allow for an assessment of the cyclical development of the main macroeconomic aggregats in a timely adequate and credible manner.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The US dollar is trading heavily against most of the major and emerging market currencies. However, the losses are modest, and the greenback remains within recent ranges. The Antipodean and Scandi bloc currencies are performing best.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]ISM showed unexpected weakness in Aug non-mfg PMI. Markit measure slipped but not as much as ISM. Odds of a Sept Fed hike slip to about 15%. Watch trendline in Dollar Index near 94.45.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]If asked what's intrinsic to human happiness, most people in consumer societies will offer up answers such as money, status, a nice house, etc. But as Sebastian Junger observes in his book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, what's actually intrinsic to human happiness is: meaningful relationships within a community (i.e. a tribe); opportunities to contribute to the group and to be appreciated; being competent at useful tasks and opportunities for...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]We often look at parts of the CPI. For example food inflation is relevant in emerging markets or poorer people in developed nations. Food inflation in Switzerland has risen by 1.3% YoY compared to 0.2% in the U.S., and 1.4% in the eurozone and 1.1% in neighbour Germany. Rents are up +0.2% YoY. Existing Swiss rents are bound to interest rates; therefore they cannot follow the Swiss real estate boom yet.

The writer J.R.R. Tolkien was so impressed by the beauty of nature during a visit to Switzerland, that he incorporated some of the things he experienced in his classic novels, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. (rts/swissinfo.ch/jh) In 1911, when John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was 19, he travelled from Interlaken to Zermatt with a group of 11 companions, and saw the Aletsch glacier, the Lauterbrunnen waterfalls and the Swiss Alpine peaks, all of which were reproduced in his own drawings in his...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Modern Economics – It’s All About Central Planning. We are hereby delivering a somewhat belated comment on the meeting of monetary central planners and their courtier economists at Jackson Hole. Luckily timing is not really an issue in this context.

What would it be like to live underground in a bunker if a major disaster struck Switzerland? Zora Schelbert, a guide at the Sonnenberg bunker in Lucerne, shows us what we could expect from some of the rooms and living quarters deep under the city. (Jo Fahy, swissinfo.ch) --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]There were several developments that took place while US markets were closed for its Labor Day holiday. Most of the economic news was favorable. This included a strong snap back in the UK service PMI, more evidence that the moral suasion campaign to lift wages in Japan is yielding some success and a rise in the Caixin's China's service PMI.