SNB & CHF

It’s half a century since the first family planning clinic opened in Geneva, and young people in particular continue to reap the benefits of the service. It was William Geisendorf who founded the clinic in the Boulevard Saint George. He went on to set up the unit for gynaecology and sexology at Geneva University Hospital, the first of its kind in Europe. (RTS, swissinfo.ch) --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on...

Switzerland’s postal service has begun testing autonomous flying drones for parcel delivery. Real-world use could come within five to ten years. (SRF, swissinfo.ch) Swiss Post, in collaboration with Swiss WorldCargo (the air freight division of Swiss International Air Lines) and Matternet (a drone manufacturer from California), has started testing unmanned flying drones for logistical purposes. The aim of the tests is to develop and pinpoint the technical possibilities that the use of...

By inflation, I don’t refer to rising consumer prices in Athens. My Greek friends tell me that prices have been steady there in recent years. The focus on prices is the greatest sleight of hand ever perpetrated. It diverts your attention away from the real action. Inflation is the counterfeiting of credit. It is borrowing, when you can’t pay and you know it. Inflation is taking money under false pretenses, and issuing fraudulent bonds. This describes the Greek finances perfectly. Greece...

THE FINANCIAL REPRESSION AUTHORITY Link: http://www.financialrepressionauthority.com Comprehensive collection of articles, essays, videos, podcasts and breaking news relating to FINANCIAL REPRESSION Your single global source on the Internet. Mark O'Byrne feels that holding a Degree in Greek and Roman Civilization with a focus on their economic and monetary history. This gives O'Byrne insights into the cyclical nature of societies that few other writers have. It is these insights that Mark...

Hyperinflation is commonly defined as rapidly rising prices which get out of control. For example, the Wikipedia entry begins, “In economics, hyperinflation occurs when a country experiences very high and usually accelerating rates of inflation, rapidly eroding the real value of the local currency…” Let’s restate this in terms of purchasing power. In hyperinflation, the purchasing power of the currency collapses. Before the onset, suppose one collapsar buys ten loaves of bread. Soon, it...

Retail data shows that the SNB peg removal in January 2015 as early as April 2015 with minimal adverse impact on the economy. Trade surplus showed that Switzerland had fully recovered its lost trade surplus in May and expectations crossed an important threshold into positive territory in June. CHF strengthened since May end, as the market caught wind of the Swiss recovery, and the Grexit would further strengthen the CHF if it were to occur....

Stock markets can only improve if sales increase more than the costs of the companies. Wage inflation describes the development of the major costs of companies. While retail sales remains sluggish, wages are rising more quickly. Torsten Sløk of Deutsche Bank on the development of American wages.——————————————————————————————————————————- wage inflation in the United States The first chart shows that over the past year employer costs have risen significantly. “Bonus...

One of the first to use the word “euro glut” was Deutsche Bank’s George Saravelos. His idea of the euro glut is that European banks and investors drive the euro down despite the massive European current account surplus and the high European household savings rates of 12% compared to 4% in the US. Saravelos argues that ECB easing will lead to some of the “largest capital outflows in the history of financial markets”. This would counter the “European savings glut” created by savings and...

We call this chapter the holy grail of long-term currency movements because it is able to explain things like the sudden depreciation of the yen between October 2012 and April 2013 or the strengthening of the Chinese Yuan. The former chief editor of “The Economist” Geoffrey Crowther published a great work on the development of balance of payments and current accounts over the long-term. It divides development into six phases, which are analogous to  Shakespeare’s seven phases of life. via...

Overview: Sight deposits are currently the by far most important means of financing for SNB currency purchases, for interventions. Sight deposits are assets for commercial banks, the Swiss confederation and other counterparties that deposit money at the SNB, but for the SNB they are liabilities, debt.Sight deposits are always denominated in CHF. The SNB finances itself with Swiss Francs. With a rising CHF the debt relative to assets gets bigger, because the assets lose their value. As...