SNB & CHF

In a recent article, Alistair Crooke quotes former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, who observes that Israel is in early stages of a civil war between the secular, modern Israel and the “Jewish-supremacist, ultranationalist” theocratic Israel. The vision of Israel cherished by each side is very different, and each side is increasingly unable to grant the other legitimacy of argument.Israel was and remains held together by fear and hate of a common enemy. This condition...

Stronger than expected data and hawkish FOMC minutes helped lift US rates and the greenback last week. That market continues to also reduce the extend of ECB easing this year is notable but did not prevent the euro from snapping a five-week advance. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield rose above 1% last week for the first time since 2012, but the US dollar traded above JPY157 for the first time since the BOJ is believed to have intervened earlier this month....

The money supply is rising again, and persistent price inflation is not a surprise. Price inflation occurs when the amount of currency increases significantly above private sector demand. For investors, the worst decision in this environment of monetary destruction is to invest in sovereign bonds and keep cash. The government’s destruction of the purchasing power of the currency is a policy, not a coincidence.Readers ask me why the government would be interested in...

Some philosophers, drawing upon Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, have questioned the nature and limits of reason. By contrast, human reason plays a central role in libertarian thought. In the ordinary dictionary sense, human reason means simply “the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgments, especially based on practical facts.”In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises depicts reason as a universal quality common to all human beings, emphasizing that...

What is the Mises Institute? The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order....

Since 2020, the number of families participating in homeschooling has increased significantly, and with it, discussions about regulations. Currently, regulations of homeschoolers are a state-by-state phenomenon, with Pennsylvania and New York among the states with the most regulations and Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma with the least. Examples of regulations include requiring parents to submit a letter of intent to homeschool prior to removing their children from the...

Health insurance premiums are a growing burden for Swiss households. On June 9, the Swiss will vote on two initiatives aimed at capping health costs. While the Social Democrats want to limit health insurance premiums to 10% of a household’s income, the Centre party wants to introduce a mechanism to force the state to curb the rising costs. Do these two initiatives convince you? --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to...

Milton Friedman: The Last ConservativeBy Jennifer BurnsFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023; x + 587 pp.Imagine that you come across this about the “education premium” on someone’s blog: “By going to college, you are more than tripling your chances for success in after life.” The statement is buttressed by a calculation of the extra lifetime earnings that a college degree will provide. Wouldn’t you think that the author is an economist? In fact, the author was a high...

Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1960), an Austrian political economist who emigrated to the United States in 1932 to become a professor at Harvard University, is known for his theories on business cycles and entrepreneurship.He is perhaps best known for advancing the concept of “creative destruction,” which he defined as the natural process of business firms failing at some point, freeing up resources (land, labor, and capital) that can then become more productive in some...

Rising healthcare costs are the main concern of Swiss voters. In the federal referendum on June 9, citizens will vote on two popular initiatives aimed at limiting healthcare costs, but the proposed solutions are different. --- 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 videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our...