SNB & CHF

Samuel Gregg recently gave a lecture at West Virginia University. Gregg is an engaging speaker and a good antidote to the shift of the Christian right to Christian nationalism or Catholic integralism. However, we should be skeptical of some of what he argues with respect to free trade. Gregg argues that the Constitution is a free-trade agreement between the states, which in part allowed the subsequent uptick in growth in the US. While this is partially true, the...

In the movies, greed is a trait often exhibited by the rich and powerful as a means to an end. Of particular note is the famous quote from Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie classic “Wall Street:” “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love,...

John Baker bakery. Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

A popular quote from Nicolás Gómez Dávila, “Dying societies accumulate laws like dying men accumulate remedies,” reflects the idea that a healthy and mature society should not be preoccupied with constantly creating new laws, prescribing to itself a cocktail of legislative remedies to fix its mounting problems. An over-lawyered society is a society in decay. Everything is disputed. There are sharp divisions, exacerbated by a dishonest and hypocritical façade of...

Or we can let the bubble implode under its own weight and have a plan ready to clean house when the dust settles. Thanks to recency bias, we tend to think the world has always been more or less as it is today. Tectonic shifts beneath the veneer of everyday life escape us unless we make a concerted effort to peel back the veneer of normalcy. For example, consider the rise of finance as the dominant force in our socio-economic / political status quo. Statistics...

Gold slips as China’s stimulus efforts fail to ease deflationary pressures. Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari’s comments on modest rate cuts and a strong labor market further support the Greenback. Geopolitical tensions, including Israel’s response to Hezbollah and Iran, continue to influence Bullion prices, with traders eyeing US economic data later this week. Gold price retraces after hitting a daily high of $2,666 on Monday as China’s...

USD/CHF continues rising and might have established a medium-term uptrend.  It is likely to continue higher although it is potentially overbought and a downside gap risks closing.  USD/CHF is rising up and forming a sequence of higher highs and higher lows which indicates it is probably in both a short and – now also – a medium term uptrend. Given it is a key tenet of technical analysis that “the trend is your friend” the odds favor more upside...

The EU has tightened rules on greenwashing. Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

Most experts agree that, through the manipulation of the short-term interest rates, the central bank can also determine the direction of the long-term interest rates. Some popular thinking alleges that the long-term interest rates are the average of the present and the expected short-term interest rates. Hence, it would appear that the central bank is the key in determining the interest rates. But is this valid?Individual time preferences and interest ratesAccording...

Business travel will prevent the updating of the blog in the coming days.  It resumes October 19 with the Week Ahead.  Overview:  The lack of details from China's fiscal briefing, the soft CPI (and deeper PPI deflation), and a smaller than expected trade surplus did not prevent Chinese equities from advancing (CSI 300 +1.9%). Industrial commodities, such as oil, copper, iron ore, are mixed. Among the G10 currencies, the Australian dollar often acts as the China...