SNB & CHF

26.02.2021 – In the 4th quarter 2020, the total employment (number of jobs) fell by 0.4% in comparison with the same quarter a year earlier (+0.1% with previous quarter). Among women, the decrease was 0.6%, while employment among men fell by 0.3%. In full-time equivalents, employment in the same period declined also by 0.4%. The Swiss economy counted 12 600 fewer vacancies than in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (-16.1%) with the employment outlook...

Hildebrand had to concede defeat having failed to generate enough support for his candidacy. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer Former Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman, Philipp Hildebrand, has pulled out of the race to become the next secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Hildebrand announced that he had withdrawn his candidacy on Twitter on Thursday evening. “It was a privilege and an honour to have been Switzerland’s...

Rückblick auf die Artikel des Ludwig von Mises Institut Deutschland im Monat Februar: ***** „Der archimedische Punkt bei Anthony de Jasay ist die Freiheitsvermutung.“ Interview mit Burkhard Sievert, 1, Februar 2021 Ich bin über die Bücher von Roland Baader auf Anthony de Jasay aufmerksam geworden, der ihn als einen herausragenden freiheitlichen Philosophen hervorhob. Um es mit Gerhard Radnitzky zu sagen: „Im intellektuellen Bereich haben nur sehr wenige mehr für die...

James Grant is editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, which he founded in 1983. He is the author of nine books, including Money of the Mind, The Trouble with Prosperity, John Adams: Party of One, The Forgotten Depression, and more recently Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian. In 2015 Grant received the prestigious Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in business journalism. James Grant is an associated scholar of the Mises...

The two day rise in the gold price of more than US$50 fizzled out on Tuesday. The gold price is down about 7% (in US dollar terms) since its year-to-date high set on January 6. It is also down 13% from its all-time high set in August 2020. The silver price, boosted by social media attention, did not set its year-to-date high until February 1. Since then the silver price has slid about 5% from that high. Chairman Powell testified to Congress on Tuesday stating that...

Why Economists Kept Getting the Policies Wrong Jeff Snider reacts to two recent articles: "Bond yields are not good predictors of inflation" (Peterson Institute for International Economics) and "Why economists kept getting the policies wrong" (Financial Times). Jeff Snider, Head of Global Investment Research for Alhambra Investments with Emil Kalinowski. Art by the King of the North, David Parkins. Topics & Time Codes 01:07 Two economists write that bond yields are...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.31% to 1.0977 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge Overview: A poor seven-year note auction and ideas that the first Fed hike can come as early as the end of next year spurred a steep sell-off in bonds and equities. Technical factors like the triggering of stops losses, large selling in the futures market, which some also link to hedging of mortgage...

The severest crisis the European Central Bank (ECB) ever faced coincided with the early days of a new Executive Board. Over the past year and a half, the board’s six members, including the ECB’s president and vice president, have all been replaced, either because they resigned, or because their eight-year mandate expired. New team By order of appointment, the new board consists of: Luis de Guindos, who replaced Vitor Constancio as vice president in June 2018...

Switzerland’s GDP growth slowed to 0.3 % in the 4th quarter after reaching 7.6 % in the 3rd quarter.  Major losses were recorded in the services directly affected by the tightening of the containment measures. Other industries continued to recover. On the whole, the second wave of the coronavirus until the end of 2020 had much less of an impact on the economy than the first wave did last spring. Switzerland Gross Domestic Product (GDP) QoQ, Q4 2020(see more posts on...

© Tanya Keisha | Dreamstime.com In 2020, the number of overnight stays in Swiss hotels fell by 40% to 23.7 million, a fall of 15.8 million nights compared to 2019. The fall, driven by Covid-19, is the largest fall in overnight stays in Switzerland since the end of the 1950s, according to Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office. Plummeting hotel stays were driven mainly by a large slump in foreign visitors. Hotel nights spent by Swiss tourists dropped by only 8.6%...