The dollar remains under pressure; the US curve continues to steepen; a compromise on fiscal stimulus before the election still seems unlikely; this is another quiet day in terms of US data President Lagarde said the ECB is prepared to inject fresh monetary stimulus to support the recovery; we expect the ECB to increase its PEPP in Q4 German factory orders came in much stronger than expected; Russia reports September CPI RBA delivered a dovish hold; the Australian...
Read More »If We Want to Increase Demand in the Market, We Must First Increase Production
Following the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, many commentators associate economic growth with increases in the demand for goods and services. Both Keynes and Friedman held that the Great Depression of the 1930s was due to an insufficiency of aggregate demand and that thus the way to fix the problem was to boost aggregate demand. For Keynes, this could be achieved by having the federal government borrow more money and spend it when the private...
Read More »Silver Falls, We’ve Got #$*&! Mail
There was a big drop in the price of silver last Wednesday. Then the price moved up, and down, but mostly up. Let’s look at a graph of the silver price and basis showing Sep 30 through Oct 5, with intraday resolution. Let’s take a look: It’s remarkable how the basis tracks the price, until Oct 5. When basis tracks price, this means the action is primarily in the futures market. At times when the price is rising, the basis is rising—which simply means that the spread...
Read More »A conversation with Thikra Mohammed Nader, exiled Iraqi journalist
Thikra Mohammed Nader, a Baghdad native who worked there as a journalist for a quarter century, fled to Switzerland in 2006. Decades ago, she was honoured by the Iraqi government for her work and was one of the first journalists on the ground of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. But throughout her career and especially following the arrival of American troops in Iraq in 2003, she was targeted and threatened for her writing which contained ideas that ran counter to the agenda of the ruling regime...
Read More »FX Daily, October 6: The Dollar Tests Key Supports and Pauses
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.06% to 1.0776 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 06(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: investing.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Market moves have stalled. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index did manage to extend Monday’s gains, but other markets are heavier. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is snapping a three-day advance. The communications sector is the sole standout, though financials and energy are little changed....
Read More »Kantonaler Wahlnotstand
In wenigen Tagen wird im Kanton Aargau, aber auch in anderen Kantonen, das Kantonsparlament und die Kantonsregierung gewählt. Der Wahlkampf ist eher flau. Vielleicht weil es daran liegt, dass das grösste Thema einfach totgeschwiegen wird: Corona wird bei keiner Partei auch nur schon erwähnt (und wenn doch, bitte zeigen Sie’s mir!). Wieso? Haben alle Parteien Angst vor einer eigenen Meinung? Angst vor einer Verteufelung, wie es die Medien schon an anderen Orten...
Read More »Pandemic increases demand for second homes in Switzerland
© Roland Van Der Meeren | Dreamstime.com Demand for second homes has risen since restrictions related to coronavirus were loosened, according to real estate company Wüest Partner. The option of remote working appears to be encouraging some to trade time in central city locations for more time in Alpine resorts, the countryside, commuter regions and smaller cities. The prices of second homes have risen 3.6% over the last 12 months, according to firm. Demand for...
Read More »Who’s Negative? The Marginal American Worker
The BLS’s payroll report draws most of the mainstream attention, with the exception of the unemployment rate (especially these days). The government designates the former as the Current Employment Statistics (CES) series, and it intends to measure factors like payrolls (obviously), wages, and earnings from the perspective of the employers, or establishments. The Establishment Survey. Its cousin is called the Household Survey, or CPS, the Current Population Survey,...
Read More »Explaining the Plan to Dismantle Schools and the Fed’s Alchemy
Bob reads from an article recently tweeted out by the NEA, which calls for an end to schooling as we know it in order to promote anti-racism. He then discusses what the Fed has been up to since the coronavirus panic began. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The YouTube version of this episode (with lots of visuals). Karlyn Borysenko’s YouTube episode on the NEA tweet. Jamilah Pitts’ article on school transformation. Fed article talking about...
Read More »Gold and Alternative Investments Conference 2019 – Keith Weiner presentation
Giving gold a yield....how is this possible? And why? In this presentation, Monetary Metals' CEO Keith Weiner covers Keynes, Buffett, inflation, and how some economists are trying to manage GDP through the money supply. And - of course - how investors can earn interest on their gold & silver investments.
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