SNB & CHF

[From Chapter 8 of Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State.] We shall concentrate on the capitalist-entrepreneurs, economically the more important type of entrepreneur. These are the men who invest in “capital” (land and/or capital goods) used in the productive process…. The capitalist-entrepreneur buys factors or factor services in the present; his product must be sold in the future. He is always on the alert, then, for discrepancies, for areas where he can earn more...

“All of the projection models were wrong. All of them,” admitted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in an interview last week with MSNBC. Governor Cuomo had been issuing frantic demands for tens of thousands of ventilators… that turned out not to be needed as the rate of new hospitalizations for COVID-19 infections in New York plunged with surprising speed. Governor Cuomo had warned America that New York City was the canary in the coal mine, that other cities would soon...

What I see is a global collapse of intangible capital that is invisible to most people. It’s only natural that the conventional expectation is a return to the pre-pandemic world is just a matter of time. Whether it’s three months or six months or 18 months, “the good old days” will return just as if we turned back the clock. I think the situation is much more akin to being injured. Since I worked for decades in construction, I’ve had numerous potentially serious...

As the markets were re-opening in Asia earlier today, I joined Martin Soong and Sir Jegarajah on CNBC Asia. I had returned from a business trip and visited our summer house on the Jersey shore for what I thought was going to be a weekend more than a month ago. Oil prices had initially reacted positively to the OPEC+ agreement. Still, I was skeptical as the cuts seemed inadequate to meet the dramatic compression in demand, let along the notorious non-compliance by...

USD/CHF extends gradual declines from the monthly top marked the last-Monday. A descending trend line support, 61.8% Fibonacci retracement may offer intermediate rests during the downside. 0.9745/50 can act as a buffer resistance beyond 100-HMA. USD/CHF remains under pressure while taking rounds to 0.9655, down 0.05% on a daily, amid the early trading session on Monday. The pair currently tests 50% Fibonacci retracement of its upside from March 27 to April 06....

The GBP to CHF interbank exchange rate today has been ranging between 1.2017 and 1.2092. The pound looks supportive today on the back that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is on the road to recovery from Covid-19. Swiss Economy Expected to Shrink Possible 10% Switzerland has had over 23,000 cases of the Coronavirus that has had a negative impact on their economy with current expectations that their economy could shrink as much at 10%. Many industries in Switzerland...

© Sorin Colac | Dreamstime.com On 8 April 2020, Switzerland’s government decided to extend the country’s lockdown measures for a further week. In a press release the Federal Council said the measures would be extended for another week and then possibly progressively loosened before the end of April. The measures have proved to be effective with the spread of the virus clearly reducing over recent days, said the statement. However, given the evolution of the spread...

In 207 the low-lying areas of Bolivia’s amazon were flooded after heavy rains ravaged the country.  (Keystone/Martin Alipaz) People began growing manioc and squash much earlier than previously thought, a team of researchers led by the Swiss university of Bern has found. A study shows that the earliest human inhabitants of Moxos plains began transforming the tropical savanna eco-region in Bolivia 10,000 years ago, that is 8,000 earlier than previously thought. They...

The fictitious valuation of the stock market will eventually re-connect with reality in a violent decline. No, buy the tumor, sell the news ™ is not a typo: the stock market is a lethal tumor in our economy and society. Buy the rumor, sell the news encapsulates the old traders’ wisdom that markets rise on the sizzle of hope, promises, projections, Federal Reserve pimping (see below), tax cuts, etc. etc. etc., not on the actual steak of sales and profits. Buy the...

Introduction In 1997 Ralph Raico published an article titled “Keynes and the Reds.” Raico’s article highlighted John Maynard Keynes’s review of a 1936 book by the British socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb called Soviet Communism. In his review, Keynes discusses Joseph Stalin’s USSR and concludes: “The result is impressive.” For Raico, a historian in the classical liberal tradition, this statement contradicts the conventional idea that Keynes was a model liberal....