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The Credit Suisse 2017 Global Wealth Report, shows total global wealth rose 6.4% to USD 280 trillion in 2016, taking it to the its highest level since 2007, before the financial meltdown in 2008. © Wrangel | Dreamstime Globally, average wealth per adult was USD 56,540. In Switzerland, the same figure was USD 537,600 (CHF 533,000), close to ten times the global average, placing Switzerland in the lead, if Iceland – with unreliable data – is ignored. Median Swiss wealth is somewhat lower: USD...

The idea of digital IDs in Switzerland has been kicked around since 2002 when the government decided it was a good idea. Since then it has been hotly debated. Following a process of consultation, the government met on 15 November 2017, and announced it’s aiming to have some form of digital or e-ID written into Swiss law between now and the summer of 2018. © One Photo | Dreamstime The idea is simple. Government-issued physical IDs, such as passports, work well in person, however on the...

GOP Seeks to Derail Moore, Salvage Senate Seat (WSJ) Army takes control in Zimbabwe (Reuters) Senate Tax Plan Guts Obamacare, Sunsets Many Middle-Class Cuts (BBG) Senate Republicans tie tax plan to repeal of key Obamacare mandate (Reuters) Trump’s Campaign Foreign Policy Team Under Mueller’s Microscope (BBG) Ryan Says Future Congresses Will Preserve Tax Bill’s Temporary Measures (BBG) Shareholders take aim at Murdochs with Fox voting rights push (Reuters) AT&T Engages Its Washington...

Amid the cataclymsic collapse of Bitcoin late on Friday night, the crypto currency suddenly saw a large buyer step in as prices plummeted below $6000. We now have an idea who that buyer of last resort was... As a result of a giant publicity effort from its proponents, BCH saw mass investment as it heads towards a potentially contentious hard fork set for just after 7 p.m. GMT today. The failure of SegWit2x, coupled with endorsement from the soon-to-be-defunct Bitcoin...

Over the weekend, Saudi King Salman shocked the world by abruptly announcing the arrests of 11 senior princes and some 38 ministers, including Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the world’s sixty-first richest man and the largest shareholder in Citi, News Corp. and Twitter. The purge was orchestrated by a new “supreme committee” to investigate public corruption created by King Salman but under the control of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the committee and is widely...

This week, Switzerland moved closer to requiring minimum percentages of women on company boards and management teams. © Cecilia Lim | Dreamstime A parliamentary commission came out in support of the Federal Council’s plan to require greater gender balance in the boardrooms of Switzerland’s large listed companies. A commission majority (14 versus 11) would like to see a minimum of 30% of board members and 20% of the management of these companies made up of each gender – a 100% female boardroom...

According to the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, Switzerland’s federal government wants to allow Switzerland’s residents to claim for drugs bought abroad. Prices across the border are generally far lower. © Mike Clegg | Dreamstime As recently as March 2017, the government told insurers that anyone buying medicines abroad would have to pay for them out of their own pockets. Now they appear to be reconsidering. The NZZ said that drugs with expired patents cost on average 61% more in Switzerland than...

At the end of September the Swiss government announced an average nationwide health premium rise of 4% in 2018. © Pogonici | Dreamstime This government calculation is rather narrow. It only looks at the price of standard compulsory insurance, including accident cover, for an adult with a CHF 300 deductible. Price comparison site bonus.ch calculates that this policy configuration only applies to 18.3% of residents. When all available policy variations are included the average rise is 5.1%....

While Bitcoin bulls will probably never have it so good as they have in 2017, we wonder whether many of them have stopped to think about the environmental downside of this roaring bull market. After all, back in the dot.com boom, people had ideas about potential internet businesses, issued pieces of paper representing ownership and watched their prices go parabolic parabolic. All it took was a Powerpoint presentation, some computer programming expertise and a “research” report,...

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute, In a recent interview with Mises Weekends, Claudio Grass examined some of the advantages of the Swiss political system, and how highly decentralized politics can bring with it great economic prosperity, more political stability, and a greater respect for property rights.  Since the Swiss political system of federalism is itself partially inspired by 19th-century American federalism, the average American can usually imagine in...