SNB & CHF

The publication of the Bitcoin white paper immediately after the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 is hardly a mere coincidence. The financial collapse especially touched on one crucial question: Money talks, but who talks money if you will? According to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym behind Bitcoin, it’s the world’s central and commercial banks which rule over our money. As a careful analysis of the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.65% to 1.1698 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 12(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The dollar has broken out against the Japanese yen. Despite the global equity drop and decline in US yields, which often underpin the yen, the yen fell to its lowest level since early January yesterday and is continuing to sell-off today. The...

R & D expenses of the Confederation at record high 12 July 2018 (FSO) – In 2017, the Confederation spent 2.2 billion Swiss francs on research and experimental development (R & D), an increase of 7% compared to the last survey in 2015. The biggest share of this record amount was R & D contributions for research activities. At the same time, federal R & D personnel fell by 4% to 875 full-time...

The real battle isn’t between a cartoonish vision or a dystopian nightmare–it’s between decentralized ownership and control of these technologies and centralized ownership and control. The hype about artificial intelligence (AI) and its cousins Big Data and Machine Learning is ubiquitous, and largely unexamined. AI is going to change the world by freeing humankind from most of its labors, etc. etc. etc. Let’s start by...

Some older employees fear being axed from the workplace because they cost to much to employ. A lobby group representing the interests of older workers has launched a people’s initiative to reform the occupational pension system to reduce the incentive for employers to sack people once they pass the age of 50. The Workfair 50+external link group announced on Tuesday its intention of forcing a nationwide vote on the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.06% to 1.1639 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US took the first step in making good its threat to put a 10% tariff on $200 bln of Chinese goods in response to the PRC retaliating for the 25% tariff on $34 bln of its exports. The US provided a list of products that will get the new...

In early 2011, Chinese consumer prices were soaring. Despite an official government mandate for 3% CPI growth, the country’s main price measure started out the year close to 5% and by June was moving toward 7%. It seemed fitting for the time, no matter how uncomfortable it made PBOC officials. China was going to be growing rapidly even if the rest of the world couldn’t. Back then, Western Economists were concerned...

The US import measures targeted at protecting national security were unjustified, SECO wrote. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has initiated a dispute settlement procedure with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against US steel and aluminium import tariffs. In a statementexternal link published on Tuesday, SECOexternal link announced that a complaint to this effect had been filed with the...

Technical Divergence Successfully Maintained In an update on gold and gold stocks in mid June, we pointed out that a number of interesting divergences had emerged which traditionally represent a heads-up indicating a trend change is close (see: Divergences Emerge for the details). We did so after a big down day in the gold price, which actually helped set up the bullish divergence; this may have felt...

Unemployment Rate (not seasonally adjusted) Registered unemployment in June 2018 – According to SECO surveys, at the end of June 2018, 106,579 unemployed were registered at the regional employment agencies (RAV), 2,813 less than in the previous month. The unemployment rate remained at 2.4% in the month under review. Compared with the same month last year, unemployment fell by 27,024 people (-20.2%). Switzerland...