SNB & CHF

We’re in the endgame of financialization and globalization, and it won’t be pretty for all the hostages of corporate profits. Though you won’t read about it in the mainstream corporate media, the nation is now hostage to outsized corporate profits. The economy and society at large are now totally dependent on soaring corporate profits and the speculative bubbles they fuel, and this renders us all hostages: “Make a move...

A Beginning Shift in Gold Fundamentals A previously outright bearish fundamental backdrop for gold has recently become slightly more favorable. Ironically, the arrival of this somewhat more favorable situation was greeted by a pullback in physical demand and a decline in the gold price, after both had defied bearish fundamentals for many months by remaining stubbornly firm. The eternal popularity contest… - Click to...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Before it collapsed, the city of Rome had a population greater than 1,000,000 people. That was an extraordinary accomplishment in the ancient world, made possible by many innovative technologies and the organization of the greatest civilization that the world had ever seen. Such an incredible urban population depended on...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.17% to 1.164 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 09(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates After a little wobble, sterling has responded favorably to the resignation of the UK Brexit team led by David Davis. The idea is that a path to a softer Brexit is good for sterling. In fairness, it is a bit early to reach this conclusion, and...

The triumphalism that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly three decades ago has evaporated. The Great Financial Crisis and inexorable widening of income and wealth inequalities within countries undermined claims of moral and economic superiority. Liberal democracies are fighting a rearguard action and the rise of illiberal regimes. The president of the country with the strongest military might and largest...

Novartis’ Sandoz unit is one of the dozen Swiss firms alleged to have been targeted in the long-running German spying operation in Austria A dozen branches of Swiss firms in Austria were targeted by German spies between 1999 and 2006, according to the SonntagsBlick newspaper which has seen documents belonging to Germany’s federal intelligence service BND. Part of the data was allegedly handed to the United States. The...

I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation. Dividing the Earth’s nations into 1st, 2nd and 3rd world has fallen out of favor;apparently it offended sensibilities. It has been replaced by the politically correct developed and developing nations, a terminology which suggests all developing nations are on the pathway to developed-nation status. What’s been lost in jettisoning...

Is the currency reset or global monetary reset (GMR) upon us? Russia dumped half their US Treasuries in April ($47.4 billion out of the $96.1 billion it had held) and bought 600k ozs of gold worth less than $800 million in May Has the IMF “pegged” gold to SDRs at 900 SDR per ounce? China stops buying US Treasuries and quietly accumulates gold China has over $3 trillion in fx reserves and Russia has $461 billion...

Overall, June saw a halt to recent declines in euro area business sentiment survey. The final reading for the euro area composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose from 54.1 in May to 54.9 in June, slightly higher than the initial estimate of 54.8. However, the manufacturing PMI fell further, to an 18-month low of 54.9, due to weakness in France and Germany. Growth remains decent in the sector but, as Markit...

With TV recording there’s no need to miss programmes just because they’re on at the wrong time. And, when it’s time to watch them, it’s easy to fast forward through the adverts, something that can’t be done when watching live. ©-Sebastian-L-_-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge In Switzerland, television recording is offered by big distributers, such as Swisscom, Sunrise and UPC. Broadcasters don’t provide it. While...