SNB & CHF

A new report from the Institute for Science and International Security has found that 49 countries violated sanctions on North Korea to varying degrees between March 2014 and September 2017. You will find more statistics at Statista 13 governments including Cuba, Egypt, Iran and Syria were involved in military violations, which as Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, includes either receiving military training from North...

One of the most notable events in Russia’s precious metals market calendar is the annual “Russian Bullion Market” conference. Formerly known as the Russian Bullion Awards, this conference, now in its 10th year, took place this year on Friday 24 November in Moscow. Among the speakers lined up, the most notable inclusion was probably Sergey Shvetsov, First Deputy Chairman of Russia’s central bank, the Bank of Russia. In...

This critique reveals the unintended consequences of UBI. Readers have been asking me what I thought of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as the solution to the systemic problem of jobs being replaced by automation.To answer this question, I realized I had to start by taking a fresh look at work and its role in human life and society. And since UBI is fundamentally a distribution of money, I also needed to take a fresh...

When it comes to job creation in the United States, President Trump will be displeased to hear the latest findings from Quartz: 170,000 fewer retail jobs in 2017 – and 75,000 more Amazon robots.  In November, we explained that while everyone likes to point the finger at Amazon, America’s retail apocalypse can’t be tied to just one catalyst (see: A Look At America’s Retail Apocalypse In Charts), however, fierce...

USD/CHF The USDCHF pair begins to bounce higher after approaching from 0.9892 level, supported by the EMA50 that meets the mentioned level, while stochastic shows clear bullish trend signals on the four hours time frame. Therefore, these factors encourage us to keep our positive expectations in the upcoming period, waiting for visiting 1.0038 level as a next main station, being aware that breaking 0.9892 will stop...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.09% to 1.1691 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is narrowly mixed in relatively quiet activity. Year-end adjustment is well underway, and the news stream is light to start the week that sees more than a dozen central bank meetings. There is little doubt in the market...

Johann Schneider-Ammann listening to Ueli Maurer in May (Keystone) - Click to enlarge It’s “hardly a tragedy” that the European Union has placed Switzerland on a grey list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, says Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, on the other hand, says he is “irritated” by the move. “I rate the significance of the list as negligible,” Maurer said...

Good ideas don’t require force. That describes the Internet, mobile telephony and cryptocurrencies. What is money? We all assume we know, because money is a commonplace feature of everyday life. Money is what we earn and exchange for goods and services. Everyone thinks the money they’re familiar with is the only possible system of money—until they run across an entirely different system of money. Then they realize money...

There are two possibilities with regard to stubbornly weak US imports in 2017. The first is the more obvious, meaning that the domestic goods economy despite its upturn last year isn’t actually doing anything positive other than no longer being in contraction. The second would be tremendously helpful given the circumstances of American labor in the whole 21st century so far. In other words, perhaps US consumers really...

No fewer than thirteen central banks meet in the week ahead.  The UK and the US report the latest inflation figures, and the US and eurozone report industrial production. The eurozone sees the flash PMI for December, and the Japan’s latest Tankan business survey will be released. Most of the central banks that meet will not be changing policy.  Of the major central banks, the Bank of England, which hiked rates last...