SNB & CHF

Extracting Meaning from PPP “An alternative exchange rate – the purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor – is preferred because it reflects differences in price levels for both tradable and non-tradable goods and services and therefore provides a more meaningful comparison of real output.” – the World Bank Headquarters of the World Bank in Washington. - Click to enlarge We have it on good authority that the...

Click here for the full transcript: http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2018/03/02/the-roundtable-insight-charles-hugh-smith-on-the-current-conditions-in-the-financial-markets/

Just ahead of Sunday’s general election, there is little sign of appetite among the leading parties to tackle the significant challenges that Italy faces. The Italian general election campaign is in its final stretch before voting on 4 March. The election will take place under the new electoral law (Rosatellum bis), which allocates 37% of parliamentary seats via the principle of “first-past-the-post” and 61% via...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.18% to 1.1531 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 02(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The announcement of the US intention to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum on national security grounds has sent ripples through the capital markets. Yet there is certainly more going on here than that. The tariffs,...

The first of the new trains completed its journey from Zurich to Bern – and back. (Keystone) After years of delay, the double-decker train named ‘FV-Dosto’ completed its first rail journey on Monday. The fate of the rest of the 62-train fleet still pends on a court decision following a legal challenge by disabled groups. “There was no delay, everything ran smoothly”, Swiss Federal Railways spokesperson Christian Ginsig...

Finding work that fits who you are is rarely easy, especially if you don’t fit into the mainstream, and usually it requires a lot of compromises, hard work and dead-ends. But that’s the process. Establishing a satisfying career is difficult in today’s economy, doubly so for those who find life within hierarchical institutions (corporate America and government) unrewarding, and triply so for those burdened with student...

A Finite Life Span We have been promising to get back to the topic of capital destruction, which we put on hiatus for the last several weeks to make our case that the interest rate remains in a falling trend. Today, we have a different way of looking at capital destruction. Socialism is the system of seeking out and destroying capital. Redistribution means taking someone’s capital and handing it over as income to...

According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)’s quarterly estimates, Swiss real GDP rose by 0.6% q-o-q in Q4 (2.4% q-o-q annualised; 1.9% y-o-y), above consensus expectations (0.5%). The Swiss economy expanded by 1.0% in 2017 overall, in line with our own forecast. This comes after GDP growth of 1.4% in 2016 and 1.2% in 2015. Two aspects of today’s report are worth mentioning. First, on the expenditure...

Switzerland’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an above-average 0.6% in the 4th quarter of 2017.1 Growth was broad-based across the various business sectors, with manufacturing, construction and most service sectors, particularly financial services, providing momentum. On the expenditure side, growth was underpinned by consumption and investment in construction but was hindered by investment in equipment and...

The Used Goods Question Retail sales in several countries like Germany, Japan and Switzerland continue to fall or they remain steady for years. In the United States they have strongly risen recently. We should remind readers, that used goods sold via Ebay or similar, are not contained in this statistics. Still they create economic value for the purchases. By mentality, Swiss, Germans or Japanese pay more attention so...