SNB & CHF

Summary China eased curbs on coal use for heating in the northern provinces to cope with colder weather. Poland announced a cabinet shuffle. Poland’s lower house approved the controversial judicial reform bill. President Trump announced that the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Brazil COPOM was more dovish than expected after cutting rates 50 bp to 7.0%. Chile central bank cut its 2017 and 2018 inflation...

Bailins Coming In EU – 114 Italian Banks Have NP Loans Exceeding Tangible Assets – Italy opposes ECB proposal that holds banks to firm deadlines for writing down bad loans – Italy’s banks weighed down under €318bn of bad loans – New ECB rules could ‘derail’ any recovery in Italy’s financial system – Draft proposal requires banks to provision fully for loans that turn sour from 2018 – ECB insists banks have better...

Eternal Spendathon The Senate just passed a 500-page tax reform bill. Assuming it lives up to its promise, it will cut taxes on corporations and individuals. Predictably, the Left hates it and the Right loves it. I am writing to argue why the Right should hate it (no, not for the reason the Left does, a desire to get the rich). US Federal Debt, 1970 - 2017The Federal debtberg has grown beyond all measure since...

« Beaucoup d’emprunteurs ne se rendent pas compte qu’en concluant le contrat, ils acceptent que leur hypothèque soit transmise à des tiers. […] Les clauses de transmission de l’hypothèque à des tiers sont pratique courante, comme il ressort de nos prises de renseignement auprès [d’UBS,] Credit Suisse, Banque cantonale de Zurich et Raiffeisen. » (TagesAnzeiger, 10.03.2014) Le 23 septembre 2011, le Conseil fédéral...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.21% to 1.1679 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 08(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Sufficient progress will be judged to have been made, and negotiations of the separation between the UK and EU will be allowed to enter the second stage. The formal decision will be made at next week’s EU summit. To be sure, “sufficient...

- Click to enlarge Les paradis fiscaux lovés au coeur de l’UE, de l’Asie et des Etats-Unis d’Amérique sont occultés… L’analyse vire à la farce! Après avoir étudié la situation de 92 pays en matière de lutte contre l’évasion fiscale, l’Union européenne n’en retient donc que 17 sur sa liste noire des paradis fiscaux. Parmi ces États dits « non-coopératifs » on trouve, entre autres, le Panama, la Tunisie, les...

© Mohamed Ahmed Soliman | Dreamstime - Click to enlarge Many Swiss residents travel to neighbouring eurozone countries for their holidays. These countries are close and Swiss francs go far there. However, to get the most out of a strong currency you need a good exchange rate. If a Swiss resident presenting euro cash at a checkout in Germany or France was told they couldn’t pay in euros because they live in Switzerland...

There are two divergent views on the crackdown on corruption by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), which led to the arrest and detention of 200 princes, ministers and former ministers. On one hand, it was a masterstroke which will earn political capital with the Saudi people and catalyse an Arab Spring in which MBS is a modernizing reformer who will liberalise Islam. On the other, it was nothing...

Silver’s Positive Fundamentals Due To Strong Demand In Key Growth Industries – Increased efforts in green energy and advanced technology set to boosts silver’s demand – Four-year supply deficit set to increase due to fewer mine openings and discoveries – Bank manipulation may be why silver under performing – TD Securities and the Bank of Montreal expect silver to be best performing precious metal in 2018 – Growing...

Tama Vakeesan was born in Switzerland to Tamil parents from Sri Lanka. This week she interviews Arman and Sascha from Austria, who have made a feature film ("Die Migrantigen”), poking fun at migration stereotypes. Omar, a former criminal, and his friends live in the fictional town of Rudolfsgrund. They all eat kebabs and they're all broke, but still drive BMWs. (SRF Kulturplatz/swissinfo.ch) --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is...