Summary: Economic data due out are unlikely to change macro views. Swiss franc’s price action suggests some return to “normalcy” despite rhetoric remaining elevated. Sterling’s 3.25 cent drop against the dollar looks over. An escalation of threatening rhetoric by the United States and North Korea emerged as the key driver last week. The US was unable to build on the success it enjoyed at the UN on August 5...
Read More »La mondialisation de l’esclavage permet la croissance des entreprises. Dossier.
Un Indien travaillant dans une fabrique de briques à l’extérieur de Calcutta, le 7 mai 2017. DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP Nous avons parlé ces derniers temps d’excédents et de déficits de balances commerciales. Pourtant aucune rubrique de cette comptabilité de l’ »intégration » d’un Etat dans le monde globalisé ne pénalise celui-ci en matière d’abus de travailleurs, voire d’esclavagisme. Pire, les abus sont en croissance....
Read More »Swiss rank second in Europe for online spending
“Add to shopping cart”: Regiodata reported in May that online sales represent about 10% of overall retail sales in Switzerland. (Keystone) According to a European comparison, Swiss residents spend the second-most money annually on online purchases, after British shoppers. Each year, people in Switzerland click their way to an average of CHF1,172 ($1,202) in online goods per person. Shoppers in Britain topped the list...
Read More »What the Mainstream Doesn’t Get about Bitcoin
The real demand for bitcoin will not be known until a global financial crisis guts confidence in central banks and politicized capital controls. I’ve been writing about cryptocurrencies and bitcoin for many years. For example: Could Bitcoin Become a Global Reserve Currency? (November 7, 2013) I am an interested observer, not an expert. As an observer, it seems to me that the mainstream–media, financial punditry,...
Read More »Oil Prices, CPI: Why Not Zero?
In the early throes of economic devastation in 1931, Sweden found itself particularly vulnerable to any number of destabilizing factors. The global economy had been hit by depression, and the Great Contraction was bearing down on the Swedish monetary system. The krona had always been linked to the British pound, so that when the Bank of England removed gold convertibility (left the gold standard) from its...
Read More »Yanking the Bank of Japan’s Chain
Mathematical Certainties Based on the simple reflection that arithmetic is more than just an abstraction, we offer a modest observation. The social safety nets of industrialized economies, including the United States, have frayed at the edges. Soon the safety net’s fabric will snap. This recognition is not an opinion. Rather, it’s a matter of basic arithmetic. The economy cannot sustain the government obligations...
Read More »UberPop service cancelled in Zurich
Swiss taxi drivers regularly protest Uber services. (© KEYSTONE / SALVATORE DI NOLFI) Car-and-driver provider Uber has decided to drop its UberPop service in Zurich following controversy over its legality. The change does not apply to Basel or Geneva. The change takes effect on Thursday at midday. Zurich UberPop drivers will have three months to get permits that will allow them to chauffeur passengers for pay under the...
Read More »Emerging Markets: What has Changed
Summary: Tensions on the Korean peninsula are still rising. Hong Kong boosted its 2017 growth forecast. S&P affirmed Israel’s A+ rating but moved the outlook from stable to positive. The corruption investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has intensified. South Africa’s parliament voted down the no confidence motion against President Zuma. Argentina officials are taking steps to support the peso. ...
Read More »Meet the little orange men of Switzerland
Crossing the roads can be a peculiarity in itself! Join Diccon Bewes on the streets of Bern and marvel at the oddities of the Swiss traffic light system. (Diccon Bewes for swissinfo.ch) --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube channel: Website:...
Read More »France: Le déficit chronique de la balance des paiements.
Lire aussi La libre-circulation des biens, des services, des revenus, des capitaux et des personnes , appelée les 4 L, est mesurée entre autres par la balance des paiements. Celle-ci décrit selon la Banque de France: « les échanges économiques entre la France et les autres pays. Elle apporte une grille de lecture de référence sur la situation de notre pays dans une économie mondialisée. Elle apporte un éclairage sur la...
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