SNB & CHF

The new year started out on a painful note for autoworkers building electric vehicles (EVs). In the last month, thousands of workers have been laid off from General Motors (GM) and Ford plants in Michigan. Most workers involved were, or were slated to be, working on electric versions of each brand’s signature trucks—the Chevy Silverado EV and Ford F-150 Lightning. The latter has been available for purchase since 2022, with the Silverado EV set to debut this year. Yet...

Overview: The market's reaction to the firmer than expected January CPI seems exaggerated. We do not think it was the game-changer for the Federal Reserve that the market seemed to think. The dollar was driven higher, and it is stabilizing today, though the euro and sterling extended their losses, most of the other G10 currencies did not. After the yen's six-week slide did not elicit a response from Japanese officials, yesterday's drop did, and this may have helped...

Here is what you need to know on Wednesday, February 14: The US Dollar Index consolidates it’s gains early Wednesday after rising 0.7% to a fresh three-month high near 105.00 on Tuesday. Eurostat will release fourth-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data in the European session and there won’t be any high-tier data releases from the US later in the day. Several Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers, including Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Atlanta Fed...

Gold price hits a fresh two-month low amid bets that the Fed will keep rates higher for longer. The expectations were reaffirmed by the stronger-than-expected US CPI released on Tuesday. A softer risk tone lends support to the safe-haven XAU/USD and helps limit any further losses. Gold price (XAU/USD) extends its sideways consolidative price move and remains depressed below the $2,000 psychological mark, or a two-month low heading into the European session on Monday....

Thomas DiLorenzo, the President of the Mises Institute, has already reviewed Paul C. Graham’s Nonsense on Stilts: The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Imaginary Nation (Shotwell Publishing 2024) in characteristically excellent fashion, but the book is so insightful that some further comments are warranted. It is clear that Graham has a philosophical turn of mind and is a master of linguistic analysis. His skill is amply on display in his dissection of Abraham...

It is a running gag among the pro-Taiwan camp that if you were to ask ordinary folks about Taiwan five years earlier, most could not locate Taiwan on a map. At the time, matters relating to China were mainly debates about Donald Trump’s protectionist stance, as relations between Taiwan and China didn’t receive the attention many would warrant in the face of a potential war. However, ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus—now probably having originated from the...

For all of our lives, it has been the aim of most Americans to make the federal government stronger, especially with respect to the warfare state. The principal justification for an ever more powerful government is that it keeps the American people safe from the likes of terrorists, drug dealers, communists, illegal immigrants, Russians, Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans, and Muslims. Moreover, it is argued, a powerful military-intelligence establishment enables the...

Last year, a devastating series of earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. Whole streets were flattened, after shocks drove terrified people, already homeless, back out into the streets time and time again. In every disaster response, local knowledge is essential. International teams arriving for the first time in a country in the midst of an emergency can’t possibly be effective unless they listen to, and work with, local communities. Listen to the latest episode of our Inside Geneva...

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis invested billions in Slovenia, helping turn the country into a global player in generic drug production. Now, as cheap Asian competitors increasingly dominate the market, Swiss drug companies see the tiny Balkan nation playing a key role in their shift to more complex, expensive medicines. In November 2023 we visited several facilities in and around the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to understand how the country fits in the global pharmaceutical supply chain. ---...

Recently, South Africa evoked opposition in some quarters by bringing a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice on the account that the latter is perpetuating genocide against Palestinians. Israel’s response to the terror of Hamas has been widely denounced by the mainstream press, but irrespective of the legitimacy of South Africa’s claims, this matter has brought South Africa to the forefront of public discourse, and as such, an examination of the...