SNB & CHF

  The “Nightmare Option” The French presidential election was temporarily relegated to the back-pages following the US strike on Syria, but a few days ago, the Economist Magazine returned to the topic, noting that a potential “nightmare option” has suddenly come into view. In recent months certainty had increased that once the election moved into its second round, it would be plain sailing for whichever establishment...

Summary: Pence and Ross may “feel out” Abe for interest in a bilateral trade agreement. The US enjoys a small trade surplus with countries it has free-trade agreements. Ownership-based framework of the current account and value-added trade suggest the US trade imbalance is not a significant problem. US Vice President Pence and Commerce Secretary Ross will go to Japan this week. In addition to regional...

Today's Guest: Charles Hugh Smith Websites: Of Two Minds http://www.oftwominds.com Books: Get a Job, Build a Real Career... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1497533406/ref=as_li_tl? Why Things Are Falling Apart and What We Can Do About It http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480219886/ref=as_li_tl? Most of artwork that are included with these videos have been created by X22 Report and they are used as a representation of the subject matter. The representative artwork included with these...

The Left is morally and fiscally bankrupt, devoid of coherent solutions, and corrupted by its embrace of the Corporatocracy. History often surprises us with unexpected ironies. For the past century, the slide to fascism could be found on the Right (conservative, populist, nationalist political parties). But now it’s the Left that’s descending into fascism, and few seem to even notice this remarkable development. By Left...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. A Force Like Gravity This was a holiday-shorted week, due to Good Friday, and we are posting this Monday evening due to today being a holiday in much of the world. Gold and silver went up the dollar went down, +$33 and +$0.53 -64mg gold and -.05g silver. The prices of the metals in dollar terms are readily available, and...

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, April 18(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is consolidating the gains scored late in the US session yesterday in response to a Financial Times interview with US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin who seemed to play down the strategic importance of Trump’s recent complaint about the greenback’s strength.   Mnuchin spun Trump’s comments to be...

Gold Bullion Erases Post- Election Fall as Trump Wrong on Dollar – Daily Prophet  Robert Burgess of Bloomberg Prophets President Donald Trump sent currency markets into a tizzy late Wednesday when he signaled his preference for a weaker dollar. “I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that’s my fault because people have confidence in me,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. Although the greenback...

After finishing school, handicapped youngsters should get help with finding a way into the job market instead of having to live on social benefits from an early age. That’s one of the Swiss government’s goals for its revision of disability benefits. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Cutting costs is not the main issue for this revision, since the disability insurance is relatively well financed. Between 2003 and 2015 the numbers of new pensions WERE halved. According to the latest figures, nearly half a...

Thomas Niederer and his team have retrieved 300 tonnes of waste from the lake of Lucerne. They're members of the Swiss Association of Environmental and Trash Divers, which Thomas set up. (SRF/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:...

Retail sales growth in February 2017 was going to be low by virtue of its comparison to February 2016 and the extra day in that month. The Census Bureau’s autoregressive models are supposed to normalize just these kinds of calendar irregularities so that we can make something close to apples to apples comparisons. The seasonally-adjusted estimate for February, however, was calculated to be less than the one for January...