SNB & CHF

True Political Axis One of the most widespread misconceptions in the realm of politics is the notion of a left-right axis. This has been used over and over to explain political outcomes and paint the various factions as polar opposites. For example, in the US the two main parties, the Republicans (right) and Democrats (left), are often portrayed as a fight between good and evil. Which party representing good and...

President-Elect Trump, more policy tweaks, more promises of more government free money and more symbolic gestures won't fix anything. [clear] Though I am just another powerless peon, I'd like to offer seven suggestions to President-Elect Trump and his transition team: 1. Make sure your administration is as diverse as America. No single act will give your enemies more ammo than populating your cabinet and...

Is Switzerland ready to phase out nuclear power? Experts weigh in on the November 27 nationwide vote on the country’s nuclear plants. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Banning construction of nuclear power plants and limiting the use of existing ones to 45 years: that’s what the people’s initiative from the Green Party proposes. This would mean that the stations Beznau I and II (in canton Aargau) and Mühleberg (Bern) should shut down in 2017, Gösgen (Solothurn) in 2024 and Leibstadt (Aargau) in 2029....

Comment on Swiss Franc by George Dorgan My articles About meMy booksFollow on:TwitterFacebookGoogle +YoutubeSeeking AlphaCFA SocietyLinkedINEconomicBlogs Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, November 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ). - Click to enlarge FX Rates The forces unleashed by the US election results continue to drive the capitals markets. The combination of nationalism, reflation and...

Where you are born makes a big difference to the chances of getting a job when you leave school. In 2015, youth unemployment rates in some OECD countries such as Greece (49.8%), Spain (48.3%) and Italy (40.3%) were all close to 50%. In others such as Germany (7.2%), Austria (10.6%) and Switzerland (8.6%), youth unemployment was far lower. Why? The Young Workers Index 2016, an annual report by PWC, offers some...

Introduction by George Dorgan My articles About meMy booksFollow on:TwitterFacebookGoogle +YoutubeSeeking AlphaCFA SocietyLinkedINEconomicBlogs Summary: US 10-year rate premium is the largest in 2.5 years. US 2-year premium is the most since Q4 2008. Japanese investors likely will be buying foreign bonds, while foreigners may see opportunities in Japanese stocks after being large sellers in the first 9...

Share of World GDP A Brave New World is coming? Perhaps. We had a recent discussion with a group of people in the hopeless business of doing long term forecasting. This made us think about what the world will look like over the next 20 to 40 years. A pretty thankless task, but the bottom line is without a damn good war, Asia will be the way of the future. As an experiment, assume, as most long term forecasters do,...

I was just as surprised as anyone by the election outcome.   The initial market reaction was not as surprising, but the dramatic reversal was.  About a dozen hours after the election was called, John Authers from the Financial Times came to my office and we chatted.  Check out the cool video here.

Comment on GBP and CHF by Matt Vassallo My articles About meMy booksFollow on: Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, November 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ). - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF rates spiked by almost two cents during Wednesday’s trading, providing those clients holding Sterling with some of the best rates they’ve seen in the past few weeks. This move came following confirmation that Donald...

The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) have signed a new agreement regarding the SNB’s profit distribution for 2016 to 2020. Subject to a positive distribution reserve, the SNB will in future pay CHF 1 billion p.a. to the Confederation and cantons, as was previously the case. In future, however, omitted distributions will be compensated for in subsequent years if the distribution...