SNB & CHF

There has been a dramatic adjustment to US rates. The two-year yield was near 4.40% before the US employment report on March 8 and it reached near 4.73% before the weekend. The 25 bp surge is the largest weekly increase since last May. For the first time in four months, the Fed funds futures strip is no longer has at least three rate cuts discounted. The interest rate adjustment underpinned the dollar, which rose against all the G10 currencies last week.  Like the...

Reconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Oxford University Press, 2022; pp. 261Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, who teaches philosophy at Georgetown University, has a very different view of justice from libertarians. We believe that justice is based on the libertarian rights of self-ownership and Lockean appropriation, expressed in laws that apply to everyone and do not discriminate between different races or classes of people.Táíwò, by contrast, is a proponent of what...

New York was the toughest nut for the Federalists to crack. For here was one state where not only was the population overwhelmingly opposed to the Constitution, but the opposition was also in firm and determined control of the state government and the state political machinery. Here was a powerful governor, George Clinton, who would not, like Hancock and Randolph in the other critical states, yield to a sellout under pressure. Clinton had been a highly popular...

Swiss Franc is vulnerable as inflation data continues to undershoot official forecasts.  The SNB expected inflation to average 1.9% in 2024 in its December forecast, but it currently sits at 1.2%.  The latest Producer and Import Prices showed the tenth month of deflation in a row.  The Swiss Franc (CHF) trades flat at the end of the trading week – off by barely a few hundredths of a percent in its most traded pairs. The overal fundamental...

The Political Thought of David Hume: The Origins of Liberalism and the Modern Political Imaginationby Aaron Alexander ZubiaNotre Dame 2024; 366 pp.The central thesis of Aaron Zubia’s very scholarly book will be of interest to students of Ludwig von Mises. Zubia argues that the thought of David Hume underlies contemporary liberalism. He intends “liberalism” broadly, so that it encompasses not only twentieth-century liberalism, but classical liberalism as well....

On February 5, 2024, Oklahoma Representative Cody Maynard introduced House Bill 3027, which would eliminate all capital gains taxes on gold and silver and expand legal tender to include not only gold and silver coins issued by the US government, but other specie that an Oklahoma court rules to be within state authority to make or designate as legal tender. While the bill has yet to be debated and passed in the Oklahoma House, this could be a realistic step toward...

Natural orders are things that emerge on their own or reflect the true nature of how something is or was meant to be. Two of my favorite books, both of which dramatically changed my outlook on the world, are A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century (by biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein) and Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life (by economics professor Paul Seabright). Even though they deal with different subject matters, what unites...

In 1948 the UN created UNRWA, the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency. It was supposed to be temporary – to support Palestinians who lost their homes and livelihoods when Israel was created. But 75 years later, UNRWA is still there. Inside Geneva asks what does it do and why is Israel suspicious of it? --- 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...

Overview: At the end of last week, the derivatives market was again pricing in nearly four Fed cuts this year, but this week's data have seen expectations re-converge with the Fed's three rate cuts signaled in December, while cutting the odds of June hike to the lowest in the more than four months. This has helped lift the dollar against all the G10 currencies this week. As is often the case in a firm US dollar environment, the Canadian dollar has fared the best,...

  Zurechtkommen mit der Komplexität des Klimawandels. Eine genauere Betrachtung der wissenschaftlichen Methode und ihrer Einschränkungen 15. März 2024 – von Frank Hollenbeck Die physikalischen Wissenschaften haben bei der Erforschung einfacher Phänomene große Fortschritte gemacht. Bei einem einfachen Phänomen haben wir eine begrenzte Anzahl wichtiger Variablen, die alle identifizierbar und messbar sind. Dies ermöglicht es uns, ein wissenschaftliches...