SNB & CHF

Alberto Giacometti was one of the major sculptors of the 20th century. He regularly spent time in his native village of Stampa in the Bregaglia Valley in canton Graubünden, and now his studio has now been opened to the general public. (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...

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Chinese wholesale gold demand, as measured by withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), reached a sizable 973 metric tonnes in the first half of 2016, down 7 % compared to last year. Although Chinese gold demand year to date at 973 tonnes is slightly down from its record year in 2015 – when China in total net imported over 1,550 tonnes and an astonishing 2,596 tonnes were withdrawn from SGE...

  A Morally and Economically Superior Monetary System It has been theoretically demonstrated and seen in general practice that a monetary system of 100% metallic money devoid of central banking checks monetary inflation, prevents a general rise in the price level, and eliminates the dreaded business cycle while making all sorts of monetary mischief nearly impossible. A gold standard is not only economically superior...

Summary Italian banks have done worse that European banks. Italian banks outperformed Germany banks from end of H1 12 through H1 15. US banks and financials more broadly have outperformed Europe. Italian banks were struggling before the UK referendum.  The result drove down interest rate, which keeps margins under pressure. The prospects of weaker growth as a result of Brexit means that demand for credit...

  Landfall of a “Told You So” Moment… Late last year and early this year, we wrote extensively about the problems we thought were coming down the pike for European banks. Very little attention was paid to the topic at the time, but we felt it was a typical example of a “gray swan” – a problem everybody knows about on some level, but naively thinks won’t erupt if only it is studiously ignored. This actually worked for a...

Swiss Franc Click to enlarge. Brexit Amid a better if not strong risk appetite, sterling has rallied two cents from yesterday’s lows near $1.28 to poke through the $1.30 level in the European morning. Click to enlarge. United Kingdom It was helped by an industrial production report that was better than expected. Industrial and manufacturing output fell 0.5% in May. This was around half of the expected decline...

07.07.2016 09:15  – FSO, Prices (0353-1606-90) Swiss Consumer Price Index in June 2016 Consumer prices increase by 0.1% Neuchâtel, 07.07.2016 (FSO) – The Swiss Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.1% in June 2016 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.7 points (December 2015=100). Inflation was -0.4% in comparison with the same month in the previous year. These are the findings of the Federal Statistical...

Summary Don’t be fooled, the yuan has fallen more against its basket that against the dollar this year. It is not clear what China means by stable. Market forces appear to be moving in the same direction as officials wish. Here are two Great Graphics that portray two time series: the dollar-yuan exchange rate and the yuan against a trade-weighted basket.  The first chart comes from a highly reputable...

Forex has been the big banks secret gold mine, supporting their other losing operations (like normal banking business, lending, etc.).  To a large extent this has been unraveling, and this SIBOR lawsuit is another attack on their risk free profit center (FX).  Read the entire lawsuit released by Elite E Services here in full.  More than 50 unknown defendants and about 20 known FX banks are named in the case, submitted...