SNB & CHF

  Leaning Into the Wind BALTIMORE – During our lifetime, three Fed chiefs have faced a similar challenge. Each occupied the chairman’s seat at a time when “normalization” of interest rates was in order. Recently, we remembered William McChesney Martin, head of the U.S. Fed under the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. Today, we compare Martin with two of his successors, Mr. Paul Volcker and Ms. Janet Yellen. We allow you to draw your own conclusion. Punchbowl...

The Money Market Event is the biggest feast of the Swiss National Bank and a selected list of money managers that work together with the central bank. It is initiated by important speeches and ended with a generous buffet dinner. In the first speech, Andrea Mächler addressed three points: The expansion of the SNB balances sheet as measure against the so-called “strong franc” in a historic perspective. How the SNB takes over currency risks from the private sector. Details on the balance...

Residents of a retirement home near St Gallen spend their time in the kitchen experimenting with old, long-forgotten recipes. The products are then sold online. (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: Website:...

All about bitcoin and blockchain.

01.04.2016 09:15  - FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1603-20) Retail trade turnover in February 2016 Swiss retail trade turnover falls by 0.9% Neuchâtel, 01.04.2016 (FSO) – Turnover in the retail sector fell by 0.9% in nominal terms in February 2016 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover fell by 0.4% compared with the previous month. These are provisional findings from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Real turnover in the retail sector also adjusted for...

01.04.2016 09:15  – FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1603-20)                                         In several press release Swiss Statistics focuses on nominal data:But the data adjusted for inflation is more important: Real retail sales  (adjusted for holidays) -0.3% YoY Real “Core retail sales” (excluding service stations) +0.3% YoY Retail trade turnover in February 2016 Swiss retail trade turnover falls by 0.9% Neuchâtel, 01.04.2016 (FSO) – Turnover in the retail sector fell by...

Gold market analysts have for many years puzzled over the unusual behaviour of the gold market during the 1990s, specifically the bizarrely flat gold price from 1993 to 1996 in the face of sustained selling pressure from central banks and gold miners hedging their production. To-date no one has been able to identify the hidden source of demand that was obviously supporting the gold market during that period. In addition, conventional justifications that accelerated sales by central banks...

Reader Questions on Negative Interest Rates Our reader L from Mumbai has mailed us a number of questions about the negative interest rate regime and its possible consequences. Since these questions are probably of general interest, we have decided to reply to them in this post. The NIRP club – negative central bank deposit rates – click to enlarge. Before we get to the questions, a few general remarks: negative interest rates could not exist in an unhampered free market. They are an...

I attended a panel discussion on private blockchains in banking at UBS in NYC last night. There were two overarching misconceptions that appeared to permeate the discussions: Counterparties can be trusted, hence you can build reliable systems with trusted parties, and; Capital markets are, and always will be predicated upon the legacy, highly centralized hub and spoke model that we know today. Basically, the influential gatekeepers that control access to a centralized, authoritative...

31.03.2016 09:15  - FSO, Demography and Migration (0353-1603-10) Families and Generations Survey 2013: Relationships Where the heart is: Relationships and marriages popular Neuchâtel, 31.03.2016 (FSO) – More than three quarters of men and women aged between 18 and 80 are in a relationship and most of these live together with their partner. Marriage still remains common with four fifths of all people who live with a partner of the opposite sex being married. These are some of the findings of...