SNB & CHF

Overview: A surprise cut in China's seven-day repo and a stronger than expected UK employment report are session's highlights ahead of the US CPI. The base effect alone suggests a sharp fall in the year-over-year rate, while the median forecast in Bloomberg's survey has been shaved to a 0.1% month-over-month gain. The dollar is under pressure and is weaker against nearly all the G10 currencies. It is mixed against the emerging market currencies. The dollar gapped...

With the rise of homeless camps and tent cities in many American cities, the issue of squatting has become a cause for alarm among many residents and policymakers. In many cases parks, sidewalks, and other public rights-of-way have been taken over by people living in tents or makeshift shelters, rendering the areas unusable to most area residents. In other cases, some of these homeless people have taken over empty businesses and homes that were left unattended long...

As the Fed increases interest rates to reverse the inflation it has caused, firms that depended on easy money will face the bankruptcy judge. Stay tuned; there's more to come. Original Article: "The Bankruptcy Caravan Is Now Arriving: Time to Pay for the Easy Money" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

While George Orwell wrote magnificently against totalitarianism, his attempt to defend socialism in The Road to Wigan Pier stumbled badly. Original Article: "Review: Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The real drama of default in global markets has not been the federal debt ceiling negotiations in Washington but the write-off by inflation. The issue of whether it turns out that the US Treasury for a few weeks has been slow in servicing its debts—with all delays subsequently rectified—is a sideshow. We could regard this as camouflage for the ongoing real write-off operation. In this, countries led by the US, where a great inflation emerged during the pandemic and...

Residents of rockslide-threatened Brienz/Brinzauls in Switzerland have been fetching items from their homes to make their lives in exile more bearable. They were temporarily allowed home a few days ago for the first time since being evacuated last month amid concerns that the nearby crumbling mountain could destroy their village in Graubünden. Some 84 people live there and only two people per household could return home, with the numbers limited for safety reasons. --- swissinfo.ch is...

Recorded by the Mises Institute in the mid-1980s, The Mises Report provided radio commentary from leading non-interventionists, economists, and political scientists. In this program, we present another part of "Ten Great Economic Myths". This material was prepared by Murray N. Rothbard. In recent years there has been an understandable worry over the low rate of saving and investment in the United States. One worry is that the enormous federal deficits will...

Overview: Today may be the calm ahead of a tomorrow's US CPI and rate decisions by the Fed, ECB, BOJ, and PBOC over the next few days. Most large bourses in the Asia Pacific region rose and Europe's Stoxx 600 is snapping a three-day decline. US index futures are trading higher. US 10-year yield is slightly firmer as are core European benchmark yields. The dollar is under broad pressure and is weaker against the G10 currencies. Against emerging market currencies, it...

In spite of a market downturn and a prolonged “crypto winter”, the volume of illicit cryptocurrency transactions continued to rise in 2022, reaching an all-time high of US$20.6 billion, new data released by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis show. Total cryptocurrency value received by illicit addresses, 2017-2022, Source: The 2023 Crypto Crime Report, Chainalysis The sum represents a 13.8% increase from the previous all-time high of US$18.1 billion recorded in...

Individualism, while condemned in some cultures, has helped make this country economically successful. Will the influx of immigrants from cultures that devalue individualism reverse that success? Original Article: "Individualism in the US Has Helped Make It an Economic Success" [embedded content] Tags:...