SNB & CHF

Climate alarmism dominates the news cycle, but perhaps people be more alarmed by massive federal budget deficits and runaway entitlement spending. Original Article: It’s Time for Some Debt and Entitlement Alarmism [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

Data is sometimes referred to as today’s most valuable commodity. Given the technologically focused world around us, data is generated with almost everything we do or consume, whether you use Apple Pay to purchase goods from a retail outfit or use a credit card for your Uber Eats order. It is, in other words, largely unavoidable to create a digital footprint. This continuously produced data is often monitored, retained, repackaged, and resold to third...

Here are three news stories from Switzerland you shouldn't have missed this week: 1️⃣Swiss government considers Hamas a terrorist organisation: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-government-considers-hamas-a-terrorist-organisation/48881978 2️⃣Cost of living: many Swiss expect less money in their wallets in 2023: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/cost-of-living--many-swiss-expect-less-money-in-their-wallets-in-2023/48876228 3️⃣Swiss Federal Roads Office supports the idea of a speed limit of 80...

This past weekend, the world witnessed absolute barbarism play out as Hamas agents brutally targeted Israeli civilians. The State of Israel, suffering from a historic failure to protect its residents, has predictably responded with major military operations in the Gaza strip. The result is a growing regional conflict fueled by historic feuds beyond the scale of traditional geopolitical considerations. Add to this the ongoing war in Ukraine, a less-talked-about...

While central banks use administered interest rates in hopes of emulating the natural rate, these efforts are always going to fail. Without free markets, there is no natural rate. Original Article: The Central Bank Policy Interest Rate vs the Natural Rate [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The term “roundabout” is not normally associated with efficiency, unless you’re an economist. Yet roundabout methods—when applied to production—are the key to prosperity. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, the great Austrian economist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, provided examples illustrating how this idea works. Consider a farmer whose source of drinking water is some distance from his house. Whenever he gets thirsty, he can go to the spring and drink...

Overview: The dollar is mixed against the G10 currencies. It is confined to narrow ranges ahead of today's CPI report. The Russian ruble is the strongest of the emerging market currencies following the imposition of new capital controls, forcing many exporters to repatriate their foreign earnings. After posting a key upside reversal at the end of last week, gold continues to recover. It nearly $1883 so far today, the best level in more than two weeks. November WTI...

Some free-market advocates are pushing for dollarization in Argentina. But the devastating US sanctions against Panama in 1989 show us how dollarization helps the US exercise more hegemonic power over foreign economies.  Original Article: Dollarization Puts Foreign Economies at the Mercy of the US Regime [embedded content]...

This week, Hillary Clinton publicly proposed “formal deprogramming” for MAGA enthusiasts, piling on a repeated President Biden theme of trying to deal with “an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The MAGA movement.” The nation recently discovered that the FBI has a new “MAGA Extremist” category. All this hard work by government is aimed at “preserving democracy.” Clinton is particularly concerned about the small extremist “tail”...

In the market economy, wealth generators do not produce everything for their own consumption. Part of their production is used in exchange for the produce of other producers. Hence, in the market economy, production precedes consumption. This means that something is exchanged for something else. This also means that an increase in the production of goods and services sets in motion an increase in the demand for goods and services. According to David Ricardo, No man...