SNB & CHF

Overview: The greenback is lower against most currencies today as it consolidates ahead of the weekend. The Dollar Index's eight-week advance is the longest since a 12-week rally 2014. The Chinese yuan is an exception. Its losses were extended today. Against the offshore yuan, the dollar traded above the onshore band, which is most often respected. Equities ae extending this week's slump. All the large bourses in the Asia Pacific region but India fell. Europe's...

Pope Francis made headlines last week when he described the Russian Empire as "enlightened" and invoked the names of two expansionist Russian czars as examples of Russia's "great culture." In impromptu remarks, Francis said to a group of Russian Catholics,  “You are the heirs of the great Russia: the great Russia of saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, of Catherine II, of that great, enlightened Russian empire, of great culture and great humanity.”...

Members of Congress claim to be "concerned" over the proposed merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. They should be supporting it or, even better, backing off completely. Original Article: "Golf Merger Is Opposed by Congress. This Is Misguided" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

A literal power vacuum—that’s what California Senate Bill 233 proposes. And what is to be sucked? Your electric car. The bill—which has passed the Senate and is now winding its way through the Assembly—states that all new electric vehicles to be sold in California after 2030 be “bidirectional.” Because the state has decided to essentially go all electric without having the ability to actually provide enough electricity, the climate warriors have gotten a bit creative...

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop look at county and city-level secession movements and what it means for political self-determination. In a recent article, Ryan McMaken highlighted renewed calls for Staten Island to secede from New York City, but other recent examples include attempts by taxpayers in areas of Georgia and Alabama to break away from the control of mismanagement of local governments. Tho and Ryan look at the value these...

French citizen Sergei Pugachev, former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is currently wanted by Russian authorities. In the West, he is known as one of the Kremlin’s most prominent critics and has received death threats, resulting in round-the-clock state protection. How did one of the wealthiest individuals in Russia lose his assets? Why is Pugachev seeking over $12 billion from the Kremlin through The Hague Tribunal? Who is threatening his life? Can Swiss banks assist...

We should not just be concerned about problems in the American banking system, but also about the proliferation of Eurodollars. Original Article: "Eurodollars as a Fractional Reserve Market" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

To me, a wise and humane policy is occasionally to let inflation rise even when inflation is running above target. —Janet Yellen We have sighted the enemy and he is us. —Pogo On July 26, 2023, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. By the time you read this, your credit card interest rate will probably have increased for your September statement. When headlines talk about the Fed raising interest rates, the annual percentage...

Overview: Despite disappointing German industrial output, where the 0.8% decline was twice expectations, the euro is holding above $1.07, where large options exist that are expiring over the next few sessions. The greenback is consolidating against the Japanese yen, where the fear of intervention has increased. Sterling remains on its back foot after yesterday's seemingly dovish comments by Bank of England Governor Bailey. Emerging market currencies are mostly...

We talked to Sergei Pugachev, Vladimir Putin’s former adviser, to discover what his story could tell us about the Russian president’s affairs. “Putin expropriated my assets for 20 billion, and he thinks that I should be like a bank, so in that sense I’m not even a banker, but Putin’s bank.” Click here to listen to his full interview which goes live today at 3.30 pm (CET): https://youtu.be/sJ4Yp5ZJNsg --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the...