SNB & CHF

I occasionally read a writer and podcaster known as a conspiracy researcher who writes on a variety of subjects. Donald Jeffries is all over the map politically (reformer, idealist, libertarian, classical liberal, populist, and cultural conservative), has published several books, and has written a Substack column since 2021. His name is not important because it is his ideas, which are shared by a growing number of people, that I want to address.EntitlementsI think...

On September 18, 2024, the headlines read the Fed cut the Fed Funds rate by 50 basis points. At first blush, one would think that a trader with a crystal ball a couple of days before the Fed action would buy bonds and lick their chops over the money they would soon make. In this case, the crystal ball was a curse. Bond yields rose following the rate cut despite what many investment professionals perceive to be a bullish event. If you scour the media, you will...

Last month, Donald Trump announced that he intends to set up a government efficiency commission if he wins a second term. The commission would be led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who would audit the entire federal government to find and eliminate inefficiencies that needlessly cost taxpayers trillions of dollars.While Austrian economists tend to be wary of the entire concept of “efficiency” in a world without perfect, universal knowledge of the future and static,...

Last month, Donald Trump announced that he intends to set up a government efficiency commission if he wins a second term. The commission would be led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who would audit the entire federal government to find and eliminate inefficiencies that needlessly cost taxpayers trillions of dollars.While Austrian economists tend to be wary of the entire concept of “efficiency” in a world without perfect, universal knowledge of the future and static,...

Iran launched over 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday. The attack began at 7:30 p.m. Israel time, after the US had warned just hours before that a strike was imminent. The Israel Defence Forces reported several of the missiles were intercepted, and reports said one person was killed in the West Bank, per Bloomberg. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack on Tuesday, but Tehran warned...

Newly-minted Chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) Martin Schlegel hit newswires on Tuesday, cautioning that further rate cuts haven't been ruled out. The incoming Chairman of the SNB officially took the reins of Switzerland's central bank on early Tuesday, and has inherited a central bank still caught in the wake of last year's lopsided management of the merger between 167-year-old Credit Suisse and UBS. Key highlights The services sector...

The videos coming out of western North Carolina, of entire towns wiped off the map by flood waters of Hurricane Helene, are both tragic and shocking. Lesser, but serious, impacts have been felt across the entire region. The residents of much of southern Appalachia, Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas are facing temporary shortages in terms of access to clear water, power, and fuel. For some social-media bomb throwers, however, the floods are an excellent opportunity...

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues podcast. I’m Mark Thornton at the Mises Institute.We have kicked off the Fall Campaign at the Mises Institute. I humbly request that you make a small donation in the name of this podcast using the link in the show notes. It would mean a great deal to me. For every $100 or more donation, or recurring donation of $5 or more, using this link, I will send you a signed copy of my Skyscraper Curse...

These days, supporters of President Trump and others on the right are often smeared as “fascists,” and what is meant by this is that they support the Nazis. For example, the historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat says: “To get people to lose their aversion to violence, savvy authoritarians also dehumanize their enemies. That’s what Trump is doing. Hitler used this ploy from the very start, calling Jews the ‘black parasites of the nation’ in a 1920 speech. By the time Hitler got...

USD/CHF is rising within a range-bound market.  It has encountered resistance at a cluster of MAs but will probably continue higher. USD/CHF is rising up within its sideways range. It has reached a cluster of major Moving Averages which are providing firm resistance.  USD/CHF 4-hour Chart  The trend is neither up nor down but rather sideways and so the oscillating character of the market is likely to extend, given the principle that “the...