SNB & CHF

Legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway vice-chair Charles Munger recently stated: “The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” I think this perfectly encapsulates our current investing era. In a day and age where social media has replaced not only traditional news media but human interaction, where influencers and gamers are top career aspirations for the nation’s youth, where artists (content creators) are paid by the number of followers, likes, and...

Energy is a highly regulated industry across the world. There is less debate about the need for government control when it comes to the oil and gas sector. The arguments that most people accept for government intervention in energy, whether in the name of energy access, national security, or climate change mitigation, all share the same general premise: that energy is too important to be left to the whims of the free market. But this year, the world has been thrust...

Overview: There are two themes today. First, there has been a modest bout of profit-taking on Chinese stocks (and yuan) after last week’s surge. Second, the ahead of the five G10 central bank meeting this week a series of market-sensitive economic reports, a consolidative tone is seen in most of the capital markets. Most of the large bourses in the Asia Pacific region fell, led by a 2.2% loss in Hong Kong and 3% loss in its index of mainland shares. Europe’s Stoxx...

It is a huge week for major central bank policy announcements, where downshifts are expected from the Fed, ECB, BoE, SNB. Heading into the announcements, US CPI will help shape expectations. MON: UK GDP Estimate (Oct), Chinese M2/New Yuan Loans (Nov). TUE: OPEC MOMR; BoE Financial Stability Report; German CPI Final (Nov), UK Unemployment Rate (Oct)/Claimant Count (Nov), EZ ZEW (Dec), US CPI (Nov), Japanese Tankan (Q4), New Zealand Current Account (Q3). WED: FOMC...

Bank Syz has collaborated with Taurus to launch its new digital asset offer Syz Crypto. It will cover the safekeeping and trading of digital assets to the Bank’s private, professional and institutional clients. Concretely, the Bank has integrated Taurus-PROTECT, a technology that allows the custody of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, tokenized securities as well as NFTs and Taurus-EXPLORER for the connectivity to >15 blockchain protocols, including Bitcoin...

That’s how things fall apart: insiders know but keep their mouths shut, outsiders are clueless, and the decay that started slowly gathers momentum as the last of the experienced and competent workforce burns out, quits or retires. Outsiders are shocked when things fall apart. Insiders are amazed the duct-tape held this long.The erosion of critical skills and institutional knowledge is invisible to outsiders, while everyone inside who saw the unstoppable decay...

Did the modest acceleration in US producer prices during November jinx the CPI? The latter comes out this week just when the Fed meets to discuss rate hikes. But while the American PPI got most of the attention, another crucial set of producers prices from elsewhere is far more likely to mean the end of those. Eurodollar University's Weekly Recap, featuring Steve Van Metre Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffSnider_AIP https://www.eurodollar.university https://www.marketsinsiderpro.com...

The G10 currencies traded with a heavier bias against the dollar last week. The Swiss franc was the sole exception, and it edged up about 0.25%. The thwarted putsch in Germany and the relaxation of vaccine and quarantine protocols in China were notable developments. The weakness in European and American equities and oil helped account for the underperformance of the Norwegian krone and Canadian dollar. At the same time, the recovery in US 10-year yields after a more...

Amazing book on the monetary system here: https://amzn.to/3PoNacX Jeff Snider is Chief Strategist for Atlas Financial and co-host of the popular Eurodollar University podcast. In this video he explains how the world and the US have operated on a virtual currency basis for many, many years. Most people have participated in this shift in money the banking system. Since currency is virtual, what are banks? What is their function? This video explains what banks really are and the amazing...

Half of the G10 central banks meet in the week ahead. The Fed is first on December 14, and the ECB, BOE, Swiss National Bank, and Norway's Norges Bank meet the following day. Before turning a thumbnail sketch of the central banks, let us look at the November US CPI, which will be reported as the Fed's two-day meeting gets underway on December 13. The terms of the debate have shifted. It is no longer about when US inflation will peak but how fast it will come down....