SNB & CHF

A revamp of Switzerland’s pension system is set for a popular vote. SWI swissinfo.ch discussed the issue with supporter Andri Silberschmidt and opponent Barbara Gysi. The reform plans encompass two separate proposals to be decided by voters on September 25: the retirement age for women is to be hiked from 64 to 65, while value-added tax in Switzerland is to rise by 0.4%. Opinion polls suggest the result could be tight. They also show that divisions among voters don’t just fall...

Consumer spending continued to rise in the spring, but may dampen as the price of goods picks up. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Switzerland’s economic output slowed to 0.3% between April and the end of June, compared to the first quarter of the year. The manufacturing, construction, trade and financial services sectors all showed signs of weakening in the face of energy shortages and rising inflation. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) reported a...

Overview: While the US dollar appears to be consolidating its recent gains, the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan remain under pressure. Officials seem more concerned about the pace of the move than the level it has reached. New and large fiscal initiatives that the new UK government has floated has failed to change sentiment toward sterling, which is the second weakest major currency today after the Japanese yen. The yen’s weakness did not prevent new losses in Japanese...

Appreciating cultural nuances is difficult without understanding the stories that provide insight into a society’s soul. Stories reflect a nation’s values, aspirations, and ideals. Songs, poems, and literature illuminate the tastes of citizens and even political and economic preferences. Economist and polymath Deidre McCloskey in her bourgeois trilogy argues that the evolution of a promarket rhetoric was central to the wealth explosion in the West. Indeed, economists...

CEO Keith Weiner returns to popular radio show Turning Hard Times into Good Times hosted by Jay Taylor. Jay argues that the U.S. government hates gold because its rising price shines the light on the destruction of the dollar caused by the Federal Reserve’s printing press used to finance massive government deficits. The detractors of gold have long suggested that owning gold doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t pay interest. Keith and Jay discuss why...

Car sharing firm Mobility is providing 50 Honda electric cars for this innovative project. © Keystone / Christian Beutler An innovative pilot project testing the potential of electric cars to stabilise the power grid has been launched in Switzerland. For one year, the power of 50 electric vehicles will be fed back into the grid from their batteries when they are not running, car-sharing company Mobility which leads the project said on Tuesday. The “V2X Switzerland”...

A circular economy means moving away from using precious raw materials and producing goods that end up in the landfill. Products are repaired, reused and recycled instead. This video shows how the process works in Switzerland, a country with few raw materials that is good at recycling but that also generates among the most waste in Europe. Various hurdles stand in the way of developing a circular economy and prevent the efficient use of resources, as a report by the Federal Council from...

Interview original date: July 25th, 2022. Topics- Paul Krugman las wrong about inflation, the economy never fully recovered from 2008, deflation, consumer prices, artificial government interference, markets hedge, central planning, supply chain, stimmy, financial crisis, treasuries, Government’s response, CPI, supply decreasing, CPI trending down, equities, wealth effect, 1940s, unstable period.

Someday in the future… perhaps on a particularly cold night… … America’s entire energy system will collapse. Fuel won’t get delivered. Rolling blackouts will sweep the land. Pipes will freeze. Food in the freezer will go bad. You may shiver in the dark… praying for a little power – for weeks. You’ll be one of the lucky ones. Others – with less margin of error – may fare worse. Experts tell us if diesel fuel is cut off, it...

Repurchase agreement failures by America's Primary Dealers have moved step-for-step with Japan's yen for two years. As the tempo of musical (financial-collateral) chairs picks up (scarcity, scramble) the yen depreciates. We explain why and what it means. ****EP. 285 REFERENCES**** It's Not Just the Japanese Who Can't Afford to Wait for the Inevitable Truth: https://bit.ly/3QkvMos RealClear Markets Essays: https://bit.ly/38tL5a7 Epoch Times Columns: https://bit.ly/39ESkRf ****THE...