SNB & CHF

Over the present year we have experienced record-breaking price inflation, a series of interest rate hikes, and an overall fall in stock prices. It is widely accepted that there is a bubble. A good way for Misesians to measure this is by comparing the price of capital (stock prices) to its replacement cost (book value). A normal ratio for the overall market should be close to one. Such a ratio means that value is being properly imputed, and that the structure of...

Bill Bonner is an American writer on economic and financial subjects. He is the founder of the Agora Companies. GUEST LINKS Bonner Private Research: https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com BPR Twitter: https://twitter.com/BonnerPrivate TRANSCRIPT https://thewigginsessions.net/episode/73/transcript/ TOPICS 0:00 Introductions 6:00 Win-Win Deals 9:27 Losers 11:40 Politics 14:40 The Crack-Up 18:00 Inflation & Supply Side Disruptions 20:00 Fall of the American Empire 23:00 The American...

Three European countries entered 2022 already on their back-foot after triggering early warning indicators of systemic banking crisis. Then they were presented energy, consumer-price and war emergencies. Keep an eye on France, Sweden and the Czech Republic (plus S. Korea and Canada!). ****EP. 287 REFERENCES**** Early warning indicators of banking crises (expanding the family): https://bit.ly/3jFyffx Early warning indicators of banking crises (online appendix): https://bit.ly/3uKq4or...

Overview: The bout of profit-taking on long dollar positions begun last week has carried into the start of this week.  Despite the escalating rhetoric, the yen is not participating today and is trading within the pre-weekend ranges.  The greenback’s lows have been set in the European morning and have stretched the intraday momentum indicators, suggesting that North American dealers may not follow suit. The uncertainty about the Swedish election outcome has not...

Nothing happened last week. Stocks and bonds and commodities continued to trade and move around in price but there was no news to which those movements could be attributed. The economic news was a trifle and what there was told us exactly nothing new about the economy. A report that wholesale inventories rose 0.6% cannot be turned into market moving news no matter how hard the newsletter sellers try. Jobless claims fell 8,000? Yawn. Exports rose $500 million? In a...

In last week’s column, I criticized Jedediah Purdy for the ignorance of economic theory on display in his Two Cheers for Politics. Fortunately, the book contains much of interest, reflecting the author’s wide knowledge of the history of political philosophy. I have to say, though, that the main argument of the book strikes me as utterly unconvincing. Purdy starts off well. He asks, Why are people living today bound by past political arrangements to which they have...

Crypto solutions provider 21.co has raised a US$25 million round led by Marshall Wace at a US$2 billion valuation, making it Switzerland’s largest crypto unicorn. The round, which included investors, such as Collab+Currency, Quiet Ventures, ETFS Capital and Valor Equity Partners was the company’s first raise in over two years. 21.co is a collection of companies, the largest of which is cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) issuer 21Shares. The platform is...

Next year, average electricity prices in Switzerland are set to rise 27% with significant difference depending on where you live, reported RTS. Photo by Burak The Weekender on Pexels.comIn 2023, an average household consuming 4,500 kWh a year will pay an extra CHF 261 a year for their electricity. However, there will be big differences depending on where you are. In Zwischbergen, a municipality in Valais, 4,500 kWh will cost CHF 383.05 in 2023. The same electricity...

In many places one language is all that is required at work. In Switzerland, 37.7% of workers surveyed reported regularly using two or more languages at work, according to data published by the Federal Statistical Office on 6 September 2022. Photo by fauxels on Pexels.comWhile 62.3% used only one language at work, 22.2% regularly used two and 15.5% used three or more. These figures are somewhat boosted by a linguistic quirk of Switzerland. In the majority...

Most economic commentators believe that historical data is the key in assessing the state of the economy. Thus, if a statistic such as real gross domestic product or industrial production displays a visible increase, then the economy is stronger. Conversely, a decline in the growth rate says the economy is weakening. It seems that one can establish the state of economic conditions simply by looking at the data. The so-called data that analysts are examining, however,...