SNB & CHF

07.09.2022 – At its meeting on 7 September 2022, the Federal Council adopted the report on the recording of the gender overall earnings gap and other indicators on gender-specific income differences. It provides new key figures for Switzerland and places them in relation to existing indicators. In addition, the report also offers interpretation aids to help place the results in an economic, social and institutional context. Newly available data sources allow for a...

Any city whose lifeblood ultimately depends on hyper-globalization and hyper-financializationwill no longer be viable. The human migration from the countryside to cities has been an enduring feature of civilization.Cities concentrate wealth, productivity and power, and so they’re magnets to talent and capital, offering newcomers the greatest opportunities. Cities are efficient, packing population, productivity and wealth creation into small areas.Slums and sweatshops...

Introduction With my talk, I would like to accomplish three goals: First, I want to explain some sound and time-tested basics of monetary theory. Second, I would like to point out why it is important to have a free market in money; that the battlefront of our time is not between, say, bitcoin, stable coins, gold, and silver, but between government-monopolized fiat monies and a free market in money. And third, I hope to strengthen your conviction that we need a free...

Most Americans don’t that realize diesel fuel is the workhorse of the economy. It’s used everywhere to keep trucks, tractors, ships, freight trains, and factories moving. And that’s just the beginning… In the midst of all this… the electric grid won’t be able to light up like it used to. It will depend more on solar panels and windmills. But in a long spell of darkness and cold, ‘renewable’ power sources are worthless. The remaining...

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”...