SNB & CHF

Politicians thoroughly enjoy times of war. Periods of bellicosity are when the most power-hungry members of the political class indulge in their most depraved political fantasies. The Russo-Ukrainian War has been no exception to this trend. Western politicians have been taking advantage of the largest conventional military conflict on European soil since World War II to crack down on civil liberties at home and drag their countries closer to an open conflict with a...

El Salvador ist zum Pilotprojekt für die internationale Finanzwelt geworden. Nachdem das kleine Land Bitcoin als legales Zahlungsmittel eingeführt hat, ist es nicht nur im Internet berühmt geworden, El Salvador ist auf dem Radar vieler Länder aufgetaucht – mit großem Interesse verfolgt man, wie sich der BTC im Land entwickelt. Nun wollen insgesamt 44 Länder vor Ort sehen, wie El Salvador Bitcoin in sein Finanz- und Wirtschaftssystem eingebunden hat. Bitcoin News: 44...

History books often point to the second French Revolution in July 1830 as the start of a democratising wave that swept Europe, including Switzerland. What is often overlooked is the role of canton Ticino, which pioneered many of the ideas at the heart of these revolutions. --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews...

17.05.2022 – The Swiss residential property price index (IMPI) fell in the 1st quarter 2022 compared with the previous quarter by 0.4% and reached 110.3 points (4th quarter 2019 = 100). Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, inflation was 7.0%. These are some of the results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The decline in the IMPI in comparison with the previous quarter is the result of contrasting developments in the market for single-family...

The decline phase of S-Curves can be gradual or a cliff-dive. Way back in 2007 I charted five long-wave cycles that I reckoned consequential: 1. Public debt (accumulating federal deficits) 2. Inflation 3. Oil (energy) 4. Interest rates 5. Speculative fever Fifteen years ago, my chart look-ahead was about three years, to 2010, with the basic idea being that these long-term cycles had already turned or were about to turn. Looking back, I should have added a few...

For most economists and politicians, the role of central bank authorities is to make the economy as stable as possible. What do they mean by economic stability? Economic stability refers to an absence of excessive fluctuation, so an economy with constant output growth and low and stable price inflation is likely to be regarded as stable. An economy with frequent boom-bust cycles and variable price inflation would be considered unstable. According to popular thinking,...

It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of right. So wrote Ludwig von Mises in The Theory of Money and Credit in 1912. And further: The sound-money principle has two aspects. It is affirmative in approving the...

All these curveballs will further fragment the housing market. Oh for the good old days of a nice, clean housing bubble and bust as in 2004-2011: subprime lending expanded the pool of buyers, liar loans and loose credit created speculative leverage, the Federal Reserve provided excessive liquidity and the watchdogs of the industry were either induced (ahem) to look away or dozed off in a haze of gross incompetence. The bubble burst was also straightforward:...

TANSTAAFL is an acronym for “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. It has been around a long time – Rudyard Kipling used it in an essay in 1891 – but it was popularized by Robert Heinlein’s 1966 book, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. In economics it most often refers to tradeoffs or opportunity costs; resources are scarce and if you choose to use them in one way they aren’t available for an alternate use. The other way the phrase is often used is to describe a...

On Thursday May 12, the price of silver fell about a buck. As with every one of these big price moves, the question is: what really happened? Below is a chart of the day’s action, with price overlaid with basis. Basis = future – spot. It is a great (i.e. the only) indicator of abundance or scarcity of metal to the market. However, here we are using it for a different, simpler purpose. We want to see the relative moves in the spot price and the near futures contract...