SNB & CHF

Die Kolumne «Gopfried Stutz» erschien zuerst im Credit Suisse und UBS liefern uns ein schönes Lehrstück. Die UBS verspekulierte sich in den USA derart, dass die Schweizerische Nationalbank deren faule Kredite in der Finanzkrise von 2008 übernehmen und somit die Grossbank vor dem Kollaps retten musste. Derweil vermochte die Credit Suisse die Verluste selber zu stemmen und erhielt dafür Anerkennung. Heute ist es gerade umgekehrt: Die UBS schreibt wieder ansprechende...

There have been some 1,700 cases of suspected Covid-19 loan frauds reported since the start of the pandemic. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza The number of reported suspicious financial transactions continued to rise in Switzerland in 2021, but at a lower rate than in the first year of the pandemic. Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) saw a 12% increase of suspicious activity reports last year to reach 5,962. For the second year in a row, a significant...

Aktuell geht man von 200 Millionen aktiven Crypto-Nutzern weltweit aus. Laut Brian Armstrong, CEO von Coinbase, wird diese Zahl innerhalb der nächsten 10-20 Jahre deutlich ansteigen und sich mehr als verfünffachen. Crypto News: Coinbase CEO glaubt an eine Milliarde Crypto-Nutzer in dieser DekadeSeine Annahme untermauert er damit, dass sich der GDP (das Brutto-Inlands-Produkt) immer mehr im Cryptomarkt abspielt. Betrachtet man den relativen Anteil des Marktes im GDP...

Overview: The large bourses in Asia Pacific except Hong Kong eased. Japan and China’s mainland markets are closed for the holiday. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is up about 0.6%. It gapped lower yesterday and has not entered the gap today. US futures are a little softer. The 10-year Treasury nicked the 3%-mark yesterday and is just below there now. European benchmark yields are mostly 1-3 bp higher, but the UK Gilt yield has jumped eight basis points, and Australia’s surged 13...

Part I of II For decades, physical gold investors have had to contend with superficial, naive and wholly ahistorical “arguments” from the mainstream financial press, from economists and experts of all stripes, claiming that gold is nothing but a barbarous relic. To them, the yellow metal is akin to investment superstition. It has no yield, it serves no practical purpose and the only attraction they could conceive of is merely symbolic, or perhaps,...

  Ein staatliches Fiat-Währungssystem mit einer nur teilweisen Deckung des Geldumlaufs durch die Bankreserven macht es möglich, dass die Geschäftsbanken mehr Geld als in Umlauf bringen als sie an Bargeld halten. Das sogenannte Giralgeld wird als Bankeinlagen gleichsam aus dem Nichts geschaffen. So ein Währungssystem ist nicht nur äußerst volatil, sondern auch anfällig für lange und extreme Phasen der Kreditausweitung und der Kreditkontraktion. ...

It’s one of those things which everyone just accepts because everyone says it must be true. If the US$ is rising, what else other than the Federal Reserve. In particular, the Fed has to be raising rates in relation to other central banks; interest rate differentials. A relatively more “hawkish” US policy therefore the wind in the sails of a “strong” dollar exchange regime. How else would we explain, for example, the euro’s absolute plunge since around May last year?...

The increasing volatility of SNB Earnings Annual results are not really definite. Given that the SNB accumulates foreign currencies with interventions, they have huge swings. But the SNB may lose 50 billion in one year and win 60 billion in the next year or vice verse. Low Inflation, Crashes and Central Bank Money Printing The crisis caused by the Covid19 virus,is a typical crisis with low inflation (at least for now). During such a crisis, central bank money...

“Households are feeling the strain as prices continue to rise,” SECO said on Monday. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Consumers in Switzerland are much more pessimistic about the general economic situation, with households feeling the strain as prices continue to rise, a new survey shows. April data published by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) on Monday shows that overall consumer sentiment has deteriorated “significantly” in recent months. The consumer...

Stagflation. It’s a word that strikes fear in the hearts of investors, one that evokes memories – for some of us – of bell bottoms, disco, and Jimmy Carter’s American malaise. The combination of weak growth and high inflation is the worst of all worlds, one that required a transformational leader and a cigar-chomping central banker to defeat the last time it came around. Or at least that’s how it’s remembered. Whether the cigar-chomping central banker was really...