SNB & CHF

Strong US consumption and production figures kept the greenback well supported last week on the heels of the jump in CPI to 6.2%.  Meanwhile, the surge of Covid cases in Europe underscores the divergences with the US, sending the euro to new lows for the year.  At the same time, oil prices headed south for the fourth consecutive week, matching the longest decline in more than two years.  It did not favor the Norwegian krone, the weakest of the majors, with a 2.15%...

Audemars Piguet is one of four independent brands that dominate the global luxury watch market. Thomas Kern Driven by strong Chinese demand, Swiss watchmaking is recovering after suffering one of its biggest economic shocks in 2020. But the crisis has further widened the gap between the few brands that take the lion’s share of the profits and the rest of the industry. My specialty is telling stories, and decoding what happens in Switzerland and the world from...

One of the mandates of the Federal Reserve System is to attain price stability. It is held that price stability is the key as far as economic stability is concerned. What is it all about? The idea of price stability originates from the view that volatile changes in the price level prevent individuals from seeing market signals as conveyed by changes in the relative prices of goods and services. For instance, because of an increase in the demand for apples, the prices...

Das US-Justizministerium (DOJ) verkauft Kryptowährungen im Wert von 56 Millionen US-Dollar, die bei der “Nummer eins der Promoter” von Bitconnect, dem größten jemals strafrechtlich angeklagten Krypto-Betrugssystem, beschlagnahmt wurden. Die Anleger wurden in betrügerischer Absicht dazu gebracht, über 2 Milliarden Dollar zu investieren. Dem Bitconnect-Promoter droht eine Höchststrafe von 20 Jahren Gefängnis. Das US-Justizministerium gab am Dienstag bekannt, dass es...

?? Please Support the Channel & Subscribe here for more: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZIFOCfVxLJexAKnSb2TWXg?sub_confirmation=1 Jeff Snider: Inflation Vs Deflation. As the reflation trades cools down and the economic data begins to roll over, Jeff Snider, head of global research at Alhambra Investments, anticipates an ugly, near-term outcome for growth. In this conversation he explains how bonds and financial conditions have been signaling a return to the environment of the...

China's imports of iron value is soaring, signaling a booming economy. A closer look reveals that it is iron prices which are soaring but volume - the real stuff, the real goods - is falling. What does that signal? That the world has fallen for a "booming economy" illusion. A reading, by Emil Kalinowski. ----------WHO---------- Jeff Snider of Alhambra Investments. Read by Emil Kalinowski. Art by David Parkins. Intro/outro is "Alegro" by TAGE at Epidemic Sound....

Der ägyptische Milliardär Naguib Sawiris hat erklärt, dass er nach wie vor auf Gold setzt und nicht beabsichtigt, in Kryptowährungen wie Bitcoin zu investieren, da solche Investitionen sehr riskant sind. In seinen Äußerungen, die von The National News veröffentlicht wurden, erklärt der Milliardär, dass er es für falsch hält, wenn Menschen Vergleiche zwischen Gold und Bitcoin anstellen. Sawiris, der auch geschäftsführender Vorsitzender der in Kairo ansässigen Orascom...

The labor theory of value has long undermined people’s understanding of the miracles created by markets and rationalized various incarnations of socialism which mangle those miracles. Leonard Read understood why undoing that misunderstanding by all who hold to it, as well as those who just use it as an excuse for what they want government to impose on unwilling citizens, is of immense value to each of us. And in his December 1956 Freeman article, “Unearned Riches,”...

I have taught economics long enough that I have made use of a variety of “trick” questions in introductory courses. I have found them, used well, to be pedagogically helpful. But not everyone agrees. Whether a question is considered a trick depends on one’s viewpoint. From a professor’s point of view, such questions are often a way of revealing whether students have grasped how to put a principle into action or correctly make a critical distinction in a...

This week, the government of the canton of Geneva changed a law to require non residential buildings, with some exceptions, to switch off their lights at night between 1am and 6am. Thursday’s parliamentary vote in favour of the move is expected to cut the canton’s electricity consumption by at least 1%. During parts of winter, Switzerland imports electricity to keep its lights on. In November 2021, Switzerland’s president warned the nation to prepare for electricity...