SNB & CHF

Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch Despite the demise of many antiquarian bookshops in Switzerland, the trade is alive and well in the Alpine country. Dealers in Geneva, Basel and Zurich give a glimpse into this exclusive business, where a gentleman’s code still rules. Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990....

The new year has gotten off to a start, with stocks yo-yoing and moves in the bond market causing a flutter. With the US inflation hitting 7%, the highest in 40 years, and the Fed clearly tightening to a hawkish stance, what does 2022 hold for the investor and how should they be positioned? In this edition, Rajeev Suri, partner at Orios, speaks with Jeff Snider of Alhambra Investments, one of the most well-regarded deflationists. This conversation touches on what the bond markets are...

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA – January 20, 2022) – Oklahoma ended sales taxes on purchases of precious metals long ago, but now a representative from Broken Arrow wants to eliminate yet another tax on on gold and silver transactions. Introduced by Sen. Nathan Dahm, Senate Bill 1480 would end capital gain transactions on the exchange of gold and silver. Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming have enacted similar measures into law. Idaho has considered this measure recently and a...

Philomena Colatrella has been the chief executive officer of CSS Insurance since 2016. Switzerland has the second-lowest score for female CEOs, the study found.​​​​​​ Fabian Biasio The proportion of women in leading positions at major European companies rose slightly last year but progress is slow, according to a new study that compares 19 countries. Switzerland was ranked near the bottom of the 2021 “Gender Diversity Index”. Female representation at board level in...

According to recently released data by the World Gold Council (WGC), as of September 2021, the total amount of gold held in reserves by central banks globally exceeded 36,000 tons for the first time since 1990. This 31-year record was the result of the world’s central banks adding more that 4,500 tons of the precious metal to their holdings over the last decade and it provides ample support for the investment case for gold, in both directly performance-related...

Swiss fintech company Numbrs has blamed jealous banks for killing off its original business model as a third-party provider of financial products. So it has reinvented itself under the banner of the ultimate bank killer – bitcoin. The company, fêted as a rare Swiss fintech unicorn (worth at least CHF1 billion), has just announced it has transformed into a bitcoin storage vault. This is quite a startling strategic shift. More than two million people (mainly in...

Recently, a relatively new economics called behavioral economics (BE) has started to gain popularity. Its practitioners, such as Daniel Kahneman, Vernon Smith, and Richard Thaler, were awarded Nobel Prizes for their contribution in the field of BE. The BE framework emerged because of dissatisfaction with the neoclassical theory regarding consumer choices. In the neoclassical theory, individuals are presented as if a scale of preferences is hard-wired in their heads....

Last year was a good year for state-level sound money legislation across the United States. 2022 could be even better. Building on the success enjoyed by sound money advocates in Arkansas and Ohio last year, more than a half dozen states are now considering legislation that rolls back discriminatory taxes and regulations on the sale, use, and purchase of gold and silver. More States Are Removing Sales Taxes on Gold & Silver To date, 42 states have removed some or...

Das Königreich Tonga könnte Bitcoin als gesetzliches Zahlungsmittel einführen, so ein ehemaliges Mitglied des tongaischen Parlaments, Lord Fusitu’a, der in einem Tweet einen möglichen Zeitplan für dieses Ereignis nannte. Lord Fusitu’a, der Vorsitzende der Commonwealth Pacific Parliamentary Group on Human Rights in Tonga, ist ein Befürworter von Bitcoin und erklärte am 11. Januar auf Twitter, dass die Regierung des Königreichs Tonga Bitcoin als gesetzliches...

It should be as simple as it sounds. Lower LT UST yields, less growth and inflation. Thus, higher LT UST yields, more growth and inflation. Right? If nominal levels are all there is to it, then simplicity rules the interpretation. Visiting with George Gammon last week, he confessed to committing this sin of omission. Rates have gone up, he reasoned reasonably, therefore it would seem to follow how the market must be shifting expectations toward the more optimistic...