SNB & CHF

In July 2021, the chemical firm Lonza said it would start its ten-year clean-up of the hazardous waste landfill site at Gamsenried, canton Valais, from 2023-2024. The site was used by Lonza to deposit its production residues from 1918 to 1978. This photo was taken in 1987. Keystone The widespread dioxin pollution uncovered in Lausanne has surprised many and raised concerns about the health consequences, clean-up costs and extent of the problem. The small Alpine...

Whenever politicians and media outlets discuss inflation, they invariably use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as their measure. The CPI is only one of several price indices on top of the various measures of the money supply that underlie aggregate price changes. Strictly speaking, the CPI does not measure inflation per se, but rather the consequences of monetary expansion on consumer products. In macroeconomics, the CPI is one of the key indicators of economic health,...

Who knew it would be so easy? All we have to do is collect urine and we’ll be flying our electric air taxi tomorrow! While the private-jet crowd is busy selling a future of 1 billion electric vehicles, 1 billion windmills, 1 billion solar arrays, hundreds of thousands of electric aircraft, thousands of new nuclear power plants and trillions more in “wealth” accumulating in their bloated ledgers, reality is intruding on their technocratic fantasies. The primary...

Dass im Hintergrund die Zentralbanken ihre eigenen digitalen Währungen vorbereiten, ist schon seit langem bestätigt. Doch nun sind neue offizielle Details zum Digitalen Euro von der Europäischen Zentralbank selbst veröffentlicht worden. Crypto News: Details zum Digitalen Euro veröffentlicht Letztlich klingt die Veröffentlichung vor allem wie eine Werbebroschüre für einen zentralen Cryptocoin unter Kontrolle der EZB. Natürlich versucht man besonders den...

Overview: Last week's bond market rally has stalled.  Benchmark 10-year yields are up 1-3 bp in Europe, and the three bp increase in the US puts the yield slightly below 1.50%.  Equities were mixed in the Asia Pacific region.  Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Australia nursed losses after the regional benchmark (MSCI) rose 0.65% last week.  The Stoxx 600 had a seven-session rally in tow, but it is little changed in the European morning.  It rose 1.65% last week. ...

There is a great deal of joy and satisfaction in gardening; benefits include saving money, eating healthier, sharing the bounty with others and reducing the derealization / derangement of modern life. There are few reasons to expect food prices to drop and many reasons to expect even higher prices ahead. Headlines like this are now standard: Global Food Prices Hit Fresh Decade High In October, and there is little evidence that the drivers of higher food...

Bureaucratic management means, under democracy, management in strict accordance with the law and the budget. It is not for the personnel of the administration and for the judges to inquire what should be done for the public welfare and how the public funds should be spent. This is the task of the sovereign, the people, and their representatives. The courts, the various branches of the administration, the army, and the navy execute what the law and the budget order...

Part of the astronomical clock at the Cathédrale Saint-Jean de Besançon Philip Bird / Alamy Stock Photo Just a short hop from the Swiss border, the walled city of Besançon is a showcase of centuries of French watchmaking knowhow. Within its labyrinth of pristine streets are many secret courtyards, where, behind imposing doors, independent watchmakers carry forward its best-known traditions in what is considered France’s capital of watches. The city’s biggest...

The US dollar turned in a solid week's performance, rising against most currencies and recording a marginal new high for the year against the euro.  Sterling and the Australian dollar competed for the worst performer.  Both central banks pushed against market expectations for aggressive near-term tightening. The central banks trigger a short squeeze in the bond market, where 10-year benchmark yields from 10 bp in the US to 34 bp in Italy.  UK 10-year Gilts and...

If America’s total dependence on corporate profits and stock market/housing bubbles is just fine because the bubbles just keep inflating, there’s nothing left but rot. It’s becoming a routine story: a whistleblower emerges with copious documentation, revealing the ethical / managerial rot at the very top of Corporate America icons. Recently it was Facebook that was revealed as devoting far more resources to masking corporate guile than to actually improving...