Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.07% to 1.0966 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 12(see more posts on Business, EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The markets remain on edge. Asia Pacific and US equities have yet to find stable footing, and inflation fears are elevated. The foreign exchange market has turned quiet as the dollar consolidates its recent losses. China and Hong Kong escaped the sell-off equities that saw...
Read More »UBS Reportedly Re-Starts Layoffs After “Doubling” One Time Bonuses To Some Associates
On one hand, UBS seems hell bent on keep its new Gen Z employees who have recently been promoted to associate positions. After all, it was just hours ago that we wrote about how the bank was showering some newly promoted employees with one-time $40,000 bonuses. Yet on the other hand, UBS apparently isn’t as determined to hang on to certain other employees. The bank has reportedly re-started its “Reduction in Force” job cut plan this week, according to Bloomberg, who...
Read More »A Woke CIA … or a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Society?
There is a battle currently going on over whether the CIA should be woke or not. The battle was apparently incited by a recent segment of a social media series issued by the CIA entitled “Humans of CIA.” According to an article in yesterday’s Washington Post, Susan Gordon, deputy director of national intelligence from 2017-2019, says that the aim of the series is to “connect to America, and if they’re lucky, attract new talent.” Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo went...
Read More »FX Daily, May 11: Stocks Slide but Little Demand for Safe Havens
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.37% to 1.0969 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 11(see more posts on Business, EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The sell-off in US shares yesterday has triggered sharp global losses today, and there is no flight into fixed income as benchmark yields are higher across the board. Nor is the dollar serving as much as a safe haven. It is mostly softer against the major currencies. Japan and...
Read More »Technically Speaking: If Everyone Sees It, Is It Still A Bubble?
“If everyone sees it, is it still a bubble?” That was a great question I got over the weekend. As a “contrarian” investor, it is usually when “everyone” is talking about an event; it doesn’t happen. As Mark Hulbert noted recently, “everyone” is worrying about a “bubble” in the stock market. To wit: “To appreciate how widespread current concern about a bubble is, consider the accompanying chart of data from Google Trends. It plots the relative frequency of Google...
Read More »UBS, Desperate To Retain Talent, Now Offering $40,000 Bonuses To Newly Promoted Associates
It looks like the hiring (and retention) shortage isn’t just for rank-and-file minimum wage jobs. UBS has now said that, amidst historic competition and a “retention crisis” in the investment banking world (which we noted weeks ago), it is going to pay a one time $40,000 bonus to its global banking analysts when they are promoted. This is double what some of the bank’s competitors are offering. It’s part of a push for lenders “to reward and retain younger employees...
Read More »Electric Car maker feels the power of Switzerland
Anton “Toni” Piëch, co-founder of the Swiss electric car manufacturer Piëch Automotive, tells SWI swissinfo.ch why he chose Zurich and how he intends to make his mark in a highly competitive market with battery-powered cars for “purists who love technology”. Piëch, who says he wants to breathe new life into the Swiss car industry, is a scion of an Austrian-German family with a rich automobile history: his great-grandfather was Ferdinand Porsche and his father,...
Read More »The Corrupt Bargain and the Preservation of Slavery
[Chapter 19 of Rothbard’s newly edited and released Conceived in Liberty, vol. 5, The New Republic: 1784–1791.] The most important battle of the August days of the Constitutional Convention was waged, as had been the battle over the three-fifths clause, between the North and South and had at its heart the institution of slavery. One of the small number of restrictions on Congress in the draft Constitution was a prohibition of any tax on exports, or of any tax or...
Read More »FX Daily, May 10: The Dollar Remains on the Defensive
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.43% to 1.0976 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Last week’s cyberattack on the largest US gasoline pipeline continues to lift oil and gasoline prices. The June gasoline futures gapped higher to extend last week’s 2.4% gain but has subsequently moved lower to enter the gap. June WTI is firm and holding above $65. The supply disruption...
Read More »Swiss Consumer Price Index in April 2021: -0.3 percent YoY, +0.2 percent MoM
05.05.2021 – The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.2% in April 2021 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.8 points (December 2020 = 100). Inflation was +0.3% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).The 0.2% increase compared with the previous month can be explained by several factors including rising prices for fruiting vegetables. Clothing also recorded a price increase, as did...
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