SNB & CHF

Prosecuting authorities resorted to telecommunications surveillance in about 1.5% of all criminal cases. (© Keystone ) The annual report on Swiss surveillance operations in 2019 mentions the use of state-controlled monitoring software, known as GovWare, for the first time since it was authorised in 2018. The criminal prosecution authorities and the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) reported the use of spyware for the first time with 12 such completed interventions...

There are two parts behind the inflation mongering. The first, noted yesterday, is the Fed’s balance sheet, particularly its supposedly monetary remainder called bank reserves. The central bank is busy doing something, a whole bunch of something, therefore how can it possibly turn out to be anything other than inflationary? The answer: the Federal Reserve is not a central bank, not really. What it “prints” are, as Emil Kalinowski likes to call them, the equivalent...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) I have talked about several brokers on this blog. But I have not yet answered the question of which one is the best broker in Switzerland! It is now time to answer this important question. There are several Swiss brokers, and most Swiss banks have their broker service. But some international brokers are also available in Switzerland. If you want to invest in the stock market, you will need a broker...

People of a certain age might remember the old John Birch Society slogan “Support your local police!” The idea here is that your local policeman is a liberty-loving buddy of yours who would only ever support just laws and constitutional mandates. Only those bad guys in the FBI or BATF would ever consider violating your rights. Now, obviously that has always been a rather naïve fantasy, but the notion certainly has a long history of support among American...

Listen to the Audio ​Mises Wire version of this article. Does a pandemic trump entrepreneurial foresight? Many in business will say yes, “nobody saw this coming.” Lack of customer demand and government lockdowns are “no fault of their own.” But Penny Chutima, co-owner of the Lotus of Siam restaurant, did see it coming. Chutima and her mother, Saipin, have operated the off-Strip Las Vegas staple for years. Saipin opened the original location with her husband in 1999....

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.09% to 1.0528 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 08(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The S&P 500 closed near its session lows for the third day running yesterday but failed to deter the bulls in Asia-Pacific, where most markets rose by more than 1%. Taiwan, Korea, and Australia lagged a bit though closed higher.  Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is firm, and the modest...

Swiss companies that receive state bailouts during the coronavirus pandemic will still be allowed to pay dividends to shareholders. A divided parliament eventually rejected calls to ban the billions that are expected to be paid out by firms this year. During a hotly debated session on Thursday, the House of Representatives initially backed a proposal to prevent companies issuing dividends if they receive taxpayer money to cope with the pandemic. But the Senate...

Measures of cross-market implied volatility have been stable for a few weeks now Weekly jobless claims are expected at 3 mln; reports suggest House Democrats are pushing ahead with a possible vote next week on another relief package Canada reports April Ivey PMI; Peru is expected to keep rates steady; Brazil COPOM delivered a dovish surprise last night The Bank of England delivered a dovish hold; The Norges Bank surprised markets with a 25 bp cut to 0%; Czech...

It wasn’t entirely unexpected, though when it was announced it was still quite a lot to take in. On September 1, 2005, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the nation’s personal savings rate had turned negative during the month of July. The press release announcing the number, in trying to explain the result was reduced instead to a tautology, “The negative personal saving reflects personal outlays that exceed disposable personal income.” Why had it...

At least since I first read George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, I have been a student of the use of weasel words. I have joined what he called the “struggle against the abuse of language,” because “Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful…and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” I even found the phrase’s origins interesting. As explained by phrases.org, “It has long been a widespread belief that weasels suck the yolks...