SNB & CHF

Now that the bubble has burst, the hope is that removing the pin will magically restore the burst bubble. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Here’s the fantasy: if we stop the shutdowns, the economy will naturally bounce back to its oh-so wunnerful perfection of Q3 2019. This is a double-dose of magical thinking and denial. The U.S. economy was unraveling in 2019 from 11 long years of Fed-induced over-capacity in almost everything (except integrity, competition,...

Deaths because of and with Covid19 Over the last 72 hours, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 198 deaths among laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the death toll to 1,427 since summer and 3,158 since the beginning of the year. Total Covid-19 deaths in Switzerland since the beginning of the pandemic have now reached 3,496 of which 3,158 were laboratory confirmed infections. Hospitalisations At 4,000, the number of hospitalised...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.0799 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, November 16(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Despite the surging pandemic and new restriction measure, risk-appetites appear strong to start the week. Led by 2% gains in the Nikkei and Taiwan’s Taiex, all of the Asia Pacific region’s equity markets advanced. European markets have followed suit and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is...

The virus numbers in the US show no signs of slowing; the dollar should continue to soften October retail sales Tuesday will be the US data highlight for the week; Fed manufacturing surveys for November will start to roll out; the Senate will hold a procedural vote this week to advance Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Fed Board of Governors Canada has an important data week; Brexit talks will (hopefully) wind up soon; UK reports key data Japan and Australia have...

Thiam radically reshaped Credit Suisse Keystone Tidjane Thiam, who resigned as CEO of Swiss bank Credit Suisse in February, has been tasked with using his connections to build up the Rwandan capital Kigali as an international business location, according to Swiss business newspaper Handelszeitung. Ivory Coast-born Thiam, who also holds French citizenship, has been named president of Rwanda Finance Limited, a government company that is to set up the Kigali...

Just 16% of Swiss would immediately get vaccinated against coronavirus, according to a recent survey Keystone Faced with considerable public scepticism towards a Covid-19 vaccine, the Federal Office of Public Health is preparing an information campaign about vaccinations. However, the country’s top hospital hygienist thinks offering incentives is a better way to make people get a jab. Just 16% of Swiss would immediately get vaccinated against coronavirus, according...

Realism must precede optimism or the optimism will collapse as the tsunami of reality comes ashore. It’s time to prepare materially and psychologically for a winter unlike any other in our lifetimes. Here’s the view from 30,000 feet: 1. The stock market and the general zeitgeist of optimism have soared based on expectations that the real-world economy and efforts to suppress Covid would also track a V-shaped recovery. While GDP did make a V-shaped recovery, GDP...

[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995)] James Mill (1771–1836) was surely one of the most fascinating figures in the history of economic thought. And yet he is among the most neglected. Mill was perhaps one of the first persons in modern times who might be considered a true “cadre man,” someone who in the Leninist movement of the next century would have been hailed as a “real Bolshevik.” Indeed, he was the Lenin of the radicals, creating...

A proposal to make Swiss-based multinationals accountable for their business practices abroad is tabled for a nationwide vote on November 29. An initiative aimed at restricting investments in the arms industry is the second issue on the ballot sheet. The political left is trying to push through amendments to the Swiss constitution to impose sustainable standards on Swiss companies and institutions, which has triggered opposition from the political right and the...

Where is it, Chairman Powell? After spending months deliberately hyping a “flood” of digital money printing, and then unleashing average inflation targeting making Americans believe the central bank will be wickedly irresponsible when it comes to consumer prices, the evidence portrays a very different set of circumstance. Inflationary pressures were supposed to have been visible by now, seven months and counting, when instead it is disinflation which is most evident...