SNB & CHF

© Spacedrone808 | Dreamstime.com The unemployment rate in Switzerland rose to 3.3% in April 2020, up from 2.9% the month before, a rise of nearly 14%. By 30 April 2020, there were 153,413 people registered as unemployed at Switzerland’s regional placement offices. Young workers were the hardest hit. Unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 rose by 18.1% compared to March 2020 and by 61.3% compared to April 2019. By the end of April 2020 there were 17,191 people in this...

The number of overnight stays in Swiss hotels fell by nearly two-thirds in March as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the country. Hotels recorded just 1.26 million overnight stays compared to 3.4 million in the same month last year. The dramatic downturn was expected due to the government-imposed lockdown and border restrictions. The figures, released on Thursday, show that Swiss residents had also shunned hotels in their own country, having been urged to stay at...

Readers ask for specific recommendations for successfully navigating the post-credit/speculative-bubble era and I try to do so while explaining the impossibility of the task. As the bogus prosperity economy built on exponential growth of debt implodes, we all seek ways to protect ourselves, our families and our worldly assets. There are any number of websites, subscription services and books which offer two basic “practical recommendations:” 1. Buy gold (and/or...

In the early days of the COVID-19 panic—back in mid-March—articles began to appear pushing the idea of “flattening the curve” (the Washington Post ran an article called “Flatten the Curve” on March 14). This idea was premised on spreading out the total number of COVID-19 infections over time, so as to not overburden the healthcare infrastructure. A March 11 article for Statnews, summed it up: “I think the whole notion of flattening the curve is to slow things down so...

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has reached all productive sectors. The massive spread of the virus and social distancing measures have led to a dramatic decrease in economic activity. The aviation industry, vital for tourism and business, has been hit hard. Investors and analysts state that this crisis could be worse than the one that followed the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the one after 9/11. In this article we will describe how the future of airlines...

© Syda Productions | Dreamstime.com Restaurants in Switzerland will be able to reopen on Monday 11 May 2020. But they’ll need to follow strict rules that were published this week. The seven pages of detailed restaurant rules will make dining in the time of Covid-19 quite different to what we’re accustomed to. Rules put together by the industry and Switzerland’s federal government will require diners to wash their hands as they enter restaurants and provide their...

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...