SNB & CHF

The Swiss have a long tradition of donating used Swiss trams to developing countries. The newest recipient is Ukraine. BernMobil is training four engineers from Lviv before it sends used trams to the city as part of a Swiss development aid project. --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit...

For the second time in three weeks, a political event actually mattered. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, evaded only by a short turn of the head, has created a rare moment of national reflection about the current state of American politics. Whether or not it is a moment that has true historical relevance beyond simply influencing a single election or canonizing a new iconic photo in future school textbooks will be decided by how seriously its lessons are...

Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.Former US Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, claims that “The fact that [the Secret Service]...

In modern America, an obsessive fixation on “safety” has given rise to a culture of fear, paralyzing action and warping decision-making across all levels of society. The conditioning begins early, with children trained to be fearful rather than competent in facing challenges or unfamiliar situations. In their formative years, children are inundated with rules and guidelines, ostensibly designed to maintain safety. But this only stunts their adventurous spirit,...

Jury duty assignment prevents a more comprehensive note, but here is a snapshot. Overview: The US dollar is consolidating in narrow ranges against most of the G10 currencies. The Australian and New Zealand dollars, along with the Japanese yen are off by about 0.25%, but the others are +/- 0.10. The latest BOJ data appears to imply that officials intervened not only last Thursday, but Friday as well. Emerging market currencies are mixed but mostly quiet. The Turkish...

Inflation from the government and the banking system is usually aided unconsciously by the people, who generally believe that some moderate periodic rise in prices is normal. If prices could decrease due to economic growth (price deflation as an outcome of increased productivity), people would be able to keep more of their income to plan further ahead and save more without having to worry about decreases in its value. And if the social demand for money increases, any...

Send us a Text Message. (https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/910414/open_sms) In his 50 years in the USA, St. Gallen psychologist and consultant Herman Gyr has never lost faith in human ingenuity, the ability to learn and adapt to even the most adverse circumstances. This is despite the fact that climate change is his biggest concern. In this exclusive interview with SWI swissinfo.ch, Gyr shared his insight into what he thinks are the key influences that drive innovation in...

The libertarian argument against civil rights laws strikes many progressives as fundamentally wrong because they view civil rights as the best way to promote liberal values including individual liberty. But any so-called values that lead inexorably to the destruction of society are not “liberal” in the true sense. In “Liberalism,” Ludwig von Mises explains the importance of pursuing what is good for society as a whole, rather than what seems good for one particular...

In a much younger life, I was a newspaper reporter. A journalism-school graduate, I was going to help change the world, proclaiming truth and justice under my byline. The job didn’t pay much, but with overtime we got by, and it was a heady experience for this young general assignment reporter to rub shoulders with politicians and celebrities and even have some of them return his phone calls.Later in life, I had a long academic career in economics. I came to...

Why I’m here instead of some superstar is one of those anomalies that defies explanation. But allow me to congratulate you on earning your degrees.Almost without exception, a college commencement speaker is a high achiever whose mere presence will tell graduates making it big is possible. The message they deliver varies widely in details and tone, but there are some common lines of thought among the most popular. Let’s look at a few of them:Steve Jobs, Stanford...