Tag Archives: Business

In ancient times, like as far back as the 1990s, housing prices grew roughly inline with inflation rates because they were generally set by supply and demand forces determined by a market where buyers mostly just bought houses so they could live in them. Back in those ancient days, a more practical group of world citizens saw their homes as a place to raise a family rather that just another asset class that should be day traded to satisfy their gambling habits.  But, thanks to the...

Two years ago, when UBS looked at the world's most expensive housing markets, it found that London and Hong Kong were the only two areas exposed to bubble risk. What a difference just a couple of years makes, because in the latest report by UBS wealth Management, which compiles the bank's Global Real Estate Bubble Index, it found that eight of the world's largest cities are now subject to a massive speculative housing bubble.  And while perpetually low mortgage rates are clearly to...

Watch executives are betting on growth in China (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The majority of Swiss watch executives surveyed by consulting firm Deloitte are positive about new rules requiring at least 60% of a watch’s manufactured costs to be incurred in Switzerland. According to the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2017external link, released on Wednesday, 44% of 60 watch executives surveyed consider the new...

Interior Minister Alain Berset was more successful at convincing Swiss abroad of his reforms than those at home (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Unlike their compatriots in Switzerland, Swiss voters who live abroad came out massively in favour of a wide-ranging overhaul of Switzerland’s old-age pension scheme. Eleven of Switzerland’s 26 cantons count the votes of Swiss expats separately. An analysis of Sunday’s...

Commodities King Gartman Says Gold Soon Reach $1,400 As Drums of War Grow Louder - 'Commodities King' Gartman sees $1,400 gold surge in months- "Gold is the one currency that will do the best of all..."- Pullback below $1300 "is relatively inconsequential"- Use gold price weakness to be a buyer "no question"- Bullish on gold due to central banks and easy monetary policy and gold will be even higher in euro terms- Gold will be the best of all, as a result of QE and expansionary policies-...

The shuttles were designed by French company Navya with an operating platform developed by Swiss firm Bestmile (Marc Striffeler/tpf) - Click to enlarge The launch of two autonomous shuttle buses in Fribourg on Friday marks the first time in Switzerland that such vehicles have been inducted into the regular transport network. The “self-driving” electric minibuses link the Marly Innovation Center (MIC) in the...

The price of shares in The Swiss National Bank is up 11 days in a row, soaring 150% in the last two months. SNB Stock Price, 2010 - 2017(see more posts on Swiss National Bank Stock, ) - Click to enlarge That sounds like a ‘tulip’ bubble-like ‘fraud’… Bitcoin and SNB, 2013 - 2017(see more posts on Bitcoin, Swiss National Bank Stock, ) - Click to enlarge The SNB is up over 120% in Q3 so far – more than double...

“Like watching paint dry,” is how The Fed describes the beginning of the end of its experiment with massively inflating its balance sheet to save the world. As former fund manager Richard Breslow notes, however, Yellen’s decision today means the risk-suppression boot is on the other foot (or feet) of The SNB, The ECB, and The BoJ; as he writes, “have no fear, The SNB knows what it’s doing.” As we reported previously, In...

Manufacturing has picked up, but not overall growth. (Keystone) Swiss economic growth estimates for the year have been revised down to under 1% by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). This would make it the slowest year since 2009. The stats released Thursday predict a growth rate of 0.9% for 2017. The figure has fallen from previous estimates of 1.4%, and would mark the worst-performing economic year...

A day after Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio claimed that bitcoin was “definitely in a bubble” partly because he said the digital currency was too difficult to spend, CoinTelegraph is reporting that the first-ever bitcoin-only real-estate transaction has been completed in Texas. The transaction “illustrates crypto’s potential to transform how financial transactions are conducted,” according to Futurism.com. The...