Tag Archives: Featured

A Surprise Rout in the Bond Market At the time of writing, the stock market is recovering from a fairly steep (by recent standards) intraday sell-off. We have no idea where it will close, but we would argue that even a recovery into the close won’t alter the status of today’s action – it is a typical warning shot. Here is what makes the sell-off unique: 30 Year Bond and 10 Year Note Yields, Nov 2016 - Oct 201830 year...

Robots will replace humans in up to a quarter of all jobs by 2020, says McKinsey. The growing trend of digitization in the economy will render a million Swiss jobs redundant in the next 12 years, according to a new study. Some 800,000 jobs will be clawed back by new IT openings, but much of the workforce will need to be re-trained, warns consultancy firm McKinsey. Automation will mainly take the place of manual labour,...

The defaults and currency crises in the periphery will then move into the core. It’s funny how unintended consequences so rarely turn out to be good. The intended consequences of central banks’ unprecedented tsunami of stimulus (quantitative easing, super-low interest rates and easy credit / abundant liquidity) over the past decade were: 1. Save the banks by giving them credit-money at near-zero interest that they...

On time, but increasingly crowded; trains in Switzerland. (© KEYSTONE / ENNIO LEANZA) The latest Europe-wide figures confirm Switzerland’s reputation as a country of trains, with average trips and kilometres covered per habitant far higher than elsewhere. Some 72 trips and 2,463 kilometres: this was the average train time for each Swiss resident in 2016, according to Eurostat figures reported Tuesday by Litraexternal...

Sarah Westall Interviews Claudio Grass Last month our friend Claudio Grass, roving Mises Institute Ambassador and a Switzerland-based investment advisor specializing in precious metals, was interviewed by Sarah Westall for her Business Game Changers channel. Sarah Westall and Claudio Grass There are two interviews, both of which are probably of interest to our readers. The first one focuses on Switzerland with its...

Swiss billionnaire and art collector Urs Schwarzenbach owns the most luxurious hotel in Zurich. Switzerland’s highest judicial authority has dismissed an appeal by the financier and art collector Urs Schwarzenbach who had been found guilty of tax evasion by lower courts. The Wednesday ruling by the Supreme Court obliges the 69-year-old billionaire – owner of The Dolder Grand Hotelexternal link in Zurich – to pay CHF11.4...

Sales of gold products by the Perth Mint surged in September to their highest since January 2017, while silver sales more than doubled from August to mark an over two-year peak, boosted by lower bullion prices, the mint said on Wednesday. Sales of gold coins and minted bars surged 61 percent from August to 62,552 ounces last month, the mint said in a blog post. Gold sales in September rose about 35 percent from a...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.11% at 1.1429 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 05(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is firmer against most of the major and emerging market currencies. The yen and sterling are resisting the pressure, while the South African rand and Russian rouble are paring some of this week’s declines. US equity losses...

Neuchâtel, 5 October 2018 (FSO) – The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.1% in September 2018 compared with the previous month, reaching 101.9 points (December 2015 = 100). Inflation was 1.0% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The 0.1% increase compared with the previous month can be explained by several factors including rising prices...

This Great Graphic comes from Peter Coy and team’s article in Business Week. It succinctly shows three metrics for the internationalization of domestic currencies: global payments, international bonds, and foreign exchange reserves. It does not strike me as surprising, and the role of the euro as a payments currency reflects its role in intra-European trade. The substance of the article bears little relation to the...