Tag Archives: Featured

Scrape all this putrid excrescence off and we’re left with a non-fantasy reality: everything is getting dicier by the day. If we look beneath the cheery chatter of the financial media and the tiresomely repetitive Russian collusion narrative (that’s unraveling as the Ministry of Propaganda’s machinations are exposed), we find that America in 2018 is dicier by the day. The more you know about the actual functioning of...

  A Truism that is Demonstrably True Most people are probably aware of the adage “sell in May and go away”. This popular seasonal Wall Street truism implies that the market’s performance is far worse in the six summer months than in the six winter months. Numerous studies have been undertaken in this context particularly with respect to US stock markets, and they  confirm that the stock market on average exhibits...

More than three times as many pubs and restaurants disappeared in Switzerland last year as the year before. The catering industry points the finger at the strong franc, responsible for more bankruptcies (+4.4%) and fewer new openings (-25%). A plastic chef attracting/scaring off customers in front of a restaurant in Lucerne Some 2,220 places to eat were removed from the trade registry and 684 went bust in 2017,...

– Trump Cancels Historic Summit with North Korea – US 10-Year Falls Below 3%, Gold Jumps Back Above $1300 – “Inflation Overshoot Could Be Helpful” – Latest FOMC Minutes– Gold Demand in Turkey as Lira falls sharply, true inflation near 40%– EU Crisis Looming as Italy Plan Outright ‘Money Printing’ with ‘Mini-Bots’– Silver Trading in Tight $1 range, Pressure Building for a Breakout Weekly Report by Daniel MarchEditor...

Les économistes d’universités et d’instituts de recherche de Suisse ont été invités à donner leur avis sur la votation, du 10 juin 2018. Malgré le message ambitieux: « Pour une monnaie à l’abri des crises : émission monétaire uniquement par la banque nationale !», le titre n’a pas suffi à accrocher les répondants à l’enquête d’opinion menée par le Centre de recherche économique KOF de l’Ecole Polytechnique de Zurich....

The end of the Greek assistance program that allowed them to keep their primarily official creditors whole, and the broad expansion in the eurozone, was supposed to usher in a new period of convergence. Monetary union was once again feted as a success, and some observers were forecasting a substantial increase in the euro as a reserve asset.   Instead, the economy lost momentum, core inflation returned to its trough,...

Summary President Trump canceled the planned summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Malaysia’s new Finance Minister Lim was sworn in along with 13 other cabinet ministers. Philippine central bank cut reserve ratios for commercial banks by one percentage point to 18% effective June 1. The United Arab Emirates opened up its economy to more foreign investment. Brazil state-run oil company Petrobras cut the price of...

This week, the Swiss NGO Public Eye, launched a campaign for more affordable medicine in Switzerland under the slogan: protect patients, not patents. ©-Penchan-Pumila-_-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge The NGO says high prices, of cancer drugs in particular, is not only an issue affecting developing nations but wealthy ones too. It says that cancer treatments in Switzerland often cost over CHF 100,000 a year. Public...

Markit Economics released the flash results from several of its key surveys. Included is manufacturing in Japan (lower), as well as composites (manufacturing plus services) for the United States and Europe. Within the EU, Markit offers details for France and Germany. Given the nature of sentiment surveys, we tend to ignore these most months unless they suggest either pending changes or extremes. Beginning with the US,...

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph Firebrand populists of Left and Right are poised to take power in Italy, forming the first “anti-system” government in a major West European state since the Second World War. Leaders of the radical Five Star Movement and the anti-euro Lega party have been meeting to put the finishing touches on a coalition of outsiders, the “nightmare scenario” feared by foreign investors and...