Tag Archives: Featured

US 10-Year Surges, Emerging Markets Implode…Where Next for Gold? US 10-Year Yields Top 3%, US Dollar Pushes Higher Brent Hits $80, Highest in 4 years Emerging Market Chaos, the Lira and Peso in Freefall Italy’s New Coalition Signal Their Plans, Yields Jump Japanese Economy Contracts, GDP Worst Since 2015 And Where Next for Gold? Gold and silver ended the week down (USD -2.2%, GBP -1.4%, and EUR -0.5%) as rising US...

Swiss Rail has dropped plans to install Wi-Fi in its trains, according to the newspaper Le Matin. © Katie Nesling | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge After a survey revealed that customers would only use on-board Wi-Fi it was free, the company decided there was no justifiable way to cover the cost, according the the newspaper. Swiss Rail is not prepared to bear the costs the mobile operators would charge them for the...

Back in February, Japan’s Cabinet Office reported that Real GDP in Japan had grown in Q4 2017 for the eighth consecutive quarter. It was the longest streak of non-negative GDP since the 1980’s. Predictably, this was hailed as some significant achievement, a true masterstroke of courage and perseverance. It was taken as a sign that Abenomics and QQE was finally working (never mind the four years). Those making that...

© Andrea De Martin | Dreamstime.com By January 2018, the number receiving disability welfare in Switzerland had dropped to 217,200, 40,300 fewer than in 2006 when the number reached a record 257,500. Switzerland’s Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) attributes the reduction to an occupational rehabilitation programme started in 2008, and disability welfare fraud investigations. In 2017, 40,800 disability...

After being rumored and talked about for over a year, at the end of last year the tax cuts were finally delivered. The idea had captured much market attention during that often anxious period of political flirtation. Prices would rise or fall by turn based on whether or not it seemed a realistic possibility. Public Law #115-97 or An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent...

The incoming government’s fiscal plans could result in a sharp deterioration of Italy’s public finances. However, broader fiscal metrics are better than they were during the euro sovereign crisis. The M5S-League coalition has committed to a significant degree of fiscal easing and to the reversal of some structural reforms. Such policies will put Italy on course for confrontation with Brussels over deficit reduction...

© Disqdr | Dreamstime.com Swiss salaries have risen according to a recently published report by Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office. The median gross monthly salary was CHF 6,5021 in 2016, CHF 313 higher than in 2014. 50% of Swiss workers earned more than this and 50% earned less. CHF 6,502 a month is an annual salary of CHF 78,024 (US$ 78,200). The extra CHF 313 is a 5% increase over two years. In real terms,...

Swiss Franc The Euro is down by 0.54% to 1.1743 CHF. This is the fifth day in sequence that the Swiss Franc appreciated. Reasons are: Weaker than expected euro zone GDP growth in Q1, in particular in Germany. However this “soft-patch” should have been clear to everybody. So it cannot be the main reason. Still the weak German GDP was the trigger for EUR weakness. A dovish European Central Bank. Already at the press...

Healthcare/sickcare will bankrupt the nation by itself. If you want to understand why the U.S. healthcare system is bankrupt, financially, morally and politically, then start with this representative anecdote from a U.S. physician. I received this report from correspondent J.F. on the topic of direct advertising of pharmaceutical products to the public (patients). As background information, pharmaceutical companies...

Welsh Gold Being Hyped Due To The Royal Wedding? – Welsh gold and the misconceptions surrounding it – GoldCore speak to China Central Television (CCTV) – Welsh gold mired in misconceptions, namely that it is ‘rarest’ and most ‘sought after’ gold in world – Investors to be reminded that all mined gold is rare and homogenous – Nothing chemically different between Welsh gold and that mined elsewhere– Investors led to...