Swiss unemployment is at its lowest for 3.5 years, according to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). © Gpointstudio | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The last time Swiss unemployment reached March 2018’s level was in October 2014. After reaching a peak of 3.7% in January 2017, the rate had fallen to 2.9% by March 2018. Unemployment has some seasonality however the rate for last March (2.9%) is...
Read More »Global Debt Bubble Hits New All Time High – One Quadrillion Reasons To Buy Gold
– Global debt bubble hits new all time high – over $237 trillion– Global debt increased 10% or $21 tn in 2017 to nearly a quarter quadrillion USD – Increase in debt equivalent to United States’ ballooning national debt – Global debt up $50 trillion in decade & over 327% of global GDP – $750 trillion of bank derivatives means global debt over $1 quadrillion – Gold will be ‘store of value’ in coming economic...
Read More »What Do We Know About Syria? Next to Nothing
Anyone accepting “facts” or narratives from any interested party is being played. About the only “fact” the public knows with any verifiable certainty about Syria is that much of that nation is in ruins. Virtually everything else presented as “fact” is propaganda intended to serve one of the competing narratives or discredit one or more competing narratives. Consider a partial list of “interested parties” spinning their...
Read More »US Stock Market: Happy Days Are Here Again? Not so Fast…
A “Typical” Correction? A Narrative Fail May Be in Store Obviously, assorted crash analogs have by now gone out of the window – we already noted that the market was late if it was to continue to mimic them, as the decline would have had to accelerate in the last week of March to remain in compliance with the “official time table”. Of course crashes are always very low probability events – but there are occasions when...
Read More »Weakening franc approaches symbolic mark
The SNB conducts a difficult balancing act to stabilise the national economy. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge As the Swiss franc weakens towards the threshold CHF1.20 exchange rate, the likelihood remains slim that Switzerland’s central bank will alter monetary policy any time soon. On Thursday morning a euro cost CHF1.198 francs. In February, the price of a single euro fell to under CHF1.150. The greater the...
Read More »Europe’s most expensive hotels in Geneva, Paris and Zurich
Across the road from Lake Geneva, sits Geneva’s and the world’s most expensive hotel suite. The Hotel President Wilson’s Royal Penthouse Suite is reported to cost $83,500 per night – the price is not listed on the hotel’s website but costs this much according to CNN. © Tacettin Ulas | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge For most of those planning to visit Geneva, this price is, thankfully, an outlier. According to a...
Read More »FX Daily, April 20: The Greenback is Alive
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.24% to 1.1961 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, April 20(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is set to finish the week on a firm note. It reflects rising US yields, where the 10-year is above 2.90% for the first time since February and the widening two-year different between the US and Germany, which is holding just...
Read More »Volatile Week Sees Oil and Palladium Surge Over 8%, Gold and Silver Marginally Higher and Stocks Gain
– Gold & silver eke out small gains; palladium surges 8% and platinum 2% – Oil (WTI) surges over 8% to over $66.90/bbl; supply disruption risk – U.S. dollar and Treasuries fall; geopolitical, trade war and fiscal concerns– Stocks rally and shrug off trade war, macro and geo-political risks – Bitcoin, major cryptos (Ethereum, Ripple etc) rise sharply– Russia-US tensions high: Trump warns attack ‘could be very soon or...
Read More »Bi-Weekly Economic Review
[embedded content] Related posts: Global Asset Allocation Update: The Certainty of Uncertainty Why Trade Wars Ignite and Why They’re Spreading The Genie’s Out of the Bottle: Eight Defining Trends Are Reversing Bi-Weekly Economic Review: Investing Is Not A Game of Perfect US-China Trade War Escalates As Further Measures Are Taken Less Retail Jobs,...
Read More »Sika stand-off with family heirs continues unabated
Urs Burkard, representing the family heirs, appeals to the AGM during an address. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge During another stormy annual general meeting, the majority stakeholders of Swiss chemical manufacturer Sika were once again controversially denied the chance to vote in a new chairman who would support their plans to sell the company to a French rival. At Tuesday’s AGM, the family heirs of Sika’s...
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