Tag Archives: Featured

Another Early Warning Siren Goes Off Our friend Jonathan Tepper of research house Variant Perception (check out their blog to see some of their excellent work) recently pointed out to us that the volume of mergers and acquisitions has increased rather noticeably lately. Some color on this was provided in an article published by Reuters in late May, “Global M&A hits record $2 trillion in the year to date”, which...

[embedded content] Information and opinions about the economy and markets from Alhambra Investments CEO Joe Calhoun. Related posts: Bi-Weekly Economic Review: Bi-Weekly Economic Review – VIDEO Bi-Weekly Economic Review – VIDEO Weekly SNB Intervention Update: SNB Resumes Interventions Cookie policy Privacy Policy Bi-Weekly Economic Review: Oil,...

UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti received CHF14.2 million in compensation for 2017, up from CHF13.7 million in 2016. (Keystone) The gap between the top-paid and least-paid employees of the 39 largest companies in Switzerland remains high, despite a 2013 vote against excessive executive pay. According to Switzerland’s largest trade union, Unia, in 2017 the average ratio between top and bottom in these companies was...

Rather suddenly, the state issued fiat currency bolivar lost 99% of its purchasing power. Gresham’s law holds that “bad money drives out good money,” meaning that given a choice of currencies (broadly speaking, “money” that serves as a store of value and a means of exchange), people use depreciating “bad” to buy goods and services and hoard “good” money that is appreciating or holding its value. As this dynamic plays...

Russia adds another 600,000 oz to it’s gold reserves in May Holdings of U.S. government debt slashed in half to $48.7 billion in April ‘Keeping money safe’ from U.S. and Trump – Danske Bank Trump increasing the national debt by another 6% to $21.1 trillion in less than 18 months Asian nations accumulating gold as shield against dollar devaluation and trade wars Russia dumps Treasuries for gold and in a Trade war China...

On 21 June 2018, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced its decision on interest rates, which it left unchanged. Fritz Zurbrügg, Thomas Jordan and Andréa Maechler Switzerland’s economy has been sailing into the headwinds of a strong currency since the SNB scrapped its exchange rate cap in January 2015 and the Swiss franc briefly went beyond parity with the euro. To weaken the currency, the SNB introduced negative...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.23% to 1.153 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 22(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The euro and sterling closed above Wednesday’s highs yesterday, and after making new lows for the year, chartists regard the price action as a key reversal and the follow-through buying today confirms it. Although we expected a hawkish hold from...

“Fed is tightening into weakness and will eventually over-tighten and cause a recession” “More inflation and a weaker dollar” is “the perfect environment for gold” Geopolitical shocks will return when least expected and gold will soar in flight to safety The Fed raised rates yesterday, as I predicted months ago. I don’t say this to pat myself on the back. The point is, I use a rigorous scientific method to analyze and...

With the faltering in euro area business sentiment since February, the Italy-led sell-off of risk assets at the end of May and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) dovish meeting in June, we are revising our year-end forecast for the German 10-year Bund yield from 0.9% to 0.6%, as we hinted we might do in a previous note. Euro area business cycle slowdown After a very strong end to 2017, euro area economic growth has...

Switzerland was the most expensive in Europe for food and non-alcoholic drinks in 2017 (+68% more than the EU average) (Keystone) Switzerland has been ranked the second-most expensive European country behind Iceland for consumer goods, which are 59% higher than the European Union average. Food and non-alcoholic drinks are particularly pricey. For the third year in a row, Switzerland was the most expensive in Europe for...