Tag Archives: Featured

GoldNomics Podcast (Episode 2) Is This The Greatest Stock Market Bubble In History? In our second GoldNomics podcast, we take a look at one of the important financial questions of our day – is this the greatest stock market bubble in history? Listen on iTunes, SoundCloud and BlubrryWatch on YouTube below [embedded content] GoldCore CEO Stephen Flood and GoldCore’s Research Director and world renowned precious metals...

There is a fundamental assumption behind any purchasing manager index, or PMI. These are often but not always normalized to the number 50. That’s done simply for comparison purposes and the ease of understanding in the general public. That level at least in the literature and in theory is supposed to easily and clearly define the difference between growth and contraction. But is every 50 the same? That’s ultimately at...

The advent of open and transparent central banks is a relatively new one. For most of their history, these quasi-government institutions operated in secret and they liked it that way. As late as October 1993, for example, Alan Greenspan was testifying before Congress intentionally trying to cloud the issue as to whether verbatim transcripts of FOMC meetings actually existed. Representative Toby Roth (R-WI) quizzed the...

The flash composite Purchasing Managers’ index for the euro area increased to 58.6 in January from 58.1 in December, above consensus expectations (57.9).  The services sector index rose, offsetting the decline in the manufacturing index . Companies also expressed growing optimism about this year’s outlook, with business expectations up to an eight-month high. The only piece of less positive news was a modest drop in...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.62% to 1.1703 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 24(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF in Detail Sterling has made consistent gains against the Swiss Franc over the last week and now sits at a yearly high of 1.34. These gains can be attributed predominantly due to an extremely optimistic UK growth forecast from Lord Jim...

The Australian dollar bottomed in early December $0.7500 after having tested $0.8100 a couple of times in September. Since early December, however, the Australian dollar appreciated by nearly 6.5%.  As it tested the $0.8000 area, the momentum faded. Yesterday it managed to close above that threshold and new buying lifted it above yesterday’s highs briefly in Asia earlier today. However, there is a growing sense that...

Switzerland climbed the rankings, but overall globalisation is down, the report says. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland is the second-most globalised country in the world after the Netherlands, according to the latest edition of an index prepared by the University of Zurich. The Alpine nation has moved up from fifth place. The index prepared by the KOF Swiss Economic Instituteexternal link tracks...

The NZZ am Sonntag reported that many of the newly disclosed assets are being held in accounts in Liechtenstein. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge According to the results of a survey published Sunday in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, CHF31.7 billion ($32.9 billion) in undeclared assets have been reported to tax authorities in Switzerland over the last eight years. The cantons of Zurich (CHF6.9 billion), Ticino...

– Cyber war is increasing threat – Investors are not prepared for– Third most likely global risk in 2018 is cyber war say WEF – “Scale and sophistication of attacks is going to grow”– EU, US, NATO lay down ground rules for offensive cyber war– Ireland is viable target for attackers but is ‘grossly unprepared for cyber war’– UK should expect attack that cripples infrastructure within 2 years – Trump administration may...

The Economist has just published its January 2018 Big Mac index, a light-hearted measure of whether currencies are under or overvalued. The underlying assumption is that a Big Mac is the same whether bought in Kiev or Chur, so any price difference must be due to the exchange rate. © Sergiomonti _ Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge In January 2018, Swiss Big Macs were still the world’s most expensive, making the Swiss...