Tag Archives: Featured

Photo: Phillip Judd Some United Nations consultants haven’t paid taxes on their income, thinking it was exempt. When the tax authorities catch up with them they’ll risk paying back taxes and fines. As a general rule, foreign UN functionaries are not required to pay local taxes on their income. On the other hand UN consultants must. Over the weekend, Swiss broadcaster RTS, explain the details of a system misunderstood by...

– Gold, silver two of the best performing assets in the first quarter of 2017 with gains of  8% and 14% respectively – Gold outperforms benchmarks – S&P 500 up 6%, MSCI (All Country World Index) up 6.4% (see tables) – Nasdaq and German DAX rise 11.8% and 7.6% – Silver best performing currency in quarter – Five best performing currencies in Q1 are in order – silver, bitcoin, Mexican peso, Russian ruble and gold –...

Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica, The change in nations Core populations (25-54yr/olds) have driven economic activity for the later half of the 20th century, first upward and now downward.  The Core is the working population, the family forming population, the child bearing population, the first home buying, and the credit happy primary consumer.  Even a small increase (or contraction) in their quantity drives...

The oversized base effects of oil prices could not in February 2017 push up overall US imports. The United States purchased, according to the Census Bureau, 71% more crude oil from global markets this February than in February 2016. In raw dollar terms, it was an increase of $7.3 billion year-over-year. Total imports, however, only gained $8.4 billion, meaning that nearly all the improvement was due to nothing more...

The consumer price index (IPC) increased by 0.2% in March 2017 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.7 points (December 2015=100). Inflation was 0.6% compared with the same month the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Switzerland Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY, March 2017(see more posts on Switzerland Consumer Price Index, ) Source: investing.com - Click to...

In 2015, 21.7% of Switzerland’s population was unable to cover an unexpected expense of CHF 2,500 within a month, says a report from the Swiss Federal Statistics Office. ©-Alex-Hinds-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge Single parent families were the least able to cope with 46.1% of them falling into this camp. Single parent families were followed by single people under 65 (27.1%) and two-parent families (24.0%)....

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, April 05(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF The Swiss Franc may come under pressure tomorrow after Consumer Price Index inflation numbers are released. Inflation is expected to fall from 0.6% to 0.5% for the month of March and any weakening in the numbers could see the Swiss Franc weaken. Fridays unemployment data from Switzerland could also give a...

Looking back on late 2015, it is perfectly clear that policymakers had no idea what was going on. It’s always easy, of course, to reflect on such things with the benefit of hindsight, but even contemporarily it was somewhat shocking how complacent they had become as a global group. In the US, the Federal Reserve “raised rates” for the first time in a decade on the same day they released industrial production figures...

Personal Income growth in February 2017 was more mixed than it had been of recent months. Nominal Disposable Per Capita Income increased 3.73% year-over-year, while in real terms Per Capita Income was up 1.57%. For the former, that was among the better monthly results over the past year, while the latter was near the worst. The difference is still calculated inflation, where the rising oil component of every deflator...

  Dashed Hopes Despite widespread optimism among libertarians, classical liberals, non-interventionists, progressive peaceniks and everybody else opposed to the US Empire that some of its murderous reins may finally be pulled in with the election of Donald Trump, it appears that these hopes have now been dashed. Liberty… some of it is still above water, but definitely not as much as there could or should be.* - Click...