Tag Archives: Featured

Two years ago, when UBS looked at the world’s most expensive housing markets, it found that London and Hong Kong were the only two areas exposed to bubble risk. UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index - Click to enlarge What a difference just a couple of years makes, because in the latest report by UBS wealth Management, which compiles the bank’s Global Real Estate Bubble Index, it found that eight of the world’s...

© Michelle Meiklejohn – Dreamstime - Click to enlarge A survey by Tamedia offers clues to why 52.7% of Swiss voters rejected the pension reform plan that was put to a vote last Sunday. 20% of those voting “no” thought it was a pseudo reform that didn’t go far enough, while 26% felt it left too much of a burden on younger taxpayers. In 1981, when the life expectancy of an average Swiss woman was 79.2 years, the average...

Summary India Prime Minister Modi announced an INR163.2 bln program to deliver electricity to all households. Poland’s President Duda is trying to reach a compromise on judicial reforms. Fitch raised the outlook on Russia’s BBB- rating from stable to positive. Saudi Arabia announced it will remove the ban on women driving. South Africa’s biggest labor organization stepped up its opposition to President Zuma. Turkey is...

Eleven days ago, we asked a question about Treasury bills and haircuts. Specifically, we wanted to know if the spike in the 4-week bill’s equivalent yield was enough to trigger haircut adjustments, and therefore disrupt the collateral chain downstream.  US Treasury, Jan - Sep 2017(see more posts on U.S. Treasuries, ) - Click to enlarge Within two days of that move in bills, the GC market for UST 10s had gone...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.17% to 1.1449 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Supported by a sharp rise in interest rates and ideas of tax reform, the US dollar is closing one of its best months of the year. The Dollar Index is snapping a six-month decline, and the euro’s monthly advance since February is ending....

© Jacek Chabraszewski | Dreamstime - Click to enlarge Some who move to Switzerland might not be aware that they are almost certainly required to pay one of the world’s highest broadcasting fees. An annual Swiss licence costs CHF 451.10 per household. A successful vote in 2015 changed the rules on who must pay the fee. From 2019, it will be compulsory for anyone with a primary or secondary residence in Switzerland to...

 – “Going off gold did the opposite of what many people think” – FT Alphaville – “Surprising” findings show benefits of Gold Standard–  Study by former Obama advisor in 1999 and speech by Bank of England economist in 2017 make case for gold– UK economy was ‘much less prone to extremes’ under than the gold standard – research shows– ‘Gold standard seems to have produced fewer catastrophes for Britain’ – data shows – FT...

The National Association of Realtor (NAR) reports today that sales of existing homes in the US were down 1.7% in August 2017 from July. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million, that’s the lowest pace for resales since July 2016. It is yet another data point reflecting the almost certain end of “reflation” in the economic sense. US Existing Home Sales, Jan 2011 - Jul 2017(see more posts on U.S. Existing...

In September 2017, the KOF Economic Barometer increases by 1.6 points. It thus partially reverses its previous month’s decline. With a new reading of 105.8, the Barometer still points to a level clearly above its long-term average. This indicates that the outlook remains favourable – the Swiss economy should continue to grow at above average rates in the near future. In September 2017, the KOF Economic...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Precious Metals Supply and Demand Report The price of gold dropped $24, and that of silver 60 cents this week. This is a far cry from Sep 8, when the price of silver hit $18.21. Since then, it’s been almost all downhill. What happened? Since the beginning of last month, the price of silver had been rising and at the basis...