Tag Archives: Featured

During the middle 2000’s, one more curious economic extreme presented itself in an otherwise ocean of extremes. Though economists were still thinking about the Great “Moderation”, the trend for the Personal Savings Rate was anything but moderate, indicated a distinct lack of modesty on the part of consumers. In early 2006, the Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated that the rate had been negative for all of 2005. It...

Unemployment Rate (not seasonally adjusted) Bern, 08.09.2017 – Registered unemployment in August 2017 – At the end of August 2017 135’578 unemployed persons were registered at the Regional Employment Services Centers (RAV), according to the SECO (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs), 1’652 more than in the previous month. The unemployment rate remained at 3.0% in the reporting month. Compared to the previous month,...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.35% to 1.1433 CHF.   FX Rates The US dollar is trading broadly lower. The ECB meeting looms large. Many, like ourselves, expected that when Draghi said in July that the asset purchases would be revisited in the fall, it to meant after the summer recess, not a legalistic definition of when fall begins. Still, there have been some reports, citing unnamed sources close to the ECB, that...

Two Swiss NGOs have started a petition calling for Swiss retailers to reduce or remove palm oil from their products. Present in many processed foods, cosmetics and detergents, the ingredient has a bad reputation. The NGOs Bread for All and the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund want to see a reduction in palm oil consumption. They believe voluntary initiatives by the palm oil sector to clean up the industry have done nothing to...

The point is institutional ownership of bitcoin is in the very early stages. If I had a bitcoin for every time some pundit declared bitcoin is a bubble, I’d be a billionaire. There are three problems with opining that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are bubblicious: 1. Everything is in a bubble now: stocks, bonds, housing, heck, even bat guano is bubblicious. Exactly what insight is being added by yet another guru...

The payroll report for August 2017 thoroughly disappointed. The monthly change for the headline Establishment Survey was just +156k. The BLS also revised lower the headline estimate in each of the previous two months, estimating for July a gain of only +189k. The 6-month average, which matters more given the noisiness of the statistic, is just +160k or about the same as when the Federal Reserve contemplated starting a...

  Preventing the Last Crisis Clear thinking and discerning rigor when it comes to the twisted state of present economic policy matters brings with it many physical ailments. A permanent state of disbelief, for instance, manifests in dry eyes and droopy shoulders. So, too, a curious skepticism produces etched forehead lines and nighttime bruxism. The terrible scourge of bruxism and its potentially terrifying...

Site de l’initiative Monnaie pleine: http://www.initiative-monnaie-pleine.ch/texte-de-linitiative/ Le peuple suisse va voter sur une initiative qui porte le nom de « monnaie pleine ». Cette initiative est partie du constat que les banques émettent de la monnaie scripturale dite monnaie-dette ou monnaie bancaire, et souhaite rendre la BNS seule responsable de la création monétaire, comme c’est d’ailleurs prévue par...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.17% to 1.1396 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 06(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar fell to new lows since mid-2015 against the Canadian dollar yesterday. It is flattish today as the market awaits the central bank’s decision. We are concerned that given the strong performance and market positioning, a rate...

– Bitcoin falls 20% as Mobius and Chinese regulators warn – “Cryptocurrencies are beginning to get out of control” – warns respected investor Mark Mobius – Mobius believes governments will begin to clamp down on cryptocurrencies sparking rush to gold– Yesterday China’s PBOC ruled Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are illegal and all related activity to halt– China is home to majority of bitcoin miners– Paris Hilton latest...