Tag Archives: Featured

Social media is becoming increasingly dominant in the Swiss media industry, controlling not only consumer habits but also the advertising market. In addition, television is dying. These are the findings of the latest “Yearbook Quality of the Media” by the University of Zurich. They are strong, they are dominant, they have money – and they are located outside the Swiss sphere of influence: the internet giants or “tech...

– Russia adds 1.1 million ounces to reserves in ongoing diversification from USD – 34 ton addition brings Russia’s Central Bank holdings to 1,779t; 6th highest – Russia’s gold reserves are at highest point in Putin’s 17-year reign – Russia’s central bank will buy gold for its reserves on the Moscow Exchange – Russia recognises gold’s role as independent currency and safe haven Russian Central Bank Gold Reserves, 2006 -...

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today that sales of existing homes (resales) were up slightly in September 2017 on a monthly basis. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million last month, that was practically unchanged from the 5.35 million estimate for August that was the lowest in a year. On an annual basis, resales in September were 1.5% less than those in September 2016. It was the first...

Political Correctness Hampers Honest Debate What would the world be like today had Europeans never colonized Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and South Asia? Most of these societies would still not have discovered the wheel. It takes a huge amount of reality-avoidance and ineptitude for outsiders who travel there not to realize that a billion or more people in the Third World still wouldn’t...

Left: the first IKEA store located in Älmhult in Sweden, near the residence of the company’s founder (nowadays the store is a museum); right: a Task Rabbit car. - Click to enlarge Amassing Unproductive Debt Last week, we discussed the marginal productivity of debt. This is how much each newly-borrowed dollar adds to GDP. And ever since the interest rate began its falling trend in 1981, marginal productivity of debt...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.27% to 1.1656 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates It is all about the ECB meeting today. The market was hoping for more details last month, but Draghi pointed to today. The broad issue is well known. While growth has been strong, price pressures are still not, according to the ECB, on a...

Im zweiten Teil dieser Analyse wurde zu zeigen versucht, weshalb es für das eigentliche Verständnis unseres heutigen Geldsystems und dessen spezifischen Eigenschaften wenig sinnvoll ist, in der Kritik desselbigen zwischen Staat, Zentralbank und Geschäftsbank zu unterscheiden. Alle drei Akteure sind für die in Teil Zwei beschriebene «monetäre Revolution» unabdingbar und haben die von der natürlichen Knappheit losgelöste...

Switzerland: Far from Flawless, but still a Unique Country – An Interview with Claudio Grass Our friend Claudio Grass has discussed Switzerland in these pages before, and on one of these occasions we added some background information on country’s truly unique political system (see “The People Against the Establishment” for  the details). People are generally aware that direct democracy in the form of frequent ...

– Next Wall Street Crash looms? Lessons on anniversary of crash – 30 years since stock market  ‘Black Monday’ crash of 1987 – Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% on October 19, 1987 – S&P 500, FTSE and DAX fell 20%, 11% & 9% respectively – Gold rose 24.5% in 1987 (see chart), acting as safe haven  – Prior to crash, stocks hit successive record highs despite imbalances – Imbalances that lead to 1987 crash are...

A Swiss Post apprentice serves a customer in Basel Switzerland has the second-best labour market for young Europeans behind Denmark, according to a ranking of over 30 countries. Denmark came top, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands in the latest KOF Youth Labour Market Index, which analysed the year 2015. The ranking is produced annually by the Economic Institute (KOF) at the Federal Institute...