Tag Archives: Featured

Lire aussi La libre-circulation des biens, des services, des revenus, des capitaux et des personnes , appelée les 4 L, est mesurée entre autres par la balance des paiements. Celle-ci décrit selon la Banque de France: « les échanges économiques entre la France et les autres pays. Elle apporte une grille de lecture de référence sur la situation de notre pays dans une économie mondialisée. Elle apporte un éclairage sur la...

How do we measure what has been lost over the last ten years? There is no single way to calculate it, let alone a correct solution. There are so many sides to an economy that choosing one risks overstating that facet at the expense of another. It’s somewhat of an impossible task already given the staggering dimensions. If someone had told you in 2006 that the Federal Reserve as well as all its central bank cohorts...

“Better than Goldilocks” “Markets make opinions,” goes the old Wall Street adage.  Indeed, this sounds like a nifty thing to say.  But what does it really mean? The bears discover Mrs. Locks in their bed and it seems they are less than happy. [PT] Perhaps this means that after a long period of rising stocks prices otherwise intelligent people conceive of clever explanations for why the good times will carry on. ...

Swiss Franc The euro is up by 0.19% to 1.1348 CHF EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, August 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The downward pressure on US yields, with the 10-year slipping to 2.18%, nearly a two-month low, coupled drop in equities helped underpin the Japanese yen. The dollar traded below JPY109 for the first time since the middle of June. The greenback...

Commercial aircraft already take off and land using their on-board computers (Keystone) Pilotless cargo and passenger planes could be in use within eight years and save airlines billions, according to a report by Swiss bank UBS. But customers remain wary of the new technology despite potential fare reductions. “In the not-too-distant future, we would expect to see a situation where flights are pilotless or the number of...

Fools and Rascals And it’s time, time, time And it’s time, time, time It’s time, time, time that you love And it’s time, time, time… – Tom  Waits [embedded content] Tom Waits rasps about time POITOU, FRANCE – “So how much did you make last night?” “We made about $15,000,” came the reply from our eldest son, a keen cryptocurrency investor. “Bitcoin briefly pierced the $3,500 mark – an all-time high. The market cap of...

In the second quarter of the year, one in which unlike in Q1 fund flows showed a persistent and perplexing outflow from US stocks and into European and Emerging Markets, a trading desk rumor emerged that even as institutional traders dumped stocks and retail investors piled into ETFs, a “mystery” central bank was quietly bidding up risk assets by aggressively buying stocks. And no, it was not the BOJ: the Japanese...

The unions say Swiss employees have had to make do with only modest salary increases or wage freezes in recent years. (Keystone) Staff should start enjoying the benefits of Switzerland’s improving economic performance, says the country’s second-largest trade union group, Travail. Suisse, which is demanding a 2% salary increase for workers. “It’s been some time since the economic perspectives have looked this positive....

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (DeStatis) reported today disappointing figures for Industrial Production. The seasonally-adjusted series fell in June 2017 month-over-month for the first time this year, last declining in December 2016. The index had been on a tear, rising nearly 5% in the first five months of this year. The move was considered by many if not most in the mainstream a prime example of Mario Draghi’s...

Late 2014/early 2015 will perhaps be the closest to a real recovery from the Great “Recession” we shall see in this cycle.  Q1 2015 marked the peak year over year growth rate of GDP in this recovery at 3.76%. That rate compares quite unfavorably with even the feeble post dot com crash recovery high of 4.41% in Q1 2004. It doesn’t even come close to the routine 4-5% year over year growth rates we saw in the late 90s....