Tag Archives: Featured

In 1830, France was once more swept up in revolution, only this time at the end of it was installed one king to replace another. Louis-Phillipe became, in fact, France’s last king as a result of that July Revolution. The country was trying to make sense of its imperial past with the growing democratic sentiments of the 19th century. Despite being one of the richest men in all Europe and aligned with the Bourbons, he...

Paycheck to Paycheck GUALFIN, ARGENTINA – The Dow was down 118 points on Wednesday. It should have been down a lot more. Of course, markets know more than we do. And maybe this market knows something that makes sense of these high prices. What we see are reasons to sell, not reasons to buy. Nearly half of all American families live “paycheck to paycheck,” say researchers. Without borrowing, 46% couldn’t raise $400 to...

Summary: Provided Le Pen and Macron or Fillion make to the second round, the market response to the French election results may be short lived. BOJ, Riksbank and ECB meetings. Spending authorization and some announcement from the White House on tax policy are in focus as Trump’s 100th day in office approaches. The results of the French presidential election will be known prior to the open of the Asian...

Swiss Franc Currency Index While the dollar index had another bad week with a 0.75% less, the Swiss Franc currency index could accumulate the corresponding gains. Main reason is that the EUR/CHF rose over 1.07. The euro is still the main component of the Swiss Franc index, but the dollar is recovering thanks to rising pharmacy exports to the U.S. Trade-weighted index Swiss Franc, April 22(see more posts on Swiss...

© Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com The management of Credit Suisse Credit Suisse reduced their bonuses by 40% after severe criticism from shareholders. The reduction amounts to around CHF 20 million. Some are still outraged. The group made a loss of CHF 2.7 billion in 2016 and one of CHF 2.9 billion in 2015. In an interview published in Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung, Vincent Kaufmann, the CEO of Ethos described the...

The Raw Deal We stepped out on our front stoop Wednesday morning and paused to take it all in.  The sky was at its darkest hour just before dawn.  The air was crisp.  There was a soft coastal fog.  The faint light of several stars that likely burned out millennia ago danced just above the glow of the street lights. After a brief moment, we locked the door behind us and got into our car.  Springtime southern California...

When “socialist” states have to impose finance-capital extremes that even exceed the financialization of nominally capitalist economies, it gives the lie to their claims of “socialism.” OK, so our collective eyes start glazing over when we see Marx and Orwell in the subject line, but refill your beverage and stay with me on this. We’re going to explore the premise that what’s called “socialism”–yes, Scandinavian-style...

1. Mainstream neo-classical/ Keynesian economics. As economist Manfred Max-Neef notes in this interview, neo-classical/ Keynesian economics is no longer a discipline or a science–it is a religion. It demands a peculiar faith in nonsense: for example, the environment–Nature– is merely a subset of the economy. When we’ve stripped the seas of wild fish (and totally destroyed the ecology of the oceans), no problem–we’ll...

Travail Suisse, an association representing Swiss employees, highlights once more the age discrimination faced by those over 50 in the Swiss job market. In March 2017, 26.8% of unemployed in the this age group had been without work for more than a year, compared to 2.3% of those between 15 and 24 and 14.1% of those aged 25 to 49. According to RTS, the unemployed over 50 take twice as long to find a new job. The number...

Summary: The dollar market is intact, despite the pullback here at the start of 2017. We have seen similar pullbacks in 2016 and 2015. Divergence remains the key driver. The Federal Reserve’s real broad trade-weighted dollar fell for the first three months of 2017, and the greenback’s heavy tone this month has raised questions about the state of the bull market.    Despite this recent weakness, we think the...