Tag Archives: Featured

Germany is notoriously fickle when it comes to money, speaking as much of discipline in economy or industry as central banking. If ever there is disagreement about monetary arrangements, surely the Germans are behind it. Since ECB policy only ever attains the one direction, so-called accommodation, there never seems to be harmony. But that may only be true because “accommodation” doesn’t ever achieve what it aims to....

Summary A Korean special prosecutor indicted Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee on bribery charges. Korean press is reporting that China has told its travel agents to halt sales of holiday packages to South Korea. Bulgaria’s interim government said it may apply to join the eurozone within a month. South Africa’s main labor union Cosatu accepted a government-proposed minimum wage. New Commerce Secretary Ross appears to be taking...

There is gold in Asia, at least gold of the intellectual variety for anyone who wishes to see it. The Chinese offer us perhaps the purest view of monetary conditions globally, where RMB money markets are by design tied directly to “dollar” behavior. It is, in my view, enormously helpful to obsess over China’s monetary system so as to be able to infer a great deal about the global monetary system deep down beyond the...

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc March 03(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) Source: Investing.com - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF Prime Minister Theresa May is still committed to triggering Article 50 before the end of the month in spite of what happened this week with the House of Lords’ decision to challenge the Brexit bill. The House of Lords are primarily concerned with keeping the rights of EU citizens living...

Photo source: Swiss MEM After a very difficult year in 2015, the Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering industries (MEM) started to recover in 2016, with new orders rising by 9.5%. At the same time 23% of the industry made a loss on the back of high costs and a 1.8% drop in sales, says the industry association Swiss MEM. The strong Swiss franc is still a challenge for a large number of companies. Developments will...

© Elxeneize | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge 24 Heures. According to the bank Raiffeisen, if rents had followed the path prescribed in the Swiss Code of Obligations, they would be much lower. Their figures show that changes in interest rates have not flowed through to renters. If rents had fallen in step with mortgage interest rates they would be 40% lower than they are currently. The bank’s report stated that while...

The PCE Deflator for January 2017 rose just 1.89% year-over-year. It was the 57th consecutive month less than the 2% mandate (given by the Fed itself when in early 2012 it made the 2% target for this metric its official definition of price stability). Though there is a chance that the streak will end with the update for February, it should not go unnoticed how weak that number is given that oil prices in January were...

Summary: EC is committed to the future of Europe. Juncker presented five scenarios. Even if the populist-nationalist do not win the electoral contests, the national identity issues will continue to exert influence. Later this month, Europe celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community.  Very near to the anniversary, which was not one of the original...

Strip away the centralized power that protects and funds cartels, and prices would plummet. The mainstream narrative is “the problem is low wages.” Actually, the problem is the soaring cost of living. If essentials such as healthcare, housing, higher education and government services were as cheap as they once were, a wage of $10 or $12 an hour would be more than enough to maintain a decent everyday life. Here are some...

The Swiss economy relies very much (and probably too much) on exports. More than half of GDP growth in 2014 was driven by the trade balance, while consumption lagged. Many consider this dependency on exports insane. In Q4/2016, export of goods fell by 3.8%, while imports remained the same; this implies a fall in GDP for the export/import component. Investment in equipment dipped, after some positive quarters....