Tag Archives: Featured

  Mounting Resistance Thousands of people recently demonstrated in Brussels against free trade deals negotiated by the EU. This happened just days before a meeting of EU trade ministers in Bratislava last Friday, which was considered the last push to salvage the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the United States. Not only is Europe divided on the deal, but the talks have been...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Purveyors of Economic Stability It’s almost like magic. The Fed can say something, or in the case of this Wednesday it can say nothing, and gold and especially silver get a boost of rocket fuel. Actually, the Fed said both yes to rate hikes—in the future—and no to a rate hike now. This was good, if not for people, at...

The best way to restart investment (and thus employment opportunities) is to make the U.S. a magnet for productive capital rather than a graveyard of tax-avoidance strategies. Donald Trump has made trade agreements a central issue in this presidential election, declaring trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as unfair and subject to cancellation or renegotiation. Setting aside the issue...

  French for Trump OUZILLY, France – There are two ways you can destroy a country: pull down its money or build up its military. Usually, they go hand in hand – one hand ruining the economic body, the other attacking the soul. “I would vote for Trump.” The remark last came from an unlikely source. The French press treats Trump like a clown or a con artist. Until last night, we had not encountered a single Frenchman...

Swiss Franc The Swiss Franc remained nearly unchanged against the euro. It fell to 1.0875 during the day and recovered with the good U.S. new home sales data. Click to enlarge. FX Rates The US dollar is narrowly mixed. The euro, yen and Swiss franc are higher, while the dollar-bloc and sterling are softer. The moving element here is not so much the greenback, which serving more as a fulcrum, but idiosyncratic,...

A Litany of Failures It was widely expected that the BoJ would announce something this week after it promised to perform a comprehensive review of its monetary policy. It certainly did deliver a major tweak to its inflationary program, but its implications were seemingly not entirely clear to everybody (probably not even to the BoJ). There were many reasons for the BoJ to review its policies. For one thing, they...

In der gestrigen Ausgabe der NZZ am Sonntag wird Nobelpreisträger Paul Krugman zitiert, wie er den Mindestkurs der SNB und deren Negativzinsen lobt. Die Negativzinsen seien ein „wertvolles Experiment“ meint er und „bedankt“ sich dafür sogar bei der SNB. „Die Schweiz eruiert neues Territorium. Aus akademischer Sicht liebe ich das.“ Die SNB hat sich also zum Versuchskaninchen der internationalen...

In der gestrigen Ausgabe der NZZ am Sonntag wird Nobelpreisträger Paul Krugman zitiert, wie er den Mindestkurs der SNB und deren Negativzinsen lobt. Die Negativzinsen seien ein „wertvolles Experiment“ meint er und „bedankt“ sich dafür sogar bei der SNB. „Die Schweiz eruiert neues Territorium. Aus akademischer Sicht liebe ich das.“ Die SNB hat sich also zum Versuchskaninchen der internationalen...

The US Dollar Index has been trending higher since early May.  This Great Graphic, created on Bloomberg shows, that it has been successfully tested several times. It appears set to be re-tested in the coming days.  It comes in near 94.80 today and rises a little more than two ticks a day to finish the week near 94.90. Technical indicators, like the RSI, MACDs, and Slow Stochastics suggest there is reasonably good...

The governed are ready for a period of retrenchment, consolidation and diplomatic solutions to unwinnable conflicts, as imperfect as the peace might be to hawks. Are you open to a somewhat unconventional perspective on this election? If so, read on. If you’re absolutely confident you know all there is know about this election (good vs evil, Democrat vs. Republican, etc.), well then let’s compare notes in five years and...