Tag Archives: Featured

[unable to retrieve full-text content]ISM showed unexpected weakness in Aug non-mfg PMI. Markit measure slipped but not as much as ISM. Odds of a Sept Fed hike slip to about 15%. Watch trendline in Dollar Index near 94.45.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]If asked what's intrinsic to human happiness, most people in consumer societies will offer up answers such as money, status, a nice house, etc. But as Sebastian Junger observes in his book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, what's actually intrinsic to human happiness is: meaningful relationships within a community (i.e. a tribe); opportunities to contribute to the group and to be appreciated; being competent at useful tasks and opportunities for...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]We often look at parts of the CPI. For example food inflation is relevant in emerging markets or poorer people in developed nations. Food inflation in Switzerland has risen by 1.3% YoY compared to 0.2% in the U.S., and 1.4% in the eurozone and 1.1% in neighbour Germany. Rents are up +0.2% YoY. Existing Swiss rents are bound to interest rates; therefore they cannot follow the Swiss real estate boom yet.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Modern Economics – It’s All About Central Planning. We are hereby delivering a somewhat belated comment on the meeting of monetary central planners and their courtier economists at Jackson Hole. Luckily timing is not really an issue in this context.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The “Scientific” Fig Leaf for Statism and Interventionism. To the economic and political detriment of the Western world and those economies beyond which have adopted its precepts, 2016 marks the eightieth anniversary of the publication of one of, if not, the most influential economics books ever penned, John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Keith Weiner's weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Swiss hotel industry registered 4.1 million overnight stays in July 2016, which corresponds to a decrease of 0.4% (-18,000 overnight stays) compared with July 2015. Foreign visitors generated 2.3 million overnight stays, representing a decline of 2.0% (-46,000). Domestic visitors registered 1.8 million overnight stays, i.e. an increase of 1.6% (+29,000). These are provisional results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As momentum builds in the developing deflationary spiral, we are seeing increasingly desperate measures to keep the global credit ponzi scheme from its inevitable conclusion. Credit bubbles are dynamic — they must grow continually or implode — hence they require ever more money to be lent into existence.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]"We will colonize you with your democratic laws." — Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Egyptian Islamic cleric and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. "Beaches, like any public space, must be protected from religious claims. The burkini is an anti-social political project aimed in particular at subjugating women.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Net-net, the September Fed funds futures contract was little changed on the week. Four high-income central banks meet in the week ahead; the ECB is the only one in play. China accounted for a full three quarters of the US trade deficit in July.