Tag Archives: Featured

07.06.2016 09:15  – FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1605-60) Employment barometer in 1st quarter 2016 Employment growth, but only in tertiary sector Varying employment trends Neuchâtel, 07.06.2016 (FSO) – In the 1st quarter 2016 total employment (number of jobs) rose by 0.6% compared with the same quarter a year ago (0.0% compared with the previous quarter). In full-time equivalents, employment in the same period fell by...

Pro-BREXIT campaigners Boris Johnson (ex-mayor of London) and Michael Gove (UK Secretary of Justice) are in a good mood. Photo credit: Paul Grover / REX Polls Show Growing Support for a Break with the EU In the UK as elsewhere, the political elites may have underestimated the strength of the trend change in social mood across Europe. The most recent “You-Gov” and ICM pools show a widening lead in favor of a UK exit...

Groucho dispensing valuable advice Photo via imdb.com Destroying Lives BALTIMORE – A dear reader reminded us of the comment, supposedly made by Groucho Marx: “A free lunch? You can’t afford a free lunch.” He was responding to last week’s Diary about the national referendum in Switzerland on Saturday. Voters will decide whether to give all Swiss residents a free lunch – a guaranteed annual income of about $30,000 a...

Philipsburg, Montana, 1890: evidently, these gentlemen did not suffer from a silver shortage. Photo via mininghistoryassociation.org Surging Contango There are two views of the markets for the monetary metals. One, as we have discussed many times in this Report, holds that gold and silver will eventually go up so high that those who own the metals will be rich. This is the Schrodinger’s dollar view. Buy gold because...

Is it Time to Buy Income-Producing Real Estate?  No, No, No. Much to the dismay of my real estate buddies, who are complaining about how high prices while watching the cash flow of their portfolios bursting at the seams from a few good years of rent increases, the answer is no. Capitalization Rates REIT cap rates (as of mid 2015, they have declined further since then) Capitalization Rates Valuation is one big red...

Is it Time to Buy Income-Producing Real Estate?  No, No, No. Much to the dismay of my real estate buddies, who are complaining about how high prices while watching the cash flow of their portfolios bursting at the seams from a few good years of rent increases, the answer is no. Capitalization Rates REIT cap rates (as of mid 2015, they have declined further since then) Capitalization Rates Valuation is one big red...

Brexit Predict This Great Graphic shows the price people are willing to pay to bet that the UK votes to leave the EU at the June 23 referendum on the PredictIt events markets.   We included the lower chart to give some sense of volume of activity on this wager in this event market. Brexit predict – click to enlarge. Presently, one would have to wager 42 cents to win a dollar if the UK votes to leave.  On May 23,...

In March, the ECB decided to increase its asset purchases from 60 to 80 bln euros a month and to include corporate bonds.  The corporate bond buying program begins this week.   We use an FAQ format to discuss the key issues. What is the ECB doing?   The ECB will buy euro-denominated, investment grade bonds from companies incorporated within the eurozone. What is the duration of the corporate bonds that the ECB will...

Sorry, I've looked everywhere but I can't find the page you're looking for. If you follow the link from another website, I may have removed or renamed the page some time ago. You may want to try searching for the page: Searching for the terms %3Futm+source%3Dfeedburner%26utm+medium%3Dfeed%26utm+campaign%3DFeed%3A+SnbChf+%28SNB+%26+CHF%3A+The+Swiss+National+Bank+and+Swiss+Franc+Blog%29%26utm+content%3DGoogle+UK...

With the dismal jobs reports,  speculators had to buy euro to cover their shorts (mostly against USD, but also against CHF). This led to a rising EUR/CHF on Friday. Today fundamental rules were valid again: In times of slow growth, the Swiss franc appreciates. Hence EUR/CHF was down by 49 bips. After the shellacking it took after the shockingly poor jobs data, the US dollar has only managed a shallow recovery...