Tag Archives: Featured

In the 3rd quarter of 2022, the number of employed persons in Switzerland increased by 0.8% compared with the same quarter of 2021 and the number of actual hours worked per week, per employed person, increased by 2.0%. During the same period, the unemployment rate as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) fell from 5.1% to 4.3% in Switzerland and from 6.7% to 6.0% in the EU. These are some of the results of the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS)...

We do not like Purchasing Power or Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) as measurement for currencies. For us, the trade balance decides if a currency is overvalued. Only the trade balance can express productivity gains, while the REER assumes constant productivity in comparison to trade partners. Who has read Michael Pettis, knows that a rising trade surplus may also be caused by a higher savings rate while the trade partners decided to spend more. This is partially...

SGS was founded in 1878 to help standardise the trade of goods around the world. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi The world’s largest goods inspection and testing group SGS will shed 1,500 jobs worldwide in a cost saving drive. The Geneva-based company said on Wednesday that inflation and the Ukraine war are having a negative effect on its business. “The consequences of the war in Ukraine have had a broader effect on our business mix and volumes in certain European...

Scottsdale, AZ–Nov 15, 2022  Monetary Metals is pleased to announce it has closed a Gold Bond for Akobo Minerals AB (AKOBO.OL), a publicly traded company, headquartered in Oslo, Norway. The term of the bond is two years, and investors are earning an annual interest rate of 19% on gold, paid in gold. The proceeds will be used to develop the mine entrance to Akobo’s Segele gold deposit, in addition to building and installing a processing plant on site. The bond was...

When I was a child, my mother and I would take the Long Island Railroad to Brooklyn to see relatives a few times a year. My grandfather was always outside in front of the apartment house in Park Slope, where he and my aunts and uncles lived. Upon seeing him, I would run down the sidewalk to greet him, but before I could say “Hi, Grandpa!,” he would without fail press a shiny silver dollar into my hand. He was a quiet, dignified man with a big white mustache. Since he...

Die erste Leizins-Erhöhung seit 15 Jahren im Juni bezeichnet SNB-Direktoriumsmitglied Andréa Maechler als historischen Moment. Die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) hat mit der Rückkehr der Inflation auch den Leitzins wieder in den positiven Bereich angehoben. Mit dem Übergang ins Positivzinsumfeld hat die Notenbank allerdings auch einen neuen Ansatz zur Umsetzung ihrer Geldpolitik am Geldmarkt wählen müssen, erklärten SNB-Direktoriumsmitglied Andréa Maechler...

Overview: Animal spirits are retreating today. Asia Pacific and European equities are lower, and US futures are narrowly mixed. US 2- and 10-year yields are edging higher, while European benchmark 10-year yields are mostly softer.  Italy and the UK are notable exceptions. Gilt yields are firming ahead of the budget statement. The dollar is trading higher against the G10 currencies. It still appears to be in a consolidative mode, but we continue to see risk of a more...

Dialling back: households would be called on to reduce the heat, if necessary. © Keystone / Martial Trezzini In case of a shortage, households and businesses which heat with piped gas would be asked to lower temperatures to 20°C, the government has said. The contingency scenario agreed by ministers is a slightly modified version of a four-stage plan announced in August, which has since gone through a consultation process involving cantonal authorities and other...

Commentaries about World War I frequently discuss causes and consequences but almost never mention the enablers. At best, they might mention them approvingly, as if we were fortunate to have had the Fed and the income tax, along with the ingenuity of the liberty bond programs, to finance our glorious role in that bloodbath. Economist Benjamin Anderson, whose Economics and the Public Welfare has contributed greatly to our understanding of the period 1914–46 and is a...

In 2012, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) established, for the first time, a permanent estate tax and gift tax exemption. The exemption is the amount an individual can pass on at death without paying estate taxes. The legislation set the exemption at $5 million per person, indexed for inflation. Five years later, Congress decided the exemption was not large enough and passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), which increased the lifetime exemption...