Tag Archives: Featured

14.11.2022 – The Producer and Import Price Index remained unchanged in October 2022 compared with the previous month. The index stood at 109.8 points (December 2020 = 100). Natural gas in particular became more expensive. In contrast, petroleum products showed falling prices. Compared with October 2021, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products rose by 4.9%. These are the results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). In particular,...

You want to fix the world with finance? Then fix this: wages’ share of a financialized, globalized, speculative-bubble dependent economy have been falling for decades. Fix this and you really will change the world. Anything less changes nothing. Let’s start by stipulating my perspective on cryptocurrencies is neither positive nor negative in the usual context of “to the moon” or “worthless,” nor does it track any of the conventional narratives (decentralized finance...

SNB’s Jordan is on the wires saying that: He sees weaker growth in 2023 than this year. SNB still has credibility that inflation will moderate Inflation has broadened Sees limited 2nd round wage effects in Switzerland There is a great probablility that SNB will need to further tighten monetary policy. Nominal appreciation of the franc helps guard against inflation The SNB stands ready to BUY OR SELL the keep the franc fx rate appropriate to steer inflation to target...

Overview: China’s new initiatives to support the property sector helped lift the Hang Seng. And while the China’s CSI 300 edged higher both the Shanghai and Shenzhen composites fell. Most Asia Pacific markets fell, while Europe’s Stoxx 600 is posting a small gain. US futures are sporting modest losses. European benchmark 10-year yields are 3-5 bp lower, including UK Gilts ahead of Thursday’s budget that is expected to confirm new borrowing (Office for Budget...

According to the Austrian business cycle theory, the boom-bust cycle emerges in response to a deviation in the market interest rate from the natural interest rate, or the equilibrium interest rate. As a rule, it is held, the tampering with market interest rates by the central bank sets the boom-bust cycle in motion. Given this viewpoint, one might suggest that even with a gold standard without a central bank, an increase in the supply of gold money will lead to the...

Much is made of the failure of Republicans to make predicted gains in the recent midterm elections, but, as Ryan McMaken has pointed out, Congress plays a much-diminished role in national governance to the point that even had the so-called Red Wave actually occurred, it is doubtful that much would have changed regarding Joe Biden’s presidency. In fact, most of what Biden has done in his two years in office has been outside of Congressional legislative matters....

Der Kampf der EZB gegen die Rekordinflation wird zum Teil von einer Haushaltspolitik konterkariert, die zu viel Geld ausgibt, um die steigenden Lebenshaltungskosten abzufedern, sagte Ratsmitglied Robert Holzmann. “Die Fiskalpolitik ist aufgrund der sozialen Verwerfungen, die die Inflation hervorruft, genötigt Interventionen vorzunehmen”, sagte der Gouverneur der Oesterreichischen Nationalbank (OeNB) am Freitag vor Journalisten in Wien. “Das Problem, das wir in Europa...

A few days in bed might also help to recover from flu. Keystone / Martin Ruetschi The Swiss health authorities and the manufacturer AstraZeneca are at loggerheads over a nasal spray to vaccinate children and adolescents against influenza. The British-Swedish manufacturer told the Swiss Keystone-SDA agency that it had been asked by the Federal Office of Public Health to introduce its product in Switzerland two years ago. However, the health office had later set...

One thing I can tell you for certain about last week’s big rally on Thursday and Friday: there were a lot of people who desperately wanted a good excuse to buy stocks. And buy they did after a better-than-expected CPI report Thursday morning, pushing the S&P 500 up nearly 6% on the week with all of that coming on Thursday and Friday. The same could be said of bonds which also had a good week, with the aggregate index up 2.3%. The stock market rally probably says...

When bubbles pop, it’s natural selection at its most unforgiving: “adapt or die,” and those who ignore or discount consequential asymmetries will have a very difficult time navigating the triage. After years of relative stability, it seems asymmetries, distortions and denial are playing out in unexpectedly destabilizing ways. These complex and often opaque dynamics are interacting with each other and reinforcing each other in difficult to predict ways. No wonder...