Tag Archives: Featured

25.08.2022 – In 2020, the Swiss economy had almost 617 000 businesses and just under 5.3 million jobs. After uninterrupted growth since the start of the statistical series in 2011, the number of businesses and jobs has declined for the first time. Compared with 2019, around 900 fewer units and 33 000 fewer workplaces were recorded, a decline of 0.1% and 0.6% respectively. Food and beverage service activities and the accommodation sector were particularly affected,...

Schon beim Freedom Convoy in Kanada wurden Inhalte von Crypto-Wallets staatlich beschlagnahmt. Auf diversen Plattformen wurden Wallets blockiert und die darin befindlichen Cryptocoins konfisziert, sofern diese in Verbindung mit den regierungskritischen Protesten standen. In der Ukraine wird nun dieselbe Strategie verfolgt. Bitcoin News: Ukraine beschlagnahmt Cryptocoin Wallets mit Verbindungen zu RusslandIn der Ukraine sind es offenbar die Crypto-Plattformen selbst,...

Overview: It seems that many market participants had the same thing in mind, cut dollar longs before the Jackson Hole gathering. The Antipodeans lead the majors move, encouraged perhaps by China’s new economic measures, with around a 1% gain. The euro and sterling are up about 0.35% and are the laggards. Emerging market currencies are higher as well, with the notable exception of India and Turkey, which are nursing small losses. Equities are having a good day. All...

Retail and hospitality infrastructure helped drive revenues at Zurich airport. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Switzerland’s busiest airport has posted a CHF55 million ($57 million) net profit for the first six months of the year as post-pandemic air travel picks up. By comparison, Zurich airport made a CHF45 million loss in the corresponding period of 2021, but the newly reported profits still fall well short of the CHF143 million booked in the first six months of...

Hydropower accounts for around 60% of total Swiss electricity production. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller The Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (Elcom) has laid out plans to hold back hydropower reserves to help compensate for anticipated energy shortages this winter. Elcom wants hydropower operators to hold back up to 666 gigawatt hours of electricity that would normally be sold on the open market. That’s enough to power 150,000 households for a year. The reserves...

New home sales were reported for July as down nearly 13% to 511K, a number that is just about the average since 2010 (543k). But that doesn’t tell the whole story obviously. New home sales have fallen sharply since December of last year, down 39%. The drop from the peak in August 2020 is even more dramatic, down nearly 51%. Obviously, the fall this year is related to rising mortgage rates but that can’t be the reason sales have been falling for nearly two years....

“We are the makers of our own fate,” said Christian Lindner (FDP, Free Democratic Party), German federal minister of finance, in a TV interview not too long ago. This statement was made in the context of being asked if Vladimir Putin had had a hold over Germany, considering its rather dire energy situation, now, but especially going into winter. Torn between a decade-long reliance on cheap Russian gas on the one side and a sudden desperation to be energy independent...

Tavi Costa of Crescat Capital joins Keith and Dickson on the Gold Exchange Podcast to talk about the current state of the market, investing in good times and bad, and what future indicators to watch. Connect with Tavi on Twitter: @TaviCosta Connect with Keith Weiner and Monetary Metals on Twitter: @RealKeithWeiner@Monetary_Metals [embedded content] Additional Resources Fed Zugzwang Germany Announcement Jerome Powell Nose Tweet Bloomberg Misery Index Zombie Company...

Ever since the federal government was converted from a limited-government republic to a national-security state after World War II, America has lived under a system of ongoing, never-ending, perpetual foreign-policy crises. That’s not a coincidence. The national-security establishment — i.e. the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — need such crises to justify their continued existence and their ever-growing taxpayer-funded largess.  An interesting aspect of this...

Overview: A simply dreadful flash US PMI stopped the dollar’s four-day rally in its tracks. It followed news that the eurozone, Japan, and Australia’s composite PMIs are below the 50 boom/bust level. However, the dollar recovered, even if not fully as the market seemed unconvinced that the data could change Fed Chair Powell’s message at Jackson Hole on Friday. A consolidative tone is evident today. Asia Pacific equities were mixed. China and Hong Kong fell more than...