Tag Archives: Featured

Uber’s activities in Switzerland have sparked legal disputes. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Dozens of taxi drivers staged a strike in Geneva to protest a decision by the authorities to allow the ride-hailing company to resume business in the Swiss city. The strike follows months of dispute and failed negotiations over the conditions of Uber drivers and the legal status of the American company. On Friday, the Geneva authorities decided to suspend a ban on Uber...

Pascal Salin is an economist, professor emeritus at the University of Paris-Dauphine, and was president of the Mont-Pelerin Society from 1994 to 1996. Among the extensive list of books Professor Salin has published, mention can be made of the following titles: La vérité sur la monnaie (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1990), Libéralisme (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2000), Français, n’ayez pas peur du libéralisme (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2007), Revenir au capitalisme pour éviter les...

Early this month, Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia introduced the Gold Standard Restoration Act (H.R. 9157). If enacted into law, it would require public disclosure of the federal government’s gold holdings and eventually define the dollar as a weight of gold. For the moment, the bill’s chances of passage are as nil as nil gets. Sound money, whether it’s gold or silver or paper that is “backed” by one or both metals, may not acquire a sizable constituency...

Wieder einmal versucht die Umweltschutzorganisation Stimmung gegen den Cryptomarkt und Bitcoin im Speziellen zu machen. Doch inzwischen stellt sich die Frage, ob tatsächlich Umweltschutz oder Politik hinter der Kampagne steckt. Bitcoin News: Greenpeace mit Kampagne gegen BitcoinVor allem das Proof of Work Prinzip hinter dem BTC soll laut Greenpeace die „Klimakrise verschärfen und der Gemeinschaft schaden“. Das Crypto-Mining gilt als das zu lösende Problem, laut den...

Overview:  Global equities moved higher in the wake of the strong gains in the US yesterday. US futures point to the possibility of a gap higher opening today. Most of the large Asia Pacific bourses rallied 1%-2%, with China’s CSI a notable exception, slipping fractionally. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is edging higher and is near two-week highs. If the gains are sustained, it will be the fourth consecutive advancing session, the longest in two months. Benchmark yields are...

The subject of time and money has hit a boiling point. Just look at Sri Lanka and Iran, where food riots have turned deadly, or, shall we say, currency riots have. People can’t buy food, and “protesters angry at the soaring prices of everyday commodities including food, have burned down homes belonging to 38 politicians as the crisis-hit country plunged further into chaos, with the government ordering troops to ‘shoot on sight,’” reports invesbrain.com. Murray...

After a roughly CHF 40 billion blow to Swiss public finances due to the Covid pandemic, Switzerland’s financial outlook is beginning to look positive, according to a recent government press release. © Photo4dreams | Dreamstime.com Figures from the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) forecast a surplus of CHF 1.5 billion in 2022, an amount equivalent to 0.2% of GDP. In 2023, a government surplus of CHF 0.6% of GDP is forecast. Government expenditure in Switzerland...

What nobody yet knows (or the few insiders who do know are keeping to themselves) is what will matter. Being a doom-and-gloom Bear stops being fun when the Bear Bar gets crowded. When everyone has moved to our side of the boat, the grizzled Bears get nervous, especially when they peer over at the Bull side of the boat and see a handful of dispirited Bulls ignoring the guy yelling at the bartender to “back up the truck.” The problem old-timers see is what everyone...

On 12 October 2022, Switzerland’s Federal Council announced an increase in state pensions from 1 January 2023 by 2.5%. Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com The minimum pension with rise from CHF 1,195 to CHF 1,225 per month, while the maximum amount will rise from CHF 2,390 to CHF 2,450 (US$ 2,450). The amount paid in state pension in Switzerland is related to the level of contribution, which relates to salary level and the number years. Swiss state pensions are...

Reminder: Our online conference “End Inflation and at the Fed,” continues this evening at 7 p.m. (Eastern time) with the third talk of our series. Our speaker will be Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at Durham University, much of whose work revolves Austrian and Public Choice economics. The title of his talk is “Central Bank Digital Currencies.” Speaker: Kevin Dowd, professor of economics and finance, Durham UniversityTime: 7 pm – 8 pm Eastern...