Tag Archives: Featured

All this decay is so incremental that nobody thinks it possible that it could ever accumulate into a risk that threatens the entire system. The funny thing about risk is the risk that everyone sees isn’t the risk that blows up the system. The mere fact that everyone is paying attention to the risk tends to defang it as everyone rushes to hedge or reduce the risk. It’s the risk that accumulates under everyone’s radar that takes down the system. There are several...

One quick glance at different news headlines or just 5’ switching between TV networks suffice to convince even the most naive news consumer that there is something seriously wrong with the way public discourse was (d)evolved in our societies over the last years. Of course, journalism was never entirely devoid of bias, not even in its “golden age”. Reporters and editors are merely human after all and their own views, beliefs, hopes and opinions have always tainted...

The Federal Reserve hiked the Fed funds target rate by 25 bp as widely anticipated. It clearly signaled it was beginning an ongoing hiking cycle. The FOMC statement also indicated the balance sheet roll-off would begin at a coming meeting. The uncertainty posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was acknowledged, but the FOMC recognized that in the first instance it boosts price pressures while also weakening growth. There was one dissent. The noted hawk, St. Louis Fed...

The Swiss banks are hit by European Union sanctions against Russian clients. © Keystone/Christian Beutler Swiss banks hold between CHF150 billion and CHF200 billion ($160-$214 billion) in assets belonging to Russian clients, according to the Swiss Bankers Association. The president of the associationExternal link, Marcel Rohner, made the estimate at the group’s annual news conference on Tuesday. Overall in 2020, Swiss banks had assets under management totaling...

This week will almost certainly end up as a clash of competing interest rate policy views. Everyone knows about the Federal Reserve’s upcoming, the beginning of what is intended to be a determined inflation-fighting campaign for a US economy that American policymakers worry has been overheated. The FOMC will vote to raise the federal funds range (and IOER plus RRP) for the first time since December 2018 Over in China, however, it’s nearly certain to be the opposite....

Market perspective is essential in avoiding investing mistakes. With CNBC airing “Markets In Turmoil” every time the market dips, it’s no wonder investor sentiment is now the lowest we have seen financial crisis lows. Of course, as shown, extremely negative investor sentiment tends to be the hallmark of the bottom of corrections and bear markets. Nonetheless, now that we are connected constantly to financial media, we are inundated with headlines designed to get...

I don’t know the answer to the question posed in the title. No one does because the future is not predictable. I don’t know what will happen in Ukraine. I don’t know how much what has already happened there – and what might – matters to the US and global economy. I don’t know if the Fed is making a mistake by (likely) hiking interest rates by an entire 1/4 of 1% this week. I can only see things as they are today and think about similar times in the past and know that...

“No natural gas, no war” protestors in the capital Bern on Saturday ©keystone/peter Schneider Renouncing Russian oil and gas would have serious consequences for the Swiss economy, an expert from the KOF Swiss Economic Institute has told a Sunday newspaper. If imports were to be cut off, for example in the wake of tougher sanctions against Russia, Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) would fall by 3-4 percentage points, spread over two years, according to calculations...

Die Zeit der Memecoins schien vorerst vorbei zu sein, sowohl Dogecoin als auch SHIB (Shiba Inu) konnten ihren Höhenflug 2021 nicht mit ins neue Jahr nehmen. Doch in einer allgemeinen Bärenphase beobachteten Analysten aktuell eine Whale-Bewegung, die einen neuen Kursanstieg andeutet. Crypto News: Whales investieren in Shiba Inu CryptocoinFür SHIB ging es seit Dezember 2021 um etwa 50 Prozent runter – ein massiver Absturz, gerade wenn man bedenkt, dass der Memecoin im...

Eventually the “flock of timid and industrious animals” changes their minds about how much exploitation by the few is acceptable. You may have noticed the news flow beyond the hot war in Ukraine is largely focused on capital: financial capital (markets, liquidity, interest rates, commodities, central bank tightening, etc.) and political capital (geopolitical maneuvering, sanctions, revising energy and defense policies, etc.) Notice who’s left out, unnoticed and...