Tag Archives: Featured

Here’s “politics” in America now: come with mega-millions or don’t even bother to show up. Representational democracy–a.k.a. politics as a solution to social and economic problems–has passed away. It did not die a natural death. Politics developed a cancer very early in life (circa the early 1800s), caused by wealth outweighing public opinion. This cancer spread slowly but metastasized in the past few decades, spreading to every nook and cranny of our society and...

Blockchain-based data-sharing platform Spring Labs announced that is bringing TransUnion’s identity and credit data on-chain to help accelerate Web 3 and DeFi adoption. The off-chain credit data from TransUnion, a global information and insights company, will be made available on public blockchain networks via Spring Labs’ ky0x Digital Passport. Ky0x Digital Passport allows users to provide information about themselves in order to access permissioned smart contract...

When assailing global governance, pundits rarely comment on its impact on small countries. Yet the degree to which small countries are ignored by global institutions—like the G7, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank—helps to illustrate how institutions of global governance tend to primarily reflect the values of managerial elites from large and wealthy states. That is, global policies are earnestly tailored by rich states in the West in response to...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.05% to 1.0424 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 17(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Russia is thought to be behind the cyber-attack on Ukraine at the end of last week, but a military attack over the weekend may be underpinning risk appetites today. The dollar’s pre-weekend gains are being pared slightly. Led by the Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone, the greenback...

Die Mass Adoption bleibt weiterhin das große Ziel des Bitcoin. Gerade das reguläre Handelsgewerbe ist hier ausschlaggebend. Daher sind es gute Nachrichten, dass inzwischen rund ein Viertel der Kleinunternehmen planen, Zahlungen mit Bitcoin einzuführen – so heißt es zumindest in einer Studie des Kreditkartenanbieters Visa. Bitcoin News: 25% der Kleinunternehmen möchten Bitcoin-Zahlungen umsetzen Als Tesla im letzten Jahr Bitcoin-Zahlungen ermöglichte, war das...

Some commentators attribute the latest sharp increase in the Consumer Price Index to businesses pushing prices of goods higher in order to secure higher profits. (See the New York Times article “Democrats Blast Corporate Profits as Inflation Surges,” January 3, 2022). Note that the yearly growth rate of the Consumer Price Index jumped to 6.8 percent in November 2021 from 1.2 percent the year before. However, is it true that businesses are determining the prices of...

Many company executives are attracted by the scenery, high paying jobs and low tax rates offered in Switzerland. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has hinted that cantons might lower income taxes for well-heeled executives as the country braces for the impact of a minimum corporate tax rate. Speaking to the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Maurer said cantons are discussing the idea of reducing upper rates for high earners. As in many...

The US dollar had one of its worst weeks in a few months. Although there has been some talk about the historical pattern of weakness after the first Fed hike in a cycle, many participants were surprised. The dollar struggled in the last couple of weeks of 2021, but this seemed to be explained by year-end position squaring amid light interest. Broad measures of US and European equities sold off last week. The pre-weekend recovery in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ could...

SEBA Bank, a digital assets firm with a Swiss banking license from FINMA, announced that it has raised CHF 110 million in a significantly oversubscribed Series C funding round. The round was co-led by Altive, Ordway Selections, and Summer Capital, as well as DeFi Technologies, a NEO listed leader in decentralised finance. Alameda Research, a global cryptocurrency quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider, as well as core partner of FTX, also participated in...

During a confirmation hearing with the US Senate this week, Fed chairman Jerome Powell was asked about whether or not a digital currency issued by a central bank could exist side by side with private cryptocurrencies. Powell responded that there is nothing that would prevent private cryptos from “coexisting” with a “digital dollar.” This, of course, is obviously true so long as federal regulators do not decide to ban the usage of cryptocurrencies. Business...