Tag Archives: Featured

As Alan Greenspan’s rate hikes closed in, longer-term Treasury yields were forced upward as the flattening yield curve left no more room for their blatant defiance. By mid-2005, though, the market wasn’t ready to fully price the downside risks which had already led to that worrisome curve shape (very flat). While all sorts of bad potential could be reasonably surmised, none of it seemed imminent or definite. Thus, between July 2005 and June 2006, the entire curve...

14.03.2022 – In Switzerland, 42 606 businesses were started from scratch in 2019. This figure, the highest ever recorded, represents growth of 8.0% compared with the previous year. In the same year, the number of high growth enterprises also reached a record, with 4803 units (+8.1% compared with 2018). One high growth enterprise in twenty was less than five years old. Such businesses are referred to as gazelle companies. These are the some of the results from the...

Overview: While the World Health Organization debates about downgrading Covid from a pandemic, the rise China and Hong Kong cases is striking.  A lockdown in Shenzhen and restrictions in Shanghai, coupled with a record fine by PBOC officials on Tencent drove local stocks sharply lower.  China’s CSI 300 fell 3% and a measure of Chinese stocks that trade in HK plunged more than 7%.  The Hang Seng itself dropped 5%.  Covid in China and Hong Kong adds to the risk of...

The Swiss government has boosted its humanitarian support to victims of the war in Ukraine. On Friday it approved CHF80 million ($86 million) as an “expression of its solidarity with Ukrainians in need”. “Around 12 million people are dependent on emergency aid because of Russia’s ongoing military intervention in Ukraine. With this contribution, Switzerland is expressing its solidarity with Ukrainians in need,” the government said in a statementExternal link on...

Oh, the day you can hang up your career and ease into that status you’ve been working toward most of your adult life, the place that brings a smile to your face, your happy place where you no longer answer to an employer, where you set your own schedule—that magical place called “Retirement.” You’ve been saving and planning and getting things in place. But have you planned for the taxes you have to pay on retirement income? Many retirees don’t take that into...

Can Russia Enact a Gold Standard? In Part I we discussed how the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine will lead to inflation, but not in the way most people think.  In Part II we discuss the possibility of Russia repudiating the dollar and going on a gold standard. Can they do it? How would the world react? Why not enact a Bitcoin Standard instead? The Russian central bank reportedly has over 2,000 tonnes of gold. We have seen three arguments repeated many...

Sogenannte Crypto-ATMs werden derzeit in vielen westlichen Ländern hochgezogen. Mit ihnen kann Fiat-Geld in Cryptocoins umgewandelt und übertragen werden. Was in den USA bereits flächendeckend eingesetzt wird, wurde nun von der FCA im Vereinigten Königreich als illegal eingestuft. Bitcoin News: UK deklariert Bitcoin-Geldautomaten als illegalDie FCA ist die Financial Conduct Authority, eine offizielle Stelle des staatlichen Finanzsystems im UK. Auf der Webseite der...

A supermarket in St Petersburg: multinationals that supply Russians with daily necessities face tough decisions. Keystone / Anatoly Maltsev Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has led to an exodus of well-known western brands from Russia, but not every company has joined the rush. As Apple has suspended sales and BP hurriedly announced its exit over the past two weeks, those multinationals that manufacture products that Russians rely on for daily life, from food...

Price inflation has been accelerating upward since April of last year. Yet the Fed has done virtually nothing. What’s the Fed waiting for? Original Article: “With Inflation at a 40-Year High, the Fed Is Too Afraid to Act” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 7.5 percent in January, year over year. This was, the BLS notes, the “largest 12-month increase since the period ending February 1982.” Moreover, The...

The 1947-48 experience was truly painful, maybe even terrifying. The US and Europe had just come out of a decade when the worst deflationary consequences were so widespread that the period immediately following quickly erupted into the worst conflagration in human history. Then, suddenly, consumer prices skyrocketed and it left many Americans wondering if there would ever be an end to the massive volatility. At its peak in March 1947, the US CPI had gained 19.67%...