Tag Archives: Featured

Zurich, 1 February 2021 – UBS has successfully completed the pilot phase of its new multibanking function and is now gradually rolling out the offering across Switzerland. UBS Multibanking will now also give SMEs full transparency over all their accounts and allow them to execute payments debited from accounts with third-party banks directly in UBS E-Banking. UBS is the first and so far the only Swiss bank to offer such a comprehensive payment function. Andy...

01.02.2021 – Retail trade turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays showed nominal growth of 3.5% in December 2020 compared with the same month of the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover grew by 2.2% compared with the previous month. Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the whole of 2020, provisional results show nominal growth of 0.1%. This positive growth consists of contrasting developments in the sectors with some strong turnover...

Our Nobility’s assessment of risk and their war-gaming of vulnerabilities are fatally deficient.Many people have heard of Nassim Taleb’s black swan but fewer understand how few events qualify as black swans. Per Wikipedia, a black swan is an unpredictable or unforeseen event, typically one with extreme consequences, an event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their...

This week conservatives are celebrating national “School Choice Week.” According to the website of this celebration, “School choice means giving parents access to the best K-12 education options for their children. These options include traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling.” The “school choice” concept, of course, encompasses “school vouchers,” a program that conservatives have long...

As many countries face their second or even third lockdowns (Germany, Austria, Israel), others (Switzerland, the United States) have done what they can to escape such repetitions. Much of the discussion about this drastic move involves its costs. As Covid-19 became pandemic in early 2020, most countries opted for a similar set of measures. They implemented social distancing, slowed down the traffic of people in public spaces and eventually put a stop to large...

Like Switzerland, Iceland – whose leaders are pictured here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel – is not a member of the European Union and has no current plans for a future membership. Keystone / Str With Brexit done, Switzerland is hoping it can restart negotiations on its framework agreement with the European Union. The experience of other non-member states offers some valuable lessons on how it can engage with Brussels, though no blueprint exists. SWI...

On October 6, 2020, the auditor general of Pennsylvania, Eugene DePasquale, released a status update on his ongoing audit of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) waiver process for businesses that appealed Governor Wolf’s covid-19 closure order. To everyone’s surprise, the auditor general concluded that his office discovered inconsistencies and puzzling decisions in the business waiver process. On March 19, Governor Tom Wolf...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.16% to 1.0789 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Powerful corrective forces continue to grip the market. After a large rally to start the New Year, the correction is punishing. Most Asia Pacific equities markets were off again today to bring the week’s loss to 2.5% to 5.5% throughout the region. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is a...

The Johnson & Johnson campus in Zug © Keystone / Urs Flueeler American pharma group Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is to transfer four of its canton Neuchâtel-based subsidiaries to other locations – including abroad. The move is expected to result in the loss of up to 320 jobs by mid-2023. The company wants to move the production lines for its two of its subsidiaries in Neuchâtel, western Switzerland, to Puerto Rico and Mexico. The inspection and storage...

Government-mandated money in the form of legal tender is a historical anomaly. For much of mankind’s history private monies and quasi monies competed alongside each other. Now, again, a new era of private money competition is resurging and reshaping our world. Money, finance, and banking are currently experiencing the “Great Unbundling.” Value chains within finance are being broken up across the spectrum. Customers or users are no longer obtaining their money...