Tag Archives: Featured

Parmelin struck a personal note in his speech at the UN in New York and mentioned his professional background as a wine-grower. 2021 Getty Images Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, has called for solidarity to tackle global environmental and trade issues. Addressing the United Nations general assembly in New York, Parmelin said the Covid pandemic had entrenched protectionist policies and laid open the vulnerability of global production...

Overview:  The market's reaction to the FOMC statement was going according to our script, with the dollar backing off on a buy rumor sell the fact type of activity until Powell provided an end date for the tapering (mid-2022) before providing a start date (maybe next month).  This spurred a dollar rally.  Equities pulled back but recovered.  The dollar is paring its gains today.  It is lower against the other major currencies, but the yen, and the euro, which had...

11:35 Der Schweizer Aktienmarkt tendiert am Donnerstag auf breiter Front fester und hat damit die Kursverluste vom vergangenen Montag bereits wieder wettgemacht. Zu verdanken ist dies laut Händlern zum einen der Entspannung der Lage bei dem in der Krise steckenden chinesischen Immobilienentwickler Evergrande, der eine heute fällige Couponzahlung einer Anleihe leisten will. Zudem reagiert der Markt positiv auf den “Nullentscheid” der Schweizerischen Nationalbank...

In the second quarter of 2021, the current account surplus amounted to almost CHF 11 billion, CHF 7 billion higher than in the same quarter of 2020. The rise was mainly attributable to a higher receipts surplus in goods trade. This was counteracted by primary income, where the  expenses surplus increased compared to the same quarter in 2020 due to the fact that, in direct investment, expenses rose more strongly than receipts. In the financial account, reported...

Poster advertising of tobacco products and e-cigarettes that can be seen from public places – for example, here in Zurich – will be banned. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally The Swiss parliament has agreed new advertising and sponsorship regulations for tobacco products. However, the supporters of a total ban on tobacco advertising are unimpressed. The long-running debate was heated until the end, with the political left trying in vain to push through a more restrictive...

This complete capture of all avenues of regulation and governance can only end one way, a kind of hyper-stagflation. Zeus Y. and I go way back, and he has always had a knack for summarizing just how insane, disconnected from reality, manipulative and exploitive the status quo narrative has become. I’ve occasionally published his commentaries and essays here since 2008 Imaginary Worth, Empire of Debt: How Modern Finance Created Its Own Downfall (October 15, 2008),...

Overview: The markets have stabilized since Monday's panic attack but have not made much headway.  China and Taiwan returned from the extended holiday weekend.  Mainland shares were mixed. Shanghai rose by about 0.4%, while Shenzhen fell by around 0.25%.  Taiwan got tagged for 2%, and Japan's Topix was off 1%.  Hong Kong and South Korean markets were closed.  Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is firmer for the second day but is still lower for the week.  US indices...

The already-wealthy and their minions are unprepared for the Smart Crowd opting out. Clueless economists are wringing their hands about the labor shortage without looking at the underlying causes, one of which is painfully obvious: the American economy now only works for the top 10%; the American Dream of turning labor into capital is now reserved for the already-wealthy. As a result the Smart Crowd is opting out of the conventional workforce’s...

Isn’t a principle of nonaggression against others another way of stating the self-ownership principle? “Not necessarily,” says the insightful philosopher Chandran Kukathas. Original Article: “Is Self-Ownership Necessary?” Chandran Kukathas is one of the best contemporary political philosophers, and one of the few sympathetic to libertarian views. Unlike Murray Rothbard, he does not consider self-ownership fundamental but instead defends libertarianism from a...

Overview: Coming into yesterday's session, the S&P 500 had fallen in eight of the past ten sessions.  It closed on its lows before the weekend and gapped.  Nearly the stories in the press blamed China and the likely failure of one of its largest property developers, Evergrande.  Those that are prone to the sky-is-falling narratives refer to it as Lehman moment.  The S&P 's 2.7% decline yesterday was the largest in half of a year, and the VIX jumped to...