Tag Archives: Featured

Throughout the next weeks, we will regularly feature statistics showing some of the costs of the prevailing lockdown politics. This article is an introduction to this new series. All over Europe, life has come to a halt again. As a second wave of Coronavirus infections has arrived, social and economic life has largely once more, as was already the case in spring when COVID-19 first spread across the world. Spain, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy,...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) I have recently ordered a few more non-fiction books, and I have just finished The Simple Path To Wealth. This book was on my reading list for a very long time. The Simple Path To Wealth, by Jim L. Collins, is about investing simply to amass enough money to reach Financial Independence. The entire focus of the book is to keep investing as simple as possible. And it is something done quite well. In this...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]“Russia, Russia, Russia,” the current president used to sarcastically chastise opponents for wondering about 2016 election tinkering from Putin’s principality. Recent MAGA rallies featured “Covid, covid, covid,” with President Trump complaining that the press could think of nothing else.

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.13% to 1.0756 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: US threats to break-up Facebook and the stalled stimulus talks spurred profit-taking in US shares yesterday and is dampening enthusiasm today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell for the third time this week, and Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is little changed. US shares are trading with...

Stimulus talks drag on; US November CPI will be today’s data highlight; US Treasury wraps up a big week of auctions today with $24 bln of 30-year bonds on offer The November budget statement will hold some interest; weekly jobless claims will be closely watched; Brazil left rates unchanged at 2.0% but made some important hawkish changes to its forward guidance; Peru is expected to keep rates steady at 0.5% Brexit negotiations have been extended again; two-day EU...

Janet Yellen – first she got to print a lot of funny money, now she gets to autograph it. The Titanic meanwhile finds itself in uncharted waters and rumor has it that there may be icebergs lurking not too far from here. [PT] Autographing Funny Money The United States Secretary of the Treasury bears a shameful job duty. They must place their autograph on the face of the Federal Reserve’s legal tender notes. Here, for the whole world to witness, the Treasury Secretary...

Some economists, such as the 2017 Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler and his colleague Cass Sunstein, have proposed an unusual justification for government interference with people’s choices. They do not intend, they say, to override the preferences that people have. They don’t want to tell people what they “should” want, according to an external standard that people don’t accept. They claim, however, that accepting the actual preferences people have still leaves room for...

© Peter Moulton | Dreamstime.com Update: It appears rail connections between Italy and Switzerland will not be interrupted after Switzerland’s president and the Italian minister of transport spoke on Wednesday. Solutions have been identified to ensure compliance with Italy’s anti-COVID measures. Rail links are expected to gradually return to normal over the next few days, according to a report by RSI. The railway connections between Switzerland and Italy will not be...

On 8 December 2020, Switzerland’s Federal Council announced it was considering further restrictions starting from 12 December 2020 and running until 20 January 2021. The Federal Council announced that it plans to harmonise and reinforce measures recently introduced by the cantons. It will meet on 11 December 2020 and again on 18 December 2020 to decide on further measures to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it said in a press release. The epidemiological...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.05% to 1.0753 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 9(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The market is hopeful today. The Johnson-von der Leyen dinner is seen as evidence that both sides see one more opportunity, and sterling is among the strongest currencies today. Hopes of a $900 bln+ fiscal stimulus package in the US helped stir animal spirits and lift US stocks to...