A Zurich apiarist checks her bees in April © Keystone / Gaetan Bally The short spring and wet summer means Swiss bees have produced ten times less honey than usual. As a result the price of honey is set to increase. After last year’s exceptional harvest, 2021 is looking very meagre: while a hive normally produces 15-20 kilos of honey, the current figure is 0-3 kilos, Swiss public radio, RTS, reportedExternal link on Thursday. “The scarcity of honey is mainly due to...
Read More »Have We Reached “Peak Self-Glorifying Billionaire”?
Perhaps we should update Marie Antoinette’s famous quip of cluelessness to: “Let them eat space tourism.” As billionaires squander immense resources on self-glorifying space flights, the corporate media is nothing short of worshipful. Millions of average citizens, on the other hand, wish the self-glorifying billionaires had taken themselves and all the other parasitic, tax-avoiding, predatory billionaires with them on a one-way trip into space. Have we reached Peak...
Read More »Ask Bob: Withholding Taxes From Social Security
[embedded content] [embedded content] You Might Also Like SNB Sight Deposits: Inflation is there, CHF must Rise 2021-07-19 Sight Deposits have risen by +0.2 bn CHF, this means that the SNB is intervening and buying Euros and Dollars. RRP No Collateral Coincidences As Bills Quirk, Too 2021-07-12 So much going on this week in the bond market, it actually...
Read More »Episode 22: Reimagining Physical Gold with Adam Trexler of Valaurum
Can there be innovation in physical gold? Absolutely! In our increasingly digital reality, innovation in the material world may seem a bit passé, but not to Dr. Adam Trexler, founder and President of Valaurum. Valaurum produces the Aurum® – the smallest verifiable unit of gold for investment available on the market today. Adam joined Keith and John for an invigorating discussion on what the future of gold is going to look like. “We’re at the tip of the iceberg in...
Read More »Portrait of an Evil Man: Karl Marx
In the “German Democratic Republic” they tell the story about a weary old man who tries to gain entrance into the Red Paradise. A Communist Archangel holds him up at the gate and severely cross-questions him: “Where were you born?” “In an ancient bishopric.” “What was your citizenship?” “Prussian.” “Who was your father?” “A wealthy lawyer.” “What was your faith?” “I converted to Christianity.” “Not very good. Married? Who was your wife?” “The daughter of an...
Read More »SNB-Gewinn von 5 Mrd. Franken im zweiten Quartal erwartet
Am 30. Juli publiziert die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) ihr provisorisches Finanzergebnis für das zweite Quartal 2021. Die SNB dürfte nach Berechnungen der UBS für diesen Zeitraum fast 5 Mrd. CHF und für das erste Halbjahr 2021 fast 45 Mrd. CHF Gewinn ausweisen. Das Eigenkapital der SNB betrug Ende März 221 Mrd. CHF und dürfte auch Mitte Jahr im selben Bereich liegen, denn der Gewinn im zweiten Quartal entspricht in etwa den Ausschüttungen an Bund und Kantone...
Read More »Facebook Pay To Be Available to Online Retailers Starting With Shopify
With digital payments picking up pace across the globe, social media giant Facebook is extending its payment services to online retailers. Shopify has become the first e-commerce platform to sign up for Facebook Pay. This will allow Shopify merchants to offer Facebook Pay as a payment option during checkout, eliminating the need to re-enter payment information for every transaction. Prior to this, Facebook Pay, which was launched in 2019, was available for its main...
Read More »FX Daily, July 21: Did Japan Deliver a Fait Accompli to the US?
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.18% to 1.0837 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 21(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The biggest rally in US equities in four months has helped stabilize global shares today. In the Asia Pacific region, Japan, China, and Australian markets advanced. Led by information technology and consumer discretionary sectors, Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is up around 1.35% near the...
Read More »Has a new price premium on cocoa really helped struggling African farmers?
Farmers are now getting lower prices for their crop even though a living wage premium was introduced. Keystone / Legnan Koula Farmers in Ivory Coast – the world’s largest cocoa-producing nation – are getting less for their cocoa despite the introduction of a payment that aims to secure them a living wage. The West African nation of Ivory Coast accounts for around 45% of the world’s cocoa production that brings in export revenue of $3.5 billion (CHF3.2 billion) a...
Read More »Lower Yields And (fewer) Bills
Back on February 23, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell stopped by (in a virtual, Zoom sense) the Senate Banking Committee to testify as required by law. In the Q&A portion, he was asked the following by Montana’s Senator Steve Daines: SENATOR DAINES. I just was looking at the T bill chart and noticing since the 1st of February, the one month rates have dropped in half from 0.06 to today 0.03, two months went from 0.07, to 0.02. We’re starting to get into that...
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