Tag Archives: Featured

For about 1 in 4, Social Security provides at least 90 percent of their income. How many retired workers are getting less than $1,000 per month in Social Security benefits? The question came up and I was curious enough to find the answer, and download the data into an Excel spreadsheet which I saved as a PDF that you can review here. Note that this data is for the 46.5 million retired workers only, and does not include benefits paid to survivors, spouses,...

The prices of the metals hit their lows by the end of April. Gold traded for around $1,685, and is now over $1,900. Silver was around $24, and is now over $28. These are big moves (though of course nothing like bitcoin). Both metals are subject to the persistent belief that their prices are greatly suppressed. But right now, silver is widely believed to be in a global shortage. We have explained this as a shortage of retail products, most especially one-ounce silver...

[This article is part of the Understanding Money Mechanics series, by Robert P. Murphy. The series will be published as a book in 2021.] In chapter 7 we summarized some of the major changes in how central banks have operated since the 2008 financial crisis. In the present chapter, we detail some of the even more recent changes in Federal Reserve operations since the onset of the coronavirus panic in March 2020. Size of the Fed’s Balance Sheet The most obvious change...

Zurich-based FQX secures $4.7M in seed funding to scale their revolutionary eNoteTM infrastructure. Earlybird led the round with participation of SIX Fintech Ventures, the non-strategic corporate venture arm of SIX, and the unicorn founder Carsten Thoma. FQX is radically facilitating trade finance & money markets by using eNotesTM, a disruptive short-term financing & payment instrument. In essence, an eNoteTM is an unconditional promise to pay a specific sum...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.13% to 1.0965 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 02(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The US dollar is enjoying broad, even if not large, gains today following yesterday’s recovery from three-year lows against sterling and four-year lows against the Canadian dollar. The greenback is firmer against all the major currencies. The Australian and New Zealand dollars the...

Today, airplanes account for 2-3% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, but their share has been growing rapidly and is expected to triple by 2050. © Keystone / Christian Beutler The Swiss aviation sector, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Zurich Airport, has pledged to slash CO2 emissions and make flying net zero by 2050. On Tuesday, Zurich, Geneva and Basel airports, together with SWISS, Easyjet, and the umbrella organisation Swiss Business...

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Sensationalism, like central bankers and policy makers, has many faces, views and voices. This may explain why so many want to hold their ears, hug their knees and beg the heavens for a beacon of guiding light amidst a 24/7 fog of info-cycle pablum masquerading as information. Facts in a Fog of Sensationalism With so many opposing ideas, movements, policies, parties, and personalities buzzing galvanically for...

The collapse of Greensill Capital has been the biggest financial scandal of the year so far, having set off a massive public corruption scandal in the UK that has deeply embarrassed the ruling Conservative Party due to the close involvement of former PM David Cameron, who was on the Greensill payroll and was caught trying to steer relief funds meant for small businesses to Greensill to help avert its collapse. Most recently, Credit Suisse cited Greensill as its...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.15% to 1.0948 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 01(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The US dollar fell against most major currencies following the PBOC’s modest move to reduce the upward pressure on the yuan. Follow-through selling was seen earlier today, and sterling reached a new three-year high. However, the dollar found a bid in the European morning, while the...

David Solo’s role in supply-chain firm Greensill’s pursuit of Swiss riches was pivotal Keystone / Steffen Schmidt In late 2014, David Solo lent A$12.2 million (CHF8.5 million) to a little-known supply-chain finance group with eye-catching claims. Greensill Capital, which was trying to muscle in on a corner of finance dominated for decades by banks, vowed to make “finance fairer” and declared that it would be “democratising capital”. The cheque was helpful, but the...