[Chapter 13 of Rothbard’s newly edited and released Conceived in Liberty, vol. 5, The New Republic: 1784–1791.] From the very beginning of the great emerging struggle over the Constitution the Antifederalist forces suffered from a grave and debilitating problem of leadership. The problem was that the liberal leadership was so conservatized that most of them agreed that centralizing revisions of the Articles were necessary—as can be seen from the impost and...
Read More »Government approves accord with UK to ease trade for companies
Switzerland has signed a number of deals with the UK as part of its “Mind the Gap” strategy to maintain bilateral relations as much as possible in the wake of Brexit. (Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and the UK’s Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay seen here in 2019) Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved The Swiss government has approved an agreement with Britain on mutual recognition of companies with “AEO” customs security approval,...
Read More »Nicht jeder Preisanstieg ist Inflation
Immer wieder wird Inflation genannt, was keine ist – Markt- und inflationsbedingter Preisanstieg sind auseinander zu halten – Märkte, auf denen die Preise inflationsbedingt schon gestiegen sind Preissteigerungen sind nicht immer mit Inflation gleichzusetzen. Die Bezeichnung Inflation für Verteuerungen wird meist synonym, aber falsch verwendet. Teuerung ist nicht gleich Inflation, aber Inflation immer eine Teuerung. Jüngst war zu lesen: „Öl-Rally treibt die...
Read More »Critics Claim Bitcoin Is a Threat to the Environment. They’re Wrong.
One popular critique of bitcoin is energy cost per transaction. This doesn’t begin to capture bitcoin’s massive energy savings compared to fiat currency. Bitcoin’s cost per transaction is well known, and often critiqued; one article in Wired magazine called bitcoin “[a] big middle finger to earth’s climate.” This is because bitcoin’s security, redundancy, and architecture are more energy intensive than traditional payments relying on a single point of failure....
Read More »The “Helicopter Parent” Fed and the Fatal Crash of Risk
All the risks generated by gambling with trillions of borrowed and leveraged dollars didn’t actually vanish; they were transferred by the Fed to the entire system. The Federal Reserve is the nation’s Helicopter Parent, saving everyone from the consequences of their actions. We all know what happens when over-protective Helicopter Parents save their precious offspring from any opportunity to learn from mistakes and failures: they cripple their child’s ability to...
Read More »State Legislatures Are Finally Limiting Governors’ Emergency Powers. But only Some of Them.
Last week, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill that would limit gubernatorial authority in declaring emergencies. The bill would allow the General Assembly to call itself into an emergency session, with the idea that the legislature could then vote to end, or otherwise limit, a governor’s emergency powers. Although both the legislature and the governor’s office are controlled by Republicans, the legislature has apparently wearied of the governor’s repeated...
Read More »Credit Suisse Slashes Bonuses After $4.7 Billion Archegos Disaster
While all of the banks playing “pass the hot potato” with Archegos Capital’s now-dismantled equity book are undoubtedly still assessing the damage they incurred (or at least will report to shareholders), it looks like no one had it worse than Credit Suisse. The banking giant has now slashed its bonus pool by “hundreds of millions of dollars” according to FT, after the firm lost $4.7 billion in the Archegos implosion. Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second biggest...
Read More »Swiss banks queuing up to jump on blockchain train
Digital bank Swissquote is expanding its crypto business by delving into the new world of blockchain-compliant digital assets. It appears that they are not alone: several high street banks also plan to launch “tokenization” services. Swissquote is teaming up with digital assets service provider Taurus to allow clients to issue and invest in tokenized assets. Blockchain – or other distributed ledger technology systems – promises to simplify the process of creating a...
Read More »Weekly View – M&A Boom
M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity is on the rise, as companies coming out of the pandemic with strong balance sheets shop for buying opportunities. Last week ACS, a Spanish construction group, approached Italian transport company Atlantia to buy Italy’s largest motorway network. Two big funds are also eyeing Dutch telecommunications company KPN as a potential acquisition target. M&A is one of our 2021 investment themes and we like event-driven hedge...
Read More »Government faces growing pressure to relax Covid measures
Bars and restaurants in Switzerland have been closed since Christmas and there are growing calls to allow outdoor dining. Keystone/Martial Trezzini Pressure is building on the Swiss government to ease restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises on Monday called for a review of the current situation, saying the government was focusing too much on health while failing to consider the economic...
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