Tag Archives: Featured

Die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA veröffentlicht eine weitere Aufsichtsmitteilung im Kontext der COVID-19-Krise. Sie passt darin die Fristen von diversen, bereits erteilten Erleichterungen an und präzisiert die Berechnung der Finanzierungsquote NSFR. Mit der Aufsichtsmitteilung 06/2020 vom 19. Mai 2020 passt die FINMA die Fristen von verschiedenen, bereits gewährten Erleichterungen an. Die Kunden halten weiterhin unüblich hohe Bargeldeinlagen bei Schweizer...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that this is biggest challenge in the history of the EU.  (Keystone / Andreas Gora / Pool) Ueli Maurer has warned that the financial crisis following Covid-19 and the resulting instability in Europe are a danger for Switzerland. In an interview with public broadcaster RTSexternal link on Tuesday, he said that he is concerned about the repercussions on Switzerland of a possible debt crisis in certain countries, especially...

© Transversospinales | Dreamstime.com Yesterday, EasyJet announced that a “highly sophisticated” cyber-attack had affected around 9 million customers. The company said its “investigation found that the email address and travel details of approximately 9 million customers were accessed. These affected customers will be contacted in the next few days. If you are not contacted then your information has not been accessed.” The statement said 2,208 customers had their...

The virus news stream is mixed; the dollar has stabilized a bit FOMC minutes will be released; Canada reports April CPI and March wholesale trade sales; the news from Brazil keeps getting worse Another group of EU nations will release their own plan in a rebuttal of France and Germany; UK reported April CPI data Japan reported March core machine orders; Australia reported weak preliminary April retail sales China kept its benchmark Loan Prime Rates unchanged;...

It has been a long time since I read anything by Paul Krugman, and seeing his most recent column simply reminds me why I’ve not missed anything. As both an extreme Keynesian and political partisan, he long ago abandoned economic analysis for something economists should recognize as nothing less than what Mises called metaphysics. Nonetheless, my curiosity got the best of me when he wrote that reopening the economy and allowing people to go to work almost surely will...

Economics in Two Lessons: Why Markets Work So Well, and Why They Can Fail So Badly John Quiggin Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019 xii + 390 pp. Abstract: John Quiggin’s Economics in Two Lessons alleges a failing in Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson: the absence of a discussion of market failure. Quiggin’s adherence to the doctrine of neoclassical equilibrium misses an important fact: the absence of a neoclassical equilibrium is not a recession, but...

Count me among the bond vigilantes. On the issue of supply I yield (pun intended) to no one. The US government is the brokest entity humanity has ever conceived – and that was before March 2020. There will be a time, if nothing is done, where this will matter a great deal. That time isn’t today nor is it tomorrow or anytime soon because it’s the demand side which is so confusing and misdirected. Realizing this is true does not cancel your vigilantism. For two years...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.13% to 1.0592 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 20(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Another late sell-off of US equities, ostensibly on questions over Moderna’s progress on a vaccine, failed to deter equity gains in the Asia Pacific region. China was a notable exception, but the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for the fourth consecutive session. European shares are little...

US policymakers’ bold actions in response to the coronavirus bear some traces of the free-wheeling deficits, repressed interest rates and central bank activism (money creation) that form the cornerstones of the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) playbook. MMT’s popularity is likely to persist, gaining converts among those who previously supported classic assumptions about budget constraints or the ‘crowding out’ of private investment by growing government indebtedness....

© Ellesi | Dreamstime.com Italy is preparing to reopen its borders with the rest of Europe, according to the newspaper La Repubblica. A draft law on new rules was published on 15 May 2020 by the Italian Council of Ministers. It provides for the possibility of allowing entry to Italy from 3 June 2020 without requiring those arriving from certain countries to quarantine for 14 days. The countries include EU nations and Schengen members, including Switzerland and...