Tag Archives: Featured

It’s always something. There’s forever some mystery factor standing in the way. On the topic of inflation, for years it was one “transitory” issue after another. The media, on behalf of the central bankers it holds up as a technocratic ideal, would report these at face value. The more obvious explanation, the argument with all the evidence, just couldn’t be true otherwise it’d collapse the technocracy right down to the ground. And so it was also in the bond market....

Anyone claiming they can project the trajectory of the U.S. and global economy is deluding themselves. Normalcy depends entirely on everyday life being predictable. To be predictable, life must be stable, which means that there is a high level of certainty in every aspect of life. The world has entered an era of profound uncertainty, an uncertainty that will only increase as self-reinforcing feedbacks strengthen disrupting dynamics and perverse incentives drive...

Markets have struggled to find a clear direction as they attempt to digest US election news, debate performance, the impact of increased Covid-19 restrictions in many countries and vaccine news. The charts of gold and silver reflect the battle for dominance between the Bulls and the Bears. Today’s silver chart is a bit more crowded and busy than usual. Silver has continued to close just above the major trend line support from the March lows. It is also trading below...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.10% to 1.0779 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 1(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Speculation that a new round of fiscal stimulus from the US is possible is encouraging risk-taking today.  Many large Asian centers were closed for holidays today, and a technical problem prevented the Tokyo Stock Exchange from opening. Nevertheless, the markets that were open rose by...

Zurich, 30 September 2020 – The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index, a yearly study by UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office, indicates bubble risk or a significant overvaluation of housing markets in half of all evaluated cities. Prices increased on average, with Europe showing most cities at risk The Eurozone stands out as the region with the most overheated housing markets. Munich and Frankfurt top the ranking. Paris and Amsterdam...

Millions of litres of radioactively contaminated water are stored in water tanks at the tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, in Japan. Keystone / Kimimasa Mayama Researchers in Zurich have developed a filter membrane made of whey proteins and activated carbon that can clean contaminated radioactive water. They hope to deploy their invention at the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Four years ago, scientists at the federal...

“The right of self-determination in regard to the question of membership in a state thus means: whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory, whether it be a single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts, make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time, but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state, their...

As one of Africa’s largest copper producers, it seemed like a no-brainer. Financial firms across the Western world, pension funds from the US or banks in Europe, they lined up for a bit of additional yield. This was 2012, still global recovery on the horizon – at least that’s what “they” all kept saying. Zambia did what everyone does, the country floated its first Eurobond ($750 million). At that point, copper was only down modestly from its 2011 peak. By 2014,...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.05% to 1.0798 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 30(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Quarter and month-end considerations could be overwhelming other factors today. Turnaround Tuesday saw early gains in US equities fade. Asia Pacific shares were mixed, with the Nikkei (-1.5%) and Australia (-2.3%) bear the brunt of the selling, while China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and...

Switzerland’s central bank is exploring the potential of blockchain but is in no rush to produce digital cash. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the buzz-phrase of the moment. But the Swiss National Bank (SNB) says producing digital Swiss francs for the general public would create many problems with unclear benefits. The Swiss government has backed up the central bank word for word. And it turns out that an SNB issued digital Swiss...