Tag Archives: Featured

© Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com In 2017, an average Swiss resident visited a medical professional 4.32 times, according to data recently published by Eurostat. Only residents of Denmark (4.30), Sweden (2.77) and Cyprus (2.09) went to see a doctor less often. The average number of visits across those European countries with 2017 data was 6.84. Countries with the highest frequency were Hungary (10.9), Slovakia (10.9), Germany (9.9), Lithuania (9.5) and Liechtenstein...

The Swiss Senate sitting in Bern earlier this week. (Keystone / Anthony Anex) The Swiss parliament has given the go-ahead for a free trade deal with Indonesia, although not without debates about sustainability and the Asian country’s production of palm oil. Almost exactly a year after the deal was signed between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Indonesia, the Swiss parliament gave its green light on Thursday. Switzerland and EFTA members Liechtenstein,...

While I have reportedly highlighted the many risks of the current monetary policy direction and the multiple distortions that it has created in the markets, in the economy, and even in society, one of the most pressing dangers of the unnaturally low rates and cheap money is the staggering accumulation of debt. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the ballooning corporate debt, especially in the US. It has been growing so rapidly and for so long, that many investors...

Is the global economy on the mend as everyone at least here in America is now assuming? For anyone else to attempt to answer that question, they might first have to figure out what went wrong in the first place. Most have simply assumed, and continue to assume, it has been fallout from the “trade wars.” That is a demonstrably false guess, one easily dispelled by the facts. A trade war produces winners from its losers. But we cannot find a single one. There have...

A recent paper in the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) has started a debate on the accuracy of “loss aversion,” the idea that people are driven by fear of losses more than they are by the potential for gain. Core to behavioral economics, this idea has been rather universally accepted and been part of the awarding of two economics Nobel Prizes, in 2002 to Daniel Kahneman and in 2017 to Richard Thaler. One of the authors of the JCP article, Professor David Gal...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.04% to 1.0875 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 20(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The holiday mood has tightened its grip on the capital markets, and global investors have nearly completely ignored the impeachment of the US President as it has little economic or policy significance. US equities reached new record highs yesterday with the S&P 500 moving above...

Current Account In summary: Nearly any change against the third quarter of 2018. About the same figures. But clearly and – as usual – a massive surplus. Key figures: Current Account: Up 39.15% against Q3/2018 to 18.09 bn. CHF of which Goods Trade Balance: Plus 49.78% against Q3/2018 to 16.76 bn. of which the Services Balance: Minus 12.94% to 5.25 bn. of which Investment Income: Plus 25.74% to 5.08 bn. CHF. Current Account Switzerland Q3 2019(see more posts on...

Current Account In summary: Nearly any change against the third quarter of 2018. About the same figures. But clearly and – as usual – a massive surplus. Key figures: Current Account: Up 39.15% against Q3/2018 to 18.09 bn. CHF of which Goods Trade Balance: Plus 49.78% against Q3/2018 to 16.76 bn. of which the Services Balance: Minus 12.94% to 5.25 bn. of which Investment Income: Plus 25.74% to 5.08 bn. CHF. Current Account Switzerland Q3 2019(see more posts on...

Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang maintained a sell rating on Apple with a price target of $150 per share, citing a decline in iPhone sales in China is leading to a wave of production cuts by the company. “Based on our recent channel checks, we believe Apple’s total iPhone sales in China were down ~-30% y/y in November,” said Zhang in a note to clients on Tuesday. Zhang stated that consumers are opting for cheaper models than the iPhone 11 Pro, which retails...

The reckoning is coming, and everyone who counted on “eternal growth of borrowing” to stave off the reckoning is in for a big surprise. We’ve used a simple trick to keep the status quo from imploding for the past 11 years: borrow whatever it takes to keep paying the skyrocketing costs for housing, healthcare, college, childcare, government, permanent wars and so on. The trick has worked because central banks pushed interest rates to zero, lowering the costs of...