Tag Archives: Featured

Libertarians think that taxation is theft. The government takes away part of your income and property by force. Your payments aren’t voluntary. If you think they are, try to withhold payment and see what happens. An influential book by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel, The Myth of Ownership, tries to show that this view of taxation is wrong. Many people, they say, foolishly resent taxes. By what right does the government take away part of what we own? Isn’t this...

The stock market’s dichotomy grows ever wider. On the one side, record high prices which are being set by the expectations of a trade deal plus renewed worldwide “stimulus.” Sure, officials everywhere were late to see the downturn coming, but they’ve since woken up and went to work. On the other side, though, there’s not nearly the same level confidence. Earnings are derived from several factors but chiefly the economic climate in which companies operate....

US Banks are seeing a larger number of new entrants into the industry. Chime, a mobile-only bank, has opened two million online checking accounts and is adding more customers each month than Wells Fargo or Citibank. Firms from outside traditional consumer banking including Square, Goldman Sachs (Marcus), and Robinhood are entering the industry as well. The consulting firm CG42 said in a recent report on the vulnerability of retail banking that it expects the ten...

An iceberg melts in Kulusuk, Greenland near the arctic circle. (file photo) (Keystone / John Mcconnico) The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is doing enough to mitigate climate damage with its investment policy, senior directors have stated. Switzerland’s central bank does not have the mandate to impose environmental conditions on the commercial banking sector. The remarks follow a recent speechexternal link by the new head of the International Monetary Fund...

A synchronized global slowdown, with no end in sight, has spooked some of the wealthiest investors around the world, according to a new survey from UBS Wealth Management, seen by Bloomberg. UBS polled wealthy investors, who are preparing for a significant stock market correction by the end of next year. S&P 500 Index, 2013-2021 - Click to enlarge In the survey of more than 3,400 high net wealth respondents, 25% said they’ve sold risk assets, such as equities,...

◆ Gold price falls to a three-month low as concentrated selling of COMEX gold futures contracts equal to over 3 million ounces are sold in 30 minutes ◆ 33,596 contracts were aggressively sold in the 30 minutes between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. New York time which is more than triple the 100-day average for that time of day ◆ This pushed the most active gold contract to as low as $1,448.90 an ounce, the lowest since August 5 as reported by Bloomberg (see chart below) ◆ It...

Argentinians are known for for slinging clever insults. Spaniards, for example, love Argentine “puteadas” so much that they created a website called “Curse like an Argentinian.” Now in the world of bad words, one stands out that, when received, mortally wounds the rival in the argument. It’s hard to recover after such an attack. Curiously, this insult can be written without violating the rules of decorum. It is the adjective “neoliberal.” This is how the local and...

Renewed US-China trade optimism helped regain some traction. The uptick lacked bullish conviction and warrants some caution. The USD/CHF pair stalled its recent pullback from levels beyond 200-day SMA and regained some traction on the last trading day of the week. Renewed trade optimism weighed on the Swiss franc’s safe-haven status and led to a modest recovery, though bulls struggled to extend the momentum beyond the 0.9900 handle. On the daily chart, the pair has...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.39% to 1.0929 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, November 15(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Comments by US presidential adviser Kudlow playing up the prospects of a trade agreement between the US and China, with other reports suggesting a key call be held today, is helping to underpin sentiment into the weekend. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index pared this week’s loss today, with...

Andréa Maechler, Mitglied des Direktoriums der Schweizerischen Nationalbank. Bild: ZVG Aufgabe der Nationalbank sei die Gewährleistung der Preisstabilität, sagte SNB-Direktorin Andréa Maechler. Es sei nicht wünschenswert, dass die SNB “spezifische struktur- oder gesellschaftspolitische Ziele anstrebe”. Das Bestimmen der Ziele und der Lösungsansätze für den Übergang in eine kohlenstoffarme Wirtschaft müsse “im Rahmen eines Dialogs und aufgrund politischer...