Tag Archives: Featured

Von Lucien Looser – Er hält den ganzen Kanton Zug auf Trab. Mal kämpft er bis vor Bundesgericht um Akteneinsicht, dann will er ans Verwaltungsgericht und brüskiert damit die etablierten Parteien, die die Sitze gerne untereinander verteilt hätten. Wer ist dieser umtriebige Demokrat. Die...

On Sunday 10 June 2018, Switzerland’s electorate voted on a referendum calling for the country’s commercial banks to be banned from creating money. In a country world-famous for its banking industry, this was quite an interesting turn of events. Known as the Sovereign Money Initiative or ‘Vollgeld’, the referendum was brought to the Swiss electorate in the form of a ‘Popular Initiative‘. The Sovereign Money referendum...

The ECB has had essentially two options going into the June meeting: either a dovish decision but a hawkish communication (hinting at an imminent QE tapering), or a hawkish decision but a dovish communication (counterb alancing a tapering announcement with dovish sweeteners). Ever since economic indicators have started to deteriorate this year and risks to global trade have accumulated, ECB rhetoric has been...

© Edgars Sermulis | Dreamstime.com Against the wishes of the Federal Council, Switzerland’s upper house, the Council of States, rejected a plan to prevent people from withdrawing lump sums from their 2nd Pillar pensions, according to the newspaper Tribune de Genève. Last week, the Council of States voted 25 to 15 to reject the plan. The Federal Council thinks forcing people to convert their pension money into an...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.03% to 1.1609 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 12(see more posts on EUR/CHF, EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar initially rallied in early Asia ahead of the US-North Korea summit but has subsequently shed the gains and more. As North American dealers return to their desks, the dollar is lower against nearly all the major...

Stock Markets EM FX ended Friday on a mixed note, capping off a roller coaster week for some of the more vulnerable currencies. We expect continued efforts by EM policymakers to inject some stability into the markets. However, we believe the underlying dollar rally remains intact. Central bank meetings in the US, eurozone, and Japan this week are likely to drive home that point. Stock Markets Emerging Markets, June 6...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Small Crowds, Shrinking Premiums The prices of gold and silver rose five bucks and 37 cents respectively last week. Is this the blast off to da moon for the silver rocket of halcyon days, in other words 2010-2011? We will look at the basis signals in a bit. But for now, we want to comment on the absolutely moribund state...

The concept of bank reserves grew from the desire to avoid the periodic bank runs that plagued Western financial systems. As noted in detail starting here, the question had always been how much cash in a vault was enough? Governments around the world decided to impose a minimum requirement, both as a matter of sanctioned safety and also to reassure the public about a particular bank’s status. Later on, governments...

This is not what we ordered! German factory orders collapsed in April, suggesting that the economic slowdown could extend into Q2. The underlying pace of domestic demand expansion looks more resilient. The main downside risks relate to net exports, in our view. Still, the most recent data releases have not been fully consistent with the ECB’s “hawkish moderation” scenario. A rebound in soft and hard data will be...

Wer sich intensiv mit der fachlichen Materie „Vollgeld-Initiative“ auseinandergesetzt hat, kann aufatmen. Wäre diese Initiative angenommen worden, hätte deren Umsetzung unser Land in ein wirtschaftliches und politisches Chaos gestürzt. Es hätte nur zwei Möglichkeiten gegeben: entweder die Initiative einfach ignorieren und nicht umsetzen (wie das in unserem Land mehr und mehr in Mode kommt) oder sie nachträglich für...