Tag Archives: Featured

As credit-asset bubbles pop, the dominoes start falling. The economy is far more precarious than the surface boom/bubble suggests. A great many households, enterprises and municipalities are in overloaded boats whose gunwales are just a few inches above the water; the slightest wave will swamp and sink them. The cost structure of the economy is completely out of whack with what households and enterprises can...

  From the second half of last week through the first half of this week, the S&P 500 rallied. It surpassed our target of 2700 and made it to almost 2740, retracing more nearly 2/3 of the decline from the record high set last September. It stalled ahead of the 200-day moving average, which had previously offered support declines. The S&P 500 pulled back in the second half of the week. The fact the three-day...

Sunrise had 3.4 million customers in 2017, including 2.4 million mobile phone customers (© KEYSTONE / THOMAS DELLEY) Switzerland’s Sunrise Communications Group has confirmed it is in talks to buy Liberty Global’s cable operator UPC Switzerland. The company said in a statementexternal link on Tuesday: “Sunrise confirms it is in discussions with Liberty Global regarding a possible acquisition of UPC Schweiz. Sunrise will...

As more and more data rolls in even in this delayed fashion, the more what happened to end last year makes sense. The Census Bureau updated today its statistics for US trade in November 2018. Heading into the crucial month of December, these new figures suggest a big setback in the global economy that is almost certainly the reason markets became so chaotic. After all, money dealers don’t need this kind of statistical...

Malaysia’s leading gold distributor saves money with a Monetary Metals lease Scottsdale, Ariz, February 8, 2019—Monetary Metals® announces that it has leased gold to Quantum Metal, to support the growth of its business of selling gold through retail banks. Investors earn 4.5% on their gold, which is held as Perth Mint minted gold bars in inventory. Monetary Metals has a disruptive model, leasing gold from investors who...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.22% at 1.1343 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 08(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: As North American traders return to their posts to put the finishing touches on the week’s activity, the Dollar Index is extending its advance for a seventh consecutive session. If sustained, it will be the longest advance since...

Eariler this week, when the San Fran Fed published a paper that suggested that the recovery would have been stronger if only the Fed had cut rates to negative, we proposed that this is nothing more than a trial balloon for the next recession/depression, one in which the Federal Reserve will seek affirmative “empirical evidence” that greenlights this unprecedented NIRPy step (in addition to QE of course). Today, in his...

The SKS consumer group says there are enough rules regarding unsolicited phone calls in Switzerland, but they are not properly enforced (© KEYSTONE / GAETAN BALLY) According to a consumer group, over 18 million unsolicited telephone calls are made every month in Switzerland. The SKS consumer group for German-speaking regionsexternal link has addressed the problem of unsolicited phone calls in a letter sent to a Swiss...

Since I don’t speak Japanese, I’m left to wonder if there is an intent to embellish the translation. Whoever is responsible for writing in English what is written by the Bank of Japan in Japanese, they are at times surely seeking out attention. However its monetary policy may be described in the original language, for us it has become so very clownish. At the end of last July, BoJ’s governing body made a split...

Everyone hates LIBOR, until it does something interesting. It used to be the most boring interest rate in the world. When it was that, it was also the most important. Though it followed along federal funds this was only because of the arb between onshore (NYC) and offshore (mainly London, sometimes Caymans) conducted by banks between themselves and their subs (whichever was located where). Unsecured markets used to be...