Overview: With mixed elements, the market took the US jobs data as relatively strong and took the dollar and US rates higher. The EU Parliament election has shaken up European politics, with the Belgium government collapsing and French President Macron calling a snap legislative election for the end of the month. Holidays in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Australia made for thinner Asia Pacific trading, but the euro was sold and has reached to one-month lows...
Read More »Bureaucracy: The Red Tape that Prevents Economic Growth
Javier Milei’s chainsaw policy has been without a doubt one of the most interesting and important topics of discussion in world politics. Argentina has taken important measures since Milei assumed the presidency to revert the tragic economic situation that the country was facing. Perhaps one of the most important measures is the adjustments and cuts in the state, the colloquially called “chainsaw policy.”Two months after Milei assumed the presidency, nine thousand...
Read More »Ticino approves lower taxes for the wealthy
The idea is to make cities in Ticino, such as Lugano, more attractive for top managers Keystone – Ats / Ti-Press High incomes in the Swiss canton of Ticino will in future benefit from tax relief. A corresponding amendment to the law was approved by voters on Sunday. Compensatory measures for planned pension cuts for cantonal employees were also approved. With a voter turnout of 49.32%, 60,581 Ticino residents voted in favour of the new tax law and 45,908 against,...
Read More »Week Ahead: FOMC, BOJ, and US and China Inflation
The market got caught leaning the wrong way. The weakness in April's high-frequency US data encouraged participants to push the US two-year yield to its recent floor near 4.70% and took the 10-year yield to two-month lows, slightly above 4.25%. The Dollar Index was driven below the uptrend line drawn off the December 2023 and March and May 2024 lows. We have argued that while the US economy is slowing, the April data seemed to overstate the case, and the May jobs...
Read More »Socialism’s Very Quiet Revolution
In his 1949 book The Road Ahead: America’s Creeping Revolution, John T. Flynn warns about the “great tides of thought and appetite that run unseen deeply below the surface of society.” These unseen tides are political waves that shape the law and institutional policy, but because they are unseen, there is no widespread awareness of the danger they pose. They are barely debated in academic or policy circles. They are treated as an uncontroversial aspect of the...
Read More »The Achilles Heel of the Fiat Money System
The fiat money system will not disappear just like that. Any expectations or hopes to that end should be tempered. Yes, the fiat money system could collapse; yet there is a significant likelihood it will persist longer than most people might think. This prolonged existence may come at a cost: a fascist state encroachment on the freedoms of citizens and entrepreneurs would be more profound than most people realize.Much ink has been spilt about the impending collapse...
Read More »USD/CHF gains amid US labor market strength
In Friday's session, the USD/CHF recovered surging above the 0.8965 mark. Strong Nonfarm Payroll data from the US propelled the USD across the board. US Treasury yields increased while the odds of a cut in September by the Fed slightly declined. The USD/CHF pair is seeing a boost after updated Nonfarm Payroll (NFP) figures from the US were released on Friday, surpassing market expectations. As market bets on the Federal Reserve may turn more...
Read More »If AI Is So Great, Prove It: Eliminate All Surveillance, Spam and Robocalling
AI is for the peons, access to humans is reserved for the wealthy. Judging by the near-infinite hype spewed about AI, its power is practically limitless: it’s going to do all our work better and cheaper than we can do, replacing us at work, to name one example making the rounds. It’s going to revolutionize everything from science to marketing, all the while reaping trillions of dollars in profits for those who own the AI tools, apps, etc. All these extravagant...
Read More »Oil Prices Show Weakening Demand, but Not Because of Electric Cars
The latest OPEC meeting conclusions show that the global economy is not as strong as headlines suggest and that industries all over the world are struggling to recover. Indeed, many manufacturing PMIs (purchasing managers’ indexes) continue to signal contraction.Oil prices have weakened in recent weeks despite the war in Gaza and rising geopolitical risk. At the close of this article, Brent is trading at $81.62 per barrel and WTI at $76.99. This is a mere 7% rise...
Read More »Robert Reich’s Second Myth
Robert Reich’s second myth is “Government Obstructs the Free Market.” (See my response to his first myth here.) He says that what we call the “free market” can only exist with a government enforcing rules about property, monopoly, contracts, and bankruptcy. Reich makes the case that big corporations and the super-wealthy have steered the government’s rules and their enforcement for their own benefit.He’s right, except for the bit about government as a necessary...
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