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With what promises to be an acrimonious G7 meeting, from which the isolated US President will depart early, and a broadening pressure in emerging markets, the US dollar turned better bid late yesterday and is recovering further today. Disappointing April industrial production figures in Germany and France did not do the euro any favors. Sterling is faring better than the euro after Prime Minister May survived yet...

Swiss Government Pension Fund Allocating 2% Of Pension Fund To Gold Bars via IPE Quest The Swiss government pension fund, Switzerland’s AHV/AVS fund, has decided to diversify into physical gold bars in their substantial CHF35.2bn (€30.5bn) pension portfolio. At the end of last week the first pillar buffer fund tendered a custodianship and storage for CHF 700m (EUR 600m / USD 700m / GBP 525m) in gold bars via IPE Quest....

The strong franc is hurting Swiss exporters and the domestic tourism industry The continued volatility surrounding the Italian elections and the threat of global trade wars make it far too early for the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to consider raising rock bottom interest rates, says chairman Thomas Jordan. “It’s much too early at this moment,” Jordan told CNNMoney Switzerland. “The situation is still quite fragile...

Novartis admitted that it had signed a one-year contract with the company of Trump’s private lawyer, Michael Cohen. (Keystone) The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) announced on Wednesday that it will not bring proceedings against Novartis in connection with the payments the Swiss pharmaceutical company made to Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. The OAGexternal link had received a criminal complaint...

We’re going to get a synchronized global dynamic, but it won’t be “growth” and stability, it will be DeGrowth and instability. To understand the synchronized global meltdown that is on tap for the 2021-2025 period, we must first stipulate the relationship of “money” to energy:“money” is nothing more than a claim on future energy. If there’s no energy available to fuel the global economy, “money” will have little value....

The Markit group that provides many of the PMI surveys noted with today’s reports that the eurozone outlook has “darkened dramatically.” This makes for a poor backdrop for the ECB, which meets next week. However, with price pressures recovering from the Easter-related distortions, the ECB is still on track to finish its asset purchases at the end of the year. This seems largely taken for granted. The real issue is when...

Portmann did not spare the foreign policy committee with his criticism about the motion about improving information for Swiss expats about banking services. (Keystone) The Swiss Abroad community has suffered a new setback in its efforts to receive improved access to banking services in Switzerland. The House of Representatives on Tuesday threw out a call on the government to ease the financial woes of expatriates by...

The consensus narrative is that with rising inflation it is understandable that next week’s meeting is live and that the confirmation of such has lifted the euro to ten-day highs, dragging the dollar broadly. However, to accept this is to accept the debasement of language. Until now, we dubbed central bank meeting that could result in action as “live.” For example, given that the Fed has not changed interest rates since...

US trade is further leveling off after several months of artificial intrusions. On the import side, in particular, first was a very large and obvious boost following last year’s big hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. Starting in September 2017, for four months the value of imported goods jumped by an enormous 8.3% (revised, seasonally-adjusted). Most of the bump related to consumer and capital goods. Since December,...

Unemployment Rate (not seasonally adjusted) Registered Unemployment in May 2018 – According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) surveys, at the end of May 2018, 109’392 unemployed people were enrolled in the Regional Employment Centers (RAV), 10’389 fewer than in the previous month. The unemployment rate fell from 2.7% in April 2018 to 2.4% in the month under review. Compared to the same month of the...