Tag Archives: newsletter

The case against the Munich-based luxury car manufacturer was first sparked by a customer complaint in 2010. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s highest court has confirmed a CHF157 million ($158 million) fine against German luxury carmaker BMW for blocking car shipments to Switzerland. The fine was originally levied on BMWexternal link by Switzerland’s Competition Commissionexternal link (COMCO)...

– Diversify, rebalance investments and prepare for interest rate rises – UK launches inquiry into household finances as £200bn debt pile looms – Centuries of data forewarn of rapid reversal from ultra low interest rates – 700-year average real interest rate is 4.78% (must see chart) – Massive global debt bubble – over $217 trillion (see table) – Global debt levels are building up to a gigantic tidal wave – Move to safe...

Simple Classifications Let’s begin with facts.  Cold hard unadorned facts. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at standard atmospheric pressure.  Squaring the circle using a compass and straightedge is impossible.  The sun is a star. The sun is not just a star, it is a benevolent star. Look, it is smiling… sort of. - Click to enlarge Facts, of course, must not be confused with opinions, which are based upon...

Hong Kong stock trading opened deep in the red last night, the Hang Seng share index falling by as much as 1.6% before rallying. We’ve seen this behavior before, notably in 2015 and early 2016. Hong Kong is supposed to be an island of stability amidst stalwart attempts near the city to mimic its results if not its methods. Thus, most kinds of turmoil are noticeable. Most. My own brief survey of this morning’s news from...

Most internet users in Switzerland search the web for information about products, notably to buy online and book holidays (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Internet users in Switzerland rate their computer skills as good, but trust in online news content has dropped significantly, according to a survey by the University of Zurich. An overwhelming majority (83%) of users stated they can easily distinguish...

If the ownership of bitcoin is as concentrated as some estimate, then the liquidity issue distills down to the actions of the top tier of owners. Whenever I raise the topic of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, I feel like an agnostic in the 30 Years War between Catholics and Protestants. There is precious little neutral ground in the crypto-is-a-bubble battle; one side is absolutely confident that bitcoin and the other...

The payroll report for October 2017 was still affected by the summer storms in Texas and Florida. That was expected. The Establishment Survey estimates for August and September were revised higher, the latter from a -33k to +18k. Most economists were expecting a huge gain in October to snapback from that hurricane number, but the latest headline was just +261k. For those two months combined, the headline advanced at an...

If bitcoin can be converted into fiat currencies at a lower transaction cost than the fiat-to-fiat conversions made by banks and credit card companies, it’s a superior means of exchange. One of the most common comments I hear from bitcoin skeptics goes something like this: Bitcoin isn’t real money until I can buy a cup of coffee with it. In other words, bitcoin fails the first of the two core tests of “money”: that it...

Suspicion isn’t Merely Asleep – It is in a Coma (or Dead) There is an old Monty Python skit about a parrot whose lack of movement and refusal to respond to prodding leads to an intense debate over what state it is in. Is it just sleeping, as the proprietor of the shop that sold it insists? A very tired parrot taking a really deep rest? Or is it actually dead, as the customer who bought it asserts, offering the fact...

Unemployment Rate (not seasonally adjusted) Bern, 09.11.2017 – Registered unemployment in October 2017 – According to surveys by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), 134,800 unemployed people were registered at the Regional Employment Centers (RAV) at the end of October 2017, 1,631 more than in the previous month. The unemployment rate remained at 3.0% in the month under review. Compared with the same...