Nicolas Gisin in his lab at the University of Geneva in 2013. The president of the new Swiss Quantum Commission is also co-founder of ID Quantique, which markets quantum systems for encrypting computer messages. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi Quantum physics is moving out of the lab and into the marketplace. Switzerland, a strong researcher in this field, doesn’t want to miss out and is launching its own quantum initiative. For now, though, it will have to make do...
Read More »Swiss Producer and Import Price Index in January 2023: +3.3 percent YoY, +0.7 percent MoM
14.02.2023 – The Producer and Import Price Index rose in January 2023 by 0.7% compared with the previous month, reaching 109.2 points (December 2020 = 100). In particular, petroleum and natural gas as well as electricity saw higher prices. Petroleum products, in contrast, became cheaper. Compared with January 2022, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products rose by 3.3%. These are the results from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). In...
Read More »Swiss Consumer Price Index in January 2023: +3.3 percent YoY, +0.6 percent MoM
The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.6% in January 2023 compared with the previous month, reaching 105.0 points (December 2020 = 100). Inflation was +3.3% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).The 0.6% increase compared with the previous month is due to several factors including rising prices for electricity and gas. Hotel accommodation also recorded a price increase, as did bread and...
Read More »Swiss pharma industry wants to reduce dependence on Asia
Swiss chemists are running low on some medication Keystone / Expa/ Stefanie Oberhauser The Swiss pharmaceutical industry should be less dependent on active ingredients from Asia, says the president of the industry umbrella organisation, pharmaSuisse. Martine Ruggli has called for new drug companies to be built in Europe. If a drug runs out in Switzerland, it’s not available in the whole of Europe “in an extreme situation like the present one”, she said. With...
Read More »The Alien Invasion of America
The aliens are coming! The aliens are coming! No, I’m not talking about illegal aliens — that is, those immigrants who are trying to enter the United States without official permission. I’m talking about real aliens — the scary types from outer space. You know, the ones that look like ET. What other reasonable explanation could there be for those unidentified flying objects that the U.S. military has been shooting out of the skies over the northern United States? ...
Read More »Yen Retreats Ahead of Formal BOJ Announcement Tomorrow and US CPI
Overview: A consolidative tone is mostly the theme of the day. The revisions to the US CPI announced before the weekend add to the uncertainty and focus on tomorrow’s report. At the same time, investors watch ongoing air space activity that has led to a few objects being shot down over the US and Canadian airspace. Yet the fear of escalation seems too mild still, but China’s ability to secure a rapprochement and leave its “wolf diplomacy” behind is strained, even as...
Read More »Switzerland’s ‘cash initiative’ – what’s at stake?
swissinfo.ch Swiss citizens look set to vote on a people’s initiative to try to ensure their economy never becomes cashless. What do the campaigners behind the idea really want? More from this author Cash is widely used in Switzerland, much more so than in many other countries. In Sweden, only 9% of people still pay with notes and coins; in the United States the figure is around 60%. Meanwhile, 97% of people in Switzerland still keep some cash at home or...
Read More »The New Normal: Death Spirals and Speculative Frenzies
There is an element of inevitability in play, but it isn’t about central bank bailouts, it’s about Death Spirals and the collapse of unsustainable systems. The vapid discussions about “soft” or “hard” landings for the economy are akin to asking if the Titanic’sencounter with the iceberg was “soft” or “hard:” either way, the ship was doomed, just as the global economy is doomed by The New Normal of Death Spirals and Speculative Frenzies. Death Spirals are the...
Read More »Three Reasons Why Secession and Decentralization Are Better for Human Rights
[This article is the Introduction to Breaking Away: The Case of Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities.] The world is now, and has always been, politically decentralized. At no time in history has all of humankind been ruled by a single political regime. Although the Roman Empire claimed to be universal, the Romans never even conquered all of Europe, let alone the whole inhabited world. Roman power never extended to India, China, Sub-Saharan...
Read More »Shortage of workers cited as top obstacle to Swiss economy
© Keystone / Christian Beutler The president of the Swiss Employers’ Association wants to increase the potential workforce in Switzerland by 300,000 people. To achieve this, women, young people, the elderly and refugees must be integrated into the labour market or be given more work, said Valentin Vogt on Swiss public radio SRF on Saturday. “The lack of labour is the biggest obstacle to the growth of the Swiss economy,” he warned. According to him, if this...
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