Tag Archives: newsletter

According to many economic commentators, an effective way to generate economic growth is through the lowering of taxes. The lowering of taxes, it is held, will place more money in consumers’ pockets, thereby setting in motion an economic growth. This way of thinking is based on the belief that a given dollar increase in consumer spending will lift the economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) by a multiple of the increase in consumer expenditure. Assume that out of an...

On 31 August 2022, Switzerland’s federal government launched its campaign to cut energy consumption to reduce the risks of an energy shortfall over the coming winter. Photo by Castorly Stock on Pexels.comThe government stressed that there was currently no energy shortfall. However, Simonetta Sommaruga, the minister in charge of energy, said it was important to cut energy consumption to avoid the risk of forced cuts. An energy cut of a few weeks could cost the Swiss...

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally High energy prices have forced a steel mill in Switzerland to prepare for short-time working to avoid layoffs. The Stahl Gerlafingen steel plant in the canton of Solothurn has been granted permission to resort to short-time working from October to December as a preventive measure. The mill consumes as much electricity as 70,000 households and is expecting a bill of CHF45 million for October, writes the NZZ am Sonntag. This is more than the...

One of the arrogances of “Western” nations is that our way of life and our liberties are protected by periodic elections as required by constitutions, written (America) or not (Great Britain), containing bills of rights, etc. The people rule, it is claimed, and we get exactly what we want, even if those in the minority are unhappy with the result. Minorities can always become tomorrow’s majority and institute alternative policies. Therefore, Western nations really...

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Economics by Thomas J. DiLorenzo Regnery Publishing, 2022; xx + 242 pp. Like Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, Tom DiLorenzo is an economist with an extraordinary knowledge of history, and this shows to great advantage in his brilliant new book. In it, he stresses that economists who fail to grasp how the free market works often devise elaborate theories to show “market failures,” but when examined in the light of historical...

Sygnum bank is extending its reach into Web3 and decentralised services by launching in the Decentraland metaverse. Sygnum Swiss digital assets bank Sygnum will open a branch in the metaverse to reach more clients seeking blockchain-based financial services. Sygnum was one of two banks that were awarded licenses in 2019 to connect traditional finance with cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) databases provide a...

It would be easy for those who have decided to buy gold and silver bullion to lose heart over the precious metals, had they seen how prices reacted to Chairman Powell’s comments, last week. However, to do this would be very short-sighted. Whilst Powell may well have signaled that the Fed will stay on this path of tightening this does not mean that they have resolved the issue. Rather, it likely means that the Fed is reacting a little too hard, a little too late and...

Der Markt stagniert derzeit. Angeführt von Bitcoin kam es in den letzten 48 Stunden nur zu kleineren Kursbewegungen. Nun deutet sich aber bei einigen Altcoins eine Trendwende an. Besonders Ethereum Classic sticht hervor, mit einem neuen Allzeithoch bei der Hashrate. Ethereum News: Ethereum Classic Hashrate auf neuem AllzeithochMitte August erreichte der Kurs für den ETC ein Zwischenhoch mit 44,50 US-Dollar. Damit lag der Cryptocoin nur noch 10 Prozent unter seinem...

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is talking tough and warning of more interest rate pain to come. At the same time, Fed officials are now admitting that their sized-up rate hikes won’t even be sufficient to tame the price inflation they have helped create. That’s because fiscal policy under the Joe Biden administration has gone off the rails. Over the weekend, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released to the public a white paper titled “Inflation as a...

While some conservatives are criticizing President Biden for hiring 87,000 new well-armed IRS agents under the guise of fighting inflation, I’ve got a better idea: Let’s just abolish the IRS and, at the same time, end the federal income tax.  The idea is actually not as radical as it sounds. It certainly wouldn’t have sounded radical to Americans who lived here in the United States from 1776 to 1913. For virtually that entire period of time, Americans lived without...