Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,Recently, my colleague, Egon von Greyerz, and I had some unabashed yet blunt fun calling out the staggering levels of open hypocrisy and policy desperation unleashed by former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan.Poor Alan was an easy target of what I described as the “patient zero” of the reckless interest rate suppression and unbridled monetary expansion policies of the Fed which have always led to equally reckless...
Read More »The Bureaucrat as a Voter
The bureaucrat is not only a government employee. He is, under a democratic constitution, at the same time a voter and as such a part of the sovereign, his employer. He is in a peculiar position: he is both employer and employee. And his pecuniary interest as employee towers above his interest as employer, as he gets much more from the public funds than he contributes to them. This double relationship becomes more important as the people on the government’s payroll...
Read More »The $3 Trillion Hidden Exposure Behind The Archegos Blowup
Authored by Nick Dunbar of Risky FinanceWhen the family office Archegos Capital abruptly imploded in late March, prompting $50 billion in block trades and $10 billion in losses at Credit Suisse, Nomura, UBS and Morgan Stanley, many bank analysts were taken by surprise. Last week, many of these analysts sounded frustrated listening to Credit Suisse’s earnings call in which senior management skirted round without giving any real detail about the disaster.“Do you think...
Read More »All Inflation Is Transitory. The Fed Will Be Late Again.
In this issue of “All Inflation Is Transitory, The Fed WIll Be Late Again.“ Market Review And Update All Inflation Is Temporary The Fed Should Be Hiking Now Portfolio Positioning #MacroView: No. Bonds Aren’t Overvalued. Sector & Market Analysis 401k Plan Manager Follow Us On: Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Sound Cloud, Seeking Alpha Catch Up On What You Missed Last Week Market Review & Update Last week, we said: “The market is trading well into...
Read More »Covid: 13,465 new cases in Switzerland this week
This week, saw 13,465 new Covid-19 cases in Switzerland, down 5% from a week before (14,110) continuing the 5% slow down in growth of new numbers experienced last week. © Andrii Kozlytskyi | Dreamstime.comThe 7-day average is currently 1,924, dipping below the level of 2,000 for the first time since 11 April 2021. By 30 April 2021, 10.8% of Switzerland’s population was fully vaccinated, up from 9.6% a week earlier. This week, the number of doses administered...
Read More »The Dollar can Build on the Pre-Weekend Gains
The US dollar traded heavily most of last week but rebounded ahead of the weekend, with some month-end flows impacting. The Japanese yen was a notable exception. The rise in US yields helped lift the greenback nearly a percent against the yen. The Fed's standpat stance in light of the surging economy and signals the Norwegian central bank and the Bank of Canada seemed dovish. The contrast carried the Norwegian krone and Canadian dollar to new three-year highs...
Read More »Real Swiss salaries up most in 5 years
On 30 April 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office released salary data for 2020 which showed a 1.5% rise in real salaries compared to 2019. © Suwat Supachavinswad | Dreamstime.comIn 2020, a 0.8% rise in nominal salaries was boosted by inflation of -0.7% bringing the total increase in the real average Swiss salary to 1.5%. The last time salaries rose this much was in 2015 when the real increase was 1.5%. In both 2015 and 2020 negative inflation of...
Read More »Seth Levine: Bitcoin Doesn’t Fix Defi, Defi Fixes Bitcoin
Does Bitcoin Fix Defi (Definancialization)? “Bitcoin fixes this.” I cringe every time I see this popular meme. I find it worse than nails on a chalkboard. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (crypto) supporters seem to wheel this tired trope out for every problem they see, particularly at economic ones. To their credit, they genuinely want to fix the financial system’s problems. I do too! However, crypto’s supporters have their subjects completely reversed. To be...
Read More »No, Conservatives Should Not Embrace MMT
Reading Jonathan Culbreath’s “Modern Monetary Theory for Conservatives” one can’t help but think of Murray Rothbard’s quip that “it is not a crime to be ignorant of economics … but it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.“ Culbreath’s case for modern monetary theory (MMT) rests on an ignorance of basic economic principles regarding the role of money in a free market economy....
Read More »Federer to auction clothes, rackets and other gear for charity
Top gear: The items up for auction were worn or used during important matches Keystone / Ennio Leanza Millions of Roger Federer fans around the world might be salivating at the prospect of owning some mementos of the Swiss great’s incredible career after he announced he is auctioning off a collection of personal items this summer. The 20-time Grand Slam champion, regarded by many as the greatest player ever to wield a tennis racket, is putting various items under the...
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