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Last month, British black studies professor Kehinde Andrews argued that the British Empire was “far worse than the Nazis.” It was a controversial comparison to be sure, but it raises the question: Compared to other expansionist regimes, how bad was the British Empire? A survey of the evidence suggests that the British Empire was relatively less harmful than other imperial efforts, and this is reflected in outcomes—in terms of health and economic growth, among other...

Ungeachtet der jüngsten Abschwächung des Frankens dürfte die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) am Donnerstag bei ihrer vierteljährlichen geldpolitischen Lagebeurteilung an ihrem Leitzins von minus 0,75 Prozent festhalten, prognostizieren alle 35 von Reuters befragte Wirtschaftsexperten. Auch die Sichteinlagen von Banken bei der Notenbank ab einem gewissen Freibetrag dürften weiterhin mit einer Gebühr von 0,75 Prozent belastet werden. “Die SNB dürfte es nicht eilig...

Fewer people were able to attend cinemas during the pandemic year of 2020. © Keystone / Thomas Delley Ticket sales at Swiss cinemas plummeted by two-thirds last year as venues were forced to close their doors. Of the films that could be shown, Swiss movies made up a greater share of the total offering. Official statistics out on Tuesday revealed the economic impact of Covid-19 on Switzerland’s 263 cinema theatres. Income fell from CHF193 million ($208 million) in...

“Government,” observed the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, “is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper and make it worthless by applying ink.” Mises was describing the curse of inflation, the process whereby government expands a nation’s money supply and thereby erodes the value of each monetary unit—dollar, peso, pound, franc, or whatever. It shows up in various ways, most visibly in the form of rising prices, which a lot of...

Savings deposits, loans and jobs could be threatened if a major Swiss bank were to collapse. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Three of Switzerland’s “too big to fail” banks no longer threaten to cause a seismic shift in the economy should they collapse, says the financial regulator. Zurich Cantonal Bank, PostFinance and the Raiffeisen banking group are now deemed to have put into place credible plans for an orderly bankruptcy. The trio focus primarily on the domestic...

Raghuram Rajan has written a surprising book. Now teaching finance at the University of Chicago, he is an international bureaucrat in good standing, and not a minor one at that; he was chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Yet far from calling for an increase in “global governance,” as one might expect from someone with his background, he wants to strengthen the local, “proximate,” community. “If more powers are delegated from the state to the local...

© Germana Marengo | Dreamstime.com As Switzerland’s population ages the number of people paid state pension is rising relative to the number of workers funding it. Since 2014, more has been paid out than has been paid in. The most effective way to fix this imbalance is to raise the pension age. If the average life expectancy of a retiree is 15 years, then raising the pension age by one year will cut the cost by nearly 7%. Switzerland is one of a few countries that...

The coronavirus has dominated all of our lives in recent months. Radical paths were taken by politicians in the form of lockdowns to contain the pandemic. But we should recognize that even if the coronavirus is a (major) challenge for us, we always have to keep a holistic view of world events. Just as there are epidemiological factors to consider in this crisis, there are also economic, social, cultural, political and other health factors at play. It is...

Some 27% percent of the population over the age of 15 smokes in Switzerland. © Keystone / Melanie Duchene The Swiss parliament is currently debating tightening restrictions on advertising of tobacco products. This comes after a people’s initiative calls for a radical advertising ban to protect children. Parliament is currently discussing whether to tighten Switzerland’s current tobacco laws, which are some of the most liberal in the world. The draft bill would...

Worried about gold sentiment? Don’t be. The mainstream view of gold right now is an open yawn, and sentiment indicators for this precious metal are now at 3-year lows despite the gold highs of last August. Is this cause for genuine concern? Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Most investors are totally wrong about gold, and below we show rather than argue why they are missing the forest for the trees. Unlike trend chasers, speculating gamblers and gold bears,...