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© Peter Moulton | Dreamstime.com Update: It appears rail connections between Italy and Switzerland will not be interrupted after Switzerland’s president and the Italian minister of transport spoke on Wednesday. Solutions have been identified to ensure compliance with Italy’s anti-COVID measures. Rail links are expected to gradually return to normal over the next few days, according to a report by RSI. The railway connections between Switzerland and Italy will not be...

On 8 December 2020, Switzerland’s Federal Council announced it was considering further restrictions starting from 12 December 2020 and running until 20 January 2021. The Federal Council announced that it plans to harmonise and reinforce measures recently introduced by the cantons. It will meet on 11 December 2020 and again on 18 December 2020 to decide on further measures to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it said in a press release. The epidemiological...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.05% to 1.0753 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 9(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The market is hopeful today. The Johnson-von der Leyen dinner is seen as evidence that both sides see one more opportunity, and sterling is among the strongest currencies today. Hopes of a $900 bln+ fiscal stimulus package in the US helped stir animal spirits and lift US stocks to...

In most economies, inventories are valued at market prices, while in China they are valued by the authorities and adjusted later. This is just one of many ways China manipulates GDP data. The year 2020 will be an extremely tough year for the European economy. Added to an unprecedented drop is a strong impact in the fourth quarter due to the new lockdowns. Morgan Stanley estimates that the eurozone’s GDP will fall by 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, a 7 percent...

What had given Inflation Hysteria #1 its real punch had been the benchmark 10-year Treasury note. Throughout 2017, despite the unemployment rate in the US, globally synchronized growth being declared around the world (and being declared as some momentously significant development), and whatever other tiny factors acceding to the narrative, longer-term Treasury rates just weren’t buying it. Instead, the eurodollar monetary system continued to cling to these safest,...

US fiscal negotiations are taking longer than expected; US Treasury auctions $56 bln of 3-year notes; we believe the Fed is watching the yield curve closely; Brazil reports November IPCA inflation; Chile kept rates on hold at 0.50% and tweaked its asset purchase program UK Prime Minister Johnson is going to Brussels for high-level Brexit negotiations with EC President von der Leyen; there are no signs of progress in the EU budget and recovery fund negotiations;...

The Austrian school of economics has been all but left by the wayside in economics (e.g., Backhouse 2000). This fate, shared with all “heterodox” approaches that do not fully comply with mainstream dogma, means Austrian theory is at best discounted by other economists. More often, and typically, it is forgotten and a relic of the past. At the same time, Austrian economics is the only school of economic thought that is well represented in the study of...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.08% to 1.0771 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 8(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Three brinkmanship dramas continue to play out. The UK-EU trade talks have reportedly made little progress and may have even moved backward, according to some reports, over the past two days. The EU and Poland, and Hungary will be butting heads at the leaders’ summit that begins...

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the World Economic Forum (WEF) to relocate its flagship event to Singapore next year. It will be only the second time in 50 years that it will be staged outside of the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. The 51st annual meeting of business, political and civil society leaders will take place in Singapore between May 13-16, WEF announced on Monday. Organisers added that it plans to return to Davos in 2022. The event has moved out of...

Former Swissair bosses have been ordered to pay CHF2.75 million ($3 million) almost 20 years after the national airline carrier went bust. The bill has been presented to 14 former managers after many years of legal wrangling and court battles. Swissair’s liquidator announced the agreed settlement on Friday, having failed last year to hold the executives liable for the much larger sum of CHF280 million. The grounding of the 71-year-old national airline in 2001 was...