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In most times and places, crime tends to be a highly localized phenomenon. I have covered this for Mises.org at the national level, pointing out that homicide rates in, say, the Mountain West and New England are far lower than homicide rates in the Great Lakes region or the South. Gun-control laws clearly don’t explain these differences, since many places with rock-bottom homicide rates such as Idaho and Maine also have few controls on private gun ownership. Thus,...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.27% to 1.0704 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 23(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The spread of the coronavirus and the lockdown in the epicenter in China has again sapped the risk-taking appetite in the capital markets. Asia is bearing the brunt of the adjustment. Tomorrow starts China’s week-long Lunar New Year celebration when markets will be closed, which may...

Comments by SNB chief, Thomas Jordan, to CNBC Thomas Jordan Negative rates are a necessity Negative rates have side effects, SNB trying to minimise those side effects Balance of risks is tilted to the downside SNB conducts independent monetary policy, does not follow the ECB But needs to take international environment into account SNB could still cut rates if needed Franc is still highly valued Must maintain negative rates, interventions SNB can intervene as...

USD/CHF extends recovery gains from the two-day low. Sellers await a downside break of 23.6% Fibonacci retracement. A monthly trend line will keep buyers away. USD/CHF takes rounds to 0.9683 during the pre-European session on Thursday. In doing so, the pair bounces off Tuesday’s low. However, the pair still remains below the monthly resistance line while the MACD flashes the bearish signals for the first time in a week, which in turn portrays the underlying weakness...

Andrea Maechler Being put on the currency manipulation watchlist by the United States will not change the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) monetary policy, SNB Governing Board member Andrea Maechler said on Wednesday, per Reuters. “The SNB is ready to intervene in FX markets if needed,” Maechler noted and added that the SNB will end negative interest rates as soon as they are able to. Market reaction The USD/CHF pair largely ignored these remarks and was last seen trading...

According to a BIS press release, several leading central banks collaborate with the BIS on matters relating to the introduction of CBDC: The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), have created a group to share experiences as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home...

© Christian Heinz | Dreamstime.com A Swiss parliamentary commission, tasked with looking at the introduction of an environmental tax on flights departing from Switzerland, recently voted in favour a such a tax. A majority of 17 to 8 members voted in favour of the move. The tax would range from CHF 30 to CHF 120 per passenger depending on flight distance and class. Passengers transiting through Switzerland would not pay the tax. Those travelling in private aircraft...

 © Michael Hiatt | Dreamstime.com Speaking to CNN Money, Markus Will, a senior economist at St. Gallen University, described Trump’s speech, in which he didn’t mention climate once, as a “contradiction to the values of Davos.” “It was a nationalistic, domestic, state of the union address from Davos rather than an improving of the state of the world speech which you should do in Davos”, he said, before adding, “you should disinvite him cordially for next year. He’s an...

The more francs and euros banks accumulate at central banks, the greater the risk of negative interest charges. (© Keystone / Ti-press / Alessandro Crinari) Swiss banks have been forced to fork out CHF8 billion ($8.3 billion) in negative interest fees since the Swiss National Bank (SNB) imposed its policy in 2015. Last year saw the heftiest annual bill of CHF2 billion, according to research from German company Deposit Solutions. The findings are largely in line with...

In the middle of 2018, Japan, they said, was riding so high. Gliding along on the tidal wave of globally synchronized growth, Haruhiko’s courage and more so patience had finally delivered the long-promised recovery. The Japanese economy had healed to a point that its central bank officials believed it time to wean the thing off decades of monetary “stimulus.” They even publicly speculated on just when QQE would be terminated. At least that was the story, one which...