The decentralised SwissCovid app is the first in the world to use the OS updates from Apple and Google. (Keystone / Laurent Gillieron) Authorities have released the source code of the SwissCovid app to the public to allow experts and hackers to detect any risks to privacy before the official launch. The source code of the decentralised contact tracing app DP-3T, developed by the two Swiss federal institutes of technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) and Lausanne (EPFL)...
Read More »Coronavirus: Switzerland plans to lift all restrictions on Schengen movement
© Scaliger | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s Federal Council plans to lift all travel restrictions and re-establish free movement of persons across the Schengen area no later than 6 July 2020 and possibly as early as mid June, it announced today. If the epidemiological evolution allows, restrictions on entering, working and living in Switzerland will be lifted for all Schengen states from mid-June and no later than 6 July, said the government. The Schengen area, which...
Read More »Asia Lockdowns vs. Re-Openings
By Ilan Solot and Kieran Chard We apply the five-factor model used to analyse lockdowns and openings in developed markets and in Latin America to Asian Markets. It evaluates the restrictions imposed by different countries in the region, how they compare in terms of severity of lockdown, and where they are heading in the spectrum of reopening. The scale we use measures grade restrictions from 1 (open) to 4 (closed) across the following five factors: (a)...
Read More »Is Your Pension ‘Good as Gold’?
Published on Independent Trustee Company (27/05/2020) ◆ With the current level of uncertainty in world markets we have received numerous requests for information on how self directed pension schemes (pre and post retirement) can hold gold and silver. It is accepted that if gold bullion is held via a gold certificates ( Perth Mint Certificates with GoldCore) or in Secure Storage in a variety of local or international locations with GoldCore, then it is not considered...
Read More »FX Daily, May 29: Month-End Profit-Taking Weighs on Equities as the Euro Pops Above $1.11
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.30% to 1.0709 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The announcement that President Trump will hold a press conference on China later today rattled investors yesterday after they had earlier shrugged off the escalation of tension between the US and China to take the S&P 500 up to its highest level in nearly three months. The S&P...
Read More »2021 Geneva Motor Show ‘very uncertain’ as organisers reject loan
This year’s car show was cancelled four days prior to its opening due to the coronavirus outbreak, costing an estimated loss of CHF11 million for the organisers of Switzerland’s largest event. (Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi) The 2021 edition of the Geneva International Motor Show remains touch and go after the organisers rejected the terms surrounding a state rescue loan. This year’s car show was cancelled four days prior to its opening due to the coronavirus...
Read More »Swiss have mixed feelings about working from home, according to survey
[caption id="attachment_459835" align="alignleft" width="400"] © Vladimir Fedorov | Dreamstime.com[/caption] Working from home is a mixed bag of pros and cons for most Swiss who were surveyed by gfs.bern in March and April 2020. But it worked for most. In 2019, before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, around 1.1 million employees in Switzerland occasionally worked from home. During the pandemic the number of hours worked at home...
Read More »Getting A Sense of the Economy’s Current Hole and How the Government’s Measures To Fill It (Don’t) Add Up
The numbers just don’t add up. Even if you treat this stuff on the most charitable of terms, dollar for dollar, way too much of the hole almost certainly remains unfilled. That’s the thing about “stimulus” talk; for one thing, people seem to be viewing it as some kind of addition without thinking it all the way through first. You have to begin by sizing up the gross economic deficit it is being haphazardly poured into – with an additional emphasis on...
Read More »Why Congressional “Oversight” of the Bureaucracy Is No Such Thing
FX Daily, May 28: Escalating Tensions, Calm Markets
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.30% to 1.0686 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The US Secretary of State’s announcement that the autonomy of Hong Kong could no longer be affirmed did not derail the rally in US equities. However, the threat of an executive order against social media companies may be discouraging follow-through buying, leaving US equities little...
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