Dollar softness this week will take some pressure off of the foreign currencies but it’s too early to sound the all clear. This piece focuses on how central banks around the world may be intervening to influence their currencies. Most of the world, particularly EM, is grappling with supporting weak currencies but a select few are dealing with stronger currencies. This is a very opaque process and so we are simply making our best guesses. As April reserves data...
Read More »Why the Current Unemployment Is Worse Than the Great Depression
Government restrictions on production are driving prices up as unemployment drives them down. It’s impossible to say now whether price inflation or price deflation will be the predominant factor in the crisis’s next phase. This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Millian Quinteros. Original Article: “Why the Current Unemployment Is Worse Than the Great Depression “ You Might Also...
Read More »Government Regulation against “Monopolies” Only Lowers Our Standard of Living
According to a popular way of thinking, monopolies undermine the efficient functioning of the market economy by being able to influence the prices and the quantity of products. Consequently, this undermines the well-being of individuals in the economy. By this way of thinking, the inefficiency emerges because of the deviation from the ideal state of the market as depicted by the “perfect competition” framework. The “Perfect Competition” Framework In the world of...
Read More »What’s Next, Trillion-Dollar Coins?
The massive set of stimulus measures rolled out last month by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve has left many Americans wanting more… and politicians scheming for new ways to dole out additional trillions in cash. Most taxpayers have already received their $1,200 “stimulus” payments. However, that one-time payment will do little to repair the long-term financial health of the 26 million (and rising) who are newly unemployed. And it surely won’t bail out all...
Read More »‘Corona-compliant’ Alpine cow processions to go ahead
Some of around 600 cows climb the Glattalp last year, watched by spectators (Keystone) The traditional driving of cows up to mountain pastures for the summer will still take place this year in Appenzell, northeastern Switzerland, despite the coronavirus pandemic. However, the processions will not be publicised so as not to attract tourists and spectators. From the beginning of May to mid-June, farmers march hundreds of thousands of cows from their valley farms to...
Read More »Coronavirus: Swiss schools and other establishments set to reopen
© Jan Gajdosik | Dreamstime.com On 29 April 2020, Switzerland’s government announced plans to allow schools and other establishments to reopen on Monday 11 May 2020. From 11 May 2020, shops, restaurants, markets, museums, libraries, primary and lower secondary schools and sports training centres will be allowed to reopen. In addition, public transport will operate according to the standard timetable, announced the government. The easing is conditional on the...
Read More »GDP + GFC = Fragile
March 15 was when it all began to come down. Not the stock market; that had been in freefall already, beset by the rolling destruction of fire sale liquidations emanating out of the repo market (collateral side first). No matter what the Federal Reserve did or announced, there was no stopping the runaway devastation. It wasn’t until the middle of March that the first major shutdown orders began to appear – on Twitter feeds – and these weren’t the total lockdowns...
Read More »THE BITCOIN HALVING REVISITED – With Ann Rhefn
What is the Bitcoin Halving and What Might it Mean for the Price Watch “THE BITCOIN HALVING REVISITED – With Ann Rhefn” [embedded content] You Might Also Like Das Internet – die dezentrale (R)Evolution Menschen werden durch unterschiedliche Motive angetrieben. Die einen sehen das höchste Glück in der Ansammlung von materiellen Werten, und andere sind von geistigen Werten angetrieben. Eine Idee kann genauso...
Read More »COT Black: No Love For Super-Secret Models
As I’ve said, it is a threefold failure of statistical models. The first being those which showed the economy was in good to great shape at the start of this thing. Widely used and even more widely cited, thanks to Jay Powell and his 2019 rate cuts plus “repo” operations the calculations suggested the system was robust. Because of this set of numbers, officials here as well as elsewhere around the world chose the most extreme form of pandemic mitigations, trusting...
Read More »FX Daily, April 30: ECB Takes Center Stage
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.38% to 1.0545 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, April 30(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Equities continue to recover even as deep economic contractions are reported. Yesterday, the US said Q1 GDP contracted at an annualized pace of 4.8%, while the eurozone reported today that output fell 3.8% quarter-over-quarter in Q1. Hong Kong and South Korea were closed, but the rest...
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