According to the plans, the cablecar would have 18 cabins, each able to carry 34 people between the Mythenquai beach on one side of the lake to the Zurichhorn park on the other. (Keystone) A Zurich court has rejected plans for a cablecar link crossing over Lake Zurich, stating that the project, known as ‘Zuribahn’, did not have sufficient local support. The court annulled construction plans for the city cablecar, which had been presented by Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB)...
Read More »Court rejects damages claims against Volkswagen and Swiss importer
VW was caught using illegal software to cheat pollution tests in 2015, triggering a global backlash against diesel and numerous court cases around the world that have so far cost the German company €30 billion euros ($33 billion). (Keystone / Julian Stratenschulte) A Zurich commercial court has dismissed claims for damages by a consumer group against the German car firm Volkswagen and Swiss importer Amag, linked to the “Dieselgate” emissions-rigging scandal. In a...
Read More »China Data: Something New, or Just The Latest Scheduled Acceleration?
The Chinese government was serious about imposing pollution controls on its vast stock of automobiles. The largest market in the world for cars and trucks, the net result of China’s “miracle” years of eurodollar-financed modernization, for the Chinese people living in its huge cities the non-economic costs are, unlike the air, immediately clear each and every day. A new set of relatively strict pollution controls was added in the second half of this year. As is...
Read More »Hyperinflation, Money Demand, and the Crack-up Boom
In the early 1920s, Ludwig von Mises became a witness to hyperinflation in Austria and Germany — monetary developments that caused irreparable and (in the German case) cataclysmic damage to civilization. Mises’s policy advice was instrumental in helping to stop hyperinflation in Austria in 1922. In his Memoirs, however, he expressed the view that his instruction — halting the printing press — was heeded too late: Austria’s currency did not collapse — as did Germany’s...
Read More »A Repo Deluge…of Necessary Data
Just in time for more discussions about repo, the Federal Reserve delivers. Not in terms of the repo market, mind you, despite what you hear bandied about in the financial media the Fed doesn’t actually go there. Its repo operations are more RINO’s – repo in name only. No, what the US central bank actually contributes is more helpful data. Since our goal is to use that data to produce the best possible, most accurate interpretation of the facts, the depth and...
Read More »FX Daily, December 17: Sterling Drops as New Brinkmanship Begins
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.0945 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 17(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Efforts by a UK Prime Minister emboldened by a strong electoral victory to ensure that trade negotiations with the EU are not extended as the divorce has encouraged further profit-taking on sterling. After testing the $1.35 area on the exit polls last week, sterling had returned...
Read More »USD/CHF retreats to 0.9820 area as USD loses strength
US Dollar Index erases daily recovery gains ahead of American session. European equity indexes stay in the negative territory. Coming up: Building Permits, Housing Starts and Industrial Production data from US. The USD/CHF lost its traction in the last couple of hours and retraced its daily recovery gains pressured by the sour market mood and the broad USD weakness. As of writing, the pair was down 0.02% on the day at 0.9818. The USD recovery during the early trading...
Read More »Paper reports new surveillance case involving Credit Suisse executive
In October of this year the bank cleared Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam of snooping on former wealth management boss Iqbal Khan in an episode that saw suicide, scandal and espionage invade the secretive world of Swiss private banking. (© Keystone / Ennio Leanza) A senior Credit Suisse human resources executive was tailed by private investigators in February, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Swiss bank was rocked by a highly damaging...
Read More »Léman Express to cut Geneva traffic jams
[embedded content] Commuters got their first proper taste on Monday of what’s been hailed as the largest cross-border regional rail network in Europe, the Léman Express. The network, which opened officially on Sunday, is the result of decades of planning and almost eight years of construction work. It offers a fast cross-city rail link from Geneva’s central train station to Annemasse in France. The regional cross-border network is much bigger, extending across...
Read More »If The Best Case For Consumer Christmas Is That It Started Off In The Wrong Month…
Gone are the days when Black Friday dominated the retail calendar. While it used to be a somewhat fun way to kick off the holiday shopping season, it had morphed into something else entirely in later years. Scenes of angry shoppers smashing each other over the few big deals stores would truly offer, internet clips of crying children watching in horror as their parents transformed their local Walmart into Thunderdome. Two shoppers enter, one shopper leaves…with the...
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