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Spending on biodiversity was modest compared with expenditure on waste treatment and waste water management. (Keystone) Swiss spending on environmental protection has increased 45% in the last eighteen years, while the number of people employed in the sector has almost doubled. Environmental protection spending rose from CHF8.5 billion ($8.6 billion) in 2000 to CHF12.4 billion in 2018, according to the Federal Statistical Officeexternal link. As a percentage of GDP,...

And how do we pay for these spiraling out of control costs? By borrowing more, of course. If we had to choose one “big picture” reason why the vast majority of households are losing ground, it would be: the costs of essentials are spiraling out of control. I’ve often covered the dynamics of stagnating income for the bottom 90%, and real-world inflation, i.e. a decline in purchasing power. But neither of these dynamics fully describes the relentless upward spiral...

The largest gold nugget in Britain has been found in a Scottish river, as experts reveal that members of the public are taking up hunting after watching YouTube clips. The diver, who wishes to remain anonymous, discovered the £80,000 “doughnut-shaped” nugget using a method called “sniping”, in which a prospector uses a snorkel and hand tools to scan the riverbed for treasures. The 22-carat lump, found in two separate pieces ten minutes apart in an undisclosed river...

◆ Gold is flowing to strong hands in safer forms of gold ownership, in safer jurisdictions ◆ Gold and silver bullion coins and bars owned by GoldCore’s clients have been moved from Hong Kong to Singapore ◆ Central bank and institutional gold rush is beginning as prudent money diversifies fx reserves by buying gold & repatriates their gold from London and New York ◆ Central banks are repatriating gold and buying gold as never before due to macroeconomic,...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.26% to 1.0977 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, December 5(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Global equity markets have resumed their climb after a wobble at the end of last week and earlier this week. A strong recovery in the S&P 500 on Tuesday signaled yesterday’s strong advance that left a bullish one-day island low in its wake. MSCI Asia Pacific Index snapped a...

Julius Bär has been hit with two large write-downs in a matter of weeks. (Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella) Swiss bank Julius Bär has been ordered to pay CHF153 million ($155 million) to settle a claim that one of its subsidiaries pilfered money from Germany during the reunification of the country in the 1990s. A Swiss court on Wednesday overturned a previous verdict that Julius Bär should not he held responsible. The Swiss wealth manager has been pursued for...

Die SNB nimmt in der Nationalbankverordnung Anpassungen vor. (Bild: Shutterstock.com) Die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) passt die Nationalbankverordnung (NBV) mit Wirkung per Anfang 2020 leicht an. Neben der Anpassung diverser in der NBV verwendeter Begriffe und Anpassungen bei den statistischen Erhebungen im Anhang der NBV sind neu zwei Positionen bei der Berechnung der Mindestreserve nicht mehr massgeblich. Das Nationalbankgesetz schreibt vor, dass die Banken...

(© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) With 10,329 registrations so far this year, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have more new electric passenger cars than ever before. This is the first time the total hit the five-figure mark. The numbers reflect a 136.6% increase over last year’s fleet of new, completely electric passenger cars. What’s more, now e-cars represent 3.7% of all new cars in Switzerland and the principality next door, reported importer association Auto-Schweiz on...

You can see the pattern, a weathervane of sorts in its own right. Not for how the economy is actually going, mind you, more along the lines of how it is being perceived from the high-level perspective. The green light for “trade wars” in the first place was what Janet Yellen and Jay Powell had said about the economy. Because it was strong and accelerating, they said, the Trump administration gambled that such robust growth would insulate the US system from any...

Back in April, while she was quietly jockeying to make sure her name was placed at the top of the list to succeed Mario Draghi at the ECB, Christine Lagarde detoured into the topic of central bank independence. At a joint press conference held with the Governor of the Reserve Bank of South Africa, Lesetja Kganyago, as the Managing Director of the IMF Lagarde was asked specifically about President Trump’s habit of tweeting disdain in the direction of the Federal...