Tag Archives: newsletter

There currently exists about 3,500 charging stations across Switzerland but only very few along the country’s motorway network. (© Keystone/Alexandra Wey) The Swiss government has awarded concessions to five companies to set up additional electric charging stations at 100 rest areas along the country’s motorways. The decision, announced by the Federal Roads Office on Thursday, is part of government plans to boost...

This is the politics of decline and collapse. The unspoken assumption of the modern era is that politics can fix whatever is broken: whatever is broken in society or the economy can be fixed by some political policy or political process– becoming more inclusionary, seeking non-partisan middle ground, etc. What if this assumption is flat-out wrong? What is politics is incapable of fixing what’s broken? What if politics...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.03% at 1.1313 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 08(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: A weak economic assessment in the Beige Book and an ECB that slashed growth forecasts have been followed by news of a nearly 21% slump in China’s exports have marked the end of the dramatic equity rally that was seen in the first...

What just happened in Europe? The short answer is T-LTRO. The ECB is getting back to being “accommodative” again. This isn’t what was supposed to be happening at this point in time. Quite the contrary, Europe’s central bank had been expecting to end all its programs and begin normalizing interest rates. The reaction to this new round was immediately negative: The euro and euro zone government bond yields fell sharply...

Recently published figures show a 7% decline in the percentage of men in Switzerland’s workforce between 1991 and 2018. © Volker Husberg _ Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The workforce figures, which include the unemployed, show a fall in male workforce participation from 81% to 74%, a 7% decline over 27 years. At the same time, the percentage of women working rose 6% from 57% to 63% from 1991 to 2018. Across both...

We’re changing the format on our Macro updates, breaking the report into two parts. This is part one, a review of the data released the previous month with charts to highlight the ones we deem important. We’ll post another one next week that will be more commentary and the market based indicators we use to monitor recession risk. We are still playing catch up on the economic data releases due to the government...

China increased its gold reserves for a third straight month in February, data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) showed this morning. The value of China’s gold reserves rose slightly to $79.498 billion in February from $79.319 billion at the end of January, as the central bank increased the total amount of gold reserves to 60.260 million fine troy ounces from 59.940 million troy ounces. The People’s Bank of China...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.31% at 1.1324 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 07(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The ECB meeting is today’s highlight. A dovish signal is expected. The euro remains pinned near its lows ahead it. The global equity market rally in January and February is faltering this week. Asian equities were mixed, but the...

The holiday season was shaping up to be a good one, perhaps a very good one. All the signs seemed to be pointing in that direction, especially if you were a worker. All throughout last year, beginning partway through 2017, there wasn’t a day that went by without some mainstream story “reporting” on America’s labor shortage. It was so ubiquitous, this economic boom idea, the media created several spinoffs. The...

Fifth banknote in latest series showcases Switzerland’s communicative flair The Swiss National Bank (SNB) will begin issuing the new 1000-franc note on 13 March 2019. Following the 50, 20, 10 and 200-franc notes, this is the fifth of six denominations in the new banknote series to be released. The current eighth-series banknotes remain legal tender until further notice. The inspiration behind the new banknote series is...