Tag Archives: newslettersent

The world looks like a mess. While the economy appears to be doing better, disparity of wealth and income has grown. Debt levels are rising. Protectionism appears on the rise. Global flash points, like Korea, Middle East, Pakistan, Venezuela are unaddressed. At the same time, this Great Graphic tweeted by @DinaPomeranz, with a hat tip to @bill_easterly is a helpful corrective. The clear decline in hunger, poverty,...

The world looks like a mess. While the economy appears to be doing better, disparity of wealth and income has grown. Debt levels are rising. Protectionism appears on the rise. Global flash points, like Korea, Middle East, Pakistan, Venezuela are unaddressed. At the same time, this Great Graphic tweeted by @DinaPomeranz, with a hat tip to @bill_easterly is a helpful corrective. The clear decline in hunger, poverty,...

Are robots replacing jobs or helping to bring them back home? (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Thanks to advances in robotics and digitalisation, the trend towards the offshoring of manufacturing jobs to cheaper countries is set to be reversed, according to the president of Zurich-based industry giant ABB group. In an interview published Sunday in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Peter Voser said that digital...

The economy ended 2017 with current growth just slightly above trend. In general the reports of the last two weeks of the year were pretty good with housing a standout performer going into the new year. We are still trying to get past the impact – positive and negative – from the hurricanes a few months ago though so it is probably prudent to wait for more evidence before making any definitive pronouncements about the...

98,750,067,000,000 Reasons to Buy Gold in 2018 – World equity index market capitalization touching distance of $100 trillion dollars at beginning of December – Key indicators across global financial markets are looking decidedly bubble-like – Little indication that we are through the worst of the financial crisis that started in 2007 – Apparent lack of concern regarding the over-heated and overpriced markets – Since...

We expect the ECB to announce a tapering of its asset purchase programme in the summer, but not to overreact to strong economic data. Our first choice as the title for our 2018 ECB outlook was “The courage not to act”, but regular readers will know that we used this hommage to Ben Bernanke earlier this year. Yet our faith in ECB’s courage knows no bounds and this still feels relevant today, with the caveat that the ECB...

The most important driver of the Swiss watch industry’s recovery has been the revival of the mainland China market. After years of impressive growth, the Swiss watch industry faced difficult conditions in 2015 and 2016, when exports declined by 3.2% and 9.9% respectively in value terms. The last time that there were two consecutive years of decline was in 1995-96. The appreciation of the Swiss franc, the collapse of...

Summary Fitch upgraded Indonesia by a notch to BBB with stable outlook. EU-Poland tensions entered a new phase. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as the new ANC President over opponent Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Argentina’s lower house approved President Macri’s pension reform bill. Sebastian Pinera won the Chilean presidency in the second round vote. Mexico political risk is rising as the PRI slush money scandal widens....

The public prosecutor of the southern Swiss canton of Ticino has opened criminal proceedings over irregularities concerning the bankruptcy of regional carrier Darwin Airlines. According to the SonntagsZeitung paper, the Ticino public prosecutor opened criminal proceedings against “unknown persons” on Thursday after the bankruptcy office in Lugano drew his attention to suspected irregularities. The regional carrier,...

The collapse of a beam holding up the ventilation system was responsible for the tunnel closure in September (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s oldest traffic tunnel through the Alps reopened on Christmas eve after a three-month closure due to problems with the ventilation system. After extensive repair work, the tunnel that connects Martigny in the western Swiss canton of Valais with the Aosta...