Astrid Stuckelberger and Claudio Grass have been on my podcast before. Both are from Switzerland, and both featured in the super documentary Planet Lockdown. You can also see the video here: https://jermwarfare.com/blog/astrid-stuckelberger-claudio-grass (copy/past into browser). Feel free to share! [embedded content] You Might Also Like Gold Gives You Personal Sovereignty 2022-03-09 Dave...
Read More »Why Switzerland doesn’t want to join the European Union
Switzerland and the European Union have a complicated relationship. The recent decision by the Alpine nation to definitively shut the door on a framework agreement with the EU reaffirms its attachment to its independence. It shows that 30 years after refusing to join the EU, Switzerland’s stance has only been reinforced. We look at some of the main reasons why. For years Bern and Brussels have been working to recast their long-term relationship. In the...
Read More »Switzerland simplifies process of employing foreign workers
Companies will no longer have to prove there are no Swiss job candidates in some sectors. Moves to cut red tape for non-EU foreign workers in Switzerland will not necessarily lead to more work visas being issued. On Friday, the government announced measures to make it easier to hire skilled workers from such countries as India, Britain, China and the United States. By making it simpler to award B and L work permits, Switzerland hopes that the “innovative power of...
Read More »Václav Klaus: Remembering Gordon Tullock
It is a regrettable fact, but a fact nonetheless, that too many students of economic and monetary history have no idea where the principles and theories they espouse really came from. So many important thinkers, with unconventional and truly inquisitive minds, have been shut out of mainstream textbooks and were robbed of the prominent place they deserved in all our memories to make room for those with more expedient ideas. One such man is Gordon Tullock, an economist and law...
Read More »“Some things never change like weather patterns, famines and wars, whilst others change rapidly through technology and human greed”
Interview with Simon Hunt: Part II of II Claudio Grass (CG): Taken together, the moves by Russia and China, especially on the monetary front, with their plans of a gold-backed digital currency, appear to pose a direct challenge to the status quo and America’s central role in it. Do you think we might be witnessing a tectonic shift already, and do you expect to see the US and the USD decline in influence and relevance? Simon Hunt (SH): As I shift through your questions, none can...
Read More »“Some things never change like weather patterns, famines and wars, whilst others change rapidly through technology and human greed”
Interview with Simon Hunt Part I of II As my friends and clients know very well, but also anyone who has read any of my writings before, I always held that understanding history and geopolitics is one of the most important elements of sound investing. Most mainstream investors, “experts”, as well as the financial press tend to ignore these forces, as does the public at large, of course. “Who cares what happened decades ago in some faraway land? I just need someone from Wall Street...
Read More »The weaponization of Economics – Part II
Part II of II, by Claudio Grass Slippery slope However, interesting as those experiments and observations might be, they are still the result of specific parameters within a particular setting and an environment that doesn’t resemble real life. Serious and honest behavioral economists both understand and freely admit this. Just because there was one experiment in which 12 university students chose to receive 1 chocolate today rather than 2 tomorrow, one cannot extrapolate from...
Read More »More women at head of large Swiss companies
The percentage of women in senior management positions at companies listed on the Swiss SMI and SMIM indexes rose from 13% in 2020 to 19% in 2021. © Barbara Helgason | Dreamstime.comThe rise reflects an increase in the number of women being nominated for these positions in 2021. During the year 4 out of 10 nominees were women, according to a study by the placement agency Russel Reynolds Association. Most of the newcomers (92%) were women from the US, UK, Germany and France. SMI...
Read More »The weaponization of Economics
Part I of II, by Claudio Grass The field of economics has long and often very embarrassing history of absurd theories, blatantly wrong assumptions and hypotheses, spectacularly wrong predictions and entirely avoidable policymaking blunders; a few of them hilarious, most of them catastrophic, some of them literally murderous. Overconfidence and a generous amount of hubris appear to be at the heart of the problem, as is so often the case nearly every time that “experts” and...
Read More »Missing the forest for the tree
Over the second half of January, we witnessed a fresh wave of volatility in equity markets, culminating in a pullback that caused widespread concern and endless headlines in the mainstream financial press. There was speculation of a full blown correction, other “experts” disagreed and predicted that central bankers would never allow that to happen, while others still tried to account for the market’s moves by using the same explanations we’ve been hearing throughout the covid crisis...
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