Tag Archives: Politics

In Brussels there was shock and anger. In Switzerland, quiet celebration and relief — but, for some, doubts about what exactly comes next. An employee checks an oscillating surgical bone saw blade at the company Gomina in Niederwald, canton Valais, Switzerland, in 2018. The Swiss medical devices sector, which exports almost half of all devices to the EU, is expected to be affected by Switzerland’s decision to pull out of an institutional framework agreement with the...

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been seeing more and more mainstream headlines about inflation fears being on the rise, both in the US and in Europe. Central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic have been doing their best to assuage these concerns, promising that they have everything under control and that the situation will without a doubt normalize soon. Still, all these assurances have failed to convince the markets and many investors are starting to see the cracks in the...

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been seeing more and more mainstream headlines about inflation fears being on the rise, both in the US and in Europe. Central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic have been doing their best to assuage these concerns, promising that they have everything under control and that the situation will without a doubt normalize soon. Still, all these assurances have failed to convince the markets and many investors are starting to see...

Switzerland and the EU have been working at failing to agree on a new agreement on Switzerland’s relationship with the EU for sometime now. One point of negotiating leverage used by Switzerland is that Swiss voters would reject the deal proposed by the EU in a referendum. However, a recent poll suggests that might not be true. © Alexander Filon | Dreamstime.comA recent poll run by gfs.bern found that 64% of a sample of voters were either supportive (15%) or fairly supportive (49%) of the...

I have long thought about and written about the incredible opportunities that decentralized digital technologies have brought forward, especially when it comes to solving financial and monetary problems. The more these technologies and their applications develop and mature, the more I believe they hold many of the answers to some our most complex challenges. Chief among them is the future of money itself: the idea of a decentralized, robust and independent system of freely competing...

Interview with David Morgan: Part II of II Claudio Grass (CG): During the first wave of lockdowns and travel bans we saw a lot of disruptions in the physical precious metal market. With delivery delays and logistics problems, has the situation fully normalized today for physical silver, or are you seeing shortages? David Morgan (DM): We are still seeing shortages. I mean, the amount of investment demand set a record in 2020 and has remained robust in 2021. The pressure on the...

Interview with David Morgan: Part I of II The past year has been a remarkably interesting time for precious metals and especially for silver. The metal had spent many years in the shadow of its “big brother”, but it made an impressive, roaring comeback that grabbed headlines and mainstream interest.  As can be expected, this attracted a lot of new investors to silver and many first-time buyers. For those of us who understand the importance of physical precious metals this was a...

Switzerland may have to find alternative ways to welcome foreign companies to Switzerland. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer The looming shadow of a global minimum corporate tax rate could threaten Switzerland’s status as a hub for multinational company headquarters. The United States says that no country should tax companies less than 21%, a proposal that has added momentum to talks over a worldwide minimum corporate tax rate. The average corporate tax rate among Swiss...

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally Swiss courts dealt with 52 major cases of economic crime last year that amounted to CHF355 million ($384 million) in losses, the consultancy firm KPMG said on Thursday. Public institutions were especially targeted by fraudsters. The total number of documented cases was up by four compared to 2019 – well below the record peak (91) in 2015. The financial losses were also much lower than the CHF1.4 billion registered in 2016. Fraudsters...

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been constantly bombarded by news reports and “expert” analyses celebrating an incredible global economic recovery. They’re not even presented as projections or expectations anymore, but as a fact, as though the return to vibrant growth is already underway. Stock markets certainly seem to agree, going from record high to record high, while all the political and institutional leaders congratulate themselves on a job well done. Although...