Monthly Archive: May 2021

The ‘Take This Job and Shove It’ Recession

2021-05-13

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2021-05-13

Wages Share Income, 1960 - 2020
So hey there Corporate America, the Fed and your neofeudal cronies: take this job and shove it. This time it really is different, but not in the way the Wall Street shucksters are claiming.

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Excess Mortality in The US Has Plummeted to Pre-Covid Levels

2021-05-13

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2021-05-13

Excess Mortality during Covid-19, Jan 2020 - Mar 2021
In any given year during the past decade in the United States, more than 2.5 million Americans have died—from all causes. The number has grown in recent years, climbing from 2.59 million in 2013 to 2.85 million in 2019. This has been due partially to the US’s aging population, and also due to rising obesity levels and drug overdoses.

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FX Daily, May 12: The Dollar Stabilizes but Stocks, Not So Much

2021-05-12

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2021-05-12

The markets remain on edge. Asia Pacific and US equities have yet to find stable footing, and inflation fears are elevated. The foreign exchange market has turned quiet as the dollar consolidates its recent losses.

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UBS Reportedly Re-Starts Layoffs After “Doubling” One Time Bonuses To Some Associates

2021-05-12

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2021-05-12

On one hand, UBS seems hell bent on keep its new Gen Z employees who have recently been promoted to associate positions. After all, it was just hours ago that we wrote about how the bank was showering some newly promoted employees with one-time $40,000 bonuses.

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A Woke CIA … or a Free, Peaceful, and Prosperous Society?

2021-05-12

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2021-05-12

There is a battle currently going on over whether the CIA should be woke or not. The battle was  apparently incited by a recent segment of a social media series issued by the CIA entitled “Humans of CIA.” According to an article in yesterday’s Washington Post, Susan Gordon, deputy director of national intelligence from 2017-2019, says that the aim of the series is to “connect to America, and if they’re lucky, attract new talent.”

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FX Daily, May 11: Stocks Slide but Little Demand for Safe Havens

2021-05-11

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2021-05-11

The sell-off in US shares yesterday has triggered sharp global losses today, and there is no flight into fixed income as benchmark yields are higher across the board. Nor is the dollar serving as much as a safe haven. It is mostly softer against the major currencies.

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Technically Speaking: If Everyone Sees It, Is It Still A Bubble?

2021-05-11

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2021-05-11

Concern of Stock Market Bubble, 2016 - 2021
“If everyone sees it, is it still a bubble?” That was a great question I got over the weekend. As a “contrarian” investor, it is usually when “everyone” is talking about an event; it doesn’t happen. As Mark Hulbert noted recently, “everyone” is worrying about a “bubble” in the stock market.

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UBS, Desperate To Retain Talent, Now Offering $40,000 Bonuses To Newly Promoted Associates

2021-05-11

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2021-05-11

Not in Labor Force, 1994 - 2020
It looks like the hiring (and retention) shortage isn't just for rank-and-file minimum wage jobs.UBS has now said that, amidst historic competition and a "retention crisis" in the investment banking world (which we noted weeks ago), it is going to pay a one time $40,000 bonus to its global banking analysts when they are promoted.

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Electric Car maker feels the power of Switzerland

2021-05-11

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2021-05-11

Anton “Toni” Piëch, co-founder of the Swiss electric car manufacturer Piëch Automotive, tells SWI swissinfo.ch why he chose Zurich and how he intends to make his mark in a highly competitive market with battery-powered cars for “purists who love technology”.

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The Corrupt Bargain and the Preservation of Slavery

2021-05-11

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2021-05-11

The most important battle of the August days of the Constitutional Convention was waged, as had been the battle over the three-fifths clause, between the North and South and had at its heart the institution of slavery.

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FX Daily, May 10: The Dollar Remains on the Defensive

2021-05-10

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2021-05-10

Last week's cyberattack on the largest US gasoline pipeline continues to lift oil and gasoline prices. The June gasoline futures gapped higher to extend last week's 2.4% gain but has subsequently moved lower to enter the gap. 

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Swiss Consumer Price Index in April 2021: -0.3 percent YoY, +0.2 percent MoM

2021-05-10

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2021-05-10

Switzerland Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY, April 2021
The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.2% in April 2021 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.8 points (December 2020 = 100). Inflation was +0.3% compared with the same month of the previous year.

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Here’s How ‘Everything Bubbles’ Pop

2021-05-10

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2021-05-10

Dot-Com Bubble and Pop, 1994 - 2006
At long last, the moment you've been hoping for has arrived: you're pitching your screenplay to a producer. Your agent is cautious but you're confident nobody else has concocted a story as outlandish as yours. Your agent gives you the nod and you're off and running:

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Credit Suisse Hires Former Prime Brokerage Head To Restore Business After Archegos Blowup

2021-05-09

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2021-05-09

Hires Former Prime Brokerage
After firing a raft of senior employees including its head of risk, Lara Warner, Credit Suisse has been struggling to move past a series of major risk-management failures that together could cost the bank $10 billion, or more, though the final tally of losses from the Archegos blowup isn't yet known as the bank weighs whether it should cover some client losses associated with the "low risk" trade-finance funds that collapsed earlier this year.

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The Dollar and the Fed

2021-05-08

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2021-05-08

One of the stark developments since the initial shock of the pandemic has been the aggressiveness of the US monetary and fiscal response. This was also true in dealing with the Great Financial Crisis. The divergence then and now had shaped the investment climate.

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Why foreign banks’ forays on Wall Street have gone wrong—again

2021-05-08

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2021-05-08

May 8th 2021THE IMPLOSION of Archegos Capital, a New York-based investment firm, in April splashed egg on many faces. Banks that had lent it vast sums to bet on volatile stocks have revealed over $10bn in related losses in recent weeks. America’s leading investment banks, barring Morgan Stanley, were largely absent from the big casualties, though. Instead the grim league table featured foreign champions. Most notable, because of its huge loss of...

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Hey Fed, Explain Again How Making Billionaires Richer Creates Jobs

2021-05-08

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2021-05-08

Despite their hollow bleatings about 'doing all we can to achieve full employment', the Fed's policies has been Kryptonite to employment, labor and the bottom 90%--and most especially to the bottom 50%, the working poor that one might imagine most deserve a leg up. As wealth and income inequality soar to new heights thanks to the Federal Reserve's policies of zero interest rates, money-printing and financial stimulus, the Fed says its goal...

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How Markets Have Delivered More Economic Equality

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

People must still compete for resources in a socialist economy. In fact, the competition is intense. On the other hand, thanks to markets, basic necessities—and even basic luxuries—are now more more accessible than ever.  Original Article: "How Markets Have Delivered More Economic Equality​" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.

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Latest poll shows majority support for Swiss anti-pesticide votes

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

With five weeks to go before Swiss vote on two initiatives aimed at drastically cutting the use of pesticides, more than 50% appear to be in favour of both initiatives, according to RTS. © Dusan Kostic | Dreamstime.comOne of these initiatives, the clean drinking water initiative, aims to tie access to Switzerland’s generous farm subsidies to forgoing pesticide (and antibiotic) use. The second aims to ban the use of synthetic pesticide use...

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Covid: new cases trend down with vaccine progress

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

This week, saw 10,639 new Covid-19 cases in Switzerland, down 21% from a week before (13,465) continuing the slow down in growth of new numbers experienced last week (-5%). The 7-day average is currently 1,519.

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