Monthly Archive: May 2021

Swiss consumer sentiment nearly back to pre-crisis level

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

The primary reason for the rise in consumer sentiment is a significant improvement in expectations regarding general economic development. This sub-index climbed from -18 points in January to +3 in April, the highest value recorded since autumn 2018, indicating that consumers are expecting the economic recovery to continue over the coming twelve months.

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Swiss to develop Covid-19 certificate by end of June

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

A system for issuing a forgery-proof Covid-19 certificate on request will be available by the end of June to anyone in Switzerland who has been vaccinated, has recovered from or has recently tested negative for coronavirus.

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#MacroView: Are Stocks Cheap, Or Just Another Rationalization?

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

Are stocks “cheap,” or is this just another bullish “rationalization.” Such was the suggestion by the consistently bullish Brian Wesbury of First Trust in a research note entitled “Yes, Stocks Are Cheap.” To wit: “The Fed remains highly accommodative, there are trillions of dollars of cash on the sidelines, vaccines have reached over 50% of Americans, and the economy is expanding rapidly. Some valuations have been stretched, but the market as a...

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World IP Day

2021-05-07

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2021-05-07

Monday, April 26, marked World IP Day. In cooperation with the Property Rights Alliance (PRA), the Austrian Economics Center celebrated it by signing its annual coalition letter, addressed to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Director-General Daren Tang. Property rights benefit businesses, both big and small, start-ups or companies with a long tradition. This, in turn, enriches society as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic has cost us too...

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Demand for Gold is Expected to Grow Exponentially in 2021

2021-05-06

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2021-05-06

Demand for Gold
The difference between physical gold investing and ETF investing was stark in the first quarter 2021 according to the World Gold Council’s Gold Demand Trends data released last week. Before focusing in on investment demand below a few notes on overall gold demand in the first quarter.

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Almost half of Swiss workers choose early retirement

2021-05-04

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2021-05-04

On Tuesday, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reported External linkthat in 2019 between 40-50% of people started receiving their pension from their so-called second pillar before the legal retirement age - 65 for men and 64 for women.

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Consumer sentiment back to pre-crisis level

2021-05-04

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2021-05-04

Sentiment amongst Swiss households is improving. The results of the April survey show that expectations regarding general economic development in particular are becoming more positive. The likelihood of households making major purchases has also risen. Download press release Consumer sentiment back to pre-crisis level(PDF, 2 pages, 257 kB) Other languages FR...

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Gold Is Laughing At Powell

2021-05-03

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2021-05-03

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,Recently, my colleague, Egon von Greyerz, and I had some unabashed yet blunt fun calling out the staggering levels of open hypocrisy and policy desperation unleashed by former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan.Poor Alan was an easy target of what I described as the “patient zero” of the reckless interest rate suppression and unbridled monetary expansion policies of the Fed which have always led to...

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The Bureaucrat as a Voter

2021-05-03

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2021-05-03

The bureaucrat is not only a government employee. He is, under a democratic constitution, at the same time a voter and as such a part of the sovereign, his employer. He is in a peculiar position: he is both employer and employee. And his pecuniary interest as employee towers above his interest as employer, as he gets much more from the public funds than he contributes to them.

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The $3 Trillion Hidden Exposure Behind The Archegos Blowup

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

Authored by Nick Dunbar of Risky FinanceWhen the family office Archegos Capital abruptly imploded in late March, prompting $50 billion in block trades and $10 billion in losses at Credit Suisse, Nomura, UBS and Morgan Stanley, many bank analysts were taken by surprise. Last week, many of these analysts sounded frustrated listening to Credit Suisse’s earnings call in which senior management skirted round without giving any real detail about the...

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All Inflation Is Transitory. The Fed Will Be Late Again.

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

In this issue of “All Inflation Is Transitory, The Fed WIll Be Late Again.“ Market Review And Update All Inflation Is Temporary The Fed Should Be Hiking Now Portfolio Positioning #MacroView: No. Bonds Aren’t Overvalued. Sector & Market Analysis 401k Plan Manager Follow Us On: Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Sound Cloud, Seeking Alpha Catch Up On What You Missed Last Week   Market Review & Update Last week, we...

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Covid: 13,465 new cases in Switzerland this week

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

This week, saw 13,465 new Covid-19 cases in Switzerland, down 5% from a week before (14,110) continuing the 5% slow down in growth of new numbers experienced last week. © Andrii Kozlytskyi | Dreamstime.comThe 7-day average is currently 1,924, dipping below the level of 2,000 for the first time since 11 April 2021. By 30 April 2021, 10.8% of Switzerland’s population was fully vaccinated, up from 9.6% a week earlier. This week, the...

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The Dollar can Build on the Pre-Weekend Gains

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

The US dollar traded heavily most of last week but rebounded ahead of the weekend, with some month-end flows impacting.  The Japanese yen was a notable exception.  The rise in US yields helped lift the greenback nearly a percent against the yen.  The Fed's standpat stance in light of the surging economy and signals the Norwegian central bank and the Bank of Canada seemed dovish.  The contrast carried the Norwegian krone and Canadian dollar to new...

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Real Swiss salaries up most in 5 years

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

On 30 April 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office released salary data for 2020 which showed a 1.5% rise in real salaries compared to 2019. © Suwat Supachavinswad | Dreamstime.comIn 2020, a 0.8% rise in nominal salaries was boosted by inflation of -0.7% bringing the total increase in the real average Swiss salary to 1.5%. The last time salaries rose this much was in 2015 when the real increase was 1.5%. In both 2015 and 2020...

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Seth Levine: Bitcoin Doesn’t Fix Defi, Defi Fixes Bitcoin

2021-05-02

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2021-05-02

Does Bitcoin Fix Defi (Definancialization)? “Bitcoin fixes this.” I cringe every time I see this popular meme. I find it worse than nails on a chalkboard. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (crypto) supporters seem to wheel this tired trope out for every problem they see, particularly at economic ones. To their credit, they genuinely want to fix the financial system’s problems.

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No, Conservatives Should Not Embrace MMT

2021-05-01

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2021-05-01

Reading Jonathan Culbreath’s “Modern Monetary Theory for Conservatives” one can’t help but think of Murray Rothbard’s quip that “it is not a crime to be ignorant of economics … but it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.“ Culbreath’s case for modern monetary theory (MMT) rests on an ignorance of basic economic principles regarding the role of money in a free...

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Federer to auction clothes, rackets and other gear for charity

2021-05-01

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2021-05-01

Millions of Roger Federer fans around the world might be salivating at the prospect of owning some mementos of the Swiss great's incredible career after he announced he is auctioning off a collection of personal items this summer.

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Swiss Financial Accounts: Household wealth in 2020 and focus article

2021-05-01

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2021-05-01

Financial and real estate wealth of households increases. The Swiss National Bank is today publishing data on Q4 2020 as part of the financial accounts. Thus, household wealth data are now also available for the full year.

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