Tag Archive: Featured

‘We were too lax’ admits Swiss health minister on Covid-19

2020-12-29

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2020-12-29

In an interview with Swiss public television, SRF, Health Minister Alain Berset has acknowledged that Switzerland made mistakes in managing the coronavirus outbreak.

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A Future Hunger Pandemic

2020-12-29

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2020-12-29

The coronavirus has dominated all of our lives in recent months. Radical paths were taken by politicians in the form of lockdowns to contain the pandemic. But we should recognize that even if the coronavirus is a (major) challenge for us, we always have to keep a holistic view of world events.

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2020 the “Worst Year Ever”–You’re Joking, Right?

2020-12-29

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2020-12-29

So party on, because "the worst year ever" is ending and the rebound of financial markets, already the greatest in recorded history, will only become more fabulous.

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The Problem with Mandatory “Socially Responsible Investing”

2020-12-28

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2020-12-28

The term environmental social governance (ESG) investing is relatively new. As described in Forbes, [An] approach that is slowly on the rise is ESG activism, where an activist fund will take a position in the security of a company with the aim of campaigning to make its business better in terms of governance, less environmentally unfriendly and more socially responsible.

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Die Google-Präsidentschaftswahl

2020-12-27

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2020-12-27

“Sei nicht böse” ist zwar nicht mehr länger Google’s offizielles Unternehmensmotto, aber es verbleibt Bestandteil des letzten Satzes in seinem Verhaltenskodex. Unter ‘nichts Böses machen’ versteht Google nach wie vor, dass «alles [was es tut] in Verbindung mit [seiner] Arbeit … an den höchstmöglichen Standards des ethischen Geschäftsverhaltens gemessen wird und werden sollte.»

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Why the Marketplace Is Not a Zero-Sum Game

2020-12-26

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2020-12-26

Twenty-twenty marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of a book that has had an expanding influence on the public conversation about market competition. Robert Frank and Philip Cook’s 1995 The Winner-Take-All Society argued that there are an increasing number of markets in which small differences in performance give rise to enormous differences in rewards.

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Swiss groups argue about parking spaces

2020-12-25

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2020-12-25

Even good drivers might struggle to fit their cars into the allotted parking spaces in Switzerland. Yet Swiss cities don’t necessarily want to provide larger spaces.

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How Austrian Is Your Business? Continuous Value Perception Monitoring Is One Measure.

2020-12-25

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2020-12-25

With the development of the Austrian Business Paradigm and the Austrian Business Model, and tools such as the "Value Learning Process," businesses of all kinds can utilize the deep insights of Austrian economics to further enhance how they facilitate value for their customers.

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Cool Video: A Look Ahead to 2021

2020-12-24

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2020-12-24

I joined Ben Lichtenstein, host of the morning futures program at TDAmeritrade.  It is in the futures market that I began my career, and where I gained respect for local traders, who do not have a large institutional backing such as a bank or hedge fund, and are trading their own capital, and taking the risk often from those institutional participants. 

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Europe’s ski market crushed by Covid-19

2020-12-24

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2020-12-24

Gérard Brudi, who rents two apartments to winter workers in the popular French ski resort of Val Thorens, has not had a single booking this year.

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Rich Millennials Plot the End of Civilization

2020-12-24

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2020-12-24

The New York Times managed to find some young people whose silver spoons provide a sour taste in their mouths. To hear them talk, their good fortune is making them sick. 

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A Major Support For Asset Prices Has Reversed

2020-12-24

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2020-12-24

In 2019, we wrote about how corporate share repurchases, or “stock buybacks,” had accounted for nearly all buying in the market. A year later, that significant support for asset prices has reversed.

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The Dollar’s Evolving Outlook

2020-12-23

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2020-12-23

The foreign exchange market sees an average daily turnover of something on the magnitude of $6.6 trillion a day.  In a week, the turnover is sufficient to more than cover world trade for a year.  It is the largest of the capital markets.  Trends in the currency market can last for years.  

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Switzerland bans flights from UK over new coronavirus

2020-12-23

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2020-12-23

Switzerland has joined other European countries in suspending flights from the United Kingdom and South Africa after reports of a fast-spreading new coronavirus strain.

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Pelosi’s “Mandate”: What “Consent of the Governed” Really Means

2020-12-23

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2020-12-23

US Population by Preferred Candidate
The 2020 election failed to live up to the projections of many pollsters and Democratic strategists. The predicted landslide failed to materialize, and the Democrats lost seats in the House. This means in 2022 the Democrats will be defending a razor-thin majority in the House—a majority they’re almost certain to lose in a mid-term election if Biden is the final victor.

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Feudalism and Cronyism in Machiavelli’s Italy

2020-12-23

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2020-12-23

Although liberty is a recurring concern in Machiavelli’s writings, there is no consensus regarding either the definition of the concept or its relevance for his overall political thought.

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Covid: restaurants and cafés to close across French-speaking Switzerland

2020-12-23

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2020-12-23

Restaurants and cafés will progressively close once more across French-speaking Switzerland starting in the canton of Jura on Tuesday 22 December 2020.

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Swiss style bakery in Boston

2020-12-22

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Swiss couple Helene and Thomas Stohr run their own bakery in Massachusetts. Every day, they produce an array of Swiss and European treats, including croissants, jelly doughnuts and braided bread. From a young age, the Stohrs dreamed of seeing the world, so they left Lucerne for North America 20 years ago. Thomas, a professional baker, worked in Canada and the US for various eateries, including Mövenpick, while Helene looked after their sons Tobias...

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Credit Suisse chief vows a ‘clean slate’ in 2021

2020-12-22

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2020-12-22

The chief executive of Credit Suisse has vowed the bank will start 2021 with a “clean slate” after a torrid year that began with a damaging corporate spying scandal and was punctuated by embarrassing fallout from legacy compliance and lending failures.

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Mises Explains the Santa Claus Principle

2020-12-22

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2020-12-22

The idea underlying all interventionist policies is that the higher income and wealth of the more affluent part of the population is a fund which can be freely used for the improvement of the conditions of the less prosperous. The essence of the interventionist policy is to take from one group to give to another. It is confiscation and distribution. Every measure is ultimately justified by declaring that it is fair to curb the rich for the benefit...

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