Tag Archive: Featured

The American Revolution Was a Culture War

Two hundred and forty-seven years ago this month, a group of American opponents of the Crown's tax policy donned disguises and set about methodically destroying a shipment of tea imported into Boston by the East India Company. The vandals trespassed on privately owned ships in Boston Harbor and threw the tea into the ocean.

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Covid: retroactive quarantine for those arriving from the UK and South Africa

Following the discovery of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the UK and South Africa, the Federal Council today decided to take steps to prevent the further spread of this new virus strain.

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Big Media: Selling the Narrative and Crushing Dissent for Fun and Profit

The profit-maximizing Big Tech / Big Media Totalitarian regime hasn't just strangled free speech and civil liberties; it's also strangled democracy.

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FX Daily, December 21: Happy Holidays

No daily commentary until the New Year, but watch this space for thematic pieces over the next two weeks. Here is to a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2021. Thank you for your support.  

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First Covid-19 vaccine approved for Swiss use

Swiss health regulator Swissmedic has approved the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech. According to the Swiss authorities, the level of protection is over 90% a week after the second dose.

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Individualism and the Industrial Revolution

Liberals stressed the importance of the individual. The 19th-century liberals already considered the development of the individual the most important thing. "Individual and individualism" was the progressive and liberal slogan. Reactionaries had already attacked this position at the beginning of the 19th century.

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Drivers for the Week Ahead

As of this writing, a stimulus deal is close and a US government shutdown Monday may have been avoided; the Fed gave US banks the go-ahead to resume stock buybacks Friday; Fed manufacturing surveys for November will continue to roll out; weekly jobless claims will be reported on Wednesday due to the holiday.

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Covid: Switzerland suspends flights from the UK and South Africa

Late on 20 December 2020, the Swiss government decided to suspend flights to Switzerland from the UK and South Africa following news of the discovery a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

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Dollar Continues to Soften Ahead of FOMC Decision

Optimism on a stimulus deal remains high; the FOMC decision will be key; the dollar tends to weaken on recent FOMC decision days November retail sales will be the US data highlight; Markit reports preliminary December PMI readings; Canada reports November CPI

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Deflation: Friend or Foe?

Deflation is the most feared economic phenomenon of our time. The reason behind this a priori irrational fear (why should we be afraid of prices going down?) is the Great Depression.

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What Is the Great Reset? Part I: Reduced Expectations and Bio-techno-feudalism

The Great Reset is on everyone’s mind, whether everyone knows it or not. It is presaged by the measures undertaken by states across the world in response to the covid-19 crisis. (I mean by “crisis” not the so-called pandemic itself, but the responses to a novel virus called SARS-2 and the impact of the responses on social and economic conditions.)

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It Should Shock Us That There’s Any Consumer Price Inflation at All

Thanks to lockdowns, high unemployment, and general uncertainty and fear over covid-19, the personal saving rate in the United States in October was 13.6 percent, the highest since the mid-1970s. This is down from April’s rate of 33.7 percent, which was the highest saving rate recorded since the Second World War.

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Countries still far from achieving sustainable development

The latest United Nations Human Development Report has found that countries, including Switzerland, still struggle to achieve high levels of human development without straining the planet.

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Consumers, Too; (Un)Confident To Re-engage

There is a lot of evidence which shows some basis for expectations-based monetary policy. Much of what becomes a recession or worse is due to the psychological impacts upon businesses (who invest and hire) as well as workers being consumers (who earn and then spend).

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Krankenzusatzversicherer: FINMA sieht umfassenden Handlungsbedarf bei Leistungsabrechnungen

Die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA stellt aufgrund ihrer jüngsten Analysen fest, dass Rechnungen im Bereich der Krankenzusatzversicherung häufig intransparent sind und zum Teil unbegründet hoch oder ungerechtfertigt scheinen.

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Fed Recommits to Misleading the Public About Inflation

Did the Federal Reserve just usher in the next phase of the U.S. dollar’s decline? On Wednesday, the central bank recommitted to leaving its benchmark interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future. Fed officials also vowed to keep pumping cash into financial markets.

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Switzerland Construction prices fell by 0.2 percent in October 2020

The construction price index recorded a decline of 0.2% between April and October 2020, reaching 99.7 points (October 2015 = 100). This result reflects a decline in building prices and a slight growth in civil engineering prices. Year on year, construction prices remained stable.

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What Did Hamper Growth ‘In A Few Months’

Over here, on the other side of that ocean, the US economy can only dream of the low levels Chinese industry has been putting up this late into 2020. At least those in the East are back positive year-over-year. Here in America, manufacturing and industry can’t even manage anything like a plus sign.

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Some Thoughts on the Latest Treasury FX Report

The US Treasury’s latest “Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States” report named Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators. Both countries came under scrutiny in the last report and so this week’s announcement was only surprising in that it was made by a lame duck administration that will be gone in a month.

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Monetary policy assessment of 17 December 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to have a strong adverse effect on the economy. Against this difficult backdrop, the SNB is maintaining its expansionary monetary policy with a view to stabilising economic activity and price developments.

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