Tag Archive: Featured

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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The American Revolution Was a Culture War

2020-12-22

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2020-12-22

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

2020-12-22

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2020-12-22

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

2020-12-22

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2020-12-22

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

2020-12-21

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2020-12-21

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

2020-12-21

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2020-12-21

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

2020-12-21

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2020-12-21

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

2020-12-21

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2020-12-21

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

2020-12-21

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2020-12-21

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

2020-12-20

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2020-12-20

Inflation Expectations, 2015-2019
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?

2020-12-20

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2020-12-20

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

2020-12-20

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2020-12-20

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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