Tag Archive: Featured

We don’t have to kill the king, if we just can ignore the king

2020-10-01

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2020-10-01

“The right of self-determination in regard to the question of membership in a state thus means: whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory, whether it be a single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts, make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time, but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some...

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What’s Zambia Got To With It (everything)

2020-10-01

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2020-10-01

Argentina Bank
As one of Africa’s largest copper producers, it seemed like a no-brainer. Financial firms across the Western world, pension funds from the US or banks in Europe, they lined up for a bit of additional yield. This was 2012, still global recovery on the horizon – at least that’s what “they” all kept saying.

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FX Daily, September 30: Nervous Calm

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

Quarter and month-end considerations could be overwhelming other factors today.  Turnaround Tuesday saw early gains in US equities fade.  Asia Pacific shares were mixed, with the Nikkei (-1.5%) and Australia (-2.3%) bear the brunt of the selling, while China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and India rose.

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Sonderausgabe Edelmetalle: Trading unter Verwendung von CoT Daten bei Rohstoffen (Teil 3)

2020-09-30

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Im dritten Teil der Serie, welche von der LS-Exchange präsentiert wird, widmet sich der professionelle Trader Martin Goersch folgenden Fragen: • Waren die starken Bewegungen zum August und September im Voraus erkennbar? • Worauf müssen Sie achten, um beim Start der nächsten Rallye rechtzeitig dabei zu sein? • Wann ist mit einem Kurseinbruch zu rechnen? Diese und mehr Themen werden in diesen 60 Minuten behandelt. Nutzen Sie die seltene...

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How much blockchain does the financial world need?

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the buzz-phrase of the moment. But the Swiss National Bank (SNB) says producing digital Swiss francs for the general public would create many problems with unclear benefits. The Swiss government has backed up the central bank word for word.

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The colonial vision of Swiss multinationals

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

Switzerland is the home of many major multinational companies, many of which date back to the late 19th century, the high tide of colonialism. But is there a link between the rise of great Swiss corporate names and European colonial expansion? The issue turns out to be a complex one.

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Dollar Softens as Risk-Off Sentiment Ebbs

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

EM FX YTD Performance, 2020
The dollar continues to soften as risk-off sentiment ebbs; the first presidential debate will take place tonight. House Democrats have staked out their latest position at $2.2 trln; there is a fair amount of US data out today; Brazil has come under renewed pressure from fiscal concerns.

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Silver Rises, JP Morgan Manipulates!

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

Silver Basis and Co-basis
While the silver price was dropping recently, we published analyses here and here. At that time, we saw a basis that fell with price, but which recovered during “off” days. In short, there was not much of a decrease in abundance of the metal to the markets commensurate with the price drops.

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Monthly Macro Monitor – September 2020

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

US Industrial Production Index
The economic data over the last month continued to improve but the breadth of improvement has narrowed. Additionally, while most of the economic data series are still improving, the rate of change, as Jeff pointed out recently, has slowed. I guess that isn’t that surprising as the initial phase of the recovery comes to an end.

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If the US Adopts Eurozone Policies, the Jobs Recovery Will Suffer

2020-09-30

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2020-09-30

The employment recovery in the United States is as impressive as the collapse due to the lockdowns. In April I wrote a column stating that “The U.S. Labor Market Can Heal Quickly,” and the improvement has been positive. Very few would have expected the unemployment rate to be at 8.4 percent in August after soaring to almost 15 percent in the middle of the pandemic.

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FX Daily, September 29: Consolidation Still Featured

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

A consolidative tone continues across the capital markets. Equities have lost their momentum. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was mixed, while Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is paring yesterday's sharp 2.2% gain. US shares are little changed but mostly softer. 

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GDP level corrected from 2.8 percent to 3.6 percent between 1995 and 2017 following revision of the national accounts

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

Swiss Economic Growth 1996–2018
The results of the national accounts published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) have been revised upwards. New data series are available for the period 1995 to 2019. This revision was carried out in collaboration with the sector responsible for quarterly estimates at SECO, provides methodological improvements and takes into consideration new data.

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Switzerland adds 18 more regions to its quarantine list

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

Today, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) added 18 regions to its compulsory quarantine list. Anyone arriving in Switzerland from these place from 28 September 2020 will be required by law to quarantine for 10 days.

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Dollar Soft as Markets Ignore Virus Numbers and Switch to Risk-On Mode

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

GBP Risk Reversals and Positioning, 2019-2020
Virus numbers are rising across Europe and the US; the dollar is softening as risk-off sentiment ebbs. It is a fairly quiet day in the US; there is a glimmer of hope about a fiscal deal in the US; recent US data support the widely held view that more stimulus is needed.

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Why “Taxing the Rich” Doesn’t Make Us Better Off

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

The complete confiscation of all private property is tantamount to the introduction of socialism. Therefore we do not have to deal with it in an analysis of the problems of interventionism. We are concerned here only with the partial confiscation of property. Such confiscation is today attempted primarily by taxation.

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Mises and Moral Relativism

2020-09-29

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2020-09-29

I heard several days ago from my friend Larry Beane that people in Walter Block’s seminar who had been reading Theory and History wondered whether Mises is a moral relativist. As I’ll try to show, the answer depends on what you mean by “moral relativist,” but in the way the term is usually understood in contemporary philosophy, he isn’t.

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SWISS plans to introduce rapid pre-boarding Covid tests

2020-09-28

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2020-09-28

German airline Lufthansa will introduce rapid tests before certain flights to detect Covid-19 in passengers. If the trial, set to start in October, is successful, it will be expanded to Lufthansa subsidiaries Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) and Edelweiss.

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FX Daily, September 28: Stocks Recover while the Greenback Consolidates

2020-09-28

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2020-09-28

Overview: Following the strong finish in the US before the weekend, global equities are paring last week's slide.  The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose to for a second session. Markets in  Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and India rose by more than 1%.  China and Australia were notable exceptions. 

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Covid-19: Swiss ‘industry mix’ helps avert dramatic GDP slump

2020-09-28

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2020-09-28

Government economists say the impact of the pandemic in Switzerland is slightly less severe than previously feared. This is partly thanks to the mix of industries in Switzerland and the decision to rapidly lift coronavirus restrictions, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

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EM Preview for the Week Ahead

2020-09-28

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2020-09-28

Persistent risk-off impulses weighed on EM last week and that may continue this week. The Asian currencies outperformed last week while MXN, ZAR, and COP underperformed, and we expect these divergences to continue. Despite optimism about a stimulus package in the US, we think it remains a long shot. Meanwhile, virus numbers are rising in Europe and the US, with data from both regions likely to continue weakening.

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