Tag Archive: Featured
Referendum launched against SwissCovid app
A group in Switzerland has decided to launch a vote against Switzerland’s contact tracing app, an application designed to make it easier to know whether someone has been in contact with someone infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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Introducing the “Everything Bubble” Sentiment-o-Meter
Since human wetware remains stuck in OS1.01, we can predict a remarkable reversal. The "Everything Bubble" has been a sight to behold. With central banks providing trillions to the big players and margin debt enabling small punters to leverage up, the hot money rotation has been a real merry-go-round as one asset and sector after another is ignited by a massive flood of money seeking a quick return.
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New Opportunities for Marxists: Climate Change and Coronavirus
In The Communist Manifesto (1848) Karl Marx (1818–83) and Friedrich Engels (1820–95) predicted that capitalism would lead to the impoverishment of the laboring class. Why? Well, to raise profit on capital invested, Marx and Engels argued, entrepreneurs (the capitalists) would exploit the workers.
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Is the West repeating India’s mistakes?
Following the publication of our last conversation with Jayant Bhandari, I received a lot of interesting feedback and remarks. The common denominator of all those comments was the astonishment of many Western readers at the real conditions and dynamics on the ground in India.
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Unprecedented Recession Synchronization
The global recession is an unprecedented recession synchronization. Deflationary Consequences: Lacy Hunt at Hoisington Management explains the deflationary consequences of the current global situation in its Second Quarter 2020 Review.
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Switzerland adds 15 nations to its list of compulsory quarantine countries
From 23 July 2020, people arriving in Switzerland from 42 nations must quarantine for 10 days. On 23 July 2020, the government added 15 nations to its existing list of nations where there is an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Swiss humanitarian trade deal with Iran faces delay, questions
Swiss “good offices” between Tehran and Washington have brought about a humanitarian aid channel allowing Swiss-based companies to send medicines and other vital goods to Iran despite US sanctions. But it remains to be seen to what extent the now-delayed deal will help the Iranian people versus Swiss political and economic interests.
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Cool Video: Gold and the Dollar
I have been talking with Neils Christensen, editor at Kitco news, for several years about the dollar, gold, and my read of the capital markets more broadly. We had a chance to discuss recent developments yesterday. I began my career at a small newswire, and Kitco reminds me of it.
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The (Other) Shoe Of Unemployment
After raising the specter of a rebound stall, the idea before limited to Japan and Germany was abruptly given further weight today by US jobless claims numbers. For the first time since the peak at the end of March, the weekly tally of initial filings increased from the prior week.
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Three Reasons Representative Democracy Doesn’t Work
In representative democracies, voters ostensibly control the state through the politicians they vote for. However, most representative democracies fall far short of this goal. Three of the reasons for the trouble are the problems of scale, bundling, and omission.
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FX Daily, July 24: Strong PMIs Have Limited Impact as Profit-Taking Hits Equities
US stocks stumbled yesterday, and the S&P 500 nearly gave back the week's gains with its roughly 1.25% loss, the largest of the month. The NASDAQ 100 fell to two-week lows. Slower cloud growth at Microsoft and a delay in the next generation of chips at Intel were among the drags.
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UBS Investor Sentiment and ElectionWatch: Politics and US elections temper wealthy investors’ rising optimism
Most wealthy investors and business owners globally have said they plan to adjust their portfolios based on who wins the US election, with almost half seeing November’s vote as one of their top concerns, according to the new Investor Sentiment study by UBS, the world's leading global wealth manager.
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A Japanese Stall?
In sharp contrast to the sentimental deference towards central bank stimulus exhibited by Germany’s ZEW, for example, similar Japanese surveys are starting to describe potential trouble developing. Like Germany, Japan is a bellwether country and a pretty reliable indicator of global economy performance.
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Inflation/Deflation: The Economy Is an Elephant
This is the key dynamic of the economy going forward: defaults on debt, declining wealth as assets are relentlessly repriced lower and sharp declines in income due to layoffs and debt defaults. The economy is like an elephant surrounded by blindfolded economists and pundits: what each blindfolded person reports about the elephant depends on what part they happen to touch.
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Modern Monetary Theory’s Connection to Soviet-Era Money
MMT starts to make a little more sense when thinking of it as comparable to money systems used under the USSR and the old Soviet Bloc.
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Reading The Market’s Postmodern Mind
No matter how you slice it, markets are human. This even applies to the “algos” as it’s we who write their mechanistic marching orders. Thus, understanding human behavior can be helpful in assessing and anticipating market moves. There’s no choice in the fact that we all need a philosophy to live.
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FX Daily, July 23: Powerful Momentum is Still Evident in the Foreign Exchange Market
The powerful momentum moves in the capital markets continues unabated by escalating US-China tensions and continued spread of the virus. Asia Pacific equities were mixed. Tokyo was closed for a holiday, but several other large markets in the region, like China, South Korea, and Taiwan markets slipped lower, while Hong Kong, Australia, and India advanced.
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Weekly view – Fog warning
Coronavirus cases in the US are rising and high frequency data in the US such as retail foot traffic and employee working hours have flatlined. Meanwhile, in Q2 results, USD36 bn in trading and fixed-income revenues managed to make up for higher loan provisions for US banks.
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UBS Secures Naming Rights to New York’s Next Premier Entertainment and Sports Venue and Future Home of the New York Islanders
State of the art UBS Arena at Belmont Park, developed in partnership with Oak View Group, the New York Islanders, and Sterling Project Development, is projected to open for the 2021-22 National Hockey League season.
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