Tag Archive: Featured

Stocks Always Go up. Until They Don’t.

2020-07-10

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2020-07-10

Economist Irving Fisher famously said just before the 1929 stock market crash, “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Whoops. Fisher wasn’t just any old economist. Joseph Schumpeter called him "the greatest economist the United States has ever produced." Milton Friedman and James Tobin agreed.

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Inside Geneva: World trade at a crossroads

2020-07-09

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2020-07-09

In this episode of our Inside Geneva podcast, we look at the role of the World Trade Organization as it chooses a new leader amid challenging times. 

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FX Daily, July 9: The Dollar is Sold through CNY7.0 as Chinese Equities Continue to Rally

2020-07-09

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2020-07-09

Investors continue to clamor into risk assets.  Led by Chinese shares, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index pushed higher for the third session this week to new five-month highs.  Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is trying to snap a two-day decline with the help of better than expected revenues for its largest tech company.

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New Geneva platform to ‘anticipate societal changes’ 

2020-07-09

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2020-07-09

A new international platform is to be launched in Geneva to anticipate the effects of societal changes amidst the Covid-19 crisis, Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said on Wednesday. 

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The American Economy in Four Words: Neofeudal Extortion, Decline, Collapse

2020-07-09

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2020-07-09

Price Changes, 1996-2016
Our society has a legal structure of self-rule and ownership of capital, but in reality it is a Neofeudal Oligarchy. Now that the pandemic is over and the economy is roaring again--so the stock market says--we're heading straight back up into the good old days of 2019. Nothing to worry about, we've recovered the trajectory of higher and higher, better every day in every way.

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The “Old” vs. the “New” Liberalism

2020-07-09

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2020-07-09

It is not disputed that the popular meaning of liberal has changed drastically over time. It is a well-known story how, around 1900, in English-speaking countries and elsewhere, the term was captured by writers who were essentially social democrats.

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Dollar Bid as Market Sentiment Yet to Recover

2020-07-08

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2020-07-08

The US has started the formal process of withdrawing from the WHO; the dollar continues to benefit from risk-off sentiment but remains stuck in recent ranges. The White House is asking Congress to pass another $1 trln stimulus plan by early August; President Trump hosts Mexican President AMLO for a two-day visit.

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No lack of foreign tourism demand in 2019

2020-07-08

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2020-07-08

Saldo der Fremdenverkehrsbilanz
07.07.2020 - Foreign demand was strong in 2019. The income side of the tourism balance of payments grew, reaching a record level of CHF 17.8 billion. At the same time, people living in Switzerland did not increase their expenditure when travelling abroad, despite price conditions that were more favourable. The tourism balance of payments was negative at CHF -798 million, according to initial estimates from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

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Umsetzung FIDLEG/FINIG: FINMA bewilligt erste Aufsichtsorganisationen

2020-07-08

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2020-07-08

Die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA erteilt OSIF und OSFIN die ersten Bewilligungen als Aufsichtsorganisationen, zuständig für die Aufsicht über Vermögensverwalter und Trustees. Weiter liess sie die erste Registrierungsstelle für Kundenberaterinnen und Kundenberater zu. Das Eidgenössische Finanzdepartement anerkannte ausserdem die ersten Ombudsstellen nach FIDLEG für Finanzdienstleister.

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Travel destinations seek tourists, but not the crowds

2020-07-08

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2020-07-08

Some popular travel destinations have enjoyed the break – however temporary – from tourist crowds following Covid-19 restrictions. Others hope the hordes will return soon. Switzerland had not yet opened its border with Italy when its southern neighbour unexpectedly announced that Swiss citizens could enter the country starting on June 3.

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What Germany Must Do for a Speedy Recovery

2020-07-08

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2020-07-08

On June 29, the German parliament reacted as parliaments normally do when there is a problem, namely, by allowing the government to spend more. In order to respond to the economic difficulties due to the corona epidemic and the government restrictions, it passed a typical Keynesian stimulus package in order to boost aggregate demand.

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FX Daily, July 07: Fade the Dollar Gains

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

The S&P 500 rallied 1.6% yesterday to extend the streak to a fifth consecutive session, and the longest of the year and completed the negation of a bearish technical pattern.  However, the main feature today is a wave of profit-taking on risk assets.  Most equity markets moved lower in the Asia Pacific region. Chinese markets were a notable exception.

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Motorway station supplier goes into liquidation

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

A company that supplies Swiss motorway service stations and convenience stores has gone into liquidation after failing to find new investors. Some 144 jobs at Lekkerland Switzerland are now at risk of disappearing by the end of the year.

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New UBS report reveals that joint financial participation is the key to gender equality

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

Significant majority of men and women believe women need to be equally involved in long-term financial decisions to achieve true gender equality, yet half of women let their spouses take the lead .

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Cool Video: Dollar, Trade, and China on TDA Network

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

I began my career as a reporter on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, covering the currency futures and short-term interest rate futures for a news wire. Among other things, I learned that often, the locals, people trading with their own money and wits, would take the opposite side of trades of the institutional players.

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Monthly Market Monitor – July 2020

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

Most Long-Term Trends Have Not Changed. A lot has changed over the last 4 months since the COVID virus started to impact the global economy. Asia was infected first with China at ground zero. Their economy succumbed first with a large part of the country shut down to a degree that can only be accomplished in an authoritarian regime.

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Gratuitously Impatient (For a) Rebound

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

ISM Purchasing Managers Indexes, 2008-2020
Jay Powell’s 2018 case for his economic “boom”, the one which was presumably behind his hawkish aggression, rested largely upon the unemployment rate alone. A curiously thin roster for a period of purported economic acceleration, one of the few sets joining that particular headline statistic in its optimism resides in the lower tiers of all statistics.

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The Theory Of MMT Falls Flat When Faced With Reality (Part II)

2020-07-07

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2020-07-07

Debts, Deficits & Economic Growth, 1901-2015
If you missed Part-1 of our series on the “Theory Of MMT Falls Flat When Faced With Reality,” start there. In Part-2, we complete our analysis of the theory and the potential ramifications. The premise of our discussion was this recent explanation of “Modern Monetary Theory” by Stephanie Kelton.

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FX Daily, July 6: New Record Number of Covid Cases Doesn’t Curtail Appetite for Risk

2020-07-06

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2020-07-06

Overview: A new daily high number of contagions globally has been reported, but the risk-appetites have been stoked.  Chinese stocks have been on a tear.  The Shanghai Composite rallied 5.7% today to bring the five-day advance to 13.6%.  Most other regional markets, including Hong Kong, rallied as well (3.8%).  Australia was the main exception, and it pulled back by 0.7%.  It is still up a solid 3.4% over the past five sessions.

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