Tag Archive: newsletter

Decades of Productivity Gains Have Made Our Debt Bomb Manageable (For Now)

2020-05-04

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2020-05-04

Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. Listening to the news, you might have the impression that its Christmas and the government is Santa Claus. Under legislation recently introduced in Congress, Americans over the age of sixteen would receive $2,000 per month for at least six months. This follows the government’s $1200 giveaway in progress.

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Finance minister Ueli Maurer eyes central bank surplus to reduce expected debts

2020-05-03

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2020-05-03

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer wants the country’s central bank to contribute to the reduction of the debt caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “I suggest the Swiss National Bank spends the money from an annual surplus to reduce coronavirus-related debts,” he told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper on Wednesday.

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Coronavirus: relatively few medical staff infected in Switzerland

2020-05-03

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2020-05-03

In Switzerland, around 3% of medical staff have been infected with Covid-19, based on data covering the period up until Easter, according to Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health.

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Dollar Remains Under Pressure as Europe Unveils Some Plans to Reopen

2020-05-03

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2020-05-03

Global equity markets continue to trend higher; the dollar remains under pressure. The two-day FOMC meeting ends today; the first look at Q1 US GDP comes out. France and Spain laid out plans to reopen; the UK will rely on a contact tracing plan to limit the viral spread.

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Trump Threatens China Seeking $160 Billion In “COVID-19 Reparations”after China Gold Exchange Calls For New Super Sovereign Currency

2020-05-03

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2020-05-03

Gold in USD – 3 Days
Gold in USD – 3 Days

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Swiss airlines to get almost CHF2 billion corona aid boost

2020-05-02

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2020-05-02

The Swiss aviation sector, including the airlines SWISS and Edelweiss, is set to receive financial aid of almost CHF1.9 billion to help it through the liquidity crisis caused by Covid-19. Some CHF1.275 billion ($1.31 billion) is directly for the two airlines, while up to CHF600 million will be for other companies vital to the functioning of the sector, the government announced on Wednesday.

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Swiss oil traders and banks burned by Venezuela ties

2020-05-02

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2020-05-02

Several Swiss companies and banks have found themselves in the line of fire as the United States ramps up pressure on the Venezuelan government. Washington has sanctioned numerous top officials for money laundering and drug trafficking in the oil-rich but economically flailing Latin American nation.

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Some Thoughts on Recent Foreign Exchange Intervention

2020-05-02

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2020-05-02

Dollar's YTD Performance, 2020
Dollar softness this week will take some pressure off of the foreign currencies but it’s too early to sound the all clear.  This piece focuses on how  central banks around the world may be intervening to influence their currencies.  Most of the world, particularly EM, is grappling with supporting weak currencies but a select few are dealing with stronger currencies. This is a very opaque process and so we are simply making our best guesses.

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Why the Current Unemployment Is Worse Than the Great Depression

2020-05-02

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2020-05-02

Government restrictions on production are driving prices up as unemployment drives them down. It's impossible to say now whether price inflation or price deflation will be the predominant factor in the crisis's next phase.

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Government Regulation against “Monopolies” Only Lowers Our Standard of Living

2020-05-02

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2020-05-02

According to a popular way of thinking, monopolies undermine the efficient functioning of the market economy by being able to influence the prices and the quantity of products. Consequently, this undermines the well-being of individuals in the economy. By this way of thinking, the inefficiency emerges because of the deviation from the ideal state of the market as depicted by the “perfect competition” framework.

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What’s Next, Trillion-Dollar Coins?

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

The massive set of stimulus measures rolled out last month by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve has left many Americans wanting more… and politicians scheming for new ways to dole out additional trillions in cash. Most taxpayers have already received their $1,200 “stimulus” payments. However, that one-time payment will do little to repair the long-term financial health of the 26 million (and rising) who are newly unemployed.

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‘Corona-compliant’ Alpine cow processions to go ahead

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

The traditional driving of cows up to mountain pastures for the summer will still take place this year in Appenzell, northeastern Switzerland, despite the coronavirus pandemic. However, the processions will not be publicised so as not to attract tourists and spectators.

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Coronavirus: Swiss schools and other establishments set to reopen

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

On 29 April 2020, Switzerland’s government announced plans to allow schools and other establishments to reopen on Monday 11 May 2020. From 11 May 2020, shops, restaurants, markets, museums, libraries, primary and lower secondary schools and sports training centres will be allowed to reopen. In addition, public transport will operate according to the standard timetable, announced the government.

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GDP + GFC = Fragile

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

March 15 was when it all began to come down. Not the stock market; that had been in freefall already, beset by the rolling destruction of fire sale liquidations emanating out of the repo market (collateral side first). No matter what the Federal Reserve did or announced, there was no stopping the runaway devastation.

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THE BITCOIN HALVING REVISITED – With Ann Rhefn

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

What is the Bitcoin Halving and What Might it Mean for the Price Watch “THE BITCOIN HALVING REVISITED – With Ann Rhefn”

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COT Black: No Love For Super-Secret Models

2020-05-01

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2020-05-01

Federal Reserve: Liabilities & Capital, 1984-2019
As I’ve said, it is a threefold failure of statistical models. The first being those which showed the economy was in good to great shape at the start of this thing. Widely used and even more widely cited, thanks to Jay Powell and his 2019 rate cuts plus “repo” operations the calculations suggested the system was robust.

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FX Daily, April 30: ECB Takes Center Stage

2020-04-30

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2020-04-30

Overview: Equities continue to recover even as deep economic contractions are reported. Yesterday, the US said Q1 GDP contracted at an annualized pace of 4.8%, while the eurozone reported today that output fell 3.8% quarter-over-quarter in Q1.  Hong Kong and South Korea were closed, but the rest of the Asia Pacific bourses rallied strongly with several, including Australia and India, rising more than 2%.

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Swiss Retail Sales, March 2020: -6.2 percent Nominal and -5.6 percent Real

2020-04-30

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2020-04-30

Switzerland Retail Sales YoY, March 2020
Turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays fell in the retail sector by 6.2% in nominal terms in March 2020 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover fell by 6.0% compared with the previous month. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, turnover slumped markedly in some sectors.

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Recognition for our report from the Swiss mountains

2020-04-30

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2020-04-30

A longform report that we published last autumn has been shortlisted for the Swiss Press Award. The nomination is an honour for our team. Can people in Switzerland really live and work wherever they want on account of the digital revolution? Even in the mountains? A longform multimedia report by SWI swissinfo.ch has the answer.

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Swiss GDP set for worst fall in decades

2020-04-30

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2020-04-30

A team of economic experts working for the Swiss government forecasts a 6.7% fall in GDP and unemployment to rise to 3.9% in Switzerland in 2020. If these predictions prove right, it will be the biggest slump in economic activity since 1975.

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