Tag Archive: newsletter

Helikoptergeld – nutzlos gegen die Krise

2020-03-17

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2020-03-17

Vor 11 Jahren befand sich die Welt, nach dem Platzen der Immobilienblase und der Peilte zahlreicher Banken, in einer drastischen Wirtschaftskrise. Diese entstand aufgrund zu niedriger Zinsen und zu viel billigem Geld. Gelernt haben die Notenbanker aus dieser Krise offensichtlich äußerst wenig. Trotz einer zehnjährigen Boomphase, insbesondere in Deutschland, sind die Zinsen historisch niedrig und werden weiter gesenkt.

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Is Ibuprofen dangerous for those infected with the coronavirus?

2020-03-17

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2020-03-17

Ibuprofen belongs to a family of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. On 14 March 2020, Olivier Véran, France’s health minister Tweeted that taking anti-inflammatory medicine “could be an aggravating factor” for those infected with Covid-19, and recommended paracetamol for those with a fever.

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Covid-19 Helicopter Money: Go Big Now or Go Home

2020-03-17

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2020-03-17

This is why it's imperative to go big now, and make plans to sustain the most vulnerable households and small employers not for two weeks but for six months--or however long proves necessary. That governments around the world will be forced to distribute "helicopter money" to keep their people fed and housed and their economies from imploding is already a given. 

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The Fed’s Massive Injection of “Liquidity” Also Benefits Uncle Sam

2020-03-17

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2020-03-17

There’s a lot to be said regarding the Fed’s surprise announcements—including its Sunday surprise of $700 billion in renewed QE and the complete elimination of all reserve requirements for banks—but here let me just focus on one element: the tendency for Fed officials and all the pundits to treat injections of “liquidity” as if they don’t count as much when distorting the economy.

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Is Now a Good Time to Buy Gold? Market Report 16 March

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

We got hate mail after publishing Silver Backwardation Returns. It seems that someone thought backwardation means silver is a backward idea, or a bad bet. “You are a *&%#! idiot,” cursed he. “Silver is the most underpriced asset on the planet,” he offered as his sole supporting evidence. He doesn’t know that backwardation means scarcity, not that a commodity’s price is too high.

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FX Daily, March 16: Monday Blues: Fed Moves Bigly and Stocks Slump

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

Overview: The Federal Reserve and central banks in the Asia Pacific region acted forcefully, but were unable to ease the consternation of investors. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut key rates by 75 bp. The Bank of Japan appears to have doubled its ETF purchase target to JPY12 trillion, and the Reserve Bank of Australia is preparing for new measures that will be announced Thursday.

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Geldpolitik – Coronavirus-Krise: Zentralbanken starten Notaktion gegen Liquiditätsengpass

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

Die EZB, die US-Notenbank, die kanadische Notenbank, die Bank von England, Japans Notenbank und die Schweizerische Nationalbank wollen dazu bestehende US-Dollar-Devisentauschabkommen nutzen, wie auch die SNB am späten Sonntagabend ankündigte.

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The Covid-19 Dominoes Fall: The World Is Insolvent

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

All Sectors, Debt Securities and Loans, 1960-2020
Subtract their immense debts and they have negative net worth, and therefore the market value of their stock is zero. To understand why the financial dominoes toppled by the Covid-19 pandemic lead to global insolvency, let's start with a household example. The point of this exercise is to distinguish between the market value of assets and net worth, which is what's left after debts are subtracted from the market value of assets.

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Swiss industry fears consequences of US travel ban

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

A United States ban on travellers from Europe has been condemned as “incomprehensible” by leading Swiss manufacturing association, Swissmem. The Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce has also weighed in, saying firms would seriously suffer if borders remain closed for longer than a month.

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Coronavirus: Swiss hospitals have around 750 breathing ventilators

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

One of the biggest challenges during the coronavirus outbreak will be ensuring there are enough qualified staff and equipment to keep the worst affected patients alive. Thierry Fumeaux, head of the Swiss Society of Intensive Medicine, told RTS there are 82 intensive care units (ICU) across Switzerland. These have a combined 850 places, of which 750 are equipped with breathing equipment. It is not clear how many of these places are currently available.

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EM Preview for the Week Ahead

2020-03-16

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2020-03-16

Market sentiment is likely to open this week on an upswing after the Fed’s emergency rate cut and expanded QE were announced Sunday afternoon local time.  Yet as we have seen time and again this past couple of weeks, added stimulus has had little lasting impact on markets as the virus numbers continue to worsen.  Europe is now reporting more daily cases than China did at its peak.  We remain negative on EM until the global growth outlook becomes...

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Coronavirus: an estimate of the real number of infections in Switzerland

2020-03-15

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2020-03-15

Today, according to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), there were 815 confirmed cases in Switzerland. There are obvious challenges to this figure. Possibly the most important is the time lag between infection and a confirmed case.

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Swiss lawyers seek to keep special ‘advisor’ status in the shadow economy

2020-03-15

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2020-03-15

The Swiss government faces resistance to efforts to tighten anti-money laundering rules that close loopholes for lawyers who act as “advisors” in setting up offshore financial structures. Anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth writes how the lawyer lobby in Switzerland is trying to maintain their special status at the expense of Switzerland’s attempts to improve its reputation as a laundering haven.

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Goodbye to All That: The Demise of Globalization and Imperial Pretensions

2020-03-15

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2020-03-15

The decline phase of the S-Curve is just beginning. Globalization and Imperial Pretensions have been decaying for years; now the tide has turned definitively against them. The Covid-19 pandemic didn't cause the demise of globalization and Imperial Pretensions; it merely pushed the rickety structures over the edge.

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Gold Hedging Stock Market Crash: Euro Stoxx -6 percent, FTSE -5.7 percent and DAX -5.6 percent

2020-03-15

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2020-03-15

Time of Crisis, 2019-2020
◆ Stock markets around the world are collapsing today as the financial and economic implications of the impact of the pandemic on already massively indebted companies and governments is realised.◆ Investors are liquidating en masse risk assets from equities to industrial commodities, while gold has held its ground.

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Modern Monetary Theory Is an Old Marxist Idea

2020-03-15

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2020-03-15

Modern monetary theory, or MMT, has been getting a lot of attention lately, often celebrated as a revolutionary breakthrough. However, there is absolutely nothing new about it. The very basis of the theory, the idea that governments can finance their expenditures themselves and that therefore deficits don’t matter, actually goes back to the Polish Marxist economist Michael Kalecki (1899–1970).

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Aktienmärkte erneut im Panikmodus

2020-03-14

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2020-03-14

Der SMI ist heute morgen teilweise über 6% abgesackt. (Bild: Shutterstock.com/Pavel Ignatov)Die Aktienmärkte erlebten heute erneut einen schwarzen Tag mit Rekordverlusten: Der SMI stürzte um -9,64% auf 8270 Punkte ab, der Euro STOXX 50 um sage und schreibe -12,4% und der DAX tauchte ebenfalls zweistellig um -12,24%. Der Dow Jones lag kurz nach 18 Uhr mit -9,3% ebenfalls im tiefroten Bereich.

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How will we judge multinationals when the epidemic is over?

2020-03-14

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2020-03-14

Our regular analysis of what the biggest global companies in Switzerland are up to. This week: responsible business in an epidemic, child labour on coffee farms, and Responsible Business debate. What has made multinational companies in Switzerland so successful is exactly what is making them particularly vulnerable in a global epidemic.

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Coronavirus: youngest death so far brings Swiss death toll to four

2020-03-14

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2020-03-14

The coronavirus has claimed its fourth victim in Switzerland. A 54 year old man died yesterday in Binningen hospital in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, according to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

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The CDC’s Budget Is Larger Now Than Under Obama

2020-03-14

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2020-03-14

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Operating Budget, 2016-2020
This is how the budget process in Washington begins. Step one: the president submits his budget to Congress. Step two: Congress puts the president's budget in a drawer somewhere and forgets about it. Step three: Congress passes a budget it likes instead.

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