Tag Archive: newsletter

An unexpected blow to the ECB

2020-05-27

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2020-05-27

Since the beginning of the year, the corona crisis has come to monopolize the news coverage to the extent that a lot of very important stories and developments either went underreported or were ignored altogether. One such example was the very surprising ruling out of the German Constitutional Court in early May, that challenged the actions and remit of the ECB.

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The Chicago School versus the Austrian School

2020-05-27

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2020-05-27

Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. People often ask me, How are the Austrians different from the Chicago School economists? Aren't you all free market guys who oppose big-government Keynesians?

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FX Daily, May 26: Fear is Still on Holiday

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

Overview: The heightened tensions between the US and China sapped risk-appetites before the weekend, but appear to be missing in action today.  Equity markets have rebounded strongly. Nearly all the equity markets in the Asia Pacific region rose (India was a laggard) led by an almost 3% rally in Australia, which was seen as particularly vulnerable to the Sino-American fissure. 

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Swiss Trade Balance April 2020: foreign trade collapses

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

Switzerland Trade Balance, April 2020
Compared with the previous month, April 2020 exports contracted by 11.7% (actual: -10.0%); this is the largest seasonally adjusted decline ever recorded. They retracted by 2.2 billion to reach 16.7 billion francs. Imports even plunged by 21.9%, that is, by a drop of 3.5 billion francs, to 12.4 billion francs (actual: -17.8%); they thus fell almost to their July 2005 level. The trade balance closed with a record monthly surplus of 4.3 billion francs.

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Airfare refunds remain a sticking point

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

The head of a major Swiss travel agency has complained that Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is not helping to reimburse clients fast enough. In the event of cancellations such as those prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Swiss package tour operators are legally obliged to provide refunds. But according to Thomas Stirnimann, the chief executive officer of Hotelplan, SWISS is not repaying the travel agents promptly.

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Poll: 70 percent of residents back ‘SwissCovid’ tracing app

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

A Swiss smartphone app that uses Apple-Google technology to help trace coronavirus infections has widespread support among the population, a new survey shows. Around 70% of Swiss residents welcome the introduction of the decentralised contact tracing application DP-3T, according to a poll published on Monday by the research consultancy Sotomo.

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The Folly of “Ask What You Can Do for Your Country”

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

Recently, I was reminded of John F. Kennedy’s most famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” when I heard it among several famous sound bites leading into a radio show segment. It also reminded me that we will hear it more soon, as we are approaching JFK’s May 29 birthday. However, it is worth reconsidering what it means.

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When Is a Capital Gain Capital Consumption? Market Report, 25 May

2020-05-26

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2020-05-26

Silver Basis and Co-basis and the Dollar Price
The price of gold dropped a few bucks this week, but the price of silver jumped about half a buck. The drumbeat for the gold bull market is well underway, and it is beginning now for silver. So let’s do a quick update on the supply and demand fundamentals.

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Coronavirus: drop in revenue could leave Swiss hospitals with 3 billion loss

2020-05-25

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2020-05-25

In Switzerland, the finances of hospitals are similar to those of a business. If revenues fall, as they did during the coronavirus pandemic, profits can turn into losses.

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The Federal Counterfeiter

2020-05-25

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2020-05-25

Suppose you wanted to run an enterprise the right way (we know, we know, this is pretty far-out fiction, but bear with us). And, your enterprise has a $1 million dollar piece of equipment that wears out after 10 years. You must set aside $100,000 a year, so that you have $1 million at the end of 10 years when the equipment needs replacing. There’s a word, now archaic, to describe the account in which you set aside this money.

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Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

2020-05-25

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2020-05-25

Abstract: Much of Shiller’s new book is about how economic narratives form, spread, and fade. Drawing on medical evidence about the spread of infectious disease, Shiller argues that “economic fluctuations are substantially driven by contagion of oversimplified and easily transmitted variants of economic narratives.” But Shiller ignores the powerful role of monetary disorder, whether in forming the narrative or determining the contagion rate, or as...

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Interview mit Dr. Dr. Rainer Zitelmann – Bodybuilding, Ziele und Scheitern

2020-05-24

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Kanal von - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdeFsMxY0PZXFcsH2-g-gTg Folgen Sie mir auf Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/rzitelmann Folgen Sie mir auf Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/r.zitelmann/ Folgen Sie mir auf Forbes.com - https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/ Meine Homepage - http://www.rainer-zitelmann.de/

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The Pandemic Gives Us Permission To Get What We Always Wanted

2020-05-24

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2020-05-24

Dear Corporate America: maybe you remember the old Johnny Paycheck tune? Let me refresh your memory: take this job and shove it. Put yourself in the shoes of a single parent waiting tables in a working-class cafe with lousy tips, a worker stuck with high rent and a soul-deadening commute--one of the tens of millions of America's working poor who have seen their wages stagnate and their income becoming increasingly precarious / uncertain while the...

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The Japanese Love of Keynesian Economics Might Finally Be Coming to an End

2020-05-24

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2020-05-24

Even those fortunate enough to have escaped infection by the Wuhan coronavirus will by now have noticed one of the virus’ many secondary effects: the disruption of the supply chain. Sick workers at meat plants, closed restaurants, hoarding, and the sudden spike in demand for things like ventilators, masks, and comestibles with long shelf lives have thrown the global flow of goods and services into disarray.

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Why an Economy Can’t Work without Market Prices

2020-05-24

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2020-05-24

It has been a full century since Mises dropped the economic calculation bomb, but the argument apparently still haunts socialists. It should, since Mises managed to show that a socialist economy is not an economy at all but calculational chaos. Yet it is curious that it does, since most have (incorrectly) concluded that Mises’s argument, after decades of debate, was debunked.

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Most want masks made compulsory on Swiss public transport, suggests survey

2020-05-23

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2020-05-23

More than two thirds are in favour of making masks compulsory on Switzerland’s public suggests a survey run by Tamedia, according to the newspaper Le Matin.

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Dollar Firm as China’s Hong Kong Gambit Triggers Risk-Off Trading

2020-05-23

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2020-05-23

Legislation was introduced that allows Beijing to directly impose a national security law on Hong Kong; US-China tensions are still rising; the dollar is bid as risk-off sentiment takes hold. There are no US data reports or Fed speakers today; Canada reports March retail sales; Mexico reports mid-May CPI.

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Banking and Monetary Policy from the Perspective of Austrian Economics

2020-05-23

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2020-05-23

The editors are to be heartily congratulated for putting together this book, which covers an impressive range of topics in monetary economics from an explicitly Austrian perspective. Most of the twelve essays are of a very high quality and one will learn much about money and related topics by a careful reading of them.

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Let’s Hope Deflation Is Headed Our Way

2020-05-23

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2020-05-23

The yearly growth rate of the US consumer price index (CPI) fell to 0.4 percent in April from 2 percent in April last year while the annual growth of the producer price index (PPI) plunged to –1.2 percent last month against 2.4 percent in April 2019.

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FX Daily, May 22: US-China Escalation Sinks Hong Kong and Hits Risk Appetites

2020-05-22

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2020-05-22

Overview: The US has ratcheted up pressure on China on several fronts and has sapped risk appetites ahead of the weekend.  Equity markets are lower across the world.  Even in India, where the central bank unexpectedly cut the repo rate 40 bp, shares fell 0.7%.  It was Hong Kong's 5.5% that led the region lower.  Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is off around 1% in late morning turnover to pare this week's gain to about 2.5%. 

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