Tag Archive: newsletter

Our Time/Labor Is Finite, But Money Is Infinite

2019-10-10

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2019-10-10

All Sectors; Debt Securities and Loans 1960-2019
Once we understand this mechanism, we understand that labor can never get ahead. I've been pondering a comment longtime correspondent Drew P. emailed me in response to my post, What's Holding Up the Market?: Our time/labor is finite, but money is infinite. Drew explained that creating new fiat currency and injecting it into a closed system (our financial system) controls and restrains the value of our time and labor, past, present and future.

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From JOLTS Series Shift To Series of Rate Cuts

2019-10-10

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2019-10-10

Average Weekly Hours All Employees, 2007-2019
I’ve said all along that they would be dragged into them kicking and screaming. After all, the Federal Reserve undertook its last rate hike in December 2018 – just as the markets were making clear he was completely mistaken in his view of the economy. What followed was the ridiculous “Fed pause” which pretty much everyone outside of the central bank and the Economics profession knew wasn’t the end of it.

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Swiss are skilled but not so dynamic, finds ranking

2019-10-10

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2019-10-10

Switzerland has slipped down a slot in the annual Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum (WEF). Having come in fourth in 2018, Switzerland now follows Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The index covers 141 countries. The world economy is not ready for a major slowdown, warns WEF.

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FX Daily, October 9: Hope is Trying to Supplant Pessimism Today

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

Overview: The 1.5% drop in the S&P 500 and the deterioration of US-China relations and the prospects of a no-deal Brexit failed did not carry over much into today's activity. Asia Pacific equities were mostly a little lower, though China and India bucked the regional trend, while Korea was closed for a national holiday. Taiwan led the losses amid a sell-off in semiconductor stocks.

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SNB to cut rates in early 2020 as global economy sours – UBS

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

SNB Logo
In the latest note to the clients, the UBS Economist Alessandro Bee indicated that he sees the Swiss National Bank (SNB) cutting interest rates next year. “Both the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve to “react to recession risks” with more rate cuts.

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Dollar Soft Despite Heightened Geopolitical Risks

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

The dollar staged a stunning comeback yesterday as risk-off took hold on rising geopolitical risk; those risks remain high. US-China tensions have risen ahead of trade talks that begin Thursday. The US abruptly announced that it would withdraw its troops from northeast Syria. US reports September PPI; German IP came in better than expected.

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Swiss firms give over CHF5 million a year to parties and candidates

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

Switzerland’s biggest firms – mainly banks, pharmaceutical firms and insurance companies - donate at least CHF5 million ($5 million) a year to political parties and candidates, a survey has revealed. The poll of 140 companies by Swiss public radio RTS, published on Tuesday, found that one in five firms donate regularly to political parties or politicians, to the tune of CHF5 million annually.

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Switzerland’s top UN diplomat in New York

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

When Antonio Guterres was elected United Nations Secretary General in 2016, some criticized the decision because they thought a woman should finally be at the helm of the international organisation. To his credit, Guterres has filled many of the UN’s top posts with women including Mirjana Spoljaric – Switzerland’s top ranking UN diplomat in New York.

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Head Faking In The Empty Zoo: Powell Expands The Balance Sheet (Again)

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet, 2001-2019
They remain just as confused as Richard Fisher once was. Back in ’13 while QE3 was still relatively young and QE4 (yes, there were four) practically brand new, the former President of the Dallas Fed worried all those bank reserves had amounted to nothing more than a monetary head fake. In 2011, Ben Bernanke had admitted basically the same thing.

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China’s Central Bank Buys 100 Tons Of Gold As Trade and Dollar Tensions With U.S. Escalate

2019-10-09

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2019-10-09

Spot Gold Price USD
◆ China has added more than 100 tons of gold bullion bars to its gold reserves since it resumed buying in December; China’s gold holdings rose to 62.64m ounces in September, an increase of 190,000 ounces in one month. ◆ The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) increased it’s gold reserves for a 10th straight month in September, reinforcing its standing as one of the major official accumulators as many creditor nation central banks stock up on the precious...

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Switzerland Unemployment in September 2019: Unchanged at 2.1 percent, seasonally adjusted unchanged at 2.3 percent

2019-10-08

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2019-10-08

Switzerland Unemployment Rate n.s.a., September 2019
Registered unemployment in September 2019 - According to surveys by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), at the end of September 2019, 99'098 unemployed people were enrolled in the Regional Employment Centers (RAV), 454 less than in the previous month. The unemployment rate remained at 2.1% in the month under review.

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The Consequences Of ‘Transitory’

2019-10-08

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2019-10-08

Euro Interbank, 2019
Europe’s QE, as noted this weekend, is off to a very rough start. In the bond market and in inflation expectations, the much-ballyhooed relaunch of “accommodation” is conspicuously absent. There was a minor back up in yields between when the ECB signaled its intentions back in August and the few weeks immediately following the actual announcement.

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What’s Holding Up the Market?

2019-10-08

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2019-10-08

What is keeping the market from crashing?
The Fed's nearly free money for financiers policies in support of the Super-Rich do not exist in a vacuum--the disastrous consequences are already baked in. What's holding up the U.S. stock market? The facile answer is the Federal Reserve but this doesn't actually describe the mechanisms in play or the consequences of a market that levitates ever higher on the promise of more Fed money-for-nothing injected into the diseased veins of the financial...

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Chinese Buy Gold In Large Volume In Holiday Week as Gold Jewelry Sales ‘Soar’

2019-10-08

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2019-10-08

Spot Gold Price USD
Gold is marginally lower today at $1,503/oz and stocks are mixed ahead of what are set to be tense U.S. and China trade negotiations. Gold sales are expected to accelerate through the end of the year due to weakening global economic conditions, according to Mike McGlone, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist as quoted by China Daily (see below).

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Switzerland shares details of 3.1 million bank accounts held by foreigners

2019-10-08

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2019-10-08

In its second-ever data sharing exercise as part of a global automatic exchange of information (AEOI) treaty, Switzerland shared financial account information with 63 partner countries. On Monday, the Swiss Federal Tax Authority revealed that it had provided details of around 3.1 million bank accounts held by foreigners to the countries of their origin.

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A Wealth Tax Consumes Capital, Report 6 Oct

2019-10-07

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2019-10-07

Gold and Silver Prices
It seems one cannot make a name for one’s self on the Left, unless one has a proposal to tax wealth. Academics like Tomas Piketty have proposed it. And now the Democratic candidates for president in the US propose it too, while Jeremy Corbyn proposes it in the UK. Venezuela finally added a wealth tax in July.

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FX Daily, October 7: Markets Unsettled to Start the Week

2019-10-07

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2019-10-07

Overview: The global capital markets are uneasy as the risks that have dominated investors' concerns--trade and Brexit--remain front and center today. Expectations are low that this week's talks between the US and China will lead to a breakthrough or will be sufficient to postpone further the next round of tariff increases set for next week. 

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FX Weekly Preview: China Returns, ECB Record, Fed Minutes and the Week Ahead

2019-10-07

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2019-10-07

Many high-income countries experienced little growth but strong price pressures in the 1970s. Since the mainstream economics said the two were mutually exclusive, a new term had to be created, hence stagflation.  Fast forward almost half a century later, and mainstream economists are still having a problem deciphering the linkages between prices and economic activity, such as inflation and employment.

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‘A Swiss should run Credit Suisse’ ex-CS head tells newspaper

2019-10-07

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2019-10-07

In an interview with the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, former Credit Suisse CEO Oswald Grübel has criticized the large Swiss bank for its handling of the current crisis. By maintaining that CEO Tidjane Thiam was unaware of the spying affair, the bank is harming the Swiss financial sector, Grübel said in an interview published on Sunday.

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