Tag Archive: newsletter

Swiss firms lauded for climate protection measures

2020-01-22

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2020-01-22

Nestlé, Givaudan, Panalpina and the Bern Cantonal Bank are among 179 companies given a top “A” rating in a global survey of transparency and action on climate change. On Monday, non-profit group Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) published its study of 8,000 companies worldwide. Only 2% of them made it onto the A-list, the organisation said.

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UBS Tumbles After Biggest Swiss Bank Misses Key Targets As Investors Pull Money

2020-01-22

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2020-01-22

UBS, 2020
The rift between the US (where rates are still positive) and European banks (where rates have never been more negative) continues to grow. While US banks have so far reported mostly better than expected results for Q4, the same can not be said for Europe, where UBS shares are down 5% as the bank misses fiscal year profitability and cost targets in addition to trimming its mid-term goals.

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Neon banking app slashes fees in growth drive

2020-01-22

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2020-01-22

Swiss financial services company Neon says it will scrap card fees for customers shopping abroad to spearhead an ambitious drive to boost the number of clients to 250,000 in the next two years. The Zurich-based fintech company has laid down a challenge to foreign competitors, such as Revolut and N26, with its announcement.

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Calling Things by Their Real Names

2020-01-22

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2020-01-22

One does not need money to convey one's thoughts, but what money does allow is the drowning out of speech of those without money by those with a lot of money. In last week's explanation of why the Federal Reserve is evil, I invoked the principle of calling things by their real names, a concept that drew an insightful commentary from longtime correspondent Chad D.:

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Money, Inflation, and Business Cycles: The Cantillon Effect and the Economy

2020-01-22

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2020-01-22

Abstract: Austrian economists hold that money matters a great deal in concrete terms in the immediate short run and has permanent long-run effects. Sierońs book investigates the Cantillon effect, which indicates that money is not neutral because inevitabily it is injected unevenly, creating economic distortions. These distortions are important to the long run and the Austrian theory of the business cycle.

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Dollar Mixed as Risk-Off Impulses Spread from Virus

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

Reports that Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread hurt risk appetite overnight. US President Trump and French president Macron agreed to take a step back from the digital tax dispute. The dollar is taking a breather today; after last week’s huge US data dump, releases this week are fairly light. The UK reported firm jobs data for November; BOJ kept policy steady, as expected.

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Central bank group to assess potential cases for central bank digital currencies

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), have created a group to share experiences as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home jurisdictions.

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FX Daily, January 21: New Respiratory Illness Saps Risk-Taking Appetites

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

The spread of a new respiratory illness in China has spurred a wave of profit-taking in equities and risk assets more generally. All of the markets in the Asia Pacific region tumbled, with Hong Kong hit the hardest (-2.8%) after posting a key reversal yesterday. The sell-off continued in Europe. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is off about 0.8% in late morning turnover, led by consumer discretionary, materials, and energy. 

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USD/CHF consolidates in a range, below 0.9700 handle

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

Technical levels to watch
USD/CHF consolidates Friday’s goodish intraday positive move. The prevalent cautious mood seemed to have capped the upside. The USD/CHF pair was seen oscillating in a narrow trading band below the 0.9700 mark on Monday and consolidated the previous session's goodish positive move.

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Davos 2020: What to watch for at this year’s World Economic Forum

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

World leaders, chief executives, thinkers and celebrities are gathering in the Swiss mountain town of Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. The event, which begins on Tuesday, has earned a reputation for high-altitude pontificating as the global elite gather to pitch their takes on topics picked by WEF founder Klaus Schwab, from deglobalisation to the fourth industrial revolution.

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China Enters 2020 Still (Intent On) Managing Its Decline

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

China Industrial Production, 1998-2019
Chinese Industrial Production accelerated further in December 2019, rising 6.9% year-over-year according to today’s estimates from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That was a full percentage point above consensus. IP had bottomed out right in August at a record low 4.4%, and then, just as this wave of renewed optimism swept the world, it has rebounded alongside it.

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The ‘Great Replacement’ In Switzerland

2020-01-21

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2020-01-21

After the article on the Great Replacement in Belgium, I present you the following translation of an article by Polémia on the situation in Switzerland. The Swiss situation is unique, if only because of the country’s objective excellence and exceptional quality of life, and the extraordinary practice of direct democracy. Thus we have the rather rare situation of citizens actually being allowed to vote on whether and in what conditions new people...

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FX Daily, January 20: Stocks Stall while the Dollar Remains Bid

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

Overview: The new week is off to a quiet start as the US celebrates Martin Luther King's birthday, and investors look for a fresh focus. Hong Kong and Indian markets were suffered modest declines while most of the other large Asia Pacific markets edged higher. European stocks are trading a little lower, and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is threatening to end a four-session advance. Most benchmark bond yields around half a basis point in one direction or...

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CHF appears well placed to extend its advance in the near-term – MUFG

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

Analysts at MUFG Bank, point out that the Swiss franc has strengthened alongside the price of gold, perhaps reflecting debasement fears. They argue market participants are also questioning Swiss National Bank’s appetite for maintaining negative rates and intervening to dampen CHF strength.

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Zentralbank – SNB nach fünf Jahren Negativszinsen unter Druck

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

Fünf Jahre nach der turbulenten Abkehr der Schweiz von der Euro-Anbindung regt sich zunehmend Widerstand gegen die von den Währungshütern stattdessen ausgerufene ultra-lockere Geldpolitik. Seit die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) am 15. Januar 2015 die zuvor mehrere Jahre durchgesetzte Euro-Kursuntergrenze von 1,20 Franken abrupt kippte, setzt die Notenbank auf rekordtiefe Negativzinsen von minus 0,75 Prozent und Interventionen am Devisenmarkt,...

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FX Weekly Preview: Central Bank Meetings Featured

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

The US dominated the news stream at the start of 2020. The spasm in the US-Iran confrontation has quickly subsided. The much-heralded US-China Phase 1 trade deal has been signed. The US has completed the ratification process of the US Mexico Canada Free-Trade Agreement. The early signs from the economic entrails suggest the world’s largest economy continue to enjoy a record-long, even if not robust, expansion. 

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How Zurich Airport prepares for Trump visit to Davos

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

American secret service agents have been granted access to Zurich Airport’s control tower as they prepare for US President Donald Trump’s visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the NZZ am Sonntag reports. WEF, which starts in the Swiss mountain resort on Monday, attracts wealthy, high-profile business and political figures, along with academics and other leaders of society.

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Luck and Taxes

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

“Luck egalitarianism” is a philosophical fad, and in the past I have had some characteristically unkind things to say about it. I’d like today to discuss a new argument that concerns luck and government. The economist Robert H. Frank says in Under the Influence, Because successful people often fail to appreciate the importance of seemingly minor random events in life, they tend to develop an exaggerated sense of entitlement to the enormous material...

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California’s Anti-Self-Employment Law Is Already Crushing Freelancers

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

In 1971, Isaac Asimov wrote an extraordinary novel, The Gods Themselves, about a machine that generates unlimited energy for free, defying the fundamental economic principle known as scarcity. It is later learned that the Electron Pump is originating from a hole in space that connects parallel universes. Doomsday is nigh as it is discovered that galaxies will soon be destroyed and that the sun will metastasize into a supernova. The crux of the...

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EM Preview for the Week Ahead

2020-01-20

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2020-01-20

Market sentiment on EM remains positive after the Phase One trade deal was signed.  Data out of China is also supportive for EM.  Key forward-looking data this week are Taiwan export orders and Korea trade data for the first 20 days of January.  The global liquidity story also remains beneficial for risk, with the ECB, Norges Bank, BOC, and BOJ all set to maintain steady rates this week.

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