Tag Archive: newsletter

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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SNB can leverage its balance sheet if needed, Schlegel says

2020-01-19

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2020-01-19

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) retains the ability to wage currency market interventions if necessary,  Martin Schlegel, one of the SNB’s alternate governing board members, said on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

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Investing in crypto the sound way!

2020-01-19

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2020-01-19

I have long been fascinated by the far-reaching consequences and the great potential of the wave of new technologies and ideas that emerged with the crypto revolution. While most of us first came into contact with these concepts in 2017, this tectonic shift that is only just beginning has been in the making for nearly a decade. Now, we begin to see the basic ideas and tools take shape and give rise to endless exciting possibilities that can affect...

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Germany, Maybe Europe: No Signs Of The Bottom

2020-01-19

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2020-01-19

Europe Industrial Production, 2007-2019
For anyone thinking the global economy is turning around, it’s not the kind of thing you want to hear. Germany has been Ground Zero for this globally synchronized downturn. That’s where it began, meaning first showed up, all the way back at the start of 2018. Ever since, the German economy has been pulling Europe down into the economic abyss along with it, being ahead of the curve in signaling what was to come for the whole rest of the global...

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The Prospects for a Sound-Money Revolt against the Dollar and Euro

2020-01-19

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2020-01-19

In the last decade, the combination of virulent asset price inflation and low reported consumer price inflation crippled sound money as a political force in the US and globally. In the new decade, a different balance between monetary inflation’s “terrible twins” — asset inflation and goods inflation — will create an opportunity for that force to regain strength.

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Hartnäckige Frankenstärke – Auf der Suche nach den mysteriösen Franken-Käufern

2020-01-18

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2020-01-18

EUR/CHF (Currency Dealings)
Der cash Insider ist unter @cashInsider auch auf Twitter aktiv. Lesen Sie börsentäglich von weiteren brandaktuellen Beobachtungen am Schweizer Aktienmarkt. Am Morgen des 15. Januars 2015 waren die Devisenmärkten in Aufruhr. Dass die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) das Ende des Euro-Mindestkurses von 1,20 Franken verkünden würde, hatten selbst erfahrenste Marktakteure nicht erwartet.

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Inflation, But Only At The Morgue

2020-01-18

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2020-01-18

Mortality Rates Divided by age group, 1999-2017
Why is everyone so angry? How can socialism possibly be on such a rise, particularly among younger people around the world? Why are Americans suddenly dying off? According to one study, two-thirds of millennials are convinced they are doing worse when compared to their parents’ generation. Sixty-two percent say they are living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings and no way to get any (though they also tend to “overspend” when compared to other...

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Why Do Prudent Indians Diversify Into Gold?

2020-01-18

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2020-01-18

All That Glitters, 2013-2019
◆ Indians diversify into gold coins, bars and jewellery because it never fails them in an emergency◆ Indians are simply very prudent and practical and believe in channeling some of their wealth and saving into physical gold ◆ “A woman’s gold is both her personal treasure and plays a functional role as the family’s financial buffer” – Richard Davies

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How Do We Calculate Value?

2020-01-18

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2020-01-18

[From Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, by Ludwig von Mises, pp. 113–22.] All human action, so far as it is rational, appears as the exchange of one condition for another. Men apply economic goods and personal time and labour in the direction which, under the given circumstances, promises the highest degree of satisfaction, and they forego the satisfaction of lesser needs so as to satisfy the more urgent needs. This is the essence...

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FX Daily, January 17: China and the UK Surprise in Opposite Directions

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

Overview:  Helped by new record highs in the US, global stocks are moving higher today. Nearly all the markets in the Asia Pacific region advanced and the seventh consecutive weekly rally is the longest in a couple of years. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is at new record highs and appears set to take a four-day streak into next week. US shares are trading firmly.

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Swiss Producer and Import Price Index in December 2019: -1.7 percent YoY, +0.1 percent MoM

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

Switzerland Producer Price Index (PPI) YoY, December 2019
17.01.2020 - The Producer and Import Price Index rose in December 2019 by 0.1% compared with the previous month, reaching 100.7 points (December 2015 = 100). Compared with December 2018, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products fell by 1.7%. The average annualised inflation rate in 2019 was –1.4%.

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Swiss National Bank expects annual profit of 49 billion francs

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

According to provisional calculations, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects to make a profit of around CHF 49 billion in 2019. Most of this comes from the rising value of the SNB’s foreign currency positions (+CHF 40 billion) and a valuation gain on gold holdings (+CHF 6.9 billion).

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‘Yes to an initiative promoting moderately-priced housing’

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

The free market in Switzerland has built housing units that remain empty because they are too expensive, or in out-of-the-way places, says Marina Carobbio Guscetti. The Social Democrat senator believes that the initiative "More affordable housing" will fix these problems. It will help the middle class and the less well-off.

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De-dollarization By Default Is Not What You Might Think

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

CPMI Correspondent Banking Data, 2011-2018
Last month, a group of central bank governors from across the South Pacific region gathered in Australia to move forward the idea of a KYC utility. If you haven’t heard of KYC, or know your customer, it is a growing legal requirement that is being, and has been, imposed on banks all over the world. Spurred by anti-money laundering efforts undertaken first by the European Union, more and more governments are forcing global banks to take part.

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Dollar Soft Ahead of Retail Sales Data

2020-01-17

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2020-01-17

There were no surprises in the US-China Phase One trade deal. The dollar is drifting lower ahead of the key retail sales data; there are other minor US data out today. Bank of England credit survey showed demand for loans fell in Q4. Turkey cut its one-week repo rate by 75 bps to 11.25%; South Africa is expected to keep rates steady at 6.5%.

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