Tag Archive: newslettersent

Swiss industry has learned to live with strong franc

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

The recent appreciation of the Swiss franc has sent shockwaves through Swiss firms, resulting in job losses and lower research budgets. But viewed long-term, Switzerland’s export-driven economy has adapted remarkably well to a strong currency.

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Switzerland drops in international pension ranking

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

The Swiss pension system has ranked eighth in an annual international study looking at the sustainability and efficiency of retirement schemes. This represents a drop of four places in the past two years, largely driven by sustainability issues.The Global Pension Indexexternal link, published by consulting group Mercer, ranks 30 countries according to a methodology based on adequacy (the design of the system), sustainability (breadth of coverage,...

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Emerging Markets: What has Changed

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

President Xi Jinping’s concepts of socialist thinking were written into China’s constitution. Malaysia Prime Minister Najib presented an expansionary budget for 2018 ahead of elections. Czech billionaire Andrej Babis’ ANO party won the elections. South Africa's mid-term budget statement acknowledged the deteriorating outlook but offered little in the way of solutions. Press reports suggest Germany is working to cut funding for Turkish banks.

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Cool Video: A Tentative Answer to the Low Vol Question

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

I had the privilege of joining the set of anchors (Julie Chatterley, Scarlet Fu, and Joe Weisenthal on the set of "What'd You Miss"  today. The unrehearsed discussion took an unexpected turn when Joe asked about the low volatility. 

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Why Governments Will Not Ban Bitcoin

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

Value of Financial Assets for Families with holdings, 1989 - 2016
Those who see governments banning ownership of bitcoin are ignoring the political power and influence of those who are snapping up most of the bitcoin. To really understand an asset, we have to examine not just the asset itself but who owns it, and who can afford to own it. These attributes will illuminate the political and financial power wielded by the owners of the asset class.

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Political Economics

2017-10-28

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2017-10-28

US Real Gross Domestic Product, Jan 1993 - 2017
Who President Trump ultimately picks as the next Federal Reserve Chairman doesn’t really matter. Unless he goes really far afield to someone totally unexpected, whoever that person will be will be largely more of the same. It won’t be a categorical change, a different philosophical direction that is badly needed. Still, politically, it does matter to some significant degree. It’s just that the political division isn’t the usual R vs. D, left vs....

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FX Daily, October 27: Greenback Finishing Week on Firm Note

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

This has been a good week for the US dollar. The Dollar Index's 1.25% gain this week is the largest of the year. The driver is two-fold: positive developments in the US and negative developments abroad. The positive developments in the US include growing acceptance that the Fed will raise rates in December and that there will be more rate hikes next year. The Fed says three.

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Falling Interest Rates

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

US 10 Year Treasury Yield, Jan 1981 - 2017
Amassing Unproductive Debt.Last week, we discussed the marginal productivity of debt. This is how much each newly-borrowed dollar adds to GDP. And ever since the interest rate began its falling trend in 1981, marginal productivity of debt has tightly correlated with interest. The lower the interest rate, the less productive additional borrowing has in fact become.

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Most young Swiss keep informed online

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

Social media is becoming increasingly dominant in the Swiss media industry, controlling not only consumer habits but also the advertising market. In addition, television is dying. These are the findings of the latest “Yearbook Quality of the Media” by the University of Zurich. They are strong, they are dominant, they have money – and they are located outside the Swiss sphere of influence: the internet giants or “tech intermediaries”.

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Russia Buys 34 Tonnes Of Gold In September

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

Russian Central Bank Gold Reserves, 2006 - 2017
Russia adds 1.1 million ounces to reserves in ongoing diversification from USD. 34 ton addition brings Russia’s Central Bank holdings to 1,779t; 6th highest. Russia’s gold reserves are at highest point in Putin’s 17-year reign. Russia’s central bank will buy gold for its reserves on the Moscow Exchange.

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Housing Isn’t Just About Real Estate

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

US Existing Home Sales, Jan 2011 - Jul 2017
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today that sales of existing homes (resales) were up slightly in September 2017 on a monthly basis. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million last month, that was practically unchanged from the 5.35 million estimate for August that was the lowest in a year.

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Marc Faber, Freedom of Speech & Capitalism

2017-10-27

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2017-10-27

Political Correctness Hampers Honest Debate. What would the world be like today had Europeans never colonized Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and South Asia? Most of these societies would still not have discovered the wheel. It takes a huge amount of reality-avoidance and ineptitude for outsiders who travel there not to realize that a billion or more people in the Third World still wouldn’t have discovered the wheel.

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FX Daily, October 26: Draghi’s Day

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

It is all about the ECB meeting today. The market was hoping for more details last month, but Draghi pointed to today. The broad issue is well known. While growth has been strong, price pressures are still not, according to the ECB, on a durable path toward its "close but lower than 2%" target. The ECB judges that substantial additional stimulus is needed.

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Wie Sozialisten den Kapitalismus prägten – Teil 3

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

Im zweiten Teil dieser Analyse wurde zu zeigen versucht, weshalb es für das eigentliche Verständnis unseres heutigen Geldsystems und dessen spezifischen Eigenschaften wenig sinnvoll ist, in der Kritik desselbigen zwischen Staat, Zentralbank und Geschäftsbank zu unterscheiden. Alle drei Akteure sind für die in Teil Zwei beschriebene «monetäre Revolution» unabdingbar und haben die von der natürlichen Knappheit losgelöste Kreditgeldschöpfung erst...

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Switzerland ranks highly in youth employment survey

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

Switzerland has the second-best labour market for young Europeans behind Denmark, according to a ranking of over 30 countries. Denmark came top, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands in the latest KOF Youth Labour Market Indexexternal link, which analysed the year 2015. The ranking is produced annually by the Economic Institute (KOF) at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ).

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Can Switzerland Save the World?

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

Mountain
Switzerland: Far from Flawless, but still a Unique Country – An Interview with Claudio Grass. Our friend Claudio Grass has discussed Switzerland in these pages before, and on one of these occasions we added some background information on country’s truly unique political system (see “The People Against the Establishment” for the details).

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Next Wall Street Crash Looms? Lessons On Anniversary Of 1987 Crash

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

Gold Price in USD, Jan - Dec 1987
Next Wall Street Crash looms? Lessons on anniversary of crash. 30 years since stock market ‘Black Monday’ crash of 1987. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% on October 19, 1987. S&P 500, FTSE and DAX fell 20%, 11% & 9% respectively. Gold rose 24.5% in 1987 (see chart), acting as safe haven. Prior to crash, stocks hit successive record highs despite imbalances. Imbalances that lead to 1987 crash are much worse today

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The World’s Largest ICO Is Imploding After Just 3 Months

2017-10-26

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2017-10-26

Tezos Change for October 2017
Earlier this summer, Tezos smashed existing sales records in the white-hot IPO market after the company’s pitch to build a better blockchain for cryptocurrencies made it one of the buzziest ICOs in the world. As we noted at the time, the company capitalized on that buzz by courting VC firms and other institutional investors with a $50 million token pre-sale. After the company opened up selling to the broader public, demand soared as investors...

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Switzerland UBS Consumption Indicator September: Higher expectations in the retail industry

2017-10-25

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2017-10-25

Switzerland Private Consumption and UBS Consumption Indicator, December 2016
The UBS consumption indicator rose to 1.56 points in September, signalling consumption growth slightly above the long-term average. The indicator was supported by significantly higher expectations in the retail industry, but UBS still projects consumer spending to grow 1.3 percent for the year overall.

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FX Daily, October 25: Sterling and Aussie Interrupt the Waiting Game

2017-10-25

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2017-10-25

Most participants seemed comfortable marking time ahead of tomorrow's ECB meeting, and an announcement President Trump's nominations to the Federal Reserve. However, softer than expected Australian Q3 CPI and a stronger than expected UK Q3 GDP injected fresh incentives. Australia reported headline CPI rose 0.6% in Q3.

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