Tag Archive: Politics

Paternity Leave: ‘Nobody is talking about the indirect costs’

Switzerland doesn’t need two weeks of paternity leave, says Radical-Liberal politician Yasmine Bourgeois. The mother of three says if the proposal is accepted on September 27, left-wing groups will keep asking for more and more.

Read More »

Swiss-UK financial services pact antidote to EU intransigence

Switzerland and Britain are thrashing out a post-Brexit financial services treaty that is being billed as a global standard for common sense. It also takes aim at perceived EU inflexibility that has seen the Swiss stock market frozen out of European markets.

Read More »

You cannot print your way to prosperity – Part II

Looking at the damage inflicted upon supply chains, production facilities and global trade in particular, how quickly could these operations snap back even if all COVID-related restrictions were lifted tomorrow? Do you think we’ll eventually get back to business as usual, or have we now experienced a permanent shift to a “new normal”?

Read More »

Anti-corona protest planned later this month in Zurich

After protests in May 2020, an eclectic group of anti-corona protestors is planning to protest against vaccines, masks and other measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus on 29 August 2020 in Zurich, according to the newspaper Le Matin.

Read More »

Gold doing what it does best – Part II

While the economic forces that drive this rush to precious metals are clearly understandable, there are other, deeper and less obvious factors that must also be taken into account. This “fear of uncertainty”, which pushes demand for gold higher as it has done so many times in the past, is different this time.

Read More »

Families face large differences in tax rates across Switzerland

A comparison of tax rates across different cantons and cities found that Zug – home to many multinational companies – offers the most attractive tax regime for families.

Read More »

Swiss government wants extra CHF770 million to tackle coronavirus

The Swiss government has asked for an extra CHF770 million ($841 million) in funds to tackle the coronavirus fallout. This comes on top of the CHF31 billion in bailout funds approved by parliament since March.

Read More »

A blueprint for a European superstate

After intense negotiations, long days and nights of clashes and a distinctly sour note underlying the entire summit, European Union leaders finally agreed on an unprecedented 1.82 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and COVID recovery package.

Read More »

“Unabhängigkeit der Nationalbank (Independence of the SNB),” FuW, 2020

Von verschiedenen Seiten werden Ansprüche an den Gewinn der Nationalbank gestellt. Es sollte in der Kompetenz der SNB liegen, zu entscheiden, welchen Teil ihrer Bilanz sie nicht zur Erfüllung ihrer Aufgaben benötigt.

Read More »

Referendum launched against SwissCovid app

A group in Switzerland has decided to launch a vote against Switzerland’s contact tracing app, an application designed to make it easier to know whether someone has been in contact with someone infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Read More »

Is the West repeating India’s mistakes?

Following the publication of our last conversation with Jayant Bhandari, I received a lot of interesting feedback and remarks. The common denominator of all those comments was the astonishment of many Western readers at the real conditions and dynamics on the ground in India.

Read More »

War on poverty, or just war on the poor?

As the dust is now begging to settle, both from the heights of the COVID panic and from the riots that shook the western world, we are starting to get an idea about where we stand after this unprecedented and tumultuous time.

Read More »

Inside Geneva: World trade at a crossroads

In this episode of our Inside Geneva podcast, we look at the role of the World Trade Organization as it chooses a new leader amid challenging times. 

Read More »

New Geneva platform to ‘anticipate societal changes’ 

A new international platform is to be launched in Geneva to anticipate the effects of societal changes amidst the Covid-19 crisis, Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said on Wednesday. 

Read More »

“The illusions of Keynesianism create a morally corrupt society” – Part II

Claudio Grass (CG): Overall, apart from the obvious economic consequences of the crisis, do you also see geopolitical and social ones, on a wider scale? Given all these “moving parts”, from the upcoming US election and internal frictions in the EU to the Hong Kong tensions and the rising public discontent in Latin America, where do expect the chips to fall once this is over? 

Read More »

The War On Cash – COVID Edition Part II

The digital “toll” It doesn’t require too dark an imagination to realize the gravity of the concerns over the digital yuan. China is a true pioneer when it comes surveillance, censorship and political oppression and the digital age has given an incredibly efficient and effective arsenal to the state. Adding money to that toolkit was a move that was planned for many years and it is abundantly clear how useful a tool it can be for any totalitarian...

Read More »

Reject the “Next Generation EU Plan”

The Václav Klaus Institute urging the Czech Government to reject the dangerous Ursula von der Leyen´s plan. It is rather rare that I share articles on my channel that are not from my own pen. The following article is therefore an exception and for good reason. It is written by none other than the former President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus, with whom I have a long-standing relationship, based on great respect and many shared values.

Read More »

Technocracy vs Liberty

“I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much undetermined and unpredictable, to a pretense of exact knowledge that is likely to be false.” Friedrich August von Hayek

Read More »

Parliament approves extra CHF14.9 billion for Covid relief

A further CHF14.9 billion ($15.5 billion) has been agreed by parliament to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Most of it will go towards unemployment insurance, which finances short-time work compensation.

Read More »

An unexpected blow to the ECB

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.

Read More »