Tag Archive: Politics

Davos Man Will Fail, World Will Move Toward Decentralization

2023-02-10

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2023-02-10

I truly enjoyed the conversation with Hrvoje Morić. I hope you will enjoy it 2. Happy Weekend! In liberty, Claudio Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Therefore please feel free to share and you can subscribe for my articles by clicking here

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“Fundamentals and technical analysis are two sides of the same coin”

2023-02-07

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2023-02-07

Interview with Laurent Halmos For most die-hard physical gold investors and students of history like myself and most of my readers and clients, technical analysis is often seen as a bit of a taboo, or at best something irrelevant to our worldview and investment approach. Nevertheless, to paraphrase the old saying about politics, just because you are not interested in the charts doesn’t mean that the charts are not interested in you.  I met...

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US Federal Reserve Sticks To The Script But For How Long?

2023-02-04

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2023-02-04

Those watching the gold price and price of silver will have noticed the sharp uptick following the Federal Reserve’s announcement, yesterday. This was despite the Fed doing exactly what everyone expected them to do. For now, the Federal Reserve is sticking to its relatively well-telegraphed plan but how long will it be until they need to move the goalposts in order to do so?

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Colossal tax dodging: the odd case of billionaire Pierre Castel

2023-02-01

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2023-02-01

The bill comes to CHF410 million. The amount demanded by the Geneva revenue administration from French billionaire Pierre Castel has drawn the attention of the international press and made waves locally.

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2022 is the end of big tech and the beginning of the 11 years commodity cycle from 2023 – 2033

2023-01-29

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2023-01-29

Don’t miss my latest talk with my “political incorrect” friend Jeremy on TNT Radio – about the World Economic Muppet-Show called WEF and much more Click on the below link, to listen to the show. https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/claudio-grass-on-jerm-warfare-with-jeremy-nell-24-january-2023/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Therefore please feel free to share and you can subscribe for...

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Swiss government aims to cut 2 billion from 2024 budget

2023-01-27

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2023-01-27

Like many governments across the world, Switzerland’s federal government is spending more than it collects. Extraordinary spending on Covid and refugees has pushed Switzerland’s finances into the red, a situation Karin Keller-Sutter, the current finance minister, hopes to eliminate by 2024.

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The death of the middle class is the death of civil society

2023-01-27

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2023-01-27

Part II of II by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland The blame game  As we know from every crisis in human history, and especially the more recent ones, the most important item on any politician’s agenda is to find someone else to blame for it. It can be a foreign foe in the form of a hostile state, it can be an “enemy within”, usually long-standing political opponents and their supporters, or it can even be some invisible villain like...

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Retirement at 68.2 to cover Swiss pension shortfall, says UBS

2023-01-26

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2023-01-26

Swiss resident’s are regularly reminded of the large financial gap is Switzerland’s state pension system. Despite this, several attempts at reform have failed to gain sufficient support. Those that have still leave a large shortfall. On 24 January 2023, UBS published four additional reform scenarios. Only the fourth, with a life expectancy adjusted retirement age of 68.2 years eliminates the current projected shortfall.

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The death of the middle class is the death of civil society

2023-01-25

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2023-01-25

The middle class in the West has been shrinking for years, but after the covid crisis and especially after the inflation explosion, whatever was left of it is now basically under threat of extinction. This has immense sociopolitical implications.

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What happens if the debt ceiling raises

2023-01-20

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2023-01-20

It’s that time again when the US government has to prepare itself for an internal battle to raise the debt ceiling so it can meet various obligations. This is a merry dance that has been danced before, as we mention below.

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“Markets and civil society are win-win institutions, government and politics are zero-sum.”

2023-01-03

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2023-01-03

Division, friction and polarization have been on the rise in the West for at least a decade, but the escalation we saw during the “covid years” was especially worrying. Over the last year, this “worry” has become a truly pressing concern, even a real emergency one might argue, as inflationary pressures and an actual war were added to the mix of political and social tensions.  

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A grateful goodbye to 2022, a hopeful hello to 2023

2022-12-30

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2022-12-30

Even though what we saw during the height of the pandemic was shocking enough for most people, what we saw during 2022 was arguably even more astonishing. During the lockdowns and quarantines and the forced business shutdowns, the sheer number of all the rights and freedoms that were coercively “suspended”, as though that’s a thing one can do with true liberty, left so many fellow citizens in disbelief. However, what many people found even more...

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Gold is money – everything else is credit!

2022-12-14

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2022-12-14

What physical precious metals investors can expect 2023 and beyond Throughout the better part of 2022 there has been one question that has consistently, and predictably, popped up in conversations with my friends, clients and readers. Those who know me and are familiar with my ideas are well aware of my position on precious metals and the multiple roles they serve, so I can’t blame them for them for being curious whether I still “stick to my...

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“It begins”: The rise of the digital dollar

2022-12-05

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2022-12-05

In mid-November, while the whole world was focused on the Ukraine crisis, the US midterms or whatever other “big story” the media decided was more important, a truly momentous shift took place in the global financial system. It might seem like a small step on the surface, but it has the potential to bring about a real and possibly irreversible sea change in the way we use money; or better said, the way it uses us.  As Reuters reported on the...

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Bern against federal plan to subsidise health insurance 

2022-12-05

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2022-12-05

A federal initiative aimed at subsidising health insurance premiums once they exceed 10% of disposable income met with resistance in Bern this week, reported RTS.

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Pay rise agreed for Switzerland’s public sector workers

2022-12-02

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2022-12-02

On 2 December 2022, Switzerland’s Federal Council agreed to boost the salaries of those working for the federal government by 2.5% in 2023.

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The way forward: 

2022-12-01

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2022-12-01

A practical roadmap to reclaiming individual and financial sovereignty – Part II of II Essential ingredients There have always been people with a passion for liberty. Since the earliest historical records, we can find questioners, dissenters, “trouble makers”, contrarians and all kinds of free and inquisitive minds. In this day and age, however, technology has played a decisive role in the influence they can have. Sure, the “bad guys” might...

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The way forward: 

2022-11-30

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2022-11-30

A practical roadmap to reclaiming individual and financial sovereignty – Part I of II Those who are familiar with my ideas and my writings undoubtedly know that one the issues I’m most passionate about is individual freedom, on all levels. I believe that free-thinking people know what’s best of them and they need no “guardians”, no “nannies” and certainly no bailiffs and enforcers, to limit or to dictate their choices “for their own good”. As...

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Inter-cantonal tax transfers to rise 5 percent in 2023

2022-11-19

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2022-11-19

On 16 November 2022, Switzerland’s federal government announced the sums that will be transferred between the nation’s statelets or cantons in 2023, a mechanism aimed at ensuring wealthy cantons support those with weaker economies.

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“Keynes is the winner of the day, not Milton Friedman”

2022-11-10

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2022-11-10

To many of us, no matter how well versed in history, in political affairs or in socioeconomic issues, the present conditions in the West, and especially in Europe, can sometimes seem like the plot of a bad movie. It is often said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme, and what we’re seeing today is a great example of that.

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