Tag Archive: Switzerland
FX Theory: The Balance of Payments Model Explained in 400 Words
The balance of payments leads to many confusions because definitions vary. For example, the IMF’s definition is different from the usual or historical definition. Secondly, the relationship between the balance of payments and reserve assets is difficult to grasp, especially in the IMF definition. Thirdly the origin of “errors and omissions” is often unclear. Therefore …
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History of SNB monetary policy assessments vs. economic data
History of SNB monetary policy assessments vs. the Swiss gross national product (GDP) and gross national income (GNI).
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The Biggest Bubble of the Century is Ending: Government Bond Yields
Government bond yields under 10 years for safe-havens are close to zero. In April 2013, even 20 year bond yields are less than 3%, What can explain this bubble of the century? Update August 16, 2013: So, 10-year Treasury yields have ended the day closer to 3 per cent. But not as close as they … Continue reading »
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Because They Knew What They Were Doing: The Parallels between European and SNB Leaders
Similarly as European leaders knew what they were doing with the euro, namely introducing a not feasible currency, Swiss National Bank did between 2005 and 2008, namely the absolutely wrong thing.
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Global Purchasing Manager Indices, Update December 17
Manufacturing PMIs are considered to be the leading and most important economic indicators. Since the Fed’s QE3, this is the third month of improvements in global PMIs after a strong slowing in summer 2012. January 25th Expansion-contraction ratio: There are as many countries that show values above 50 as under 50. Positive-negative-change ratio: 18 countries …
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The Fairy Tale of Rising Competitiveness in the European Periphery
In our post we look on two questions concerning competitiveness for the European periphery: When will local production be cheaper than imported products? Do people have the money to buy these local products? It does not help reducing labor costs if local production costs still more than imported products. The second aspect is: even if …
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4 Different Solutions for the Euro Crisis: Can it Be the Northern Euro? A Discussion
The discussion about the future of the Euro: Among a Post-Keynesian, a European Etatist, an Austrian economist and an advocate of a Northern Euro on the French website www.atlantico.fr. The French paper is asking: “Sommet européen : créer un euro du Nord est-il le seul moyen de sauver l’Europe de l’austérité ?” Is the creation of …
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SNB Monetary Policy Assessment December 2012: (Nearly) Full Text
The SNB decided to maintain the floor at 1.20 and the Libor target between 0% and 0.25%. As we expected in our outlook on the assessment, there were still important downwards drivers of inflation after the strong appreciation of the franc. Therefore, the SNB has moved its inflation expectations downwards for 2013 to minus 0.1% …
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Switzerland, the Paradise of Insider Trading and Intransparency
Switzerland is well known as the country, where even central bankers were allowed to do insider trading. Instead the whistle blowers get problems with the courts. Some new cases of insider trading include UBS, General Electric and Valiant, see the article on
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How Currency Speculators Help the SNB to Fight against Ordinary Investors
A discussion in the investor forum made clear how currency speculators currently help the SNB to maintain the floor against normal investors. A situation that was different in August/September 2011, when the SNB had to fight against these speculators. A discussion in the investor forum Seeking Alpha: part one Based on our analysis of …
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Credit Suisse and UBS Will Charge Negative Interests Above a Threshold
Credit Suisse and UBS will charge negative interests for cash clearing clients above a threshold. Last year such was worth 150 bps, this year on 28 bps. See the official news at FT Alphaville
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Gold, CHF, Brent Arbitrage Trading after Negative CS, UBS Interest Rates
Credit Suisse and UBS will charge negative interests for cash clearing clients above a threshold. Last year such news was worth 250 bps, on December 3 only 28 bips. One remembers August 26, 2011, when UBS only spoke of negative interests and consequently EUR/CHF rose from 1.1420 to 1.1688. At the time FX traders …
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Global Purchasing Manager Indices, Update December 10
Manufacturing PMIs are considered to be the most leading and important economic indicators. Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, believes the PMI numbers are among the most reliable economic indicators in the world. BlackRock’s Russ Koesterich thinks it’s one of the most underrated indicators. Global Purchasing Manager Indices for the manufacturing industry December 3, 2012 …
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Swiss Exports Rise Thanks to Higher Export Prices. Sorry, What ????
Or how Swiss exporters are able to widen their margins thanks to the SNB currency manipulation Last week the Swiss export data for the third quarter was released. The news agency report was simple: Exports from Switzerland fell by a real 8.0 percent in September to 16.49 billion Swiss francs ($17.87 billion), the Federal …
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Strange movement in EUR/CHF in Asia session, a possible explanation
Strange movement in the EUR/CHF in the Asian session today The Asian session was a risk-on session, it recovered some of yesterday’s losses. After yesterday’s rather good HSBC services PMI, Shanghai Composite was up today by 1.97%. Therefore safe-havens like the yen and the Swissie were under pressure. At first, some Forex traders …
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