Tag Archive: Switzerland

Switzerland Tops World’s Most Competitive Countries Index (Yemen Least)

Something else 'Murica is no longer #1 in... A recently released World Economic Forum report has found that the global economy is recovering well nearly a decade on from the start of the global financial crisis with GDP growth hitting 3.5 percent in 2017. The eurozone in particular is regaining traction with 1.9 percent growth expected this year. As Statista's Niall McCarthy points out, the improvement in Europe's economic fortunes can be seen in...

Read More »

Hard Assets In An Age Of Negative Interest Rates

Time is the soul of money, the long-view - its immortality. Hard assets are forever, even when destroyed by the cataclysms of history. It is the outlook that perpetuated the most competent and powerful aristocracies in continental Europe, well up through World War I and, in certain prominent cases, beyond; it is the mindset that has sustained the most fiscally serious democratic republic in the Western world, that of Switzerland.

Read More »

“This Is A Crisis Greater Than Any Government Can Handle”: The $400 Trillion Global Retirement Gap

Today we’ll continue to size up the bull market in governmental promises. As we do so, keep an old trader’s slogan in mind: “That which cannot go on forever, won’t.” Or we could say it differently: An unsustainable trend must eventually stop. Lately I have focused on the trend in US public pension funds, many of which are woefully underfunded and will never be able to pay workers the promised benefits, at least without dumping a huge and unwelcome...

Read More »

Here Are The Cities Of The World Where “The Rent Is Too Damn High”

In ancient times, like as far back as the 1990s, housing prices grew roughly inline with inflation rates because they were generally set by supply and demand forces determined by a market where buyers mostly just bought houses so they could live in them. Back in those ancient days, a more practical group of world citizens saw their homes as a place to raise a family rather that just another asset class that should be day traded to satisfy their...

Read More »

Swiss Mystery: Someone Keeps Flushing €500 Bank Notes Down The Toilet

While there are several comments one can make here, “dirty money”, “flush with cash” and “flushing money down the toilet” certainly coming to mind, perhaps the ECB was on to something when it warned that €500 “Bin Laden” bills (which it has since discontinued to print) tend to be used by criminals. The reason for … Continue reading »

Read More »

Boris Johnson Threatens To Resign If Theresa May “Goes Against His Brexit Demands”, Pound Rises

In confirmation that Theresa May's upcoming Florence speech this Friday is not only what many have called "the most important day for Brexit since the referendum", but also the most opaque, the Telegraph reports that UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will resign as before the weekend if Theresa May veers towards a “Swiss-style” arrangement with the EU in her upcoming speech.

Read More »

One-Tenth Of Global GDP Is Now Held In Offshore Tax Havens

Accurately measuring the scope of global wealth inequality is a notoriously difficult undertaking – a fact that was brought to light last year when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the Panama Papers, exposing clients of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Read More »

Six Banks Join UBS’s “Utility Coin” Blockchain Project

Here’s a piece of news that the remaining human members of Wall Street’s FX sales and trading desks probably don’t want to hear. According to the Financial Times, six of the world’s largest banks have decided to join a blockchain project called “utility coin” that will allow banks to settle trades in securities denominated in different currencies without a money transfer.

Read More »

Payerne Airport Finally Starts to take off

After years of negotiations, Payerne’s regional civilian airport and future business aviation hub is starting to take shape. The first stone of an airport building in northwest Switzerland has been laid. “It’s a day of celebration and joy,” Fribourg businessman Damien Piller told reporters at a ceremony to mark the start of construction of the main airport building on Monday. Work should last 18 months.

Read More »

Stories making the Swiss Sunday papers

A wide range of topics occupied Swiss newspapers this weekend, from Swiss investments in US arms companies and requirements for FIFA World Cup host countries, to what to do in the event of a terror attack. A critique of Geneva’s relationship with the Red Cross also made headlines.

Read More »

Swiss Asset Manager Settles US Tax Evasion Charges

The Geneva asset management firm Prime Partners has agreed to pay $5 million (CHF4.8 million) to the United States to settle charges for tax evasion and assisting US taxpayers in opening and maintaining undeclared foreign bank accounts from 2001 to 2010.

Read More »

Buy Gold Urges Dalio on Linkedin – “Militaristic Leaders Playing Chicken Risks Hellacious War”

Don't let "traditional biases" stop you from diversifying into gold - Dalio on Linkedin. “Risks are now rising and do not appear appropriately priced in” warns founder of world's largest hedge fund. Geo-political risk from North Korea & "risk of hellacious war". Risk that U.S. debt ceiling not raised; technical US default. Safe haven gold likely to benefit by more than dollar, treasuries.

Read More »

Bitcoin Fork, Hyped ICOs – Immutable Gold and Silver

Latest developments show risks in crypto currencies. Confusion as bitcoin may split tomorrow. SEC stepped into express concern over ICOs. ICOs have so far raised $1.2 billion in 2017. ICOs preying on lack of understanding from investors. Physical gold not vulnerable to technological risk. Beauty and safety in simplicity of gold and silver.

Read More »

Indian arms dealer’s Swiss accounts under scrutiny

Swiss authorities have received requests for information concerning possible Swiss bank accounts of Indian defence deals broker Sanjay Bhandari. He is under investigation for allegedly helping Swiss firm Pilatus secure an order for 75 training aircraft for the Indian Air Force in 2012.

Read More »

The Secret History Of The Banking Crisis

Accounts of the financial crisis leave out the story of the secretive deals between banks that kept the show on the road. How long can the system be propped up for? It is a decade since the first tremors of what would become the Great Financial Crisis began to convulse global markets. Across the world from China and South Korea, to Ukraine, Greece, Brexit Britain and Trump’s America it has shaken our economy, our society and latterly our politics.

Read More »

“Under Any Analysis, It’s Insanity”: What War With North Korea Could Look Like

Now that the possibility of a war between the US and North Korea seems just one harshly worded tweet away, and the window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution, as well as for the US stopping Kim Jong-Un from obtaining a nuclear-armed ICBM closing fast, analysts have started to analyze President Trump’s military options, what a war between the US and North Korea would look like, and what the global economic consequences would be.

Read More »

Can Switzerland Survive Today’s Assault On Cash And Sound Money?

“Switzerland will have the last word,” wrote Victor Hugo in the late 19th century. “It possesses one of the most perfect forms of government in the world.” A contemporary of his, Frederick Kuenzli, a scholar of the Swiss Army, boasted: “No purer type of Republican ideals, no more fixed and devoted adherence to those ideals can be found in all the world than in Switzerland.”

Read More »

Winning: U.S. Crushes All Other Countries In Latest Obesity Study

When President Trump promised last fall that under a Trump administration America would "would win so much you'll get tired of winning," we suspect this is not what he had in mind. According to the latest international obesity study from the Organization For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), America is by far the fattest nation in the world with just over 38% of the adult population considered 'obese.'

Read More »

Fighting inflation with FX, a real traders market

The much anticipated document (press release and link to full document) released by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico and contained the list of negotiating objectives for talks that are expected to begin in one month.

Read More »

Switzerland Opens Door To Bitcoin Asset-Management Business

Bitcoin and other cryptos have fallen sharply over the past month in a shakeout that saw some of the early longs decide to take their winnings and walk away. But a 20% drop from the all-time highs hasn’t done much to temper wealthy investors interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as alternative investments potentially worthy of diversification.

Read More »