Macroeconomics

Switzerland’s economy grew 1.2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, accelerating sharply from the weak second quarter as manufacturing and exports picked up.

Switzerland’s gross domestic product rose 0.6 per cent quarter on quarter in the three months to the end of September, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. That was in line with a median estimate compiled by Reuters of 0.6 per cent. GDP growth for the second quarter was also revised up to 0.4 per cent from 0.3 per cent.

When Morris Chang set up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) back in 1987, it was only two years after Microsoft had started shipping copies of its Windows operating system around the world, and a year before the first internet worm (similar to a virus) would infect a modest 6,000 computers.

Both GOLD and BITCOINS, and the other CRYPTOCURRENCIES, are instruments completely free from the control of the central banks, and are therefore a natural diversification from the impacts that can be generated by the unconventional manoeuvres of the central banks.

The hurricane season in the Atlantic and other natural disasters serve as a sobering reminder of the devastation that can be wrought by severe weather events. The humanitarian and socio-economic impact can last from months to years.

Recent moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve to tighten its monetary policy is helping the Swiss National Bank in its campaign against the “highly valued” Swiss franc, SNB Governor Andrea Maechler said on Thursday.

Interest rate rises announced by the Fed “mean the interest rate differentials between Switzerland and other countries may widen further in the future,” Maechler said. This would make the Swiss franc less attractive to investors, reducing the value of the currency, whose strength has hampered Switzerland’s export-reliant economy.

On October 9th, Richard H. Thaler, one of the founders of behavioral economics and behavioral finance, was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for shedding light on how irrational decision making affects the economy and financial markets.

In the morning SNB released the Swiss FX reserves for October. The Swiss National Bank’s foreign-currency reserves jumped by 17 billion Swiss francs ($17.04 billion) in the month, putting the central bank on track for another banner quarter after earning a record-high profit of 32.5 billion francs between July and September.

The data increased strongly to $741.5 billion from $724.4billion. Tuesday’s

Trump announces nomination of Fed board member Jerome Powell to be next chair of US central bank. A Fed governor since 2012 and former Treasury official under the George H.W. Bush administration, Powell will replace current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Yellen was nominated in 2013 by President Obama. Her term as the central bank’s first female leader expires in February.