You may have heard about the Swiss referendum to end fractional reserve lending by Swiss commercial banks. It’s a fascinating development for
Austrians and libertarians, and it’s another example of how average Swiss people can use referenda to force both their central legislature and the twenty-six Swiss cantons to consider their proposals, merely by gathering 100,000 signatures within an 18-month period.
Claudio Grass, Managing Director of Global Gold, gave an interesting interview on this topic with the Mises Institute. This is another interesting example for our non-Swiss readers to better understand the political system and culture in Switzerland.
You can listen to this interesting piece:
You can read the full article here:
Global Gold Launches New “Key Box Storage”
The “Key Box Storage” solution is a new storage option offered by Global Gold whereby you receive your own personal storage box to hold your bullion bars and coins – and now numismatics – outside of the banking system, fully insured, in a triple-A rated facility in Switzerland. Since only you hold the keys, an option like KBS fits the needs of those looking for the ultimate protection of their metal holdings.
One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, to hold gold and silver is as a hedge against extreme negative events. Risk continues to grow for an international monetary system collapse as a result of exorbitant global debt. Monetary discipline seems to be a foreign concept in today’s world. Now worries of government confiscation in places like the U.S. have again been swirling in the air. Writer and political activist, L. Neil Smith, said it best when he noted that “we are expected to believe that anyone who objects to the Department of Homeland Security or the USA Patriot Act is a terrorist, and that the only way to preserve our freedom is to hand it over to the government for safekeeping.”
News Briefs
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Real Financial Risks of 2016
First, worry less about the banking system. Financial institutions today are less fragile than they were a few years ago. This isn’t because they got better at understanding risk (they didn’t) but because, since 2009, banks have been shedding their exposures to extreme events. Hedge funds, which are much more adept at risk-taking, now function as reinsurers of sorts. Because hedge-fund owners have skin in the game, they are less prone to hiding risks than are bankers.
Warning From UBS: “Buy Gold”, A 30% Bear Market Is Coming!
As Wall Street axioms (Santa rally, January effect, as goes January etc.) are rapidly falling by the wayside at the start of 2016, following a chaotic but return-less 2015, the UBS analysts who correctly forecast last year’s volatility are out with their forecast for 2016. It’s simple – Sell Stocks, Buy Gold.
UBS Technical Analysts Michael Riesner and Marc Müller warn the seven-year cycle in equities is rolling over. Go to story here
Thanks to the helpful and informative article.