Assets & Advisory, Markets & Music. Founder RMK Research & Markets, Switzerland. I wrote these:
Geneva, Switzerland
Joined November 2009
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My son came up with an interesting means test for receiving social security benefits (AHV/AVS here in 🇨🇭).
Have children. They become next generation contributors to the pool. With a couple of kids, you earn full benefits at retirement. No offspring, you get a fraction less.
Combine it with other measures like means tests and age indexation and maybe social security can avoid collapse?
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One way to curtail criminality at mass gatherings like we saw in Paris and Milan would be to reduce anonymity. Prohibit masks, cagoules, goggles, balaclava, etc. Perpetuators might think twice. Implementation would be tough… maybe not.
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Study Switzerland 🇨🇭
🇨🇭🇩🇪 German manufacturing is undergoing a structural crisis, and credible identification of its causes clearly requires rigorous research. Yet my advice to fellow researchers remains the same, namely to study 🇨🇭 in depth, since, as the chart suggests, it offers an excellent counterfactual. Why is nobody studying the stellar performance of Swiss industry?
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Rich Kleinbauer retweeted
This Stan Druckenmiller opinion piece in the WSJ today is brilliantly written and 100% accurate! Everyone needs to read it - especially the Treasury Secretary and whoever in the administration and on Wall St. that might have pressured him into taking such an anti-free market approach. wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond…
Currently, lakes & rivers in the US & Canada (rivers Colorado, upper Mississippi, lakes Mead, Powell, Okanagan, Kalamalka) also in Europe (rivers Rhine, Po, Danube, Loire, Rhône, Elbe, lakes Constance, Attersee) are at historic lows.
Silly question: where’d all that water go?
Swiss people. We don’t have defense. The American F-35s are delayed (for years), lacking spare parts, costing much more than agreed, and according to this article, only functional 44% of the time. What?! We are a defense nation, what are we doing?
srf.ch/news/dialog/modernisi…
Hey Swiss people, we bought 36 of these failing F-35 rust buckets for CHF 5 billion. Coulda gone instead with our nextdoor neighbor’s sensible Rafale plus a ton of drones for the same money. Too late to cancel our now delayed order? Read on…
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Weekend government database hack in Lichtenstein. Data critical to 31,000 entities known as “Stiftungen” or Foundations, a legal structure where beneficial owners are tucked away hidden, is now out in the open.
20-years ago, a data engineer at HSBC Geneva stole a disc of 100k client data, failed to sell it, so he gave it to the French (Lagarde) who then shared it with other tax authorities. This ended Swiss banking secrecy.
What just occurred in Lichtenstein will probably topple another form of tax evasion.
srf.ch/news/international/ha…
Who are the 31,000 beneficial owner records on Lichtenstein entities? Start with every legitimate Taiwan, Russian, Syrian, Libyan or Iranian businessman who may have used Lichtenstein structures - holding Swiss accounts - to do business and for asset protection and succession planning. The threat for them is not just fiscal clawbacks but also kidnapping for ransom and prison. This is a potentially lethal disaster for Lichtenstein first and also a blow for the Swiss financial services industry by forthcoming ripple effect. À suivre
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Ceuta is an easy one to solve. Return the land to Morocco, relocate the 80k residents to Spain proper, cancel the 360-year old Treaty with Portugal. Do what was done with Macau, with Hong Kong and the Philippines. DON’T hunker down
Le immagini che arrivano da Ceuta sono impressionanti e dimostrano, ancora una volta, che l’immigrazione clandestina fuori controllo rappresenta una minaccia concreta per la sicurezza dei confini europei.
Mi sono confrontata con il Ministro dell’Interno Matteo Piantedosi. L’Italia non resterà a guardare. Stiamo convocando gli organismi preposti, e all'esito di queste riunioni siamo pronti a intervenire anche con strumenti straordinari per difendere i confini e la sicurezza dei cittadini, come la sospensione dello spazio Schengen con la Spagna.
Sull’immigrazione clandestina non arretreremo di un millimetro: difendere i confini, fermare i trafficanti di esseri umani e garantire rimpatri efficaci continuerà a essere la linea di questo Governo.
Tell this to the Swiss Migros supermarket which employs “The 7 Old Ladies of Basel” to choose, on our behalf, the one and only brand of granola bars available.
Been living in London for 3 years and every time I come back to the US, I have to recalibrate.
When you're overseas, you tend to forget what real abundance feels like, so much so, I just stood there in the granola aisle, mouth open, brain completely short-circuited as I stared at a ridiculous wall of infinite choice.
Bajillions of brands, flavors, and innovations - chocolate peanut butter banana crunch, maple pecan espresso, keto, paleo, collagen-packed, probiotic, gluten-free, protein-loaded, you name it. I was straight-up paralyzed by options.
The French call it “embarras de choix” - embarrassment of choice. That overwhelming feeling when there are simply too many great things to pick from. It’s usually used positively or neutrally (the options are desirable), but the “embarrassment” highlights the mild frustration, guilt and indecision it causes.
But Americans don’t get embarrassed by it. At all.
Because they don't feel guilt about having MORE.
It is the Land of Plenty for a reason. It’s easy to start a food company here, it's easy to build brands, and it's easy to just employ / fire people.
That freedom unleashes relentless innovation and variety, feeding an unstoppable demand for better, tastier, healthier, crazier options.
No wonder Europeans lose their minds the first time they step into a Costco.
American abundance is a policy and cultural choice.
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AirBnB IPO'd about 5 1/2 years ago to lots of fanfare and a healthy 50% rise in its first month of trading. What happened since?
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Are we in a “sell everything” period in order to raise the $85 billion SpaceX is seeking next week?
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Switzerland slots in at $9.20 per gallon. At least our roads are immaculate
The ultimate transatlantic reality check on the price of gas per one U.S. gallon in Europe vs North America (based currency and unit measurement conversions as of today):
🇳🇱 Netherlands: $10.49
🇸🇪 Sweden: $7.55
🇫🇷 France: $9.13
🇬🇧 UK: $8.04
🇩🇪 Germany: $8.96
🇮🇹 Italy: $8.52
🇪🇸 Spain: $6.81
🇨🇦 Canada: $5.94
🇺🇸 USA: $4.56
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US 10 and 30-year bond yields are making breakout highs today. We could thank this diverse group below for their service to get us here… or replace them with the yield on the 2-year note, currently trading 50bps above Fed Funds (I.e. let the market decide).
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