Free Republic

Last year Austria's largest bank, Erste Bank, sent shudders of Credit Anstalt through the European Banking System. This year it is Austria's 3rd largest bank that is scaring investors senseless. On the heels of the Swiss National Bank's decision to un-peg from the Euro, Raiffeisen Bank's Swiss-Franc-Denominated mortgage worries have resurfaced (along with Russian/Ukraine writedowns) and nowhere is that more evident than the total collapse of the bank's bonds (from over 95c to 65c today). Even after the ECB Q€ (and some apparent intervention to weaken the Swissy) bonds kept free-falling. Perhaps, The Freedom Party's demands for a bailout will...

WARSAW — Piotr Szczepaniak, an apartment manager here, had just finished work, checking faucets and making sure rents were paid. After making himself a coffee, he logged on to a Polish social network and noticed that someone had posted the current exchange rate of the Swiss franc. “I was frozen,” he said, seeing that the franc’s value had soared that day. Like hundreds of thousands of other Eastern Europeans, Mr. Szczepaniak, 46, is paying off a mortgage he took out in francs, instead of his local currency, the zloty. In an instant, his monthly payment rose by more than 20...

First Swiss Franc, now Euro... RBC TO CHARGE NEGATIVE INTEREST ON EURO-DENOMINATED BALANCES — Russian Market (@russian_market) January 21, 2015 Opinion: Think negative interest rates can’t happen here? Think again In the last week, the markets have had to get used to the idea of the negative interest rate, where you actually get charged for keeping money in the bank rather than going out and spending it. So far, that is restricted to two relatively small economies, both of which are struggling with the likely launch of a massive program of quantitative easing this week in the eurozone. But what...

Here’s something I didn’t know about the Swiss National Bank: “Many economists believe that balance sheet losses are irrelevant for a central bank, so they should play no role in policy. But the SNB is 45 per cent owned by private shareholders, many of whom are individuals, who receive dividends from the SNB. The rest is owned by the cantons, which have been complaining recently about insufficient cash transfers from the SNB.This ownership structure contrasts sharply with most other central banks, which are in effect government departments, wholly owned by the treasury and therefore the taxpayer. The Swiss set-up makes...

Yesterday, when we got the first news of huge P&L losses at various publicly-traded banks not to mention the collapse of several retail brokers culminating with the bailout of FXCM by Jefferies, we reminded that seconds after the SNB shocker, we tweeted what was quite obvious to anyone who realized that speculators were most short the CHF since the summer of 2013. We also added that "We have yet to find out just which hedge funds were blown up yesterday", for the simple reason that unlike public banks who have an obligation to reveal news, especially bad, to their shareholders,...

Investors are so nervous that they are basically willing to lose money when they buy some government bonds. It's part of the latest fad in finance that's all the rage: "going negative." The yields on government bonds in Europe and Japan have dipped into the uncharted waters of negative territory. That means buyers of those bonds are essentially taking a loss just to hold onto those assets. They think their money is better off losing a few cents than putting it elsewhere. "It's basically a fee for fear," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx. "Fear of deflation, fear...

The Swiss National Bank has lost control. It is the latest in a list of venerable central banks to be overwhelmed by deflationary forces and global economic disorder. The country is already in deflation. The Swiss franc ended Thursday 13pc higher after the SNB abandoned its three-year efforts to defend a currency floor of 1.20 to the euro. “We have a free exchange rate once again,” said the SNB’s president, Thomas Jordan. Indeed, but nobody is fooled by the SNB’s attempt to spin this as benign. “This is a huge hit to their credibility,” said Deutsche Bank. The official statement...

The Swiss central bank plans to charge depositors a 'negative' interest rate of -0.25 per cent to discourage spooked investors from using it to shelter their cash. Money has flooded into Switzerland as market turbulence caused by the Russian rouble collapse and oil price slide has prompted a desperate search for safe havens in recent days. The Swiss National Bank said it would slash its interest rate on balances of over 10million Swiss francs from January 22 - effectively imposing a charge on depositors wanting to hold francs in a bid to keep its currency artificially weak against the euro.

One day, it’s gold. The next, it’s equities. Most days, it’s crude. On Wednesday, it was copper. On Thursday it was the Swiss franc and Swiss stocks. And the move in those two makes those others look like minor-league hiccups. While you were sleeping, all hell broke loose in Switzerland, as the central bank ditched its currency cap against the euro after four years and slashed interest rates to negative 0.75%. The Swiss franc is rallying wildly, while the Swiss stock market is cratering and U.S. stock futures are mostly on the losing side as investors figure out this latest...

Europe is deflating….The Swiss banking established, normally always a pillar of private property and free capital movement have decided to stop pegging their currency which has been an affront against free markets. Hedge Funds piggy banking off government manipulation and mostly short the currency were taken out to the woodshed and shot as the currency shot up 30% in minutes.

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,781.00, EUR 1,374.65, and GBP 1,098.77 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,755.25, EUR 1,365.32and GBP 1,084.16 per ounce. Silver is trading at $1,670.75/oz, €26.96/oz and £21.52/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,670.75/oz, palladium at $637.90/oz and rhodium at $1,075/oz. Gold climbed $26.00 or 1.48% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,777.30. Silver surged to hit a high of $34.74 and finished with a gain of 2.15%. Euro gold rose to a new record high at €1377. Gold prices are up on Friday, as the new austerity budget from Spain was received favourably and...

Prior to the last couple of weeks, there were four really big "safe haven" assets that were going up basically every single day as financial markets got more and more unglued. They were: Gold, the Swiss Franc, US Treasuries, and Japanese yen. None of them yield anything, all have a pretty fantastic history of storing and returning value. None are associated with unsound monetary regimes. In the last couple of weeks, there's been a shift. US Treasuries and Japanese yen continue to hit brand new all-time highs. On the other hand, gold and the Swiss Franc have (to different degrees)...

Confirming that this is a market for idiots, by idiots, was the 4 am response in the price of gold, which following the SNB's Swiss Franc peg announcement did not surge, as it should have considering that the SNB just singularly changed the role of the CHF from a "flight to safety" to a carry currency, making gold the only island of stability in a world of fiat insanity, but instead plunged by over $50. Subsequent attempts to regain the $1900+ level were met with constant program selling for no other reason, than just because someone 'else' was selling....

(Reuters) - 'Black box' computer hedge funds and managers who bet on global markets are likely to be among those hardest hit by Switzerland's shock intervention on Tuesday to reverse profitable bets on the franc's 'safe haven' status. The Swiss National Bank surprised investors with an exchange rate cap on Tuesday, saying it would no longer tolerate a rate below 1.20 francs to the euro and would defend the target by buying other currencies in unlimited quantities. The news sent the franc tumbling 8 percent against the euro. More

Believe it or not Ripley! The People’s Bank of China(PBOC) recommended yesterday that 1 billion Chinese consider buying gold as a hedge against inflation and to preserve values in a world where currencies can fall. The PBOC Financial Markets Review came out just as several major currencies were indeed declining in value against gold; the dollar,1%, the Swiss franc,2.5%, t he British pound, 2%, and the Japanese yen, 2%. Wow! Be like the Fed telling you to buy oil stocks or crude oil futures due to expectation higher gasoline prices this summer. So, add the PBOC to other secular influences...

The Swiss franc pulled back from a nine-month high against the euro on Monday amid speculation that the Swiss National Bank had intervened to stem the currency’s rise. The Swiss franc broke through SFr1.50 against the euro on Friday for the first time since March when the SNB announced that it was going to act to halt the strength of its currency as it fought against deflation. The rise in the Swiss franc came amid increasing concerns over the health of the eurozone banking system, which sparked haven demand for the Swiss currency. Many had expected the SNB – which...