Grundeinkommen

Basic Income


Even the garbageman is streamlined away!

Food for thought in this video by a Swiss/German initiative.

Watch live streaming video from occupyzh at livestream.com

A version with English sub titles is here.


Via Occupy Paradeplatz (2011-10-27).

Biggest Brokest Banks

Biggest banks by assets for the business year of 2010 in CHF billion:



Broken banks according to the market as of the close of 2011-09-15 by percentage of market capitalization in relation to their assets (aeh, basically liabilities;-):



Data source: Thomson Reuters Datastream

Soros on Europe

From Zero Hedge: Soros Thinks The Unthinkable About Europe

All this would cost money. Under existing arrangements no more money is to be found and no new arrangements are allowed by the German Constitutional Court decision without the authorization of the Bundestag.

[Any solution] would presuppose a radical change of heart, particularly in Germany. The German public still thinks that it has a choice about whether to support the euro or to abandon it. That is a mistake. The euro exists and the assets and liabilities of the financial system are so intermingled on the basis of a common currency that a breakdown of the euro would cause a meltdown beyond the capacity of the authorities to contain. The longer it takes for the German public to realize this, the heavier the price they and the rest of the world will have to pay.

With a comment from jeff montanye:

sacrifice democracy and freedom because disentangling euro based accounting is too complex? aww, go on, give it a try. and remember: the bondholders, stockholders and current management are the first to make a sacrifice, not the last. see how far that gets you.

2011-08-17

Der Spiegel Interview with George Soros

SPIEGEL: Is the current crisis even worse than the one in 2008?

Soros: This crisis is still the continuation of the same crisis. In 2008, the financial system collapsed and it had to be put on artificial life support. The authorities managed to save the system. But the imbalances that caused the crisis have not been removed.

...

Soros: Of course, speculation will always make a crisis worse. If there is a weak point, it will expose it. And you are right, the CDS market is a very dangerous instrument and I think it should not be allowed. I am one of the very few people who argue that the CDS is a dangerous instrument because it is so lop-sided in favor of a negative outcome.

...

Soros: The indebtedness of the US is not all that high, but if a double-dip recession was in doubt a few weeks ago, it is less in doubt now, because financial markets have a very safe way of predicting the future. They cause it. And the markets have decided that America is going to see a recession, particularly after the recent downgrade of the US by the rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

SPIEGEL: President Barack Obama has been fiercely criticized for his handling of the economy. You were one of his biggest supporters in 2008. Are you happy with his economic policy?

Soros: No, of course not. But the reality is that we have had 25 years of excesses building up in America — a combustible mix of too much credit and too much leverage. You need a long time to reverse that.

...

SPIEGEL: The $800 billion stimulus program launched by Obama did not live up to that?

Soros: Obama’s stimulus program was not big enough and it was not directed at improving infrastructure nor human capital. So it was not productive enough.

SPIEGEL: And any further stimulus is now basically a non-starter, because the conservative majority in Congress is hell-bent on preventing it.

Soros: That is what is pushing the world towards another recession, into a double dip.

...

SPIEGEL: As an investor, do you listen to the rating agencies?

Soros: Well, I do not, but many other investors do.

...

SPIEGEL: In the end, will China be the only winner in this crisis?

Soros: China, of course, has been the great winner of globalization, and if globalization collapses, the Chinese will also be among the losers. So they have a strong interest in preserving the current global system. However, in some ways, they have been just as reluctant to accept it as the Germans. Germans have been hesitant to accept responsibility for Europe, and the Chinese have been hesitant to accept responsibility for the world. But they are both being pushed into it.

Busting Banks

Bank price sales multiples for 2011-08-31, market cap and sales in CHF billion.

Data source: Thomson Reuters Datastream

Platinum Gold Ratio

On 2011-08-09 the Platinum Gold ratio hit 1 to 1. As you can see in the chart below, this is happening the third time in the last 10+ years. And it hasn't gone much lower historically nor did it stay there for very long. And it makes sense. Platinum is the rarer, finer, heavier, more precious "White Gold"! Since then actually Gold has retreated a bit and Platinum moved slightly up again. We will see...

Tire Tycoons

Tire companies and their market caps in CHF billion, source Thomson DataStream, 2011-06-12:

Car Companies

Car companies and their market caps in CHF billion, source Thomson DataStream, 2011-06-05:

Silver Mine Production

World Silver Mine Production

year   mio oz       t
1989    527.3   16400
1990    533.7   16600
1991    501.6   15600
1992    479.0   14900
1993    453.3   14100
1994    450.1   14000
1995    479.0   14900
1996    485.5   15100
1997    530.5   16500
1998    553.0   17200
1999    549.8   17100
2000    581.9   18100
2001    601.2   18700
2002    604.4   18800
2003    604.4   18800
2004    643.0   20000
2005    668.7   20800
2006    652.7   20300
2007    675.2   21000
2008    684.8   21300
2009    700.9   21800

Source: USGS

Compounding Interest

Compounding Interest, present value, future value, etc.

Updated 2011-04-11, here is another financial calculator, that includes all different variables in a single form.

Silver

Unlike gold, silver production is consumed to a very high degree!

From Wikipedia:


(a silver iodide generator for cloud seeding)

Silver ... has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal.

...

Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.

...

Currency

...

The name of the United Kingdom monetary unit "pound" (£) reflects the fact that it originally represented the value of one troy pound of sterling silver. In the 1800s, many nations, such as the United States and Great Britain, switched from silver to a gold standard of monetary value, then in the 20th century to fiat currency.

...

Photography and electronics

Photography used 30.98% of the silver consumed in 1998 in the form of silver nitrate and silver halides. In 2001, 23.47% was used for photography, while 20.03% was used in jewelry, 38.51% for industrial uses, and only 3.5% for coins and medals. The use of silver in photography has rapidly declined, due to the lower demand for consumer color film from the advent of digital technology, since in 2007 of the 894.5 million ounces of silver in supply, just 128.3 million ounces (14.3%) were consumed by the photographic sector, and the total amount of silver consumed in 2007 by the photographic sector compared to 1998 is just 50%.

Some electrical and electronic products use silver for its superior conductivity, even when tarnished. For example, printed circuits can be made using silver paints,[6] and computer keyboards use silver electrical contacts. Some high-end audio hardware (DACs, preamplifiers, etc.) are fully silver-wired, which is believed to cause the least loss of quality in the signal. Silver cadmium oxide is used in high voltage contacts because it can withstand arcing.

Mirrors and optics

Mirrors which need superior reflectivity for visible light are made with silver as the reflecting material in a process called silvering, though common mirrors are backed with aluminium. Using a process called sputtering, silver (and sometimes gold) can be applied to glass at various thicknesses, allowing different amounts of light to penetrate. Silver is usually reserved for coatings of specialized optics, and the silvering most often seen in architectural glass and tinted windows on vehicles is produced by sputtered aluminium, which is cheaper and less susceptible to tarnishing and corrosion. Silver is the reflective coating of choice for solar reflectors.

...

Small devices such as hearing aids and watches commonly use Silver oxide batteries due to their long life and high energy/weight ratio. Another usage is high-capacity silver-zinc and silver-cadmium batteries.

Furthermore from the Amalgam Wikipedia page, "Silver-mercury amalgams are important in dentistry".

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein, Vaduz

Bank Assets under Management,
2010-06-30

LGT     CHF  86.8 bn
LLB     CHF  46.4 bn
VPB     CHF  40.5 bn
        ============
Total   CHF 173.7 bn

2010-10-31

1.		2.
3.		4.
5.		6.
7.		8.
9.		10.
11.		12.
13.		14.
15.		16.
17.

Purchasing Power

Nice graphic from DollarDaze!

Germany's Gold

The German Gold treasury is actually hosted in New York, London, and Paris. Ein Schelm, wer Böses dabei denkt.

manager magazin (in German): 3440 Tonnen mythische Fracht

Nach Angaben des "World Gold Council" betragen die offiziellen Goldreserven Deutschlands derzeit 3439,5 Tonnen. Dies entspricht 45,6 Prozent der Gesamtreserven oder einem Wert von rund 36,5 Milliarden Euro. Das Edelmetall ist in Barren à 12,5 Kilo gegossen und wird überwiegend in einem Tresor in Manhattan gelagert. Dort betreibt die US-Notenbank für 60 Nationen das mit 550.000 Barren größte Goldlager der Welt.

"Der größte Teil unserer Goldreserven wird außerhalb deutscher Grenzen, wo er entstanden ist, gehalten: bei der Fed in New York, bei der Bank of England in London und der Banque de France in Paris. In dieser Reihenfolge", sagte Kotz dem Stern.

In den 50er und 60er Jahren waren der Bundesbank dort aufgrund außenwirtschaftlicher Überschüsse Deutschlands die Goldreserven von anderen Nationen übertragen worden. Wegen der hohen Kosten für Transport und Bau neuer Tresore lehnt es die Bundesbank aus betriebswirtschaftlichen Gründen ab, die Goldbarren nach Deutschland zu schaffen.

Prof. Hans-Helmut Kotz was a member of the executive board of the Bundesbank from 2002 till 2010. The stern interview was in 2004.