The “War on Cash” Migrates to Switzerland

Banks Increasingly Refuse Cash Withdrawals – Switzerland Joins the Fun

The war on cash is proliferating globally. It appears that the private members of the world’s banking cartels are increasingly joining the fun, even if it means trampling on the rights of their customers.

Yesterday we came across an article at Zerohedge, in which Dr. Salerno of the Mises Institute notes that JP Morgan Chase has apparently joined the “war on cash”, by “restricting the use of cash in selected markets, restricting borrowers from making cash payments on credit cards, mortgages, equity lines and auto loans, as well as prohibiting storage of cash in safe deposit boxes”.

The Swiss Franc Will Collapse

I have worked to keep this piece readable, and as brief as possible. My grave diagnosis demands the evidence and reasoning to support it. One cannot explain the collapse of this currency with the conventional view. “They will print money to infinity,” may be popular but it’s not accurate. The coming destruction has nothing to do with the quantity of money. It is a story of what happens when interest rates fall into a black hole.

Yields Have Fallen Beyond Zero

The Swiss yield curve looks like nothing so much as a sinking ship. All but the 20- and 30-year bonds are now below the water line.

Look at how much it’s submerged in just one week. The top line (yellow) is January 16, and the one below it was taken just a week later on January 23. It’s terrifying how fast the whole interest rate structure sank. Here is a graph of the 10-year bond since September. For comparison, the 10-year Treasury bond would not fit on this chart. The US bond currently pays 1.8%.

Citi Warns “Central Banks’ Grip On The World Economy Is Waning”

While central banks’ grip on the economy seems to be waning, notes Citi’s Matt King, additional liquidity still seems as potent as ever when it comes to propping up global markets. The question in our minds revolves around whether central banks remain willing to keep pumping when the economic benefits are so questionable. Equally, though, valuations are already so elevated that we doubt they can afford to stop. One way or another, this feels like a recipe for increased volatility.

The Currency Wars’ “Pearl Harbor”

Switzerland had just abandoned its peg of the Swiss Franc to the Euro. The result was mayhem with an immediate 30% drop in the value of the Euro against the Franc, and billions of dollars of trading losses by banks and investors around the world.Several foreign exchange brokers went bankrupt because their customers could not settle their losing trades. The Swiss operated in total secrecy.

Currency wars resemble real wars in the sense that they do not involve continuous fighting all the time. At certain times, there are intense battles, followed by lulls, followed by more intense battles.

After Francs Comes Dollar: Greenback Might Skyrocket Soon

 

After the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has undermined global confidence in regulators, any sudden action by the US Fed might trigger a feverish buyout of the dollar, pushing its FX rate sky-high, demolishing the entire architecture of international trade in goods and services.

MOSCOW, January 21 (Sputnik), Kristian Rouz — The recent shock to the currencies markets, having come from Switzerland on 15 January, when the franc appreciated by 23% in a single-day trading session, has badly damaged the international financial stability, with capital leaving the Eurozone and investors feverishly buying out gold and US bonds. Such a dramatic change in FX rate of one of the global reserve currencies has triggered major debt risks worldwide, from Eastern European mortgages to Russia’s burden of excessive corporate debt. Now, across the Atlantic, the robust economic growth and market optimism in the US have spurred the anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike, inevitably triggering the dollar to strengthen.

Central banks ‘have lost credibility’

Many share markets may be riding higher on hopes of European stimulus this week and overlooking plunging oil prices, and even lower global growth targets, but experts say its time that investors woke up to the fact that central bankers aren’t doing a great job.

The Australian share market rose 0.7 per cent in early trade on Wednesday joining a global rally on expectations that the European Central Bank will announce a 1 trillion bond buying program to help revive economic growth.

Switzerland could act on currency again, central banker says

ZURICH — The Swiss central bank is ready to intervene in the currency markets again to weaken the franc if necessary, the bank’s head said, just two days after the removal of a cap on the franc triggered a surge in the currency’s value.

Bank Losses From Swiss Currency Surprise Seen Mounting

Among those taking a hit: Everest Capital, who lost its main fund.

 

The $400 million of cumulative losses that Citigroup Inc. (C), Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays Plc (BARC) are said to have suffered from the Swiss central bank’s decision to end the cap on the franc may be followed by others in coming days.

“The losses will be in the billions — they are still being tallied,” said Mark T. Williams, an executive-in-residence at Boston University specializing in risk management. “They will range from large banks, brokers, hedge funds, mutual funds to currency speculators. There will be ripple effects throughout the financial system.”

Swiss Peg Collapses – The Euro’s Nightmare

On September 6th, 2011 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) was aiming for a substantial and sustained weakening of the Swiss franc after Swiss companies threatened to leave because the rising franc reduced their exports. The SNB would no longer tolerate a EUR/CHF  exchange rate below the minimum rate of CHF 1.20. The SNB set out to enforce this minimum  rate with the utmost determination and it began to buy Euros in unlimited  quantities.

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Socrates has been warning about January for the last year. Here is the forecast array on a daily level and it pinpointed the rise in in volatility for today the 15th with a Panic Cycle and turning point due as well as we can see.

Swiss currency shock: blame the bank in Frankfurt not Zurich

Swiss decision probably means Mario Draghi and the ECB have at last convinced Germany that QE is needed to save the eurozone

Another day, another bout of extreme market turbulence. The last cue for mayhem has been the decision by the Swiss National Bank to abandon its attempts to prevent the franc from appreciating against the euro. Given that just a month ago, the SNB said it would hold the line with the “utmost determination”, the announcement took traders by surprise. The franc soared, the euro collapsed, shares lost their gains. It was uproar.

Swiss vote provokes ‘6,000-year gold bubble’ attack

‘Save Our Swiss Gold’ referendum is a primordial scream against a world of quantitative easing but would paralyze the Swiss National bank

Five million Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether to force the Swiss National Bank to repatriate all its gold from vaults in Britain and Canada, boost its holdings of bullion to 20pc of foreign reserves and then keep the metal forever.

Currency traders eye Swiss vote on gold holdings

A referendum that would force the Swiss central bank to hold a fifth of its assets in gold could rock foreign exchange markets, analysts have warned.

On the 30th November, voters in Switzerland will head to the polls to decide whether the Swiss National Bank (SNB) should boost its gold holdings and refrain from any further selling of Swiss gold.

The referendum, proposed by the ultra-conservative Swiss People’s party, will also require the bank to repatriate all Swiss gold holdings currently held outside of Switzerland if passed.

The ban on selling gold would go into effect immediately and the SNB would have five years to reach the 20 percent requirement.

GOLD BANK RUN ACCELERATING…NOW THE SWISS WANT THEIR GOLD BACK- ALL 1040 TONS OF IT!

It should be interesting to see how the US will handle massive orders from multiple countries at once. There seems to be a momentum building among nations for wanting their gold out of the US and things might become even more interesting after all the chatter in recent months about gold reserves in the US being very low, non-existent, or gold bars filled with tungsten.

With last week’s announcement by the Bundesbank of the repatriation of 674 tons of German gold from Paris and NY over the next 7 years, we predicted that an avalanche of gold repatriation requests would soon be made to the BOE and the NYFed.

It appears that Switzerland may be next to the game, much to the dismay of the SNB.  The Swiss gold initiative, an initiative to Secure the Swiss National Bank’s Gold Reserves, launched in March 2012 by four members of the Swiss parliament, has grown to 90,000 supporters.

Once 100,000 supporters are achieved, the Swiss Parliament must take up the referendum.