In Berne, Switzerland, there has been a redistribution in occupational pensions which has revealed that it too is not a funded pensions plan as people previously assumed. For at least twelve years, pension fund monies have flowed from the employed to the pensioners. The amount has reached a tremendous scale with funds in the […]
UBS will charge a 2 franc fee for withdrawing cash at the bank counter beginning in July, be it a withdrawal in CHF from a UBS private account or from a UBS current account. Thus, UBS stands (at least for now) pretty much alone. A survey of various institutions revealed that hardly any banks charge […]
QUESTION: Hello Martin, on Sept 12th 2013 you wrote about the ‘Return of the crusades’. Now, 6 years later, with the massive migrant crisis still ongoing, a lot of people consider leaving Western Europe bc Sharia law is looming everywhere. Mohammed takes the first place for baby names in many countries, sharia law spreads, kindergartens […]
QUESTION: You do a lot of comparison to the Roman Empire. What was the size of the government relative to GDP? Can you estimate that? GY ANSWER: The Roman economy was more like the USA during the mid-19th century in that it was pre-industrial. About 80% of its inhabitants worked in agriculture, which was about […]
QUESTION: Dear Martin, Whereas for years you have put in a solid 5,000 year data for arguing for no individual taxes yet in countries around the Middle East there is no income tax. Yet they have not made any dynamic economic progress as such. I mean the evidence is seen by us live. How do […]
While there is a grave danger many speak of with trade wars creating protectionism, that is merely a reaction to the economic decline in the West. It is not merely trade wars; it is appearing also in tax wars. Germany bribing Swiss bankers to get names of Germans with accounts in Germany illustrates that […]
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COMMENT: Hi Marty I agree with Trump. Assembling in the U S is not sufficient. We need the supply chain parts (eg manufacturing ) in the US. What do we do when we get in a war with say China – do we submit an order to china for parts to assemble a ship? Does […]
Many people are confused as to why corporations have been buying back their shares in mass. The latest figures for 2018 are in and they demonstrate that the S&P 500 listed companies spent more on dividends and buybacks in 2018 than they actually made in total reported earnings ($1.26 trillion vs $1.1 trillion). What is […]
COMMENT: Mr Armstrong, I want to thank you for I listened to the forecasts of analysts who said Europe and Emerging Markets were the best places to invest because the US was overpriced and would crash. I was introduced to you by a friend. I listened. I cut my losses and switched to the domestic […]
