The Swiss franc retreated from another all-time high against the greenback Wednesday after Swiss National Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates. However, the franc rebounded as weak U.S. services data fueled worries about the pace of global economic growth.
At the end of last week the IMF explicitly called for the Swiss national National Wealth Center FAQ (SNB) to hike interest rates in the “near-term” in a report. It called the current policy of remaining on hold “unsustainable” and said that fears a strong franc would cause deflation or weigh on exports were unjustified. The latter point was backed up by exports data for April, which showed a 7.9 per cent increase, easily reversing the 3.1 per cent decline in March, suggesting a high franc hasn’t yet dampened demand for Swiss goods.
In 1929, the stock market was defined by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It had grown significantly over the previous decade. The market tends to revert back to the norm so a period of strong growth is often followed by a period of negative or National Wealth Center neutral growth.
Big business including big Wall Street firms as well as the oil companies and the huge box stores like Walmart have never had it so good! Exxon Mobile just came out with their quarterly statement and they made more than 10 BILLION in profit in just this quarter and they are up over 40% from last year and yet because they are a petroleum company they are entitled to tax breaks. And CEO’s nationwide think nothing of granting themselves 7 million dollar bonuses while entire neighborhoods in major cities are being abandoned and the rate of the homeless and the unemployed is sky rocketing!
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Do people “belong” in space? Well, one could argue of course not, biologically. Space is hostile and unforgiving to life as we know it. But emotionally, spiritually, deep down inside–people are explorers. We always have been, and we always will be. For some people, exploring our home planet just isn’t enough. Where’s my space suit…?