Economy / Finance

Swiss farmer at the helm of Russia’s largest dairy farm

by Marita Brune-Koch*

(20 March 2026) (January 2026) In the middle of the Moscow winter, a tour group from Switzerland sets off to visit “EkoNiva”, Russia’s largest dairy farm. It is snowing incessantly, and the coach struggles its way through the vast city. Despite the masses of snow, there is no chaos, though progress is very slow. The group is welcomed by Ramon Schenk, one of the farm’s two managers. He greets the visitors in familiar Swiss German: he comes from Herrliberg on Lake Zurich. He has been living and working in Russia for 17 years. Today, he is taking the time to tell his guests about the farm.

China’s railway infrastructure

48,000 km for punctual trains travelling at 350 km/h

by Dr Peter F. Mayer*

(28 November 2025) I covered the nearly 1,000 kilometres from Zhengzhou to Shanghai in 3 hours and 45 minutes. Sixty train pairs travel the route every day. China’s dense railway infrastructure is one of the cornerstones of its economic success, as economists such as Prof. Michael Hudson and Prof. Richard Wolff explain.

“We are living in a new era of power politics”

On Switzerland’s economic situation in the “Trump 2” era

by Rudolf Strahm*

(19 September 2025) (19 September 2025) Trump’s tariff hammer is hitting Switzerland hard, but not unexpectedly. Rudolf Strahm analyses the situation and calls for Switzerland’s gold exports to be immediately removed from the trade balance and for a long-term rethink of trade policy in line with the new global realities.

All-out attack on private property by the state and banks

by Prof. Dr. Eberhard Hamer,* Germany

1. The risk of expropriation of monetary assets

(20 June 2025) By definition, “money” is an asset that we seek as a means of exchange and for the preservation of value.

This was indeed the case in the past, when precious metal coins made of gold, silver or copper not only had a monetary value, but also a tangible value – such as the Krugerrand made of gold or the 5-D-Mark pieces made of silver.

However, gold and silver are heavy and therefore often difficult to transport and secure in large sums.

The currency then became paper money through banknotes, which replaced the coins. They were easier to hold, transport and store than coins and yet were considered to have the same value in circulation as coins because they could be exchanged for the amount printed on them at any time. The guarantor of the value was the state or the state central bank, with the FED for the first time a private central bank.
China

Chongqing, the global city the world prefers to ignore

by Guy Mettan,* Geneva

(23 May 2025) (CH-S) What do we know about China? News, reports and articles about the country are mostly negative due to the one-sided reporting of our mainstream media. Guy Mettan’s travelogue offers a very different perspective. Read it for yourself.

UBS – state guarantee encourages risk-taking and speculation

New statutory guarantees planned by the federal government

by Rudolf Strahm*

(7 March 2025) (CH-S) In the spring session (3–21 March 2025), new legislation is to be introduced to regulate state aid for large, systemically important banks. Since 2008, there has been no effective legal regulation in place to protect taxpayers from the enormous financial consequences of a bank collapse. There is still no talk of a clear separation between speculative and business activities.

In a guest article, former federal price supervisor and former SP National Councillor Rudolf Strahm explains the problems with the current legislative proposal. What measures are planned, and how should the new statutory liquidity guarantee of the federal government work with the so-called “Public Liquidity Backstop” (PLB)?