1

The Swiss National Bank is expected to step up its fight against inflation when it sets its benchmark interest rate on Thursday at 07:30 GMT. The consensus points to a full percentage point increase and policymakers may have a good reason to listen to investors and boost the already strong swissie. Currency advantage Excluding the US dollar, the Swiss franc has been outperforming other major currencies since the start of the year, beating the euro and the pound by 6% and 10% respectively. Given that the eurozone market accounts for 55% of Swiss exports, a strengthening currency would normally motivate some negative verbal intervention from SNB policymakers to balance the unwanted appreciation in FX markets and keep products competitive abroad. Circumstances, however, are different now. Inflation keeps trending at multi-decade highs around the globe in the face of post-pandemic supply constraints and the war in Ukraine, and a dynamic currency is something every nation would des...

With the Fed meeting out of the way, a quieter week is on the horizon, barring of course any flare up of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Either way, the spotlight will probably fall on the euro as far-right parties are expected to gain ground in Italy’s parliamentary election on Sunday, while preliminary inflation readings will come to the fore at the end of the week. In the US, the highlight will be on the PCE inflation figures, though it’s doubtful whether it will change much regarding the Fed policy outlook. Euro on election alert, flash CPI on the way too The euro just can’t catch a break lately, whether it’s the energy crisis or the Fed out-hawking the ECB, there’s always trouble around the corner and next week, that could come in the form of political risks. Italians go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. It comes after the collapse of Mario Draghi’s technocratic government in July, which sparked a snap election. Leading the opinion polls is the far-right Broth...

6 How much does Spotify pay per stream? September  21, 2022 • 7 min read During the last decade, the music industry went through severe transformations and reached a specific turning point in 2019. The arise of independent music production that started around the 80’s met a major globalization of music streaming services. Spotify, Apple and all other DSPs are now in the center of a new and much more broadened way of music distribution. Before them, an artist would have significant expanses to distribute music. Certainly, back then there was a limited scope of those who could do so. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),  in 2019 music streaming came to represent 80% of the US music market share . In 2010, that number was merely 7%, against 53% from physical distribution (CDs, Vinyls, DVDs, etc) and 38% from digital downloads. Nowadays, physical distribution and digital downloads shrunk to 9% each. In other words, in 2019 paid subscriptio...