Bond Outlook May 30th

Geneva is to Switzerland as Spain is to the euro zone. In Spain foreign buyers of secondary residences and retirement homes have pushed up property prices in an environment of low interest rates over which the Spanish themselves have negligible influence. Replace foreign home buyers with multi-nationals and financial service firms setting up in Geneva, and the ECB with the SNB, and the parallel is striking. The bubble has burst in Spain, but looks far from bursting in Geneva.