Bruce Krasting at Seeking Alpha broke the news to the non-German speaking world that Swiss newspaper Neu Zuricher Zeitung, often said to be the mouth-piece of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), has been highly critical of the central bank’s intervention policy.
It seems that SNB president Philipp Hildebrand is taking the flak for the size, cost and exclusively EUR reserve build up of the intervention.
The SNB will publish its report for the second quarter on August 13; the official cost of the intervention will then be known, as will Hildebrand’s ability to weather the storm.
What does look certain, and Krasting alludes to this too, is that, whoever is SNB president, the central bank’s King Canute impersonations will be much constrained. The next risk-off phase could be interesting. Krasting is looking at 1.2500 as a target level.