Jens Kurti spoke at Watwell about Switzerland’s relationship with the USA

Invited to a Malian event entitled “Who and with whom: The United States, your friend or your rival?” Toggenburg had Raiffeisen banks. About 250 clients and interested parties attended the presentation by Wall Street journalist Jens Korte.

China is in decline

Under President Joe Biden, the United States has pumped at least $1.2 trillion into national infrastructure. But foreign companies that want to benefit from this must have a production facility in the USA. Regardless of the protectionist approach, the relationship between Switzerland and the United States has been very good for many decades – regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in power.

From the Swiss point of view, Jens Kurti says, trade with the United States is broadly safer than trade with China. Because China has a rapidly aging and deteriorating society, youth unemployment currently stands at 20%. “By 2100, China’s population could shrink from 1.3 billion people to about 800 million. But it will take a lot of young people to achieve economic prosperity,” says Jens Korte, who sees China heading into decline.

The deceptive “gold rush” mood in the USA

“The United States, on the other hand, is a phenomenon,” Jens Kurti said. Although there are growing signs that the world’s largest economy may slide into recession in 2024 due to US government bonds selling poorly for some time, people in the United States are still living on a shoestring.

Indeed, many US citizens were still traveling abroad and consuming heavily, giving the United States the image of a deceptive power. This is also due to the fact that there is an acute shortage of skilled workers in the United States of America and the workers are in demand and expensive. Auto unions recently demanded a 40% increase in wages.

Many simple jobs have now become veritable gold mines. Anyone who walks a stranger’s dog for 30 minutes as a “dog walker” gets $35. “If you have twelve dogs on a leash, you make a big profit,” says Jens Korti.

This means that employees initially have a lot of money in their pockets for their own consumption. But in the end the “dog” will probably bite its “tail”. As a result of rising wages, many companies have already begun significantly increasing their prices. On the one hand, this is intended to compensate for increased wage costs, and on the other hand, to obtain a larger share of the “pie”. (PD)