All mixed in this edition: Rick Davies’ passing and his cardboard “Breakfast in America”, the iPhone 17 lagging on AI, Moscow’s taunts, Nestlé’s boss ousted over an affair, a 244 billion Usd short squeeze, and that capital sin the French can’t resist: envy.

• The market holds its breath

  • Yesterday, sad day for the Swiss Franc

• Breakfast in America

• B-R & H Finance

Market Review

The market holds its breath

For once, it’s rates, not stocks, making headlines. The first half of September was calm, and all eyes are on the Fed. Today, Jerome Powell is expected to cut rates by 25 bps, bringing the range from 4.25–4.50% down to 4.00–4.25%. In other words, Powell might finally loosen the grip...

France: Fitch sounds the alarm

Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign rating from “AA-” to “A+” (stable outlook). The message is clear: high deficit, rising debt, and little room to maneuver. Two figures say it all; France has the highest tax burden in Europe at 45.6% of GDP, and social spending around 32% of GDP. Hard to imagine a quick fix. On markets, the OAT/Bund 10-year spread sits just under 80 bps; today yields are ~3.49% for OATs and 2.70% for Bunds. Interestingly, since January 1, French yields have risen slightly less than German ones, +0.30% vs +0.33%, showing France-specific risk hasn’t blown out.

A will that shakes fashion

Giorgio Armani, who passed away on September 4, didn’t just leave a style legacy; he left very precise instructions. His will requires the foundation inheriting the brand to sell 15% within 12–18 months, giving priority to LVMH, L’Oréal, or EssilorLuxottica; then raise the sale to 30–54.9% within 3–5 years, possibly via an IPO.

An epic short squeeze

A trading session for the history books: Oracle jumped +36% in one day, its best since 1992, boosting its market cap by about Usd 244 billion to reach ~Usd 922 billion. To put it in perspective: that’s like adding an entire L’Oréal or Novartis overnight.

In Vevey

The sudden departure of Laurent Freixe, caught up in an office affair, thrust Philipp Navratil into the spotlight. Hardly settled in, Paul Bulcke, chairman since 2017, also jumped ship, leaving investors more puzzled than ever about the governance of the food giant. True, Pablo Isla (ex-Inditex) will take over the chairmanship as of October, but the accelerated timing carries a distinct whiff of crisis.

Yesterday, sad day for the Swiss Franc

It was at an ATH versus the USD. After the exorbidant tarriffs, it is difficuult to know how many nails in the coffin the Swiss SMEs and SMIs can withstand.

Few numbers

• According to the ECB, 52% of in-store transactions in the euro area were still settled in cash in 2024, down from 72% in 2019.

• U.S. data centers, often criticized for water use, actually consume only about 6% of what all American golf courses use; and per liter, they generate thousands of times more economic value.

• In Switzerland, 60% of bank deposits come from foreign clients, nearly half of them from the European Union, confirming the banking sector’s role as a true export industry.

Editorial

Breakfast in America

We’ve just lost Rick Davies, the groovy soul of Supertramp, taken by multiple myeloma at 81. Naturally, we go back to “Breakfast in America” (1979) and its iconic cover: an airplane window, a waitress dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and Manhattan cobbled together from cereal boxes… even the Twin Towers, reduced to two stacks of cardboard. A tender satire of triumphant America: a breathtaking skyline, but fragile materials. That’s Europe in September 2025, seen from our investor’s cockpit.

Back in 1979, the pop totem of the year was “My Sharona” by The Knack. Behind the track, Doug Fieger’s muse : a very young woman whose obsession turned into that staccato refrain, teenage impulse and hypnotic riff. The heroine of the song would go on to work successfully… in Los Angeles real estate. Far from “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll”. Meanwhile in France, Francis Cabrel’s “Je t’aime à mourir” dominated the airwaves. Two countries, two vibes.

Just last week, NATO fought its first real anti-drone battle under an otherwise calm sky, learning a simple lesson: it’s ruinous to send a 50'000'000 Eur plane against a 50'000 Usd drone. Europe’s defense is scrambling to learn a new score. From the album cover cockpit to our real ones, the same question lingers: are our instruments tuned to the world as it is, or only to the one we wish it to be?

Apple just launched the iPhone 17; in 1979, Sony unveiled the Walkman. Two revolutions in their own ways. But in 2025, Apple is no longer the trailblazer: in AI and LLMs, Siri lags behind, overtaken by rivals. The moral? A brand can remain iconic without necessarily writing the next chapter in technology. For investors, that nuance is critical.

History echoes everywhere. James Callaghan has been forgotten, and Jimmy Carter would likely have followed if not for the Camp David handshake. Their successors, though, were anything but anonymous: Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the original “MAGA” duo, left their mark far beyond their terms, each in their own way. Forty-five years later, the Palestinian question still haunts us. France is on the verge of recognizing the State of Palestine – but to what concrete end? Where Donald Trump turns every file into a “deal”, Europe drowns in politics. Fundamental difference: one capitalizes on the gesture, the other on the process; meanwhile, the world map is being redrawn elsewhere, without us.

Between stacked cardboard and low-cost drones, between yesterday’s Walkman and today’s iPhone, it’s easy to get distracted by the backdrop or the technology. But investing is a bit like listening to an old Supertramp vinyl: you hear the crackles, you sense the flaws, yet the melody holds. Cycles pass, icons fade, deals vanish; what remains is the ear – and the choice of whether we listen with nostalgia… or with clarity.

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Wealth

The Zucman temptation

On September 9, Gabriel Zucman, professor at ENS and Berkeley, went on the French talk show Quotidien to defend his “Zucman tax”: a 2% annual levy on wealth above 100 million euros. By his count, it would raise between 15 and 25 billion and affect only around 1'800 households. His argument is simple: the 500 biggest French fortunes now amount to 42% of GDP (vs 6% in 1996), their wealth grows by 10% a year, and billionaires pay half as much tax as the average French citizen. Zucman invokes equality before taxation and dismisses tax exile: “it exists, but only marginally.”

Public support is overwhelming: 77% of the French, even more than 70% among right-wing voters. But the political right and business leaders cry foul at the risks of capital flight and stigmatizing the wealthy: “You don’t succeed by adding more taxes.” Jean-Michel Aphatie, hardly a neoliberal (he was in the Socialist Party in the 1980s), cuts to the chase: “France’s problem is spending, not revenue.”

And that’s the heart of the matter. France has long lived under the reign of the welfare state and Colbertism: a protective, centralized state that spends freely and casts itself as society’s ultimate insurer. The famous “whatever it takes” during the pandemic only amplified an already entrenched reflex. But the bill is now due and instead of debating the size and efficiency of the state, a convenient target is chosen: the ultra-rich.

The problem is that history shows the opposite: the more you tax, the less attractive you become. The U.K. just learned this, losing 16'000 millionaires in a single year after abolishing the “non-dom” status. Rich countries attract the rich — Switzerland proves it. In France, some will stay, bound by companies, assets, or roots. But those who can leave, do.

Behind this fiscal debate lies an old French passion: envy. “The hatred of the rich engraved in the heart,” as the saying goes. Equality, justice, solidarity are the official slogans… but envy is the deeper fuel. And envy is a deadly sin — and a poor economic engine: it creates nothing, it only spreads frustration. Where capital is attracted and kept, innovation and jobs follow; where it is stigmatized and overtaxed, it evaporates.

In short, the Zucman tax doesn’t solve France’s problem; it embodies it. A country that prefers to ask “who will pay more” instead of “how do we create more.”

B-R & H Finance

Founded in 2004, B-R & H Finance SA is a Swiss entity specialized in wealth management. We offer a full range of personalized and independent investment services and advisory solutions. Regulated by SO-Fit and authorized by FINMA, we are also members of the ASG (Swiss Association of Independent Asset Managers) and work with leading custodian banks.

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