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War Coming to the Heart of Europe?
Switzerland is becoming politically isolated in Europe. The country got a big slap in the face from Germany this week. The German Upper House refused to accept a settlement offer from the Swiss government over the very messy matter of German tax cheats, and their accounts with Swiss Banks. A bit of history:
- The US Justice Department took on the Swiss over banking secrecy four-years ago. The DOJ used a very big club. The deal was that the Swiss would give up the “Names” of account holders, if they did not, they would have to close up all business in the USA. So the Swiss government, on behalf of their banks, folded like a cheap suit in the rain.
- Then all of the countries in the EU wanted a similar deal as the US. They wanted Names, so they could prosecute them at home. The Swiss balked, knowing that if they caved, the domestic private bankers would get crushed, and a good number of high profile folks would get exposed as cheaters.
- The Swiss came up with an ingenious “fix” with the following pieces:
1) A flat tax would be applied to the principal of the Black Accounts. The tax runs as high as 41%, depending on the age of the account.
2) A withholding tax of 10% would be charged on income the Black Accounts earn.
3) In exchange for #s 1 and 2, the account holder would remain anonymous, and therefore avoid public disclosure/prosecution.
This is an incredible deal. Let’s call it what it actually is, State sponsored Money Laundering!
For a “fee”, that averages less than 20% of the account balance, and an additional ½% a year, money can be successfully laundered. In the end, the money will be as clean as a whistle. Your average drug kingpin would gladly pay that price.
- Incredibly (to me), both England and Italy jumped on the Swiss offer. They inked deals that start on January 1. The public argument for accepting the deal(s) has been that it raises significant amounts of money. But actually, there are no promises how much will get paid, so the money side is not really the argument for acceptance. I think the reason is that influential folks pushed for this deal because they did not want their Names in the local paper.
-The German Upper House said "Nein!" this week. It was a tremendous defeat for Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (Swiss President and Finance Minister - great name). It was also a defeat for Frau Merkel who pushed for it. The worst possible outcome is that now, under German pressure, both Italy and England may be forced to reverse their positions; and chuck out the Swiss tax treaty.
What happens next? It might be that another Swiss bank employee steals a tape with more names and account information, and sells it for E5m to the German tax collectors (they are willing buyers, they have already bought two tapes). This is highly illegal activity in Switzerland. The country is up in arms over the trouncing of their laws by neighboring France and Germany.
I wonder if there are any currency implications to this story. The Swiss National Bank has pegged the CHF to the Euro for over a year now. The SNB has been able to do this as they have the tacit approval of the ECB. But the ECB is a slave to French and German politics, and the politicians have their own war with the Swiss. There are very big players squeezing balls right now, I would not be surprised if this ends up blowing back in the face of the SNB.
In passing, I note that EURCHF hit a low (from early September) of 1.2027 today, just a few pips away from where the SNB steps in. This is happening with the backdrop of a stable to firm EURUSD, so a bit of a surprise. Separately, Tomas Jordon, the boss at the SNB had some interesting words today (Link):
To ensure that the SNB can fulfill its mandate in the long term, without any restriction, in the interests of the country as a whole, particular attention is given to its capital base through a prudent provisioning policy.
Read this to mean: We're gonna take some lumpy losses.
There is going to be another chapter in this story, soon.
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"There is no such thing as the spirit of international law. The laws are the laws. Those laws have specific meanings."
Okay, man. We''l see next year who is correct and how the Swiss will come to respect the SPIRIT of international law. There is no point in discussing the letter of the law with you because you are not wiling to understand what I am saying. But it won't be long before you're eating all those words.
I hope you're hungry with it gets out of the oven.
You can't even cite a section of relevant international law.
Which is all the more hilarious because there are grey areas, just as there are different theories of statutory interpretation which can come into play under certain specific frameworks of international law, and certain frameworks where precedent is relevant or irrelevant, or even that INVARIABLY the first arguments presented in any international law proceeding are arguments of jurisdiction, and they are critical, and yet you're hung up on a misunderstanding of the black & white.
You have not even a basic comprehension of the structure or functioning of international law.
As a US resident, you will be the one paying the price for your ignorance, since your head of state seeks to subjugate US to international treaties to further his idealogical view, where implementing legislation to support that ambition within the existing US framework is unworkable.
(i.e. ATT + suspension of stare decisis (by negating the precedent of Reid v. Covert through dynamic statutory interpretation) = US residents fucked)
Is that you NWO Henry Kissinger?
Orly, "It is up to the Swiss to make arrangements to get in line with everyone else."
You mean in line for the suicide cue like every other nation yes?
You approve of lemming-like behaviour patterns, let's all be un-thinking zombies and follow the Wests destructive policies
"The Swiss have to follow the rules just like everyone else."
Nope, that's what being an independent sovereign nation is not about. The Swiss shoud be fighting, not bending... they're going to lose playing along with others games.
"They should have taken my advice a while back and come clean.."
I would insist nobody takes your advise. The Swiss will loook like Greece in a few years time if they do (see what's happened to their US business bending to the extortion racket of the US Govt)
You're full of shit. Anyone wanting to hide money anywhere in the world can find a jurisdiction to hide it in. I f not Switzerland then there will always be another. It's really the free market when it comes to black accounts and the best juridiction wins. Who cares if the Swiss win or not.
Because the Swiss have much, much more to lose than the Cayman Islands. They should have taken my advice a while back and come clean, not try to use double-secret machinations to skirt their own banking regulations.
If they want to remain the global center of banking, it would behoove them to straighten up and fly right, lest they are alienated by the entire European Continent in one way or another.
If anyone really wanted to hide money, they could do it in the basement of the Alamo, for all practical purposes. That still wouldn't make it right. What the Swiss are doing is simply aiding and abetting financial fraud. Call it what it is.
Pretty simple.
Just have a safety deposit box in a foreign jurisdiction and fill it with gold.
As for "earning interest", that time has come and gone, my friends. With today's "interest rates"? And who wants a professionally-managed portfolio of stocks and bonds these days?
We're now in the "preserve purchasing power" paradigm, even though most people are still out there desperately searching for yield. Gold is best.
As HonestAnn says below, that would work well if you're dealing with individuals. If the Swiss don't want to broker international deals between foreign nations, then sure, they can issue private safe-deposit boxes to private clients. The thing is, that "money" is not money to the bank. It may was well be a simple rock taking up space in their vaults. Diamonds, gold, transparent aluminum...whatever it is, if it is not in the bank's general funds (capital reserves...), then it means nothing to them and they are making no money from it at all.
Really, if the Swiss were smart, they would let go of the old-school idea that somehow they are special and they have some right to privacy that no one else on earth has. It is the new paradigm and they should accept it. Otherwise, they will be further isolated from the international community and foreign nations will find somewhere else to do business.
Bye-bye Basel. Bye-bye BIS.
I am sure they wouldn't want that to happen, now would they?
There are rather a lot of “old school ideas” that have gone out the window recently which have resulted in more and more expensive government inserted deeper into every aspect of your life. Personally I'm not cool with that.
Beyond what level of privacy exactly is no one on earth entitled to these days? – I’ve lost track.
And I can’t quite consider tax-cheating to be a top-tier, heinous crime in and of itself. A willingness to cheat on taxes is largely responsible for why the USA became an independent country in the first place.
When the “international community” and especially Euro-Europe is in increasingly dire straits and is run by self-interested, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, those who in some way provide a refuge from that may actually hold the moral high ground. At some level banking secrecy is about maintaining a zone where the rights of the individual trump those of the state - which also happens to be the principal behind the US Bill of Rights. Given recent developments I'm inclined to look favorably upon those who try to uphold such a principal however convenient it may also be for real criminals.
In any case capital will always tend to go where it is welcome and stay where it is well treated.
I'd rather have "state-sponsored money laundering" than the existing "state-sponsored theft" (via "taxation"), which is what we now have...
I agree completely, however if we are going to be a society based on the rule of law, then the laws need to apply to ALL. When the illegal acts of the Swiss banks and/or their employees were discovered by the authorities, the relevant laws should be enforced. Period. Sadly, in our society today there appears to be one set of laws for the 99% and a entirely different set of laws for the 1%.
Thanks for stating what I wanted to say.
And this is what the socialists do. Take first. Ask questions later, if at all.
And the "capitalists" take it all and tell you to go fuck yourself and your sister> nice left/right divide and conquer paradigm nutsauce
Actually, it's take first, then take more later.
... after changing the rules retroactively.
Whatever!
In a world of fiat currency the concept of money laundering is ridiculous.
So is counterfeiting.
So is capital investment.
I'm shocked! Shocked to hear there is money laundering going on in Switzerland!
Second that.
I thought to,they lived from the holes in the cheese,there goes my childhood illusion,not a golden tooth left!
Well they gotta do something if they can't continue to clean "German" gold teeth..
Money laudering and fraud, sounds like the status quo bruce. So, long black markets then you dumb fuck. Really getting tired of the scared white man posts. You pointed this out over a year ago, read your own shit for a change.
The Germans and Russia would be a good alliance -the Germans need to get away from the International banksters and then help liberate us from their evil grips. I'll bet that many nations of Western Europe would see them as liberators. The banksters are the enemy. I'm ready to do what I can to help liberate this country -We have to start by getting control of the media -too many Americans have failed to use the internet to figure out the truth -they they have been betrayed by evil Oligarchs who have no allegiance to them -and seek to enslave them, and ultimately liquidate most of them. Prteey simple -but that 'is their goal.
Maybe se Germans should first insist on signing a peace treaty with the USSA after over 60 years. This would justify them to become a liberated country in order to come up with their own decision. And yes, then they would not have to finance the 50,000 US troops that are still occupying the country and could kick them back over the big pond.
Obviously the press ignores this topic and I would be surprised if even 1% of the german population know about it.
Oh, there are certainly more than that, and they are getting more by the day. Circulation of links like this one don't help to keep the issue covered: http://www.manta.com/ic/m9g01hz/de/bundesrepublik-deutschland, or here, the German Constitutional Court: http://www.manta.com/ic/m9ws3c6/de/bundesverfassungsgericht. Works with Italy as well: http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_16qvd7, but funnily (?) enough it does not work with other nations. Why would that be? Oh, they both lost the war, did they? As they say, the spoils go to the victors.
The german word for police, "Polizei", is a brand name protected by the bavarian government, the other Länder using it pay a fee to Munich for that.
Explains why the german ID is called "Personalausweis" (=staff ID) rather than Personenausweis, as in the Kaiserreich.
I could go on and on and on.
The germans are *very* patient, but once they get going they are hard to stop, and the fact that in the last 5 years comments in the (heavily censored) forum of Spiegel Online have gone from 98% pro MSM view to 98% of "who do you believe you can keep bullshitting here?" is an ominous sign.
For anyone with at least a working knowledge of German this could be an enlightening presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-hO1uemRkNU
Everything I've read on the internets is true, true I say!
Is brzezinski good enough source for you? has several books out. a key goal of banker imperial policy-keep germany and russia apart. and keep the 'stans at each others throats and in play. got a free copy of the grand chessboard from some site or another.
internet-not just for porn you know.
Carter's national security advisor - really?
http://conspiracyrealitytv.com/zbigniew-brzezinski-quotes-new-world-orde...
http://www.infowars.com/brzezinski-populist-resistance-is-derailing-the-...
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10202
Yepperz. Same guy. Funny how Kissinger and DaZbig are best buds, no? One from Nixon, one from Carter.
Funny how GHWBush and Bill Clinton are best buds, too.
Sounds like you need to have your mind opened about these things.
Check it out.
:D
Don't forget the prawn Dr. Hank...
The Russians are in a class of their own when it comes to money laundering and financial policies. For a while they were buying NY and Miami real estate because they didn't know what else to do with the cash. That's after they've bought up London and the French Riviera.
The Russians? Or the Russian Jewish Oligarchs and mafia? Big difference.
Putin is not Jewish and he owns the shop.
Correct, details matter.
Push the Germans into a deal with Putin- kill two birds with one stone.
Banking, Joe Pesci style.
When NYPD "busts" yet another escort service, somehow not one of their clients' names is made public (except Spitzer, but that was the whole point behind that bust.) Just as is the aim of the Swiss/Uk tax treaty.
Germany simply does not have enough oligarchs who have multiple hard to track income "streams" and who also happen to control the governments. But for UK, Italy and a few others - the oligarchs are callign the shots, and their names will never be made public. So UK took the best deal that they'd be allowed to take by the those who pull all the strings.
The entire concept of "money laundering" is absurd. It is based on the assumption that the state has first claim on all value produced and that individuals have to justify their income and wealth to some "authority". The existence of these "authorities" is the problem. Anyone who avoids paying a tax, obeying a regulation, etc is benefiting everyone by helping to break down the system and removing the false face of legitimacy that the state hides behind.
Viva Bakunin!
Vidar,
U fuck! Do u have the guts 2 answer this question? R U an Anarchist?
San Ova Beach
Is there something wrong with Anarchy? Are you a troll?
R U a loser? Still living in the bedroom you spent your childhood in? "Hey mommie, you did'nt fold my underwear right!" Working at the local Burger King gett'in you down. Take some X-LAX! On second thought, don't take any X-LAX. Your so full of shit, it is running out of your ears!
a true anarchist cun't ask that question, fuckhead!
Does one have to be an anarchist to dislike being stolen from?
Make that eight (8) morons........
What is your defination of said bad thing, Anarchist? How could any Anarchist ever do more evil than an Oligarch? Please do tell...
Do u know what an anachist is? Six morons that agree w/u obviously don't......
When you pay into a system controlled by the oligarchs you are being robbed. when you pay into a system that is open, fair and transparent you are part of a prosperous civilazation