In 2018, 12 climate activists entered a branch of the bank Credit Suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland and started playing tennis. Their prank aimed to draw attention to the bank’s investments in companies involved in the fossil fuel industry. Tennis alluded to the marketing work Roger Federer has done for the bank. The bank called the […]
Switzerland moves closer to taxing flights
A Swiss parliamentary commission, tasked with looking at the introduction of an environmental tax on flights departing from Switzerland, recently voted in favour a such a tax. A majority of 17 to 8 members voted in favour of the move. The tax would range from CHF 30 to CHF 120 per passenger depending on flight […]
Geneva makes road signs gender equal
Geneva’s roughly 500 road crossing signs once all bore an icon of a man wearing a hat. Recently, the city decided to take down half of these signs and replace them with 250 signs containing six different icons of women, which include young, old and pregnant women. Serge Dal Busco, the state councillor in charge […]
Trump should be disinvited to Davos, says St. Gallen University economist
Speaking to CNN Money, Markus Will, a senior economist at St. Gallen University, described Trump’s speech, in which he didn’t mention climate once, as a “contradiction to the values of Davos.” “It was a nationalistic, domestic, state of the union address from Davos rather than an improving of the state of the world speech which […]
Saudis to cut funding of Switzerland’s largest mosque
Constructed in 1978, the mosque located in Petit-Saconnex in Geneva is Switzerland’s largest. In a recent interview in Paris, Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, Secretary General of the Saudi-based Muslim World League, the organisation that funded the mosque’s construction, told the newspaper Tribune de Genève that the organisation would stop managing and funding the mosque. In […]
Davos at 50 – hate, intolerance, vengeance and the environment
Today, Simonetta Sommaruga, Switzerland’s president, opened this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) alongside the event’s founder, 81-year-old Klaus Schwab. This is the 50th WEF event in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. Ms Sommaruga said she was concerned about the state of the planet and the need to find the right balance between international politics […]
Swiss franc one of only two overvalued currencies
Periodically, the Economist magazine judges the value of currencies based on the prices of Big Macs. This time around the burger price comparison found only two currencies to be overvalued relative to the US dollar: the Norwegian krone and the Swiss franc. The franc was almost 20% overvalued according to their analysis – click here […]
Swiss pension reform – closing the gender gap
The Swiss government is currently considering how to reform work-related pensions, known as 2nd pillar pensions. Pension finances are strained by longer life expectancy and low interest rates. Another issue is the low work-related pension savings of low earners and part time workers, groups women are far more likely to fall into than men. In […]
Swiss franc added to US Treasury currency manipulation watchlist
The US Treasury recently added Switzerland to its “monitoring list”. Those on the list are trading partners whose currency practices merit close attention. The list includes: China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, and Vietnam. It is no secret that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has been actively trying to weaken the Swiss […]
Swiss National Bank expects annual profit of 49 billion francs
According to provisional calculations, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects to make a profit of around CHF 49 billion in 2019. Most of this comes from the rising value of the SNB’s foreign currency positions (+CHF 40 billion) and a valuation gain on gold holdings (+CHF 6.9 billion). After adjusting reserves, the SNB will have […]
