Small is beautiful - On why Switzerland is successful

The New Zealand based columnist Oliver Hartwich describes why the Swiss are successful:

"If you are looking at Switzerland from outside, you cannot help but wonder how this small piece of central Europe – mountainous and with no obvious strategic advantages over its larger neighbours – made itself a world-class economy.

Well, for a start it probably helped that the Swiss never became part of the EU. Where other European countries succumbed to the idea of an integrated continent, the Swiss stubbornly remained independent and did their own thing. And it worked well, so there is hope for Britain after Brexit. --

For many years, Switzerland has been ranked as the world’s most competitive country by the World Economic Forum (New Zealand is 16th).
The key to Switzerland’s success is its decentralised nature. If every tier of government has income tax-raising powers, and if the various tiers of government are small in size, it is not difficult to imagine what this set-up will do to economic development. As councils and cantons can feel the results of their political decisions in their own pockets, of course they will pursue growth-friendly policies. As they realise that their residents are not just inhabitants but taxpayers, of course they will try to keep them happy.
Switzerland has chosen a path to economic development that is diametrically opposed to New Zealand’s and to most other developed economies. Instead of trying more centrally controlled policies, Switzerland has opted for the principle of subsidiarity. That means relegating decision-making to the lowest tier possible.
From a New Zealand perspective, the Swiss approach to governance is the polar opposite of what we have been trying so far. But even we have to realise that Swiss government yields much better results than we could ever hope for.
In a nutshell, Switzerland means that big does not always mean better and that small can be quite beautiful. It also demonstrates government needs performance incentives in order to, well, perform. That is not so surprising if you are in business but for government, apparently, it’s a big discovery."

Roger Köppel on why Switzerland is a successful country

Roger Köppel, the editor-in-chief of the Swiss quality weekly Die Weltwoche has written an excellent editorial about why Switzerland is succesful - and the EU not. Here is an excerpt:

Switzerland is a succesful country, because it is independent. Many business leaders overlook that. Our independence is an economic success factor. It is the foundation of a free, business friendly state under the rule of law, in which the citizens and not the politicians are in charge. Switzerland is doing better because it is not in the EU. The EU is the opposite of Switzerland, because in the EU the citizens have no say.

You could not say it better!

Unelected eurocrats furious at the Swiss people who dared to vote for controlled migration

UKIP's Nigel Farage on the Swiss referendum:
"This is wonderful news for national sovereignty and freedom lovers throughout Europe"

The unelected Brussels eurocrats are furious at the Swiss people, who dared to vote for controlled migration:

Viviane Reding, deputy chief of the EU's executive, said Switzerland could not expect to keep the benefits of free trade without accepting freedom of movement.

"That is not possible. You take them all or you leave them all," Reding said.

Ross Clark, writing in the Express, gets it right:

It is one of the most cosmopolitan countries in the world and hosts the headquarters of the Red Cross as well as many other international organisations. But the people of Switzerland have come to realise that while migration can be enriching, uncontrolled migration – which came about as part of a deal with the EU in 2000 – has created problems.
Swiss workers have complained that foreign labour has pushed down wages and increased living costs. Sunday’s referendum did not call for gates to be erected at the border with signs saying “Swiss only. Others keep out”. Far from it. It simply called for controlled migration so that it can distinguish between those who are likely to benefit the economy and those who won’t.
To the leaders of the EU this is an anathema. They are pursuing an aggressive ideology of free movement of people within Europe without any regard to the consequences nor to the fact that what they are proposing is highly unpopular with a huge number of EU citizens.
The open borders policy has no democratic legitimacy. It has never been properly debated in member states. It has been introduced by stealth.

Greens want to put the climate of Switzerland on the UNESCO World Heritage list

The Swiss climate soon on the UNESCO World Heritage list?

We all know that the Swiss enjoy their beautiful snow covered mountain tops and sunny green valleys - almost as much as some of the world's richest people enjoy having a Swiss bank account. 

And who would not want to protect the unique Swiss landscape and scenery? However, the latest action by the Swiss Young Greens party (Die Jungen Grünen Schweiz) could perhaps be considered to be a bit over the (alp)top.

The Jungen Grünen are now busy collection signatures for a petition asking the Swiss government to start working for the Swiss climate to be put on the list of UNESCO World Heritage natural sites!

The World Heritage listing would, according to the Swiss greenies, make it easier to save the Swiss climate for "our children" and to fight the threat of global warming. 

It is well known that UNESCO - like many of the other UN organizations - is now safely in the hands of the leftist global warming alarmist crowd, which is why we may very well see the Swiss climate on the World Heritage list in the not too distant future. After that victory, the next project for the Jungen Grünen will probably be to start collecting names for the Swiss Cuckoo Clock to be put on the UN List of Endangered Species. 

(image by antiqueprints.com

George Clooney in search of missing millions for Obama in Switzerland

George Clooney and the Obama fundraising team seem to know where the money is:

Actor George Clooney is offering more help to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign by headlining a European fundraiser this summer for Americans living abroad.

An invitation posted on Obama's campaign website says Clooney will be the special guest at an Obama fundraiser in Geneva, Switzerland, on Aug. 27.

Tickets start at $1,000 per person, and dinner for two costs a cool $30,000.

However, it remains to be seen, whether seriously rich Americans who prefer to live in Switzerland will open their check books for Obama:  

Rich Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship rose sevenfold since UBS AG (UBSN) whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld triggered a crackdown on tax evasion four years ago.

About 1,780 expatriates gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies last year, up from 235 in 2008, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, citing figures from the government’s Federal Register. The embassy in Bern, the Swiss capital, redeployed staff to clear a backlog as Americans queued to relinquish their passports.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.

Gaddafi flashback: How different everything was less than two years ago

Flashback:

(Note that in the second video a mock hanging - representing the fate of the "colonialists"-  is part of the "entertainment")

How different the world looked from Gaddafi´s point of view in September 2009, when "the King of Kings" celebrated his 40 years on the "throne". The party on the video was intended for a wider audience. The A-list VIP guests were of course treated royally, as the Independent reported at that time from Tripoli:

In Libya, power and prestige accrues to one man. Guests at the celebrations had just watched as the whole of African history was rewritten to place the son of modest Bedouins at the centre of it.

For once, the famously long-winded leader didn't speak. He simply stood to receive the congratulations of those around him.

--

For companies operating in this context, sycophancy is encouraged and expected. A glossy-coloured pullout in this week's Tripoli Post to commemorate the anniversary of the great "al-Fatah revolution", as Col Gaddafi's 1969 power grab is called, demonstrated this.

Page after page is dedicated to a large corporate advertisement, each rivalling the next in expressions of admiration and gratitude to the Libyan leader. The corporations doing the bowing and scraping read like a roll call of the energy and arms manufacturers hoping to buy or sell a piece of the increasingly rich country: French military aviation company Dassault; Russian energy giant Gazprom; and Spain's oil and gas major Repsol.

The ads are a shrewd investment. Unlike the comparatively camera-shy Saudi royals or the conservative elites in the Gulf states, the 67-year-old Gaddafi enjoys being the centre of attention. And despite his Bedouin tents and protestations of modesty, he enjoys being gauche. The A-list who dined in Tripoli's Green Square enjoyed a meal prepared by the acclaimed Parisian restaurant Le Nôtre. They were handed limited edition gold Chopard watches with an outline of Africa on the face and a single diamond marking Libya.

Those who followed Col Gaddafi's entourage as it swept away from the party yesterday would have seen that it left three unused and unusual golf carts in its wake. These days the self-styled Lion of the Desert travels between tees in a trio of Hummer 3 carts that had been delivered the day before by a British courier from Humberside airport. The post mark had been left on the passenger's seat.

The Telegraph added:

A comic opera chorus of military officials in gold braid and peaked caps looked on as an ageing Col Gaddafi greeted dozens of second and third world leaders. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez took top billing by default on a guest list that included Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, and Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president. Detachments of soldiers from across Africa were provided a modicum of glamour by a French Foreign Legion band. Italy's version of the Red Devils flew overhead but only after a spat about the colour of their exhaust trail was resolved.
Europe’s most recognisable attendees were the heads of assorted fashion houses and luxury goods shops.

A couple of days before the celebrations the Tripoli Post announced the arrival of these guests:

Rome confirmed last week that the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to travel to Tripoli on Sunday to take part in celebration of the 40th anniversary and also to mark the first anniversary of a friendship treaty signed in 31 August 2008.

The Spanish royal couple will also take part in the celebrations.

(However, some advisers must have intervened in the last minute, since Berlusconi and the royal couple are not to be seen among the guests in the video. As a matter of fact, Berlusconi met with Gaddafi in Libya for the anniversary of the friendship treaty on 31 August, but did not stay for the actual celebrations - probably because his advisers had seen the list of other attending "dignitaries")

PS

Those "limited edition Chopard watches" are most certainly going to be collectors´ item in the future. So, if you´ve got one, keep it in a safe Swiss bank vault as an investment.

Here is a little background info on the nice watches, which Gaddafi bought for the modest sum of about 8 million Swiss Francs (about 9 million USD):

The order was for 250 limited edition watches valued at around 8 million Swiss Francs. They should each have the likeness of Mr. Gaddafi on them in some form and were ordered to celebrate his 40th anniversary of being in office there. Gaddafi, if evidenced by his love of "intense" sunglasses, will likely enjoy the blingy reminders of his "victories" over the competition for that long.

It is a tricky move for Chopard to accept an order from someone with such a spotty record on human rights and so forth. The company is known to be majorly hurting due to the weak economy, especially as it is pointed to the luxury industry. The move was likely due to the large amount of the order. You know what they say, desperate times call for despot orders. (Old Swiss saying?)

Egypt is burning - Ban Ki Moon and others blabber about climate change in Davos

While Egypt was burning, UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon and other world leaders gathered in Davos were busy blabbering about the imaginary threat of human-enduced "climate change".

Ban Ki Moon:
The United Nations chief pointed out that Washington should set its own house in order instead of waiting for others to take action.
"You have to do your own homework before waiting for others to do."
There are "psychological games" between the United States and Europe on one side, and China, India and Brazil on the other, said Ban.
"They ask you should do first. I think all the proposals are on the table.
"We know each other's pollution. I think they should be responsible for humanity, we have a responsibilty to keep this world sustainable," said Ban.
Making a plea for action on climate change, Ban noted that the world has believed in "consumption without consequences" until now.
"Climate change is showing us that the old model is more than obselete. It has rendered it extremely dangerous. It is a recipe for natural disaster. It is a global suicide attack,(sic!)" he charged.

(entire story here)

AFP reports: "Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Jacob Zuma of South Africa, hosts of global climate change summits, on Thursday urged the United States to take stronger action on the issue."
"The world needs action from the United States," Calderon said.
But climate change legislation is all but dead in the United States for the forseeable future. Instead, Obama has floated the idea of reducing the country's emissions by requiring that 80 percent of the country's electricity come from "clean energy" sources like wind, nuclear and natural gas by 2035.
At the Davos summit, European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said that, lacking strong policy, U.S. businesses must act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
"The solutions have to come from business," she said, according to The Associated Press. "They will have to come up with alternative ways of doing things."

Allan Friedman, writing in the Atlantic describes the atmosphere in Davos:

It was truly surreal however to watch Ban Ki-moon, Bill Gates, and world leaders sitting on stage to calmly discuss climate change and sustainable development while Egypt was burning. When the UN chief addressed the crowd he waxed eloquently about scarce resources, saying "we have mined our way to growth and pawned our way to prosperity and now supplies are scarce and the scarcest resource is time."

PS
It is time for the organisers to start rethinking about the whole Davos concept. The event has become much too big and bureaucratic. And the participants should seriously consider, whether it really is worthwile to fly to Davos only to hear "world leaders" repeating the same old political, economic and environmental propaganda phrases. But maybe the allure of the Swiss winter paradise blinds their sense of reality? And, of course, there is always the lavish blick tie soarée on Saturday evening to look forward to - all in the name of making the world a better place for us ordinary tax payers.

(image by antiqueprints.com)