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robuzo

Can't quite see why Switzerland would be feeling too smug at the moment, given this:
More job cuts as UBS makes biggest loss in history of Swiss business - Times Online
UBS reported the biggest annual corporate loss in Swiss history yesterday, as it outlined plans to cut a further 2,000 staff at its troubled investment bank.


And then there is the meltdown in Eastern Europe; Austria is about to go under, and Switzerland is taking a hit, too- and it looks like this was entirely without US help, except maybe for what European banks learned from geniuses in the US:


Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown - Telegraph


In Poland, 60pc of mortgages are in Swiss francs. The zloty has just halved against the franc. Hungary, the Balkans, the Baltics, and Ukraine are all suffering variants of this story. As an act of collective folly – by lenders and borrowers – it matches America's sub-prime debacle. There is a crucial difference, however. European banks are on the hook for both. US banks are not.

Almost all East bloc debts are owed to West Europe, especially Austrian, Swedish, Greek, Italian, and Belgian banks. En plus, Europeans account for an astonishing 74pc of the entire $4.9 trillion portfolio of loans to emerging markets.

They are five times more exposed to this latest bust than American or Japanese banks, and they are 50pc more leveraged (IMF data).

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露武蔵

plorf

^There is no question robuzo, that Switzerland will be affected by this crisis, indeed we are one of the first to have taken serious damage in form of the UBS and Credit Suisse, our 2 biggest banks. But instead of whining and complaining people generally just go on with their lifes. And a lot of the capital that has been withdrawn from those 2 banks just ended up at regional banks which in turn hired more people. Again, I am not saying at all that we're unaffected, just so far we're still doing ok and nobody is panicking, which I despise. Denial ? Perhabs a bit, but personally I don't think so, just pragmatism instead of hysterical whining and blaming.

robuzo

I doubt all Swiss are in denial, but the retailers sound like they are. The value disappearing from the banks books is not heading to anyone's accounts except those smart enough to short their stocks at the right moment.

A country like Switzerland is not likely to panic, because in the end its core strengths are intact. If unemployment becomes too widespread it can respond by booting out foreign workers. Dubai doesn't have any core strengths to fall back on. All it ever had going for it was that its rulers were more clever than most other Arabs, and just as unscrupulous as heads of certain Swiss banks.

Fabian

That would be clever. So who would do the low qualified work then?

Norton

Germans?

larvidchr

That's it, my neighbour is Swiss, nicest Man you could ever meet but very very stubborn

good2bhappy

you should ask JJ about his swiss neighbour

larvidchr

Did we ever get the end of that story with this guys wife two timing him or was that another neighbour?

plorf

Exactly, tons of germans doing highly qualified work, but also working as waiters, nurses, in construction etc. And they're certainly better than the balcan guys.

Fabian

You can have all those east germans if you like.

Fabian

Second that, what happened to them?

plorf

Aw, that's nice of you, but I'm afraid we prefer highly qualified west germans working underpaid in Switzerland, their vacant positions in Germany will then be filled by east Germans, Poles and Turks.


Ps: I am currently trying very hard to get the collective scorn of this forum, don't take me too seriously please.
But those unproductive, lazy Americans living on debts for centures are seriously starting to become a pain in the ass for us as well as they're stopping to buy our overpriced exports after wasting all our money on their housing market.

robuzo

Since there have been no more posts about the wonder that is Swizzleland, here is another interesting piece about Dubai:
Goodbye Dubai | Smashing Telly - A hand picked TV channel
Dubai is a place for the shallow and fickle. Tabloid celebrities and worn out sports stars are sponsored by swollen faced, botox injected, perma-tanned European property developers to encourage the type of people who are impressed by fame itself, rather than what originated it, to inhabit pastiche Mediterranean villas on fake islands. Its a grotesquely leveraged version of time-share where people are sold a life in the same way as being peddled a set of steak knives. Funny shaped towers smatter empty neighborhoods, based on designs with unsubtle, eye-catching envelopes but bland floor plans and churned out by the dozen by anonymous minions in brand name architects offices and signed by the boss, unseen, as they fly through the door. This architecture, a three dimensional solidified version of a synthesized musical jingle, consists of ever more preposterous gimmickry - an underwater, revolving, white leather fuck pad or a marina skyscraper with a product placement name that would normally only appeal to teenage boys, such as the preposterous Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower.

Nawty

While the name and the reasoning for it suck....the actual building look and design is very nice.

Rural Surin

No, we shouldn't go there

Whiteshiva

Who the f*ck wants to live in Dubai anyway - it's in the midlle of nowhere, 9 months of the year it is too bloody hot to be outside, prices are high, traffic getting increasingly worse, and who knows when Muslim fanatics will impose sharia law?

Panda

Dubai is to the financial world like Las Vegas is to the gambling world, -- nothing more than a monument to greed with its foundations built on sand.

EmperorTud

Money.

Gerbil

Ok, now I'm interested.

lom

^ it's nothing more than a waterproof dildo.