Swiss are getting uppity

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**Frazzled**

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSTHO15017420090221

Well, thats reason enough. I'm sure we have a spare tank division laying around in Germany somewhere. Lets fix this economy the WWII/Roman way. Taken them over and bring back the spoils-chocolate, gold ,and Swiss madchen. Now thats change I can believe in.

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe

More Business & Investing News... ZURICH, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.

The populist SVP, the country's biggest party, said Switzerland should not take in any detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which the Swiss government said last month it could consider to help shut the camp down.

Switzerland should also reconsider its policy of representing the United States in countries where it has no diplomatic presence, the parliamentary SVP said in a statement.

The SVP said gold stored by the Swiss National Bank in the United States should be repatriated and Switzerland should ban the sale of U.S. funds in the country to protect Swiss investors after the failure of U.S. regulators.

The SVP has one minister in the seven-member Swiss government which is made up of the biggest four parties, but its populist policies have shaken up usually consensual Swiss politics.

The comments came after UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay a fine of $780 million and to disclose about 250 names of U.S. clients it said had committed tax fraud to settle U.S. criminal charges that it had helped rich Americans dodge taxes.

U.S. tax authorities said on Thursday they were still pursuing a civil case against UBS seeking access to thousands more names of U.S. citizens it says are hiding about $14.8 billion in assets in secret Swiss bank accounts. [ID:nN19534438]

The SVP also said it would call for an urgent debate in parliament on ways to protect Swiss banking secrecy from "further foreign blackmail". (Reporting by Emma Thomasson)

**Da Boss**

I doubt ye could take the Swiss with just one tank division Frazzled.

And they're in their rights to deny that stuff, I reckon, though the banking thing annoys me a bit, they are a neutral country.

**dietrich**

The Swiss aren't neutral, they're self-serving. There's a difference.

**Da Boss**

I'm massively tempted to get into a tit for tat over this.
But I won't.

**Frazzled**

Its too late for that. All your Swiss Miss Chocolates are belong to us!!!

**dietrich**

Don't get me wrong, the US is self-serving as well. Every country is. Some just try to hide it more than others.

**Da Boss**

There's an argument there, but there's also the argument that as neutral countries go, they're pretty neutral. I'd say they're a hell of a lot more neutral than the Irish, for example.

**Frazzled**

But again, the Irish don't have Swiss Miss chocolate, and frankly I'm really hungry. Thats reason enough I'm afraid. Sorry Switzerland, but your chocolate delictation was too excelsior for your own good. We want 56 metric tons shipped to Houston via air freight or else Slim gets his cowboy hat...

**Da Boss**

I've always claimed the Dwarves from Tolkien are directly analogous to the Swiss. As I told my Swiss friend Flavio: "The Swiss? They sit in their mountains, counting riches. They care nothing for the troubles of others!"

**Mango**

Frazzled,

The FIRST rule of being a global bully is DON"T PICK FIGHTS WITH PEOPLE THAT CAN FIGHT BACK!!!

With mandatory military service, the Siss have one of the largest standing armies in Europe. Couple that with terrain that is the second most diffulcult to attack, and the second easiest to defend (the first being cities). It would take one hell of a lot more than one tank division.

Lets pick on an easier target, closer to home. The Amish. They are especially fun to make fun of, even more so when you do it on-line, because they will never know!!! And if they did find out, they wouldn't do anything. They are pacifists!!! THOSE are the type of people we should pick on.

**warpcrafter**

Mango wrote:Frazzled,

The FIRST rule of being a global bully is DON"T PICK FIGHTS WITH PEOPLE THAT CAN FIGHT BACK!!!

With mandatory military service, the Siss have one of the largest standing armies in Europe. Couple that with terrain that is the second most diffulcult to attack, and the second easiest to defend (the first being cities). It would take one hell of a lot more than one tank division.

Lets pick on an easier target, closer to home. The Amish. They are especially fun to make fun of, even more so when you do it on-line, because they will never know!!! And if they did find out, they wouldn't do anything. They are pacifists!!! THOSE are the type of people we should pick on.

To get anything out of that tiny little cartoon, people would have to have eyes like a swiss watchmaker.

**Mango**

Warpcrafter,
1. Size doesn't matter. (or so women keep telling me)

2. It was the wimpodites from Gary Larson. I will try to find a bigger one. (if only it was that easy in real life)

**olympia**

Da Boss wrote:I've always claimed the Dwarves from Tolkien are directly analogous to the Swiss. As I told my Swiss friend Flavio: "The Swiss? They sit in their mountains, counting riches. They care nothing for the troubles of others!"

But even the dwarves contributed a little bit to the overthrow of Mordor. Let me think...was there an analogous evil in the 20th century....

To paraphrase Orson Welles, what has 300 years of Swiss neutrality produced? The cuckoo clock.

**Mango**

Here is a bigger one.

**Orlanth**

Underestimate ther swiss at your own risk. They have quiet ways of keeping the peace and getting rich at the same time.

This might look spineless, but Napoleon and Hitler saw spineless nations as places to send their armies marching. Switzerland was left alone, there is a lesson here.

Once the Swiss had sewn up the worlds banking industry they quickly became the people with whome you didnt mess with if you wanted to have an economy afterwards.

Nothing much has changed. Switzerland exists because it is not viable to challenge the nation or their banks. They have been challenged before and then as now show The Finger to anyone who tries to tell them what to do in their field. The day Switzerland relaxes its grip on the banking industry is the day their lose their inviolate status.

Just watch this. Washington might posture, but eventually they will back down, not the Swiss. It will end quietly.

**warpcrafter**

Mango wrote:Here is a bigger one.

Thanks. I think that these guys are the ancestors of the UN peacekeepers, or at least the mall cops of the world.

**Da Boss**

It's pretty nasty to say things like that about UN peacekeepers. I mean, I doubt I'd get away with saying something similar about american troops.

**whatwhat**

Yeh but most of them are french, that's fair game.

**Mango**

Da Boss wrote:It's pretty nasty to say things like that about UN peacekeepers. I mean, I doubt I'd get away with saying something similar about american troops.

Speaking as someone who has been both. I served as part of the UN peacekeeping force in Somalia in 1994. I have a United Nations Service Medal to prove it. I was also a United States marine. i think that makes me qulaified to say what I want about both. UN peacekeepers are useless.

**Da Boss**

UN peacekeepers are a large and diverse group.

**Kilkrazy**

I've been to Geneva in Switzerland.

You can withdraw Swiss Francs from the hole-in-the-wall machine. The restaurants accept ChFr and Euros.

It felt very small and peaceful compared to London. The lakeside was nice.

There are a lot of watch shops.

**Ahtman**

olympia wrote:To paraphrase Orson Welles, what has 300 years of Swiss neutrality produced? The cuckoo clock.

I read this entire thread just to see if someone would make that reference.

**namegoeshere**

They have French accents.
Nuke them.

**Frazzled**

The Amish would be good but that obviates the benefit of plunder to restart the economy. Plus they don't have Swiss Miss, which is the point.

No Swiss Miss No Peace!

**olympia**

Mango wrote: UN peacekeepers are useless.

So the part in the book (and movie) Black Hawk Down where the UN peacekeepers rescue the over-confident American troops is wrong?

**CaptainRavenclaw**

The UN peacekeepers are great in principle. Its just too difficult to do the right thing when the politicians are in meetings and the soldiers are in the fields.

The UN is a giant with clay feet.

**Wolfstan**

Mango wrote:
Da Boss wrote:It's pretty nasty to say things like that about UN peacekeepers. I mean, I doubt I'd get away with saying something similar about american troops.

Speaking as someone who has been both. I served as part of the UN peacekeeping force in Somalia in 1994. I have a United Nations Service Medal to prove it. I was also a United States marine. i think that makes me qulaified to say what I want about both. UN peacekeepers are useless.

But haven't you guys stopped playing with the UN now? Trouble with the UN is that the big boys only want to get involved if it is affects them directly. Will it it improve our national security or is it going to effect trade (stopping us get what we want or selling you stuff). If neither of these two then you're on your own.

The US has moaned before about having to be the world's police force, help fix the UN peacekeeper problem and perhaps you can take a step back. Or is it a case that you like being seen as a martyr to the cause? Moan about it, but secretly happy to do it as it keeps you in control of major events?

**Kid_Kyoto**

warpcrafter wrote:

To get anything out of that tiny little cartoon, people would have to have eyes like a swiss watchmaker.

Or an encyclopedic memory of every Far Side cartoon, EVER.

It's a group of Vikings taking on a group of guys armed with pillows. Caption is something like "The Wimponians found their pillow-based weaponry ineffective"

**Kid_Kyoto**

Sigh...

The UN has no standing force of peacekeepers, they are national forces seconded from neutral countries with no real stake in whatever battle is going on.

They are there to monitor ceasefires and peace agreements. Not to fight wars.

They are not useless.

People just have this idea they're supposed to come in and bust heads and 'make peace' and that's just not right.

**dietrich**

Be wary of the Swiss, all their troops have a Swiss Army Knife - with a corkscrew!