Tag Archives: Business

The case against the Munich-based luxury car manufacturer was first sparked by a customer complaint in 2010. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s highest court has confirmed a CHF157 million ($158 million) fine against German luxury carmaker BMW for blocking car shipments to Switzerland. The fine was originally levied on BMWexternal link by Switzerland’s Competition Commissionexternal link (COMCO)...

Over the weekend, Saudi King Salman shocked the world by abruptly announcing the arrests of 11 senior princes and some 38 ministers, including Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the world’s sixty-first richest man and the largest shareholder in Citi, News Corp. and Twitter. The purge was orchestrated by a new “supreme committee” to investigate public corruption created by King Salman but under the control of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the committee and is widely...

The economy is booming. Employment is at decade lows. Unemployment claims are at the lowest levels in 40-years. The stock market is at record highs and climbing. Consumers are more confident than they have been in a decade. Wages are finally showing signs of growth. What’s not to love? I just have one question. If things are so good, then why is America’s saving rate posting such a sharp decline? The answer is not...

The ABB plant in Meyrin, Geneva. (Keystone) The ABB electronics group announced on Monday the offshoring of up to 150 positions from its Geneva production centre, while Roche is cutting 235 people in canton Aargau. Employees and trade unions reacted angrily. Rumoured to be in the works for some weeks, the Zurich-headquartered ABB group announced on Monday that it would be relocating positions from its Geneva plant to a...

Politicians, business directors and companies in Switzerland are among those connected to the so-called Paradise Papers, a massive trove of leaked offshore investment documents. There is currently no evidence of any legal wrongdoing. One of the most interesting names for the Swiss authorities is convicted criminal Jean-Claude Bastos, the Swiss-Angolan founder and CEO of Quantum Global Group, an international investment...

In the third quarter of 2017, one in which the global economy was supposedly undergoing an unprecedented “coordinated growth spurt”, and in which central banks were preparing to unveil their QE tapering intentions, in the case of the ECB, or raising rates outright, at the Fed, what was really taking place was another central bank buying spree meant to boost confidence that things are now back to normal, using “money”...

A book festival in Lausanne has cancelled an invitation to Marsault, a controversial French comic book artist, after the organisers said they received threats from activists. The organisers of the Lausan’noir crime thriller book festivalexternal link say they will not be welcoming the French comic book artist Marsault to their event, which takes place in the Swiss city from October 27-29. “The conditions were not met...

Ernesto Bertarelli is one of Switzerland's 35 billionaires (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The total wealth of the world’s 1,542 billionaires – including 35 in Switzerland – grew 17% to $6 trillion (CHF5.93 trillion) last year, led by a surge in Asia’s emerging billionaire class and growth in the materials, industrials, financial and technology sectors. The wealth of Switzerland’s billionaires grew by a mere...

An employee of MAN Diesel & Turbo Switzerland grinds turbine blades of a turbo compressor in Zurich in 2015 (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The recent appreciation of the Swiss franc has sent shockwaves through Swiss firms, resulting in job losses and lower research budgets. But viewed long-term, Switzerland’s export-driven economy has adapted remarkably well to a strong currency. This is the overall...

Social media is becoming increasingly dominant in the Swiss media industry, controlling not only consumer habits but also the advertising market. In addition, television is dying. These are the findings of the latest “Yearbook Quality of the Media” by the University of Zurich. They are strong, they are dominant, they have money – and they are located outside the Swiss sphere of influence: the internet giants or “tech...