Tag Archives: Politics

«It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it.»Aristotle In today’s world, it is obvious that the competition of ideas is under serious threat and with it, the much-needed discussions on how to deal with certain topics or try to understand the world we live in. That is particularly worrying, especially when one considers that the western world went through the process of Enlightenment roughly 200 years ago. In the words of Immanuel Kant:...

Switzerland’s government recently voted for a ceiling on the salaries of those managing public companies such as Swisscom, Swiss Post, Skyguide and Swiss Rail. Andreas Meyer_© CFF_SBB_FFS In response, the board of Swiss Rail wrote to the Federal Council requesting it to soften its position. From 2020, the company wants to pay its nine senior managers CHF 5.89 million, including a salary of more than CHF 1 million to Andreas Meyer, the boss of the company. The letter said there was a risk...

Over the first three months of 2018 Swiss authorities made 80 requests for Facebook user data, however two thirds of them were ignored, according to the newspaper SonntagsBlick as reported in 20 Minutes. © Klevo _ Dreamstime.com When the requests were urgent the response rate rose to two thirds of requests. Reto Nause, who is responsible for security in the city of Bern, is unhappy with the social network’s response record. Several years ago his team asked for information on user activity in...

Interview with Dr. Markus Krall: When it comes to identifying and evaluating the key vulnerabilities and inherent risks of the banking and financial system, there are few who have the insights and practical experience that is required to truly understand the scale of the issue and its investing implications. This is precisely why Claudio Grass turned to Dr. Markus Krall, who graciously agreed to share his thoughts and observations, as well as his outlook on the future of the financial...

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis listen to the debate in the House of Representatives on Monday (Keystone) Switzerland should only make another billion-franc “cohesion” payment to the European Union if the EU doesn’t discriminate against Switzerland, parliament has agreed. The House of Representatives on Monday approved the CHF1.3 billion ($1.3 billion) that will help...

Sunrise is working in Switzerland with Chinese tech giant Huawei on the new generation of “5G” mobile Internet connectivity. (Keystone) The US has expressed concern over the use of Chinese technology in Switzerland, suggesting it may be used for espionage, reports the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Sonntagszeitung cited the Swiss foreign ministryexternal link as saying that the US embassy in Bern had conducted “an exchange...

Sunrise is working in Switzerland with Chinese tech giant Huawei on the new generation of “5G” mobile Internet connectivity. (Keystone) The US has expressed concern over the use of Chinese technology in Switzerland, suggesting it may be used for espionage, reports the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Sonntagszeitung cited the Swiss foreign ministryexternal link as saying that the US embassy in Bern had conducted “an exchange...

© Teo Lay Peng | Dreamstime.com Strolling through the pasta aisle of a Swiss supermarket, someone new to Switzerland might conclude that the locals prefer egg pasta over the eggless variety. And, while that might to some extent be true, there is another reason. Every year, Swiss egg producers produce too many eggs and turn to the government for help. The Federal Office of Agriculture (OFAG) does three things. Firstly,...

Strolling through the pasta aisle of a Swiss supermarket, someone new to Switzerland might conclude that the locals prefer egg pasta over the eggless variety. And, while that might to some extent be true, there is another reason. © Teo Lay Peng | Dreamstime.com Every year, Swiss egg producers produce too many eggs and turn to the government for help. The Federal Office of Agriculture (OFAG) does three things. Firstly, it funds retail egg discounts and runs a “broken egg” programme, which...

Recently published figures show a 7% decline in the percentage of men in Switzerland’s workforce between 1991 and 2018. © Volker Husberg _ Dreamstime.com The workforce figures, which include the unemployed, show a fall in male workforce participation from 81% to 74%, a 7% decline over 27 years. At the same time, the percentage of women working rose 6% from 57% to 63% between 1991 and 2018. Workforce participation for both genders combined declined 0.5% from 1991 to 2018. The largest drop for...