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61 Comments
- brandita, on 03/02/2009, -1/+72The Swiss truly know what matters in life: Time (watches), money (banks), no drama (neutrality), multitasking (knives), cheese, and chocolate.
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+31In the US, your banks can and will be frozen at any time for any reason. You're suspected of doing drug traffic (suspected not CONVICTED)? Your bank accounts are frozen as "potential drug dealing ways". I wish I could say only illegal bank accounts are frozen but it's actually so easy to have someone's account frozen it's barely believable. Any cop can freeze any account with or without proofs. Switzerland is the only safety net for these people. You NEED to convince a judge that you are doing something illegal -- with proofs -- before they even consider freezing the accounts. And that is, if the US even know this account exists.
- brucealmighty, on 03/01/2009, -1/+27As I understand it the Swiss are largely selling confidentiality as a banking service. High fees, little or no interest and no reports filed. Not a lot to report anyway if there's little or no interest paid...sort of like renting a safe deposit box. Your money is safe but stagnant while the Swiss use it to issue profitable loans. A dubious arrangement from an ethical standpoint....but then so were all those sub-prime mortgages.
- atomicpoet, on 03/02/2009, -2/+20I blame the Illuminati.
- TheAngryMob, on 03/02/2009, -1/+17"Short History?" Try "Very, Very, Very Short History"
Buried for lack of anything interesting. - The2DQuartet, on 03/02/2009, -0/+16Is it just me, or at first glance does the second paragraph appear to state that 1934 and World War I both happened in the 17th century?
Obviously it doesn't when you read it properly but it made me double-take. - inactive, on 03/02/2009, -1/+14Hiding your money from the government is a good thing.
- mbraynard, on 03/02/2009, -0/+10You forgot about the assault rifle in every home.
- phpld, on 03/01/2009, -2/+10I can understand people wanting to keep their finances private, but surely there is a way to track people that involved in criminal activities including tax evasion, and stop them. What's worse is that the wealthy people are the ones that can do this, while someone who just wants to hide a couple thousand will be more likely to get in trouble
- BohicaTwentyTwo, on 03/02/2009, -0/+8What makes a good man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?
- borez, on 03/02/2009, -1/+7Leave them alone.
James bond fighting evil world dominating overlords with a Bradford and Bingley Building Society interest plus step account from a paying in book in Barnsley high street, doesn't quite have the same ring to it as infiltrating a numbered Swiss bank account from the Bahamas via a satellite link up ... does it. - rrife, on 03/02/2009, -0/+6Yes.
- jer21, on 03/02/2009, -1/+7And they only invented the chocolate to get to the kids (or was that the Belgians?)
- nadadingsda, on 03/02/2009, -0/+6Another biased article oh well.. The thing that you have to understand is that other countries take privacy more seriously than we do here in the US. Why should the government have access to information regarding your personal finances? As long as you pay taxes, this is none of their business. Swiss banks do provide information regarding accounts when there is a criminal investigation. The problem with these 52'000 US accounts is that the US only wants this information because of tax evasion, which is not a criminal offense in Switzerland (don't confuse tax evasion with tax fraud).
To be fair, I totally understand that it is not acceptable to not pay taxes for your money. I think there are solutions that allow both, privacy and taxation. For Swiss citizens, the banks automatically give 35% of the capital gains from your accounts to the government, note that 35% is a lot. If you want to pay less taxes, you can declare the amount of money you have in your accounts on your tax returns and you will get a refund for a part of the 35%. I think for foreigners they could do something similar, they could just give a part of the capital gains to the country where the person holding the account resides. - Aixxt, on 03/02/2009, -4/+9One of the best commits & observations ever on digg. IMHO
- JohnGalt750, on 03/02/2009, -0/+5Face it there will always be a way to hide money. By allowing governments to check bank accounts, all your doing is making it so criminals don't use banks. Criminals aren't stupid. The second banks were required to report all cash transactions over 10k, is the second criminals started making transactions in 9K increments.
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -2/+6you forgot sex (hot buxom blondes)
- jtaz90s, on 03/02/2009, -2/+6My parents bank at UBS. Does that automatically qualify them as Illuminati?
- wminzlaff, on 03/02/2009, -0/+4exactly in addition those same people hide money other places than just swiss banks, why go after them?
- JohnGalt750, on 03/02/2009, -0/+4I don't know but my gut says maybe.
- rrife, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3How is the govt. supposed to know if you're paying your taxes, if you're hiding your source(s) of income?
- mattearle, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3Way to tell everyone.
- MrWolf, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3I'm swiss and i can tell you that the swiss banking federation has among the most severe diligence laws (reporting suspicious clients) in the world.
- jsffive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3You folks do realize that it's the Swiss banks that award the "Nobel Prize for Economics", right?
Coincidence? I think not.
Also, Time mentions that the Swiss banks sheltered money for the Nazis, but the folks at Time never seem to get around to mentioning that George Bush's grandfather helped FINANCE the Nazis...
That's information we could have used... TWENTY YEARS AGO! - inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3I blame the CFR
- pinchduck, on 03/02/2009, -0/+2If you wanted to hide a couple of grand, why the heck would you need a Swiss bank? Take it in cash and don't report it. Voila, that was simple.
- TheHayze, on 03/02/2009, -0/+2Yeah i know. I got to the bottom of the first page, and I was looking round for a "go to page 2" sorta link. If Time publishes articles like this all the time, i'm very disappointed. The lack on meaningful content, or, frankly, direction and planning is pitiful. Like what whiteboyrob said, this reads more like a 4th grade social studies paper then a professional article.
- Suzilla, on 03/02/2009, -0/+2Article is nothing more than damage control. Goes to show that Time is just another (media) tool of the corporatocracy.
- whiteboyrob, on 03/02/2009, -0/+2Thank you...this article reads like a 4th grade social studies project. I learned more about swiss banking by reading the comments in digg than I did reading an article from Time
- PatrickX, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1If the police had to wait for conviction, drug dealers would just drain their accounts and put the money somewhere else... they should still have to provide some sort of evidence to a judge to freeze an account, although I think they already do have to, like for warrants.
- 4degrees, on 03/02/2009, -1/+2give the government and any police outfit a "***** you", check.
- theutopian, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1I think you're thinking of the Swedes.
- mclewell, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1I used to work for a small credit union and there was an incident where the local police froze an account there. That account was actually one of the main holdings and operational accounts for the credit union. Its kind of hard to run a credit union when all the ATM's and credit cards stop working for all customers and employees. It tuned out that someone within the police department missed typed the account number.
- hooyeah123, on 03/10/2009, -0/+1only if they are prostitutes
- crystalmonae, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1Swiss Accounts may be a good option if we keep on this downward spiral!
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1Who's the criminal in this case, the tax evader or the government? I ask because only one is taking something that isn't theirs.
- nukeleearr, on 03/02/2009, -1/+2What an ignorant statement, even if it is partially correct
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1When you are buying stuff from Bestbuy, is Bestbuy entitled to know your income and bank information? How is this different from collectively paying tax to buy public service from the government?
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1Swiss bank would not even take a couple of thousand, minimum is like 100k to open an account.
- jnav121, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1or the swiss franc withdraws from the IMF and purchases more gold to back up it's currency like it's doing now.
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1I don't know, money is awesome. The more I have, the better my standard of living gets and my life becomes enhanced.
Seriously, go eat your words. Go live on the street like a bum and live it up. - xprojects, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1Are you one of the same people that supports The Pirate Bay? Got to love double-standards. Even if you're not, chances are 99% of the people in this thread do.
- inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1don't call me Shirley
- nerfman, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1Right! Who cares about murderers and rapists when people are stealing precious precious MONEY
- rigelt, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1They don't bring the money here to Switzerland because of the interest rates - what the heck are you talking about? Swiss banks sell sort of a "we take care of everything" package to the wealthy ones: bring us the money we take care of the rest (investment, deposit, tax issues etc.) Services for rich people are fundamentally different from services for us poor guys.
- rigelt, on 03/02/2009, -0/+1I have to double what Aixxt says ... one of the best comments I ever read on digg! Being swiss it didn't even appear to me, that one can put it in such a simple sentence.
- ihavefrowned, on 03/02/2009, -0/+0Chocolates and cheese are synonymous with secrecy? Shhh, eat this cheese, but be quiet.
- portnoy, on 03/02/2009, -1/+1Since the government makes that determination the answer is pretty easy. The evader is the criminal.
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