Biden’s Delaware: Making Swiss Banking Look Hyper-Clean
by Beat Guldimann On November 1, 2009, the London-based "Tax Justice Network" (TJN) released its "Financial Secrecy Index" listing jurisdictions globally according to the rating they received in a...
View ArticleIs High Noon Looming?
by Beat Guldimann Policymakers of all stripes are trying their very best to avoid the mistakes made in the Great Depression and thereafter. And so they should — after all, the miserable state of the...
View ArticleShorting Greece — Or the World?
by Beat Guldimann Giorgos Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister since October 2009, is the youngest member of a political dynasty that has so far produced three prime ministers in as many generations....
View ArticleItaly After Berlusconi
by Beat Guldimann The Italians have a knack for pathos and tragedy. After all, Italy has given the world the gift of Giuseppe Verdi and Gioachino Rossini. No other culture has ever managed to match the...
View ArticleGermany at the Gates?
by Beat Guldimann Several years ago, a comical chain email emanating from Britain made the rounds, poking fun at how the English language would evolve if the Germans were to take over the world. Today,...
View ArticleThe World in 2062: Who Will Lead Us There?
by Beat Guldimann The year 2062 is far away and many of us may not live to see it. I for one would be 105 years old — an improbable but certainly not impossible age to reach. Actuaries of all stripes...
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Facebook — Not a Disaster, Just a Tale of Old-Fashioned Greed
by Beat Guldimann Mark Zuckerberg has finally done it. Facebook went public in an initial public offering (IPO) that valued the company at over one hundred times earnings at an initial offering price...
View ArticleToday’s Number: 10,000 (Lost Jobs at UBS)
by Beat Guldimann I don’t particularly like American TV, but “Out Front,” on the cable channel CNN, is hands down my favorite news show on the tube. Erin Burnett, the program’s host, presents a daily...
View ArticleToday’s Number: $6 Billion to Elect a President
by Beat Guldimann After all the chips, chits and (hanging) chads are counted and voters in the United States have finally decided who will lead their country for the next four years, the total amount...
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Profiting from Failure at BlackBerry
by Beat Guldimann Few cases demonstrate the misguided compensation packages for corporate executives more grossly and grotesquely than the $55 million payout that the CEO of BlackBerry is about to...
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CEO Pay: A Swiss Rebellion
by Beat Guldimann Switzerland is an unlikely place to start a global revolution. And it is even unlikelier that such a Swiss-made revolution would seek to attack one of the citadels of Western-style...
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A Tale of Three Americas
by Beat Guldimann Julius Caesar’s treatise on the war that the Roman Empire fought against the Gauls famously starts with the words: “All Gaul is divided into three parts.” The same is true for the...
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After Crimea: What Next, in Five Steps
by Beat Guldimann 1. The United States As for the United States, saber rattling is misplaced as an instrument to find a diplomatic solution to the highly complex situation in Eastern Europe. Even more...
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Greece: Next Stop Russia?
By Beat GuldimannWhat are the chances of Tsipras and Putin becoming allies? You almost have to believe that pigs can fly to buy into the notion of a fiscally responsible government in Athens. It...
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Trudeau’s Brave New Canada
By Beat GuldimannA preview of Canada’s national and global agenda under its new government. In the days leading up to the Canadian federal election 2015, pundits and pollsters had gotten the basic...
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Tipping Point in Europe
By Beat GuldimannWill the Paris attacks legitimize extreme populist politics in the eyes of the EU public?ISIS will relentlessly increase its barbaric terror mission against the West. Reports that some...
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United States: Primary Lunacy
By Beat GuldimannWill the United States ever return to government “Of the People, By the People, For the People”? With the Democratic and Republican primaries in full swing, the spectacle on American...
View ArticleBiden’s Delaware: Making Swiss Banking Look Hyper-Clean
On November 1, 2009, the London-based "Tax Justice Network" (TJN) released its "Financial Secrecy Index" listing jurisdictions globally according to the rating they received in a dozen categories...
View ArticleIs High Noon Looming?
Policymakers of all stripes are trying their very best to avoid the mistakes made in the Great Depression and thereafter. And so they should — after all, the miserable state of the economy in the early...
View ArticleShorting Greece — Or the World?
Giorgos Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister since October 2009, is the youngest member of a political dynasty that has so far produced three prime ministers in as many generations. “George” was born in...
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