To Bring News To A Boil

Posted on July 12, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

(And increase entropy along the way.) The pot was placed on the cooking stove shortly after noon with the brief announcement by NZZ that at 2pm CEST the Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will announce the decision regarding the U.S. request to extradite Polanski. Since, some French rejoice «Merci la Suisse! Bravo la Suisse!» while [...]

Exams Suomalaisittain

Posted on February 22, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

A note regarding the title. Suomi; Suomalainen; Suomalaisittain. The first one is easy, just point to Finland on a map. The second one is like in Suomalainen kielen, i.e. Finnish language. Now, the third one is where the fun begins. Suomalaisittain is the distributive adverbial case, one of 12 adverbial cases that exist in addition [...]

«It’s The Bank Secrecy Law, Stupid!»

Posted on February 7, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has spoken: “Switzerland’s bank secrecy law has no place in the 21st century.” For starters, what in Switzerland in German is called Bankkundengeheimnis — bank client confidentiality– is the safeguard of financial privacy, not the secrecy of the bank, as I argued almost a year ago. I’m sure Mr. Schäuble [...]

A Curious Detail

Posted on October 1, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Recently, I discovered a curious little detail about Finnish grading that seems to be true at least for the university at which I’m currently a student. The grading scale goes from 0 through 5 (best), integers only. Up to here, not a lot different to the Swiss system which goes from 1 through 6 (best) [...]

What Switzerland Is Known For: A New Chapter

Posted on September 9, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Forget about the times when Switzerland was known for chocolate, watches, cheese, mountains and the Swiss Army knife. Today the country is known for its bank secrecy, a term that is actually inaccurate. What in Switzerland in German is called Bankkundengeheimnis is more accurately translated with bank client confidentiality: The goal is financial privacy of the [...]

To Consider Or Not To Consider Foreign Law

Posted on July 11, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Today, I read the following answer given by Peter V. Kunz — professor for Business and Comparative Law at the University of Bern, Switzerland — to a question in an interview with NZZ (translated from German,) Yes, American courts can ignore Swiss law — currently, there is a pronounced tendency in the USA to deliberately [...]

On The Swiss Army

Posted on July 4, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

For the records. I’m Swiss and, overall, I did spend roughly one year in the Swiss Army, which functions according to a militia principle. I was 19 and at that time I did agree with their (not negotiable) suggestion to have me signed into corporal school. I did regret my (not negotiable) signature from the [...]

Anthony, You May Want to Take Notes

Posted on February 19, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

As Swiss citizen, today I probably ought to write a blog post on the recent evolution regarding the United States of America vs. UBS AG conflict. Having lived and worked in the US in 2008, having enjoyed a constant and mostly enriching exchange with people of diverse opinions at work and in public over an [...]

 

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