I’ll tell you about the American suicide bombers of Credit Suisse
The role of America and the Credit Suisse case. Facts, links and analyses. The deepening of Teo Dalaveracuras
On Credit Suisse, pragmatically, 'is also another story that must be kept in mind, considering that in the final analysis the one applied by the clan leaders of Credit Suisse is nothing but the opportunistic and self-referential ethics shared by the CEO capitalism – (to use a concept dear to Riccardo Ruggeri whose adherence to reality is daily confirmed by the facts) and, ultimately, of any bureaucratic body.
It is the story of the battle waged and quickly won by the United States to force Switzerland to divest itself of its main financial marketing asset, consisting of banking secrecy, which to some extent forced the big banks to throw themselves into the investment banking adventure. There is no doubt, in fact, that the "Swiss bank" of Credit Suisse is still today a largely profitable company while transatlantic affairs have repeatedly turned into bloodbaths for shareholders. The fact that UBS itself, which today "saves" Credit Suisse, was saved fifteen years ago by public money (at the height of 40 billion francs if I remember correctly) to prevent it from sinking into the subprime quagmire would mean something. which large American banks had promptly unloaded on their European counterparts.
Therefore, it is reasonable to consider subordination to US hegemony (declined above the table by promoting international legislation inspired by transparency and below the table with criminal proceedings related to the enforcement of American tax legislation which, like almost everything in America, is always open to negotiation, provided that she is a billionaire) among the factors in the fall of the eponymous bank of the Confederation.
After all, this chapter of history is not finished. A few weeks ago Scott Miller, the US ambassador in Bern, gave a long interview to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in which he invited Switzerland to get involved in freezing far more than the 7 billion euro seized so far from presumed oligarchs and/or Vladimir figureheads Putin, speaking of the possibility of reaching 50-100 billion, also reiterating the exhortation for Switzerland to join the international task force which is studying ways of converting seizures into confiscations so as to allocate the expropriated capital to the reconstruction of Ukraine (a a request which, if accepted, would cause the Confederation to lose the last semblance of the neutrality on which it has built its fortunes over the last two hundred years). All this, and much more, "suggested" by Miller with a tone more of a proconsul than an ambassador.
The USA – never superfluous to repeat it in a country like Italy where the "charge" of "anti-Americanism" constantly hovers in the absence of better arguments – project their power where and how it is possible for them to do so, and this is the duty of American leaders , is what they are paid for. The fact is that this projection of power has different consequences where the conditions exist for speaking of sovereignty (for example in Turkey) compared to where these conditions do not exist, and we must calmly acknowledge that these conditions do not exist in Europe. This is to say that it is not important to "judge" the pressure exerted – in this case by the ambassador – but it should be kept in mind because it is a very significant variable in understanding the context in which today's rescue of Credit Suisse is placed.
Switzerland is in Europe, but unlike the countries of the European Union which have let a large part of political power migrate to an administrative structure such as the European Commission (whose top management, Mrs Ursula von der Leyen, has just returned from a pilgrimage to White House) is still a country with at least a piece of democratic backbone: for example, with a press that retains a certain professional dignity. So, even if highly improbable, it is not impossible that the Confederation could reserve surprises. Of course, for there to be genuine surprises, the tranquil anger of the people and of a part of the elite would need to be transformed into a "collective movement", but the mass media system counts in these processes. I noted above that the Swiss press has dignity, but that doesn't mean it operates in a vacuum. Not to mention that the Swiss economy thrives on exports in a world that – albeit in the name of liberal democracy – has decidedly turned towards protectionism.
Regardless of how one mourns the loss of Credit Suisse, imagining a future of growing prosperity for Switzerland's banking ecosystem is not easy.
(Second and last part; the first part can be read here)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/vi-racconto-le-americanate-suicide-del-credit-suisse/ on Sun, 26 Mar 2023 05:47:19 +0000.