Switzerland Today

Greetings from Zurich!

While I’m sure your parts of the world have their charms, Switzerland continues to beguile the compilers of international rankings.

Switzerland gets top spot in the “Human Freedom Index 2022” - as I’m sure you will be pleased to learn.

This content was published on February 21, 2023 - 18:00

2 minutes

I write about the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology and its possible impacts on society. Originally from England, I spent some time at the BBC in London before moving to Switzerland to join SWI swissinfo.ch.

A half-wild cat — Keystone / Vadim Ghirda

In the news: more reserve power, fewer Swiss firms bought by the Chinese and a boom in half-wild cats

A third power plant has been nominated as an official reserve source by the government. The thermal power plant in Monthey, canton Valais, has been added to Cornaux and Birr (which has been delayed by a few weeks) to take up the slack in the event of power shortages.
The animal protection group PSA is concerned at the rising trend of people buying hybrid cats (a cross between domestic and wild species). These half-wild cats are harder to keep, leading to many being rejected by their owners.
Only three Swiss companies were bought by Chinese counterparts last year, which is a far cry from the Chinese M&A heyday of a few years ago.

Person waving Swiss flag — Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Topping the charts

Switzerland is again the world’s leading bastion of freedom, according to the ‘Human Freedom Index 2022’ compiled by the Cato and Fraser Institute think-tanks.

The ranking considered such criteria as rule of law, freedom of expression and property rights to rank the 165 countries under consideration.

Perhaps surprisingly, Russia moved five places up the list (to 119^th spot). This can be explained by the backdated nature of the research, which measured freedoms being offered (or not) in 2020.

The listExternal link also gauges the residents of Hong Kong to enjoy more freedoms than French citizens.

All in all, personal and economic freedoms took a hit between 2019 and 2020, the report states, leading to 94.3% of the world’s population being worse off – largely as a result of the pandemic.

I wonder what the authors would make of more recent global events.

Exaggerated problems?

Credit Suisse bank has apparently run into more problems. The bank’s shares dipped to a fresh low today amid media reports that the regulator has launched another probe.

The rumours centre on comments made by Credit Suisse chair Axel Lehmann to some media as he attempted to talk up the bank’s prospects in December.

Lehmann told the Financial Times and Bloomberg that client outflows had slowed to a virtual standstill following a spate of withdrawals some months earlier.

But when the bank announced its full year results on February 9, it reported a 20% fall in assets under management.

The Reuters news agency now reports that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority is reviewing the legitimacy of Lehmann’s remarks. The bank has declined to comment.

Where did it all go wrong for Credit Suisse?