Submitted by Kl--------k t3_12115vx in nottheonion
Comments
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdk6uyl wrote
"I'm not a pirate, I'm a privateer! We don't say things like RRR, thar she blows. We just say; give us your booty. Of course the raping and pillaging part is the same. That's just standard procedure, really."
halfanothersdozen t1_jdk1x71 wrote
No that's not all it's for. Also good for dodging taxes.
See also Bitcoin
Uncle_Budy t1_jdk2erh wrote
Don't forget Nazi gold
Namika t1_jdli2mj wrote
Not anymore. The US and EU have an agreement to look through the Swiss banks' books as if it was a domestic bank.
If you want to hide your money you have to put it in a Chinese or Russian bank, but those have their own issues...
AurumArgenteus t1_jdm8qy2 wrote
Don't forget Ireland, holder of many US corporate patents for some reason. Perhaps Apple can tell us why... Ireland has super low corporate taxes so Apple Ireland owns the IP, but they don't do anything, instead Apple licenses the IP from themselves for huge sums lowering their domestic profits, lowering total taxes, and increasing total after-tax profit.
And the Cayman islands and probably tons more less overt ways. Like housing, a ton of AirBnB places are actually just foreign investor properties used to hide/move money.
WaytoomanyUIDs t1_jecglaw wrote
Russians mobsters and kleptocrats bank in Cyprus and Azerbaijan these days.
fazhenda t1_jdlg7p1 wrote
That would be the London luxury real estate market
EuroManFuture t1_jdmvdq4 wrote
I’m 50% swiss and gosh why do we always have to talk about stolen gold when we speak about Switzerland 😂😂😂
idler_JP t1_jdn1nfh wrote
Toblerone: gold, chocolate, mountains
Switzerland: gold, chocolate, mountains
EuroManFuture t1_jdnq1q6 wrote
I do not have any argument against that, so I’ll just cry in silence
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdk7pt7 wrote
It's annoying that the real problem with banking isn't being addressed, and everyone is going about and using this latest "crisis" as an excuse to push their agendas.
The Fed, raising interests rates -- how does that help? The people buying up all the homes don't need a damn loan, they are busy using up huge piles of cash to create local monopolies. So -- that bunch of bull managed to stick and now they've got to have some new crisis for opportunists with lots of money.
So now we've got this new bank crisis. When the REAL problem that caused the "crisis" at SVB is that a few people can pull over $40 billion out of an account all of a sudden. And it's really crazy that the bankers have no control over that. They weren't insolvent. They weren't broke. They just couldn't cough up that much cash because some billionaires were spooked by some other billionaire yelling "recession!" And how do you get a recession? People don't want to spend money. Their efforts to stop inflation are ignoring that there isn't any inflation -- it's also a bunch of people with too much money and power, in a "marketplace" that isn't really competitive, and they can just raise their prices. Because they like money.
It makes me want to scream how much everyone is expertly ignoring the actual problems these days. And how many people buy it.
plumquat t1_jdku1xq wrote
The fed is raising interest rates to trigger a recession to lower inflation. They made a power point, everyone clapped. The news is telling us to eat our medicine.
The other way to lower inflation is to raise taxes on the rich.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdrt48x wrote
>“ The other way to lower inflation is to raise taxes on the rich.”
It’s funny how you and I know a simple slam dunk solution but it’s these people spouting complex spells of finance who get to talk to the press or make the decisions.
I can see the meeting now; “Sure, raising taxes would reduce spending by the wealthy, and raises for the poor would definitely increase spending if we go into a recession— but is their any OTHER way to deal with this that doesn’t hurt the rich or help the poor— think Dammit—THINK!”
Resident-Librarian40 t1_jdmj9ew wrote
Inflation at this point is all fake. All those companies that hiked costs saw huge profits. Even egg prices were artificially inflated.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdruhm3 wrote
Maybe not the eggs. But, it was everything that got manipulated. Even something simple like soda nearly doubled. Even if the price of energy doubles and maybe the price of their ingredients (it didn’t)— so it goes from 15 cents to 30 cents — where did the other dollar go on the hike of the price of two liters of soda go? Into profits.
There are just a few companies who control most of the goods we consume and they might have a bunch of labels — but they aren’t really in competition. And the grocery stores are merely outlets grabbing pennies.
Buying a meal at a drive through now costs the same as a meal at a restaurant— how do they manage not to coordinate a higher fee of McDonalds and Burger King are struggling?
And the idiots who think wages going up 3 percent caused a 20% rise in cost of goods sold — well, they are the perfect consumers, the product of extensive training in economics by the US corporate media.
Resident-Librarian40 t1_jdse4xk wrote
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdvd4d9 wrote
Shit! I was going to say that Eggs were the one exception to prove the rule, because I didn't want to sound absolutist. So .... damn, there isn't ANYTHING that wasn't just jacked up because the cartels like money?
Even those gas prices -- we never saw when Oil costed more per barrel years ago, and they didn't get that gas tax taken off -- so, it was mostly a money grab.
The fact that it is also happening around the world just means these multinationals are coordinating. They just raise prices, the media points to a bunch of things, and the fact that the people who raised the prices own most of the media doesn't get on the evening news. The masses go "baaa baaa" and blame the fact that they had the temerity to ask for a raise after over a decade.
Resident-Librarian40 t1_jdxf5ey wrote
It’s all Capitalist greed, exploiting the masses so one percenters can admire extra zeros on their bank statements.
718% profit for one company!
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html
FNLN_taken t1_jdotkb7 wrote
The fed can't raise taxes. They have said, pretty explicitly, "If noone else is going to do anything useful, we are going to have to do what we can".
Biden has proposed increasing capital gains tax, but for one congress moves too slow, and secondly the republicans will block it anyways.
Raising interest rates does affect large borrowers more, and most large-scale transactions are debt financed. It's not ideal for specific problems, like the housing market, but it will achieve the goal of cooling the economy.
[deleted] t1_jdpe2pk wrote
[deleted]
FNLN_taken t1_jdpeypn wrote
I'm just another wage slave who's spending power has decreased by 10% in half a year, I am just going off what can be learned from what economists say and what seems reasonable to expect from past experiences. Pretty much just as you do.
I just don't see, specifically regarding the fed rates, what else they could have done; because pumping trillions more into the banks is exactly what ended us up here.
[deleted] t1_jdpl19f wrote
[deleted]
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdrutla wrote
The Fed— the outfit that is always run by the most successful crooks at Goldman Sachs. Oh darn, they can’t raise taxes but they can increase interest rates— that did not stop the buying of property because those big investors don’t need to take out loans.
They are either clueless or part of the problem.
IhoujinDesu t1_je9aopk wrote
Sure the government can raise taxes, as they should for numerous reasons. But The Federal Reserve is not controlled by the government. They will do their own thing.
EspHack t1_jdl83d2 wrote
and the rich throw taxes back at the poor with more inflated stuff
​
wait till you realize how nonsensical this argument is, it is the rich that tax and rule you
plumquat t1_jdlcyls wrote
progressive taxation?
EspHack t1_jdo2p4p wrote
let me try again
if you're powerful enough to make rich people pay, then you're also the rich people you're trying to tax
money and power are the same thing, its not a just a catchy phrase, money buys politics and politics makes money
plumquat t1_jdo79f3 wrote
Right we have to recapture the IRS and a majority in Congress, I understand that. That's why the fed is creating a recession because we cant lower inflation with an act of Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy because they're already owned.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdrvbp4 wrote
The Fed works for the bankers and Wall Street. All of their moves at all times are for the benefit of the .1%. That’s it. Same with the FBI.
The only time you get Justice is when someone following the rules doesn’t know any better and thought the lies they were told about justice were real.
Skivvy t1_jdkdh4v wrote
Well said Bill
mrsmoose123 t1_jdliqg2 wrote
Now that is an illuminating summary. Wish you were writing for the FT or Washington Post or one of those, but as you point out, unlikely under current conditions.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdrshyd wrote
There is a reason for who gets promoted or doesn’t in journalism and it’s that instinct to be the dumbest person in the room if you want a shot at being an anchor.
Silver_gobo t1_jdmmwys wrote
If people pulling their money out of the bank causes a crisis, maybe they shouldn’t have locked up so much of peoples money in shitty 10 year bonds…
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdrs92a wrote
So, how many banks do you think could cough up $43 billion in three days?
This is the same media that told us our inflation was caused by wages and ignored the record profits. You aren’t even making it difficult to be fooled.
Silver_gobo t1_jds3yfo wrote
All things in the banks control… why you simping so hard for the back right now
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jdvi2hv wrote
It's not "simping" to recognize that the banks (assume that's what you were saying instead of "back") in general cannot shell out 40 billion plus dollars in a week.
The big banks are part of another problem, but, not everyone is part of a cabal or is even aware they are helping one.
AUWarEagle82 t1_jdkk5ry wrote
Too big to fail! I'm concerned things are likely to get worse before they get better.
buzzothefuzzo t1_jdkqoph wrote
hahaha how naive, as if things get better... always trending downward.
VoDoka t1_jdl7ubp wrote
Things get worse before they get better not...
A_Polly t1_je0osw7 wrote
now we have a new one in Switzerland. To big to bail.
doned_mest_up t1_jdl4jtp wrote
Comparing market cap to gdp is like comparing a distance to a speed limit.
MR___SLAVE t1_jdldnhi wrote
It's not the market cap that they are talking about, it's the value of the total assets in the bank that is double the GDP of Switzerland. UBS is managing 1.7 trillion in assets.
DennisHakkie t1_jdliqof wrote
And is that a problem? It’s a bank with customers all over the world…
Silver_gobo t1_jdmn98b wrote
The bank is getting so big that if they needed some kind of bailout, Switzerland alone would be hard pressed to do that. If they didn’t do the bailout the bank is so big the ripple effect is global. A problem is the bank getting out of arms reach of governance
DennisHakkie t1_jdmnsh6 wrote
That sounds pretty reasonable and an angle I wouldn’t have thought of. Thanks!
MR___SLAVE t1_jdllz9w wrote
No, but "market cap" is a completely different thing from what the article was referring to with regard to the "double the GDP" remark.
Glenster118 t1_jdljxu3 wrote
You're not comparing like with like.
The assets of the bank are twice as big as the GDP of Switzerland? And?
In other news my love for you is bigger than 8 football fields.
jedevari t1_jdnvdgs wrote
Don't worry
Once USB-CS fails, they can always merge with Deutsche-Santander or Goldman Fargo to make a super mega hyper bank
ReverbDragon t1_jdrgicj wrote
One bank to rule them all!!
Inconceivable-2020 t1_jdruz1q wrote
Twice the size of the legal economy. A tenth the size of the money laundering and arms financing economy
ArticulateAquarium t1_jdlclay wrote
That Saudi guy screwed himself, lol "We are a major shareholder and we know it's a terrible bank" - share price collapses. What a stupid idiot!
Bawbawian t1_jdjwosr wrote
I mean I'm ignorant as fuck.
but it definitely seems like Swiss banking is only a way to launder money and hide stolen assets.