Swiss Army Knife

Now, here's an interesting story. It seems after last week's debacle with Swiss bank UBS copping to $780 million in fines and turning over names of Americans who allegedly used the banks to defraud the United States out of paying billions in taxes, thus breaking the secrecy of the Swiss bank account, the Swiss right-wing party has called for an economic war against the US.

The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.

The populist SVP, the country's biggest party, said Switzerland should not take in any detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which the Swiss government said last month it could consider to help shut the camp down.

Switzerland should also reconsider its policy of representing the United States in countries where it has no diplomatic presence, the parliamentary SVP said in a statement.

The SVP said gold stored by the Swiss National Bank in the United States should be repatriated and Switzerland should ban the sale of U.S. funds in the country to protect Swiss investors after the failure of U.S. regulators.

The SVP has one minister in the seven-member Swiss government which is made up of the biggest four parties, but its populist policies have shaken up usually consensual Swiss politics.

As such, the Senate hearing on the UBS tax haven scam scheduled for Tuesday has been mysteriously postponed until March.

Not sure what to make of this. The Swiss could really throw a sabot in the gears for Obama and the US if they chose to, but the Swiss, well, are the Swiss. On the other hand, going after the privacy and secrecy of the Swiss bank system is a major blow to Switzerland in general. It's something they've been using for centuries, and in this world where the global banking system is falling apart, an attack of that magnitude on Swiss banks is going to provoke a response from those who wish to see it as an economic attack on the country.

This seems to be political posturing to me. But that's just something you don't see every day, Swiss political posturing.