http://occupyparadeplatz.ch

Anyone else here also interested in the recent 'rage against the machine' kind of movements ?

Nope, not at all.

If I were back home in the U.S. then yes. Here is Switzerland? no.

I fail to find any references or information sources on the occupy Paradeplatz's claims (like 1% owning 50% of wealth in CH), you would figure they'd put a link to where their claims can be verified.

I fail to see a parallel between what's going on in the U.S. and the situation in Switzerland.

....and honestly, which Swiss person writes "ß" instead of "ss"?!

After all of the threads claiming that living on CHF100k is the equivalent of living in poverty, I just assumed that everyone on EF was in the 1%.

Aren't they?

Not in the slightest.

Definitely. Just remind me....what are we trying to achieve?

No thanks. Why would I protest against the very motor that powers this economy? I may dislike some things about this country, but I certainly won't act against the very hand that feeds me and others (be it directly or indirectly).

If they are throwing bike saddles around again, I might come down and watch...

Without a doubt, I'll take any chance to weaken our competition at Paradeplatz

Sorry, not today. And, to be honest, tomorrow looks pretty bad too, not to mention the rest of the week and way into next month. I've got to keep my own machine running, you know. That's what self-employment is about.

You
A) would not protest against the "motor" but against the vampyrs and parasytes who profit from the economy
B) and you would not protest against the banks in general anyway, but against practices which developed in the past two decades
C) you would protest against a mentality which means that losses are handed over to "the state" but profits retained

They did not throw bike saddles around last time ! And so cannot do so "again" ! You mix something up here .....

I mean that minor kick-off they had in Zurich about two months ago. Bins set alight and, for some odd reason, bicycle saddles removed from bikes and thrown around.

Odd choice of vandalism but funny, nonetheless (unless it was your bike, of course).

I am planning to participate in the demonstration while sitting outside at Sprüngli all day. This must be the best way of protest in history

I had an interesting experience last Saturday.

I was by chance in Zurich, and stumbled upon a rally by Turkish anti-PKK demonstrators. Ok, why the middle of Zurich Switzerland is a politically relevant place to protest the PKK is beyond me, but there they were, a couple hundred people with banners and flags, chanting and shouting. Then they decided to start marching towards Central. Next thing about a dozen police vans with at least 50 fully equipped riot police with tear gas showed up and formed a wall to stop them.

All this in plain view of the "We are the 99%" encampment up on Lindenhof. I couldn't help but feel the palpable "hey, they're stealing our fire" sentiment from the top of the hill.

Kind of like, "damn, why aren't the police paying any attention to us?". It was a bit of a farce...with a full contingent of sidewalk cafe dwellers sipping their espressos while enjoying the entertainment.

A) I prefer to think of it as a symbiotic relationship - without financial intermediaries capital cannot be efficiently allocated.
B) The Occupy Paradeplatz crew may well disagree. They're sticking it to the man
C) Happy to be corrected, but didn't Switzerland make a profit out of UBS's little liquidity problem? CS didn't need any public funding, nor did HSBC. Off the top of my head I can't think of any more banks on Paradeplatz, but I'm pretty sure they didn't socialize losses either as you imply.

That was a totally different matter. It was a party which was derailed by some chaots, and was not funny at all.

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The PKK is NOT illegal in Switzerland first of all, and while the "Turkish Repuclic of Klein-Basel" may have more Turkish residents than Zurich in total they simply realize where the "real" capital is located

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No, Switzerland made an unprecedented loss out of the re-financing of UBS. Mr Villiger will continue to "explain" this to the people, reality however is that this bank should have been sold out to whatever bidder around. There would have been many bidders for definite

That's a dead giveaway! Now it looks like they have changed it, which of course is an even bigger giveaway.

This was changed more than half a century ago

Could you post a link please showing how much the Swiss taxpayer has lost on the UBS bailout. English or German is fine, but from a reputable source (i.e. NZZ not Blick).

The Swiss government made a profit out of the share it bought in UBS, which was then invested by UBS in the "bad bank" as an equity buffer. I would be very interested to see how much the bad bank fund is now worth, whether the losses or gains are paper or realised and whether it has used it's equity buffer.