Scapegoating Swiss bank secrecy...

Repercussions continue to mount here over the deal by which Switzerland will give the names of presumptive tax evaders to the U.S. government.

I’m referring, of course, to Bern’s decision, under colossal pressure from Washington, to hand over the names of 4,450 clients of banking giant UBS, the institution accused of hiding money for American taxpayers. The U.S. wanted to confirm the identities of 52,000 suspects (it had managed to obtain about 250 names from UBS in February), but settled for fewer in order to avoid a diplomatic escalation. The Swiss government had warned that UBS would violate Swiss law if it gave in to the IRS.

Swiss public opinion is divided between those who believe that UBS betrayed the country by engaging in monkey business and others, such as Damien Cottier, from the Radical Democratic Party, who think that Washington is using UBS as a scapegoat for its unpopular rescue of U.S. financial institutions. The Swiss public is critical of UBS but resentful of outside meddling with its secrecy laws. More...

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