Moderation in all things?
Immoderate banking wobbles, moderate results at the WEF, moderation owing to the debt brake, and a moderate separation between work and leisure: this is what HSG experts have been talking about in the media.
3 February 2012 The banking wobbles have provided the Swiss media with topics for discussion in the last few weeks. A month after the lawsuit against three former members of staff of Bank Wegelin, the US Department of Justice also brought a lawsuit against the Eastern Swiss bank, as was reported in the online magazine, Cash, among others.
No francs for commercial banks
The Basler Zeitung wondered whether the Swiss National Bank might put up a protective umbrella over the “threatened banks” (1 February 2012). Martin Brown, HSG Professor of Banking, doubted whether the National Bank would feel compelled to take such steps. According to this financial expert, the SNB usually only grants last-instance credit in Swiss francs. One exception was the financial crisis, at the height of which the SNB also made dollar liquidity available to commercial banks. However, that particular action took place in cooperation with the central banks – the kind of cooperation in partnership which the SNB is unlikely to jeopardise with protective measures for the benefit of asset managers, says Brown.
Davos 2012: underestimated or overestimated impact?
The World Economic Forum again raised high expectations at the time of the European debt crisis, too. Now, did the WEF really move the world or was it ultimately still only a vanity fair? As usual, the truth was somewhere in between, says HSG economist Peter Gomez in a column (St.Galler Tagblatt, 28 January 2012). World trade expert Simon Evenett’s assessment of the situation after the conclusion of the Forum was somewhat gloomier : “Tempting as it may be to admire the gall of "Davos Man", 2012 was the year when they finally admitted they didn't have all the answers “, he said in an online comment (3 February 2012).
Switzerland is profiting from the debt brake
While the debt crisis is continuing, the Eurozone countries are persisting in their infringement of the Maastricht criteria. None of the countries has had to accept a financial penalty yet, it said in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung (3 February 2012). “At the time of the 2002-2008 boom, the EU countries failed to reduce their debts. When the financial crisis broke out, the impact of the structural deficits could be felt in full force”, St.Gallen’s Economics Professor Reto Föllmi described the status quo. Switzerland was in a better position than the euro countries, he continued: the debt brake, which 84.7 per cent of the voting population approved in 2001, was now coming into its own. Despite the financial crises, Switzerland has been able to report surplus after surplus in the last few years.
The more opaque the development of the economy and the financial market, the more important an understanding of economic matters becomes, said business education expert Rolf Dubs on Swiss Radio DRS (30 January 2012). Society was becoming increasingly divided: “People who have a basic knowledge tend to be more and more interested in economic matters, and those who didn’t have much interest in the first place will no longer be able to decide what’s right and wrong in the end.” Dubs pleaded for well-qualified teachers who are able to communicate the subjects of business and economics in such a way that “they are not full of errors and dogma.”
Misconduct in the “Hildebrand case”
Philipp Hildebrand’s resignation and the turbulences surrounding the National Bank gave rise to the apprehension that the appreciation pressure on the Swiss franc would continue and the upper price limit of 1.20 in relation to the euro could no longer be maintained. In an interview with Swiss Radio DRS (Wirtschaftswoche, 20 January 2012), the HSG Economics Professor Monika Bütler, who is a member of the Bank Council, expressed confidence: the National Bank, she said, unanimously supported the target price, and Hildebrand’s resignation would change absolutely nothing. However, she was worried about developments in the European debt crisis. All those involved had been guilty of moral misconduct in the “Hildebrand case” – from the time of the currency transactions until his resignation. This was what business ethics expert Florian Wettstein said in an interview with SF Online (10 January 2012).
Work as part of life instead of “life on, job off”
The fact that the modern work ethic does not always have a positive impact on people and companies was expressed in various reports on the (still-to-be-defined) term, “burnout”. The principle of “time versus money” was obsolete, said the Tages Woche (27 January 2012). The crux: there was still no better model for the measurement of work performance. “Kill your work life balance”, the Tages-Anzeiger Magazin had already titled the strict separation of work and leisure in late 2011. HSG Philosophy Professor Dieter Thomä argued that professional life should not be regarded as a mere “job”. In a column, he proposed that the term “work/life balance” should be chosen as the non-word of the year and that gainful employment should (again) be conceived of as a meaningful part of life.
Photo: Photocase / Zabalotta