GUWonder

That adage really doesn't hold true any more, particularly when this is an issue of government ownership of debt.

Why would anyone assume this is driven for getting information merely about US tax evaders? Most Americans' accounts abroad have nothing to do with evading US taxes and Switzerland is nothing special. The US and UK are a much bigger home for foreign tax evaders' money than Switzerland.

The image of Americans abroad being a wealthy group who aren't paying their fair share to the US government is as ugly a stereotype as any that exists and reeks of not only class warfare but also xenophobia. Thus it's really no surprise that so few Americans are critical of the US government's extraterritorial adventures, including unlawful acts by the US government abroad.

This kind of situation of a country pressuring foreign parties is not that much different than the Chinese government pressuring foreign companies or governments to turn over information on those Chinese and other people unpopular with the Chinese government -- except that in this situation the US is pressuring foreign governments and other foreign parties to gather and make accessible far more information that intrudes upon the privacy rights of individuals who may not even have a material nexus with the US, a country applying pressure on foreign parties for who knows what reasons other than to make servants of yet more free persons in the US and abroad.

catandmouse

It's gone so far that most Swiss banks will no longer operate bank accounts for US citizens living in Switzerland. Many of them have had their accounts closed. The very large majority of these US citizens are perfectly normal people who happen to live outside the US. The vast majority of Swiss banks simply do not want to have the hassle of trying to comply with US regulations that are complex (think 1000s of pages) and contradictory. In an increasingly cashless society it's putting a significant number of innocent people into practical difficulties.

nachtnebel

It's a mistake to see the world as if it were Sweden, which has gone mostly cashless. There will always be something that serves as physical currency. In some locales in the US, bottles of Tide are being used as currency, with a corresponding rise in theft of that nondescript item.

With regard to the US power to dictate to other countries such as telling the Swiss what they have to do wrt US persons, this power has come from the use of the US dollar as the world reserve currency, and the US power over financial systems. The US has wielded this power without mercy and now in the Iran conflict has used it on friendly countries and other emerging and strong economies of Asia. This is forcing them to up their timetable for getting out of the dollar and taking control of their own destiny, as described in this article by Alasdair Macleod.

MAN-MAN

As others have said, something is seriously wrong in the relationship when Swiss banks are closing the accounts of US Customers. I know this for fact from personal American friends here in Zurich.

IMO, Switzerland should be regarded as a friend of the USA and vice-versa.
We don't want these disputes, but we cannot just do exactly what USA demands in terms of biometric data transfer.

It is a breach of Swiss soverign Law.
We cannot do it.

Is it all because of this woman's husband's brother?

http://tel.search.ch/?was=binladin

GUWonder

The US wanted biometric information of foreign nationals even when that woman's brother-in-law-to-be was on the same side as the US government and was being green-lighted by the US and Saudi Arabia and otherwise directly assisted by the US's bed-buddies in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

stifle

Is that not more to do with FATCA?

GUWonder

FATCA hasn't even been fully implemented, and that kind of behavior of banks treating US customers living abroad as if black sheep already started. [German, British, Swiss and Dutch banks have gotten into this action before even legally required to do this aspect of the US Government's financial record spying business for it.]

What started taking place even before FATCA has gone into full force is the US demanding that foreign governments ignore their own laws and rubber stamp (or otherwise paper legalization of) that which grants the US direct or indirect ways to violate the privacy and other civil liberties rights of persons abroad or from abroad.

GUWonder

The US had made VWP inclusion contingent upon the participating countries issuing only advanced biometric passports when it comes to ordinary passports issued by such VWP-participating/-seeking countries. Are there any countries that are still holdouts and didn't surrender to such kind of US Government blackmail?

Most of those VWP country consulates in the US -- speaking of those which used to issue passports ten years ago -- now seem to refuse to issue passports to their citizens in the US, thus increasingly driving up the costs for their citizens resident or visiting in the US to get a non-US passport. Are there any countries that were effective in telling the USG to go pound sand on this matter and are still in the VWP?