UBS, Hadron collider, Economy, Friends in high places

UBS bank may be threatening to move its headquarters out of Switzerland if the Swiss authorities impose too many new regulations in the wake of the global financial crisis.

According to Sonntag Zeitung, UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel made the threat in a Zurich speech to businessmen on Thursday, citing the possibility that authorities would force major banks to reorganize as holding companies.

Following the Swiss government’s 6 billion Swiss franc bailout of UBS last year, there have been calls for tougher regulatory banking standards – this includes forcing large banks to operate as holding companies.

A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

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The Large Hadron Collider is operational again - and yesterday the world’s largest atom smasher broke the record for proton acceleration.  According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which operates the collider, Hadron sent beams of particles at 1.2 trillion electron volts. This eclipsed the previous record of just under 1 trillion electron volts at another collider in the US . 

The Large Hadron Collider is located near Geneva and is intended help answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics.  It was shut down last year shortly after its debut because of problems with its superconducting magnets.

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Good news on the economic front – it seems that Switzerland is coming out of the  recession in a very solid way.  Seco, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, is reporting that the economy increased by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, compared to a drop of 1.3 percent last year.

Seco says that the economic growth is solid because it occurred in different sectors and that this quarter of growth after six negative quarters. Private consumption remains robust, growing by 0.6 per cent, and exports and even financial services are on the rise.  

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And finally, the prison release of film director Roman Polanski may have benefited by help from French president Nicholas Sarkozy.  Following news that Polanski will soon be released from a Swiss prison, Polanski’s sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told a Paris newspaper that Sarkozy’s efforts had been “very effective.“

Last week, Swiss authorities agreed toa $4.5 million bail arrangement on the condition that Polanski remains under house.  If released, he would remain at his home in Gstaad.  

New of Sarkozy’s intervention surprised few people, because Sarkozy expressed outrage after the director, who lives in France , was arrested in October at the Zurich airport on an outstanding U.S. arrest warrant. The London Times speculated that Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, may have pressured her husband to intervene because she used to hob nob with Polanski and wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

Despite the release, Polanski is still embroiled in a legal fight over whether he will be extradited to the US.