Swiss SAGA

摘要

Switzerland, said Scott Fitzgerald, is a country where very few things begin but many things end. In reality, it's rather an inventive place. Think watches, precision engineering, fine textiles, chocolate. Think almost all things gold - refining, manufacturing, trading, banking. And an elaborate grass-roots democracy in which consensus lives, consultation is routine. These are also Swiss specialities. True, the Gold Standard is among the things that ended there. But the way in which the Swiss have set about unravelling their ties with this particular past is a textbook beginning. Long after the rest of the world had abandoned gold as centrepiece of the monetary system, the Swiss finally broke with that tradition last year. Within weeks they are likely to set in train the biggest sale of central bank gold in history. The way they got to this point, and how they get to the next, is shaping up as quite a story. A story of how to manage major shifts in policy -and their consequences.