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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (31377)	6/3/2005 3:51:48 PM
From: regli	Respond to of 116555

>But they still have a high standard of living and a lot of individual freedom.< Switzerland and the whole of Central Europe have tremendous individual freedom. In my opinion significantly more so than in the U.S. at the present time. On the economic front, however, things look quite different. In the past 15 years Switzerland's economy has grown significantly slower than all other countries in Western Europe. The neighboring countries grew between 21% and 31% whereas Switzerland lagged badly at 14%. vernunft-schweiz.ch (German) In the last 20 years the jobless rate climbed from a consistent level below 1% to 3-4% and much higher for young people trying to enter the work force. This is particularly serious as the Swiss (and other European country's) school systems depend significantly on business for the last portion of the education process. Switzerland with its high labor costs is a prime candidate for outsourcing. Most domestic industry is forced to look at China and even when they decide not to outsource, they always are on the lookout for cheaper labor across the border like the watch industry in the French speaking Jura. I know of a watch company there where with the noted exception of the owner, all other employees are French. Though certainly many of the old privileges remain, the fact that the primary news and discussion program "Arena" talks about the possible impact of having to reduce wages across the board is evidence of the much harder times that Switzerland is facing. sfdrs.ch (German)