Hidden Wealth of Nations

The profits go to Bermuda, but the factories do not. The money hides in Switzerland, but it is not invested there. Capital does not move; it can simply be concealed. Europe is stealing from itself.

As we have seen, wealthy individuals do not use tax havens to let their money sleep in low-yield bank accounts; for the most part, they make financial investments.

a large part of the assets registered in Singapore or Hong Kong are in reality managed by Swiss banks, sometimes directly from Zurich and Geneva

From this figure we can learn two things. First, contrary to a tenacious legend, a bit more than 50% of the total, or around $1.3 trillion, still belongs to Europeans, and not to Russian oligarchs or African dictators.

although formally domiciled in the Virgin Islands, the shell corporations are for the most part created in Geneva; and it is Swiss bankers who advise their customers which investment funds to put their money into

Today more than 60% of accounts in Switzerland are thus held through the intermediary of shell companies headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, trusts registered in the Cayman Islands, or foundations domiciled in Liechtenstein.

They use their accounts to invest elsewhere, in the United States, Germany, or France; Swiss banks only play the role of intermediary. This is why it is absurd to think that Swiss offshore banking owes its success to the strength of the Swiss franc, to the traditionally low inflation rate prevailing in Switzerland, or to political stability, as its apologists continue to claim.

The data established by Bergier and his team show that it was in the 1920s—and not the 1930s—that the Swiss “big bang”