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The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

swissinfo.ch

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Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#21

Post by chmars »

ceejayoz wrote: post #9
Kenji wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has worked at a Swiss bank: This might have applied a couple of decades ago. Especially in the last decade, Swiss banks introduced rules to overcome this problem with international customers. Smaller banks started to turn down US customers right away (like the one I worked at). It has become dangerous for bank employees and banks themselves to support criminals like you mention. There is zero tolerance…

To my knowledge, these rules came from intense diplomatic pressure from the US, not from some internal realization that it wasn't ethical. I wouldn't be at all shocked if subtler approaches to dealing with tainted money have been adopted.

Yeah, and now US banks and Delaware-based entities are in the same business … cui bono?

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#22

Post by zigzigzag »

dominotw wrote: post #11
eli wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that still the case? I thought Swiss secrecy isn't what it used to be. Anyway, some people would argue that strong privacy protections are a good thing even if they help bad guys.

Don't you think they can just wipe the slate clean of decades of money laundering with zero consequences? What about millions of lives that were lost/affected by this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_black_money#Black_money...

What about the people who actually did it or allowed it in those countries? Aren't they the ones to blame?

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#24

Post by digi_owl »

johansch wrote: post #17
Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's totally normal to have peace-time usage for bunkers. Here's one underground bunker being used as swimming hall in Finland. http://mirstran.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/bassein.jpg Actually bunkers are plentiful in Finland because building those is mandatory. Not many countries build bunkers as much as Finland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-raid_shelter#Finland Also subway tunnels and underground parking ha…

You guys are even closer to the russians, and have actually fought with them within the last 100 years...

At the same time they stay out of NATO etc to avoid poking the bear...

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#26

Post by chiph »

finid wrote: post #23

From the comments, it seems there are bunkers designed for the masses in many European countries, but none in the USA. There has to be at least one, right?

Not sure about "many" European countries. Switzerland is certainly the only one who went to extremes on it.

"None" is the wrong answer for the US as well (but the number might be approaching it). In the 50's and 60's the Civil Defense group published books on how to convert a basement into a shelter, or dig one in the back yard. Faced with the immense cost of building community shelters, they instead went about identifying which buildings would be designated as shelters (with minimal-if-any engineering work to see if they'd hold up under the air pressure of a nearby blast). You would see the shelter signs pretty frequently, along with their designed occupancy. A few shelters were stocked with food, water, radios, Geiger counters, and so on. But even that expense was deemed too great. These days the signs are very rare.

Oh, and lots of propaganda films were produced to assure people that nuclear war was survivable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3HOaU9E5U

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#27

Post by david927 »

badminton1 wrote: post #3
carsongross wrote: post #2

The swiss are an inspiration. I hope that the swiss spirit is not submerged in the ever-rising tide of internationalism.

Swiss bank secrecy is in part what allows criminals and dictators around the world to ruin and enslave entire nations for money.

I might have worked for the largest Swiss bank and was responsible for the software that ran their Financial Investigation Unit. This entire department had the mandate to investigate large deposits and accounts to ensure that there was no link to nefarious sources. The reasoning was that they would rather not have the income than be linked to any "criminal or dictator".

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, and it definitely did happen, but Switzerland is no longer the place where dark money is hidden -- that's moved on.

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#28

Post by bkkk »

The cellar of my home in Switzerland also acts as a bunker and has massive concrete doors (0.5m thick). When I was a kid, inspectors came by to check that enough water and food was stocked and not too much stuff inside the cellar. There was also a list of which bunkerless neighbour you have to host in case of emergency.

Re: The forgotten underground world of Swiss bunkers

#29

Post by microtherion »

eli wrote: post #4
badminton1 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swiss bank secrecy is in part what allows criminals and dictators around the world to ruin and enslave entire nations for money.

Is that still the case? I thought Swiss secrecy isn't what it used to be. Anyway, some people would argue that strong privacy protections are a good thing even if they help bad guys.

According to Swiss bankers, thanks to the FATCA agreement, the best place to do shady banking these days is… the US (specifically Delaware).
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