After the sobering & upsetting US elections, with foreign adventures gone bad, & amid signs that America is "losing its grip on the world's money", a narrow window of opportunity avails itself for lost sovereignty, fiscal & privacy principles & rights to be recovered, fortified & implemented also in Swiss-US relations. Among Swiss lawmakers, political critical mass is obtainable for formulating & trumping the related signals urbi et orbi.. And among current & former key US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, accomodating echos & implementation measures may be put into place before the 2008 presidential elections. Essentially on 3 conditions:
1. Unless you're prepared to by-pass or overrule the official policy holders here & there: twist their arms - even if it's that of a lady - in order for them to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution.
2. Participate in a credible anti-terrorism monitoring system involving your bank's tresors.
3. Be prepared to support these special efforts with adequate coordination, feedback & funds.

    A    Currently, with regard to law novels affecting Swiss-US banking relations, the Swiss legislative pipeline contains at least three official projects which avail themselves for combining and stream-lining:
    1.    The National Council's Law Commission approved - with 12 to 6 votes, with 2 abstentions and three minority proposals - [and in June the Senate is scheduled to approve] the replacement of the secret administrative"Operative Working Arrangement" of September 4, 2002 with the Accord Suisse-Etats-Unis d’Amérique du 12 juillet 06 concernant "la constitution d’équipes communes d’enquête pour lutter contre le terrorisme et son financement"  (www.admin.ch/ch/f/ff/2006/7383.pdf; message 06.069 du 6 sep 06: .../ch/f/ff/2006/7373.pdf). The new treaty would continue to provide, in Switzerland, for US police personnel to directly "review" and "analyse" notably documents covered by Swiss secrecy protections and extracted from banks, fiduciaries, etc. - even under "false flag" & totally unfounded claims, i.e. outside of treaty-based, constitutional & legal protections against privacy abuses. Instead - and fully compatible with our national interests of a self-respecting sovereign state - we could stop drifting by retaking the initiative with discreet & effective anti-terrorism measures of our own.
    2.    On November 27/28, 2006, the National Council's Economic and Tax Commission WAK continued consideration of the financial market surveillance law FINMAG. It approved most of it but has remained open for further changes if properly advised. Notably on our proposals for significant improvements regarding FINMAG's objectives, mandates & legal assistance provisions (www.solami.com/FINMAG.htm). This appears indicated the more so as foreign investors' confidence in the Swiss legal system continues to be undermined by alarming legal assistance practices & court decisions which the PUK decried already in 1989 as "servile"  ("willfährig"; see: "Rechtshilfe oder Unrechtsbeihilfe", .../rechtsbeihilfe.htm, BGE 1A.99/2006, & critiques by Peter Popp, Dominique Poncet & Vincent Solari, and Martin Schubarth). Moreover, the SEC reportedly continues to blackmail American branches of Swiss banks into short-cutting treaty procedures. It is thus urgent to add a more effective protective layer against unwarranted disclosure of confidential bank client information, as was the purpose of the 1996 abandoned Consultative Commission. As suggested by Professor Schubarth, the FINMA might also be entrusted with that key oversight role. However, lawmakers are not here to do the bidding of subjects who are either unwilling or unable to competently define and defend their legitimate interests. Thus, in the absence of clear, timely, and determined signals from those mostly concerned in the financial community, even the most helpful, practical and indicated text improvements are not likely to attract the indispensable critical mass among divers lawmakers. Which holds true even if the lawmakers' original intent & purpose, as expressed in valid treaties, constitutional norms and legal provisions, is manifestly neglected or violated by both the Federal Administration and our Courts (.../autogoal.htm).
    3.    On July 31, 2006, the Federal Council accepted the WAK motion 06.3005 "Entraide administrative et judiciaire. Exigences et principe de la double incrimination" which - notwithstanding its shortcomings - was introduced as a substitute for the SVP's cantonal and federal initiatives for Swiss bank secrecy to be enshrined in the Swiss Consitution (.../eigentum.htm)
    B    "Authoritative" - and desinterested? - claims to the contrary notwithstanding, the still rising FATF/GAFI problématique (.../GAFI.htm) is all but inevitable, as demonstrated before ("OECD mission-creep & Piper of Hamelin bureaucratic lawmaking", .../oecdmandate.htm). Now is the time to stop lamenting, to show vision & leadership, and to seek effective alliances with US & other lawmakers - beyond those already on bord (Richard Rahn, Dan Mitchell, Phil Gramm, etc.). With the aim of turning off notably the US money spigot on the OECD until this & other anti-sovereignty, anti-privacy & anti-market bureaucratic cancers are either brought in line with OECD's statute & turned into a formal treaty or sent to the wastebin of history. Until then, Switzerland has every interest to competently play its significant cards at the OECD Council of Ministers, but not to strengthen this aberration by attenting FATF's meetings with more than a simple observer.
    C    For those not familiar with our successes in dealing with our US & French friends & OECD adversaries, remember our US court-induced stop of the RJR-Nabisco LBO until the Swiss bonds were fully securised, the CH/F tax treaty supported by SBA, Vorort, etc. but thrown onto the waste heap of history by Parliament as "diplomatic treason", and the cold-feet-induced non-derailment of the QI aberration. Also: "How not to react to US pressures on Bank Secrecy, Iran, Cuba, etc." (.../diamantball.htm ¦ .../swissbanks.htm ¦ .../capitalism.htm)!