FuckyWucky

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

UBS chair talked to Scott Bessent about moving bank to US

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2Ffc270cb0-a7ad-4fc9-823f-c76c4e352034

spoiler

    	UBS chair Colm Kelleher and US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent have privately discussed moving the bank’s headquarters to the US, as the Zurich-based lender explores contingency plans to leave Switzerland if the government does not back down on new capital rules.

Kelleher and Bessent held talks in recent months about what a move to the US would look like for the lender, with the Trump administration receptive to welcoming one of Switzerland’s most prized assets, according to three people familiar with the conversation.

The talks with Bessent are part of an ongoing effort by Kelleher to put pressure on the Swiss government over proposed capital requirements that would force UBS to hold an additional $26bn of capital, a move UBS has described as “extreme” and disproportionate.

The uncertainty surrounding the planned changes has weighed on the bank’s share price, and a public and private lobbying campaign by the lender’s management has so far yielded few results.

UBS has argued that the new requirements go further than those required of global peers and would reduce its ability to compete internationally.

The Swiss government has said it needs to shore up the country’s banking system to avoid another Credit Suisse-style collapse. UBS acquired its crosstown rival in 2023 in a state-orchestrated rescue.

“As we have said repeatedly, we want to continue to operate successfully as a global bank out of Switzerland,” UBS said.

The US Treasury declined to comment.

US regulators have been wary of large lenders redomiciling in the country, given public anger over taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks during the financial crisis. However, the Trump administration has been more open to the idea of attracting European financial institutions.

UBS executives want the bank’s headquarters to remain in Switzerland if they can convince parliament to reduce the proposed hit, according to people familiar with their thinking.

However, they believe they have a fiduciary duty to examine all potential options and are open to the idea of leaving if the proposals do not change, the people added.

Activist investor Cevian Capital, which has a sizeable stake in UBS, said in September that the proposed Swiss capital changes would make it “not viable” to run a large international bank from the country. It added that UBS would have “no other realistic option” but to leave Switzerland if the proposals were not watered down.

    	The intervention by Europe’s largest dedicated activist investor added weight to the idea that UBS could move its headquarters out of Switzerland, an idea that some in the industry view as a negotiating tactic that is unlikely to happen in practice.

Switzerland’s decision to impose stricter capital rules comes as the US pursues deregulation in various parts of the economy to boost growth and encourage businesses to expand their operations in the country.

The administration has signalled its intent to loosen rules governing banks, with the US Treasury secretary using the growth of private credit as an example that lenders have been “too tightly constrained”. He has also argued in favour of minimising capital and liquidity rules in a bid to free up more space for lending.

The Trump administration’s push to relax bank rules has sparked concern among European authorities that US deregulation will give American lenders an advantage over transatlantic rivals and create risks for the stability of the global financial system.

Nationalize them, it's not that hard. UBS should be grateful for having access to the Swiss National Bank.

7

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

i do not know whether bottlecaps will work as a currency irl without state backing, in an apocalypse ppl will try to help each other out, and barter for real goods will be more likely than bottlecaps. the idea of a neutral market without a state deciding one thing to be currency (unit of account, ie unit in which all debts are measured in) from "double coincidence of wants" (the free-market textbook story) is very much unlikely. With real life wars, civilians use USD or some first-world currencies over some common commodity as currency (USD has external value and can be used to obtain goods/services from abroad). Or in WW2, PoW used cigarettes as currency because there was an excess supply of it (not everyone smoked) but smokers desire it, so you can get smokers to give you something in exchange, it worked in that environment.

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FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

Gold has industrial uses, it has jewelery uses. It has a base value even if it is massively propped up by Central Banks and related hoarding. To make bitcoin miners you ironically (

) need a bit of gold.

Bitcoin, Litecoin etc are just numbers generated by silicon.

You can make your own shitcoin right now even with a capped supply it won't be worth anything since it's just numbers, it gets Dollar (or other currency value) when someone decides to part with their Dollars for the shitcoin. Only then it gets a market price in Dollars. You get the Dollars they get the shitcoin, they can mark it to market in their books but considering it's illiquid with no future cash flows they might as well mark it zero. Only when more people try to play this game hoping to buy/sell (primarily for speculation) to each other does it get a liquid market.

Before Bitcoin became big, this was its state, no one knew the price in terms of money. The markets weren't very liquid. In early days, it was extremely easy to "mine" too.

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

My guess : They can set a price say 1 BTC = $100k and have anyone sell their bitcoin there.

Then no one wants to sell it on market for less than $100k since they can just go to the window for the floor price. At worst the Government ends up owning all the Bitcoin in existence (unlikely) ie 21 million, the bitcoiners get $2.1 Trillion I think (most of it is a transfer from the gov since they wouldn't have been able to sell it for anywhere near 100k otherwise).

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

I think bitcoin is something that fools will always dump their money into hoping to sell to another fool for higher price. Even if it's not different from Litecoin or whatever, it has the advantage of being the "first".

(Not a recommendation to buy.)

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

I just paid for my lunch, my car mechanic, and a new stereo with my monero today

Yea, even if that were true, no one along the entire chain of debts is paying in Monero, workers get paid in $, they can't be paid in Monero since they have no obligation to accept it, and they have debts to pay in $ (or whatever their currency is).

And I do not think most traders (in real goods/services) themselves like holding Monero (or any non-stablecoin) for long because of exchange rate risk.

5

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

lots of ETF outflows and redemptions too afaik

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

God damn, Suzerain's devs changed the DLC choices so much with the latest version, apparently if you want to turn your country from monarchy to a republic, you have to side with the oligarch and make use of their PMC. L, I know Communists don't trust kings but I made a deal with them, there should be an option to work with them for the self-coup instead of the capitalists.

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/03/nyregion/the-1993-elections-staten-island-secession-is-approved-next-move-is-albany-s.html

https://archive.is/rzihH

1

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

Rough Rider

FuckyWucky [none/use name] @hexbear.net 3周前

Eurozone debt and American debt aren't comparable, but whatever happened to Dragi's "whatever it takes", is the spending so "high" that ECB isn't going to (doesn't want to) backstop? That would imply that "whatever it takes" was meaningless and that the countries are better off outside the Euro.