We argue that there is a natural trade-off between the independence and the accountability of a central bank. Economist's emphasis on the independence aspect has contributed to creating situations, where the central banks' accountability is largely deficient. Attempts to resolve this issue by...

We study, what Switzerland can learn from the disappearance of the property insurance monopolies in Germany. We show that the German insurance monopolies did not fight hard enough to defend their interests. a) Most of them knew that they would be bought up by another public insurance company....

This paper studies the evolution of hurricane insurance in Florida over the last decades. Hurricanes (and other natural catastrophes) are typically referred to as "uninsurable" risks. The more exposed property owners find it difficult to obtain insurance cover from the private market and/or can...

In a previous paper we have shown that the UBS-SBC merger would lead to an excessive concentration in the credit market for small and medium companies. The UBS has reacted to this paper in a series of letters to the Swiss competition authorities. We critically examine the content of these...

Le droit suisse du logement ne fait pas la différence entre les taux d'intérêt nominaux et les taux d'intérêt réels. Il en résulte une forte sur-indexation des loyers en périodes de taux d'inflation élevés. En raison de cette lacune conceptuelle de la loi sur la protection des...

The Swiss law for the protection of tenants does not distinguish between nominal and real interest rates. As a result, rents are massively overindexed in periodes of high inflation. In the period 1990-1996, the structural faults in the swiss law have cost the tenants roughly 9 bio. Fr. The...

The purpose of this paper is to study the SNB's performance in managing Switzerland's seignorage wealth. The main conclusion is that the SNB has held an asset portfolio that was excessively liquid, not sufficiently hedged and not sifficiently diversified.