This week I was surprised to learn that, to the delight or chagrin of many, Michele Bachmann, a conservative United States Representative from the state of Minnesota, former Republican presidential candidate and Tea Party darling, became a naturalized Swiss citizen.

Apparently she was eligible to become a Swiss citizen, because her husband, the son of Swiss immigrants to the United States, was already the proud owner of a red passport. Bachmann’s dual citizenship status was, however, short-lived.

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Zurich is expensive.

Research from the Economist Intelligence Unit confirms this, recently naming Zurich the most expensive place to live in the world. (more…)

It’s been said that the biggest problem facing the Swiss tourism industry this winter is the high value of the franc.

Many people from the U.S. and the Euro zone are going to have to exclude Switzerland from their vacation plans this season based on financial reasons. (more…)

The dilemma continues to trouble me. In Switzerland, is it better to own my house or to rent forever and invest somewhere else?

Why do most Swiss decide to remain in rented accommodation? In all honestly, to begin with I didn’t like the thought of never being my own landlord. After two years of reasoning it seems, however, that buying outright was just not an option. (more…)

2009 was a turbulent year for the Swiss print media. Several newspapers restructured their editorial, merged operation with others, or even closed down.

The economic crisis wasn’t the real reason, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. (more…)

Growing up in the United States, I learned at a young age that the customer was always right.

One time, for example, I bought the wrong size shoes from a Chicago outlet mall and returned them two weeks later. Not only did I get a refund, but I was also offered a 20% discount on my next pair, an apology from a store that really had nothing to apologize for. (more…)