It depends on your business which metric is meaningful. E.g. for a global bank, quality is more important than time to market. Make sure that your business really gains something by playing release time against quality.

Well, there was another American mentioned these days for his advanced knowledge of chemistry...

Would not the principle of prior art still permit you to speak about "failin Palin"?


Disclaimer: Swiss and therefore neutral about US politics :-)

Interesting, thank you!
German is a much more precise language. The German word "Filiale" hints by its Latin root towards an office which is not the main seat of the company.

While in theory, I agree with you, economic efficiency asks for pooling.
In my country most of these services are no federal issue. They are offered by the community and are paid by --- community taxes.

I do not know your cultural background. However, you seem to extend your ideas of right and wrong on other cultures. Often, this is neither fair nor wise.
Why do you believe that your government (or any government) should look into the wallet of its citizen? The Swiss do not consider this a good idea. And yes, this might be abused to break other countries' laws. On the other hand, it also helps people to protect their property. Which is in most cultures (not in all) a basic right.

I am always amazed how even in a forum like slashdot, where privacy is typically highly valued, people just repeat the dogma they are fed by their governments

Being without citizenship is rather hard. This happened to a Russian friend of mine living in a Baltic state.
And besides, as a former US citizen, who would allow you in instead?

Roads, police, fire department, school, safety checks on food products, regulation for the standardization of various devices (e.g you are not fried when you plug in a hair dryer), a legal system to settle quarrels...
In short, a lot of things we like to call civilization.

Not all Swiss banks closed business relations with US customers.
And yes, some financial products may not be sold to US citizens. This is because of legal agreements with the US government.

Actually, according to OECD reports, the tax burden in Switzerland is lower than in most EU countries (but a bit higher than in the US if I remember correctly),

Swiss banks contribute 11.6% to the GDP of Switzerland.

Having an inside view of Swiss financial institutions (worked for several insurances and a bank), I got the impression that these institutions take a lot of care to avoid black money. Continuing with my personal opinion, I do think that our "wonderful Swiss lifestyle" has to do with hard work and a dedication to quality. If somebody is better off than you are, he is not necessarily a thief or an evil person...

They were entitled to close it. However, it was totally illegal according to Swiss law to reveal the customer relation with Assange!

Well, considering that the "informant" of Wikileaks worked years for the Swiss private bank Julius Baer until he was fired because customer information in the filial on the cayman islands disappeared...

You have a problem if you want to keep customer relation confidential (e.g. online banking for a Swiss bank) but your customers must download the app from the app store which is placed in a different jurisdiction.

You really think people ever complain about their salary?
And do you really think a CFO of a working company one day decides "oh, let us create more cost by handing out bigger salaries"?
So basically, you do think salaries just increase for no apparent reason.