Dear A-Letter Reader,

In recent days I have written many complimentary words about Switzerland as I traveled with The Sovereign Society's European Banking Tour.

In Zurich I was reminded once again, first hand, that Switzerland gives a genuine welcome to foreigners, their money, and investments. We saw this at SwissFirst and Bank Julius Baer, in contrast to what I have called "the mass production mentality of American banks." The Swiss manage over $3 trillion dollars of offshore assets for investors from around the globe. They invented and excel at private banking. That's one of the many reasons we've chosen Switzerland as our number one offshore haven nation. Not a tax haven per se, it is the leader in world banking, asset protection, insurance and investments. As an added, and very important guarantee, all this is done within a shield of financial privacy and banking secrecy guaranteed by law.

But Switzerland has sometimes been the butt of unkind comments. In 1922, the late Ernest Hemingway was quoted as saying: "Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture."

Well, that's still partially true almost a century later, but today there are many good reasons, beyond cheese and watches, to respect Switzerland.

For example, the World Economic Forum has just rated Switzerland as the world's most competitive economy. And who lost the number one spot to the Swiss? The United States slipped to sixth place from last year in the group's annual rankings.

The World Economic Forum is not just another think tank. It is funded by more than a thousand corporations and is perhaps best known for its annual conference in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. It has published respected competitiveness reports since 1979. The rankings include grades for about 90 variables ranging from innovation to education as well as the results of a global poll of 11,000 corporate executives. The choice of Switzerland was thus an international consensus.

Switzerland came in first largely because of its reputation for innovation, research and development, and its scientific infrastructure, the forum said. Switzerland, Europe's eighth largest economy, may grow close to 3% in 2006, the largest increase in six years, based on Swiss central bank forecasts. Swiss exports rose 8.6% in the first eight months of 2006, boosted by demand from the 25 nation European Union, which buys 60% of Swiss output.

Deficit spending and a continuing huge imbalance in trade hurt U.S. competitiveness, together with increasing doubts about the effectiveness and trustworthiness of the Bush administration, based in part on the government's bungled reaction to Hurricane Katrina which undermined public confidence, according to the forum. While the U.S. remained the best nation in which to do business, the forum ranked the United States 69th for its overall economic environment. Not good news by any measure.

We don't cite these conclusions with any great satisfaction, but rather as additional support for what we have repeatedly said about the effectiveness of Switzerland as an offshore asset haven and as a base for banking and global investment. When we talk about Swiss banking, Swiss annuities, Swiss life insurance, Swiss investment managers, each of these important financial factors are integrated into a larger national economy that is strong because of its many parts.

Switzerland is not only a nation that we can recommend, in some important respects, as the Forum noted, its definitely outpaces the United States. It's worth your consideration and we can tell you how best to take advantage of the Swiss alternative.

That's the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor

EDITOR'S NOTE: Want to learn how to move your assets to stronger asset havens like Switzerland, Denmark and Liechtenstein? Consider joining us for the Offshore Advantage Symposium in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico next month. You'll learn how to set up your own bank account, plus the most effective ways to move all, or a portion of your assets offshore. A-Letter Readers: Click Here for more information. Sovereign Society Members: Click Here.