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The Swiss Miracle: Money

In the last of an eight-part series on Swiss identity, we take a light-hearted look at attitudes in Switzerland towards money.

The Swiss Miracle, presented by Martina Chyba, takes a humorous stroll through the archives of Swiss public television, RTS. The eight issues under the microscope are fashion, love, tranquillity, cleanliness, food, nature, humour and money.

Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world – even some of its chocolate is made in the form of gold bars.

In this final episode we look at the importance of money for Swiss happiness. From banking secrecy to the lack of transparency over how much people earn, money has always held a certain mystique for the Swiss; some say it is a taboo subject.

Swiss piggy banks, bank vaults and newly designed banknotes each have stories to tell, as do the protagonists of archive footage about poverty in Switzerland in the 1960s and the bling-bling of Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse.

(Subtitles translated from French to English by SWISS TXT)


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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR