Switzerland is left with watches and chocolate, not cash

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a ringtone-ridden roundup of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. Hot: Swiss chocolate and watches. [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a ringtone-ridden roundup of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Hot: Swiss chocolate and watches. Not: [Swiss finance](. - Hot: Fake AI photos. Not: The unvarnished truth. - Hot: [What happened in finance 25 years ago](. Not: What happened in finance 15 years ago. Swiss decline When Asterix the Gaul visited the “Helvetians” in his 1970 comic-strip adventure, he came across a Swiss banker who embodied the nation’s inviolable privacy laws, ironclad stability and geopolitical neutrality. “Chocolate, cuckoo clocks, and bank secrecy were the Swiss cliches of the day,” argues Lionel Laurent. “If Asterix met Zurix today, [he’d find someone very different](.” For most of the 20th century, the rich and powerful entrusted their wealth to Swiss coffers. “The twin crises of 9/11 and Lehman Brothers changed things for good, with UBS bailed out and international pressure killing secrecy by a thousand cuts,” notes Lionel. More than 50 Swiss banking brands disappeared between 2008 and 2017; the finance industry’s contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product shrank to less than 10% from 12%. Last weekend’s government-engineered takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG by UBS Group AG, valuing the former at almost zero and wiping out a class of bondholders in the process, has tarnished the nation’s reputation by being perceived to play fast-and-loose with standard market practice. And Zurich was already becoming less attractive as a financial center. “Alfred Escher, Credit Suisse’s founder and symbol of the Swiss 19th-century railroad boom, is no doubt spinning in his grave,” Lionel writes. “With fresh cracks appearing in Swiss finance, it’s likely that international pressure will keep growing — with more likelihood that the days of anonymity and neutrality are numbered.” Who Ya Gonna Believe, Me Or [Your Own Lying Eyes](? Former US President Donald Trump runs from a police arrest. French President Emmanuel Macron is caught mid-riot, tear gas billowing around him. Artificial intelligence’s ability to produce realistic pictures displaying the most unlikely events — Trump running? Come on! — means there are going to be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our collective philosophy. “Social networks have been preparing for this moment for years,” notes Parmy Olson. “They’ve warned at length about deepfake videos and know that anyone with editing software can manipulate politicians into controversial false photos. But the recent explosion of image generating tools, powered by so-called generative AI models, [puts platforms like Twitter, Facebook and TikTok in unprecedented territory](.” Discerning fakes from reality is only going to get harder, and a computer-generated falsehood can be flashed around the world before social-media platforms can cancel the image propagation, even if they’re willing to devote the resources needed to scrutinize content. “AI tools will make skeptics of many of us,” Parmy writes. “For those more easily persuaded, they could spearhead a new misinformation crisis.” Telltale Charts The recent turmoil in the banking sector has stoked comparisons with the Global Financial Crisis of 15 years ago. For John Authers, though, the seeds of the current situation were sown a quarter of a century ago, when the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group [broke down barriers in the US financial system](. “Big banks were supposed to offer economies of scale and better service,” John writes. “Instead, they proved unmanageable.” Further Reading [Another shakeout is coming]( for US shopping malls: Leticia Miranda China's Xi Jinping has just bought himself [a headache in Moscow](: Minxin Pei The US government [isn’t likely to ban TikTok]( anytime soon: Julianna Goldman Britain’s historic John Lewis [up for sale?](Not so fast: Andrea Felsted Hedge funds [seek new targets](in these tough times: Anjani Trivedi Putin's war beats [good intentions on emissions](: David Fickling [Male workaholics are slowing down](, giving women an opening: Beth Kowitt For Your Viewing Pleasure [A bad logo, a good skit](, and more, courtesy of social video editor Ale Lampietti. ICYMI The [murky business]( behind Britain’s rampant food price inflation. [Why metals keep going missing]( in the world of commodity trading. [King Charles II postponed a planned visit]( to Paris amid mass protests in the French capital. Crypto mogul Do Kwon was charged by US prosecutors with [orchestrating a cryptocurrency fraud](that wiped out at least $40 billion in market value. Kickers Researchers have sequenced [Ludwig van Beethoven’s DNA](. What does your choice of office snack say about you? [If you’re a biscuit muncher](, “you must have a real resentment or lack of respect for yourself and the cleaners. Crumbs on your clothes, the floor, in-between the keys of your keyboard… you’re a menace to the office and need to be stopped...” There’s [mushroom mania]( in home decorating. Allegedly. (h/t Andrea Felsted for previous two items) Notes:  Please send fungi-related furnishings and complaints to Mark Gilbert at [magilbert@bloomberg.net](mailto:magilbert@bloomberg.nete). 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