Exchange rate fluctuations have had a significant impact on the Mercer 2005 cost of living rankings. Countries utilizing the euro have experienced a rise in relative cost while locations using US dollars and currencies pegged to the US dollar have dropped.

Japan has the world’s two most expensive cities after Osaka pushed London into third place. Geneva is 6th, Zurich is 7th, Sydney 20th, Barcelona 43rd, and San Francisco 50th. Mas en El Pais: Barcelona y Madrid se clasifican entre las 50 ciudades más caras del mundo.

The survey methodology targets expatriates habits and is based on City-to-City Index Comparison, Spendable Income Tables, Home Country Housing Norms, Expatriate Accommodation Cost Tables, Education Cost Tables, Business Travel Expense Tables, and Actual Price List More…

Financial Time’s Tyler Brule came up with a list of The 10 top contenders for the title ‘City of dreams’.

Airports have been inspected, apartments assessed and neighbourhoods scrutinised - Fast Lane serves up its top 10 list of the world’s most liveable, loveable cities. The criteria demand that a city deliver quality of life across as many categories as possible.

The top 10 list is:
10. Montreal
9. Zurich
8. Palma de Mallorca
7. Munich
6. London
5. Stockholm
4. Sydney
3. Barcelona
2. Tokyo
1. Copenhagen

It is highly subjective of course but it matches very much the creative class’ criterias. I would add Geneva and San Francisco to the list, elect 2 cities and live in both of them by practicing frequent flying/train commuting.

The Economist’s e-readiness rankings 2005 measure a country’s accumulated telecoms and computer infrastructure, and accord it the heaviest weight of all e-readiness determinants. The criteria they use also evolve with the infrastructure itself: this year hey have increased the importance of broadband (both fixed and mobile), which is why many e-ready leaders (including Switzerland topping at rank 4) have seen their rankings rise. Last year, Switzerland was singled out for its less effective (in comparison with Scandinavia), decentralised approach to e-business development. This year, however, our emphasis on next-generation infrastructure, security and ICT investment have all helped to make Switzerland our fastest gainer.
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Instead of adding up 300 datapoints about places, and coming up with a list of ‘most livable’ cities, Chris Heathcote gives two elements that he thinks reveal a lot about a city, plus a few niceties: Is there good street food? Are there gates on the public transport? I would add the number of dogs per citizen as a clear negative factor. In thriving cities, people are too socialy active and can’t afford time on taking care of slave pets. Besides, I think living in a single city is not enough for creative people. I believe in commuting between two well-connected thriving cities.

Klaus Stöhlker, auteur de livre au titre racoleur “La Suisse en détresse”, donne sa vision de la Suisse dans l’AGEFI “Apprenous à marier nos contradictions!“

• Zürich est à la fois trop grand pour la Suisse et trop petite pour le monde
• Blocher est un néoconservateur. Il défend des valeurs, tout en étant un ferme partisan de l’économie de marché. C’est une position respectable qui appelle un débat et non une diabolisation.
• Il nous faudrait cinq cantons, ainsi qu’un gouvernement national et non une administration envahissante au point que maintenant, ‘cest vers elle que se dirigent les lobbies, et nous vers les parlementaires
• Il faudrait nous souvenir de ce que le terme Aleman signifie, à savoir que la chose publique est l’affaire de tous. Comment renouer avec cette tradition dans le contexte de la globalisation?
• Il me semble qu’en Suisse, en matière d’information, nous nous enfonçons justement dans une sombre forêt.

Via the Edinburgh University Library on Scandinavia: Swedish suicide rates:

A table of Suicide rates compiled by the World Health Organisation, Geneva, 2003, shows that while other Nordic and Baltic countries do show high rates of male suicide (e.g Lithuania, Estonia and Finland), Sweden does not exhibit an unusually high rate. Indeed France, New Zealand, Australia and Germany each show higher rates than Sweden. The Swedish rate is slightly higher than Canada and the USA perhaps but not the highest in the world. The myth of Swedish suicide” has its roots in the late-1950s when the American President Dwight D. Eisenhower referred to it in a speech which had been based on an inaccurate briefing. The President had tried to paint a negative picture of Sweden, a nation which - with its cradle-to-grave socialism - had set itself on a post-war neutral stance outside the then embryonic-NATO and American influence. Ever since many people have accepted the picture as fact and perpetuate the myth.

Topographie inhabituelle de la Suisse montre l’évolution de l’accessiblité des communes en Suisse de 1950 et 2000. Cela rejoint mon post sur Shrinking Switzerland.

THISS est une étude de l’ETHZ qui compare, en Suisse, les créateurs d’entreprises avec des non-créateur ou des créateurs potentiels. Elle thématise en outre les différences liées au fait que les diplômé(e)s ont suivi une EPF ou une HES:
Ecoles polytechniques et innovations – Start-ups et Spin-offs sous l’angle particulier de la formation, de la formation continue et des structures de support.

- 1/5 ingénieur ou informaticien sortant d’une haute école suisse fonde sa propre entreprise
- 50% d’entre eux envisagent de le faire
- L’indépendance, l’épanoussement personnel et le désir de diriger sa propre entreprise sont des motivations fondamentales (pas l’argent)
- 40 à 50% des ces jeunes entrepreneurs se trouvent dans les chiffres noires après deux ans d’activités

Résumé en français
Résultats en allemand

The World University Rankings 2004 is Times’ first attempt to compare the world’s top universities. The ranking offers a snapshot of the leading institutions on a set of criteria that are valued around the world.

5 measures:
- Peer review
- citations per faculty member
- ability to attract international students
- ability to bring the best academics from around the world

Lessons:
- criterion tends to favour institutions in the US, and, to a lesser extend, other English-speaking counrtries.
- Peer review favours laorge uiversities with a wide range of subject coverage.
- Citations perform less well for some subject than for others. Researchers in fields of social sciences such as law and education, which are based in national systems, tend to publish in national publications
- The English language is a powerfull aid to academic excellence
- The EPFL is top in international faculty
- Many universities in continental Europe are oriented more towards teaching than their North American counterparts are. CNRS or Max Planck and Frouanhofer societies attract reasearchers who might be in universities in other countries.
- While research may be a driver of economic success, it is hard to have the first without the second
- Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are all absent
- The map of US academic exellence revealed here matches the major cnetres of US innovation, with the focus on California and New England.
- US universities gain from political idependence and the clout of their large financial endowments, which are steadily enhanced by a culture of alumni giving and a tax regime that encourages it. The vast sums these universities gring in are being spent to formidable effect.

In Irland lebt es sich am besten. Die Schweiz liegt auf Rang Zwei bezüglich der Lebensqualität. Die Lebensqualität bewertete der “Economist” unter anderem aufgrund des Pro-Kopf-Einkommens, der Gesundheit, Scheidungsraten, Klima, politischer Stabilität, Sicherheit und Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau. The Economist, The World in 2005.