Swiss Pissed

From the man-bites-dog file, this odd little nugget made me laugh:

What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

....

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.

I've been to both Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began, though I enjoyed both immensely. Liechtenstein is an independent nation only in the most notional sense, primarily for tax reasons at that.

Despite its small size and limited natural resources, Liechtenstein has developed into a prosperous, highly industrialized, free-enterprise economy with a vital financial service sector and living standards on a par with its large European neighbors. The Liechtenstein economy is widely diversified with a large number of small businesses. Low business taxes - the maximum tax rate is 20% - and easy incorporation rules have induced many holding or so-called letter box companies to establish nominal offices in Liechtenstein, providing 30% of state revenues. The country participates in a customs union with Switzerland and uses the Swiss franc as its national currency. It imports more than 90% of its energy requirements.

Toy countries such as Liechtenstein and Luxembourg have always fascinated me. They essentially function as the financial arm for people who like to keep the noise ratio on their capital down, and as a holdover for old-culture sorts who still long for the Holy Roman Empire or whatever. Anyway, just a fun little story there.