On topic now. Just a small note, another country facing this dilemma, rising currency affecting exports, is New Zealand. One of the top 4 performing currencies in 2010 (along with the Franc). A small nation with no real economic clout, losing the race to devalue. Very dependent on exports and tourism. Another victim of the printing presses in the US and EU and the race to devalue.

Your suggestion re Elmer's motives seem to be 'on the money', have a read of this:

"The following circumstances are reasons and motives for the immense danger my family and I are subjected to.
Homicides
Cayman Islands, February 2008, Frederic Bise, a Swiss banker from Lausanne has been murdered. The case until today is unresolved. Julius Baer Trust Company, Cayman Islands, is involved into the Salinas case (former Mexican president). This story in part relates to the asset manager of Raul Salinas, Curtis Lowell jun., supervisory board of Julius Baer Trust Company, Cayman Islands and also representative for Julius Baer in Mexico City until the whole story got disclosed in 1995. The Swiss criminal prosecution is engaged in a criminal proceeding against Curtis Lowell jun. since 1995, in respect to money laundry, drug dealing, embezzlement and other crimes (in detail: BGE 133 IV 235). Raul Salinas brother was killed in 2004 and the Salinas funds of around $130.000.000 remain frozen in Switzerland as of a 2006 ruling. The case is not resolved yet, Mexico and Cayman are still investigating, but it is known that witnesses in this case have been threatened and also eliminated (information from the Swiss inquisitor in this case).
Evidence 01 Consultation to the appeal of 13.04.2006, no data theft, not responsibility of Switzerland as per prosecutor A. Bergmann
Evidence 02 Murder of Frederic Bise, Swiss Banker, 13.02.2008
Evidence 03 133,IV.235 Excerpt from the ruling of the court of cassation, Swiss Federal Prosecutor against X, Y and Z (nullity complaint), File number 6S528/2006 of 11th of June 2007 (Salinas – Curtis Lowell jun.)
Evidence 04 Confirmation of worktime of Rudolf Elmer by Bank Julius Baer, 06.06.2006"

http://mirror.wikileaks.info/wiki/Rudolf_Elmer_files_against_Swiss_banking_secrecy_at_ECHR/

On a separate note, here is the latest on the Irish Central Bank's 'creative-accounting':
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8262982/Irish-lenders-besiege-central-bank-for-emergency-loans.html

@The Irish Whistleblower
It is interesting that Rudolf Elmer is telling us exactly what he is going to do. Perhaps he fears for his safety, or is intending to become a martyr. Not wishing to be insensitive, but I hope he has backups.

BLOOMBERG:

Swiss National Bank May Post Record 2010 Loss as Euro Slump Cuts Reserves
By Klaus Wille – Jan 15, 2011 1:00 AM GMT+0100

"Switzerland’s central bank said it may have posted a record loss in 2010 as the euro’s slump eroded the value of its currency reserves.

The shortfall amounted to an estimated 21 billion Swiss francs ($21.8 billion), the Zurich-based Swiss National Bank said in a statement late yesterday. That’s about 4 percent of the size of the economy. Exchange-rate-related losses were about 26 billion and gold reserves had a valuation gain of about 6 billion francs, according to the statement…."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-14/swiss-central-bank-posts-full-year-loss-of-21-8-billion-on-slumping-euro.html

THE OBSERVER:

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks
By Ed Vulliamy, The Observer, Sunday 16 January 2011

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians"…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/16/swiss-whistleblower-rudolf-elmer-banks

Regards from the Irish Whistleblower,
http://whistleblowerirl.blogspot.com/

SHE MAKES FUN, in private, of the way he walks and talks, of his rapid, jerky gestures and facial grimaces. He mocks her deliberation, her reluctance, her matronly caution. She has compared him to Mr. Bean and to the French comic Louis de Funès, with his curly hair and large nose. He sometimes calls her La Boche, the offensive French version of “Kraut,” and goes out of his way to give her an embrace and a double-cheeked kiss in the French fashion, the kind of contact that he knows very well, aides say, she cannot stand.

Why dig too deeply into the messed up relationship between France & Germany as their banks look over the precipice, when they're such a cute couple?

Such appropriate & compelling imagery! Thanks for illuminating this problem (which I had never heard of before today.) Somewhat ironic that what is usually considered a positive attribute (healthy currency) is now proving a great dilemma for those smug Swiss bankers.

While it sometimes seems as if the neoliberal machine is an unstoppable monolith storming the earth & subduing all in its path, it's good to know, in detail, that this is far from true. Thanks Golem.

PM Boc attempts to esquew the Central European Bank and cut salaries at the National Central Bank by 25% / Trichet, CEB chief warns that what the government attempts is illegal
de A.C. HotNews.ro
Luni, 30 august 2010, 18:09 English | Regional Europe

Romania's Finance ministry sent, on August 19, another ordinance draft to the Central European Bank in which the 25% cut of salaries within the National Central Bank is hidden, after the previous draft which ruled the same cut received a negative response from the Central European Bank. CEB President, Jean Claude Trichet expressed his concern that Romania's Finance ministry cannot understand that they cannot cut salaries in a central bank. The project reads that the sums reduced from salaries should remain at the National Central Bank from which the government takes 80% – the profit that the central bank sends to the government.

The opinion of the European bank is loud and clear and can be translated into "please do not attempt to bully us, it is not working" which means that the Treaty is not respected. The decision of the government to cut salaries of the National Central Bank employees and the forced trasfer of those sums to the budget was criticized by the CEB that urged the government to modify the law, by the European Commission that threated to launch the infringement procedure and to the IMF that insisted to include the commitment that the government will cancel their recent reckless initiatives.