At the same time, it was pointed out that the improvement in profitability had taken place against a background of: (1) unusually subdued volatility in financial markets, (2) credit risk premia at historically low levels, (3) very high valuations of asset prices, and (4) relatively light regulation and supervision in some countries.
While both Switzerland and Japan suffer from strong exchange rates, I am also struck by the dynamism of the Swiss economy. The U.S. dollar value of exports in Switzerland increased by 192 percent between 2000 and 2011, a threefold increase, whereas the comparable figure for Japan was an increase of 74 percent.