Head of Swiss central bank resigns

GlobalPost

Caesar's wife is supposed to be chaste, and clearly so is the wife of the chairman of the Swiss National Bank, the nation's central bank.

Back in the summer, when the Swiss franc was super strong against the dollar, Philipp Hildebrand's wife Kashya, bought $504,000 with Swiss francs.

A few weeks later the SNB, headed by Hildebrand, intervened to weaken the currency by cutting interest rates to zero. In early October, the family used the dollars it had purchased in the summer to buy the now cheaper francs and complete the purchase of a home. In the month and a half they held dollars they made a tidy profit.  The Guardian puts the figure at $80,000.

Today Hildebrand resigned saying, "It is not possible to provide conclusive and final evidence that my wife did initiate the transaction without my knowledge."

The BBC reports that Hildebrand had been cleared of any wrong-doing just before Christmas but new allegations came out this week in Weltwoche, the Swiss newsweekly. The magazine alleges Hildebrand made the currency transactions himself.

Perhaps Caesar's wife is chaste after all.

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