The expression of the "Gnomes of Zürich", Swiss bankers pictured as diminutive creatures hoarding gold in subterranean vaults, was coined in 1956 by Harold Wilson and gained currency in the 1960s (OED notes the New Statesman issue of 27 November 1964 as earliest attestation).


this is a weird one and i suppose many 'arched eyebrows' will result....simply this....INGA telling HELEN that 'they think that it is the swiss but it isn't - it is us....the scandinavians who control those banks (swiss banks).....and so we will make sure that you are all right'....

so the GNOMES OF ZURICH are the SACHS family from SCANDINAVIA?

yes gill...I can see that US INTELLIGENCE is 'on to it' already.....

and in retrospect....HANNI and also NINI telling me that the swiss were so hard working....every day of their lives....they didn't understand why they, as citizens of the country - should get the 'blame' when they had no idea of what 'their banks' were doing.....they were not rich....they were self-sufficient in the main....as a country they didn't want to join the EU.....although NINI had figured that maybe that was a 'good idea' because of the 'covert  TRADE SANCTIONS' imposed which had impoverished many swiss citizens but obviously 'not the banks' - the banks hadn't been impoverished at all....