Good morning dear readers,
It is not the largest block of costs that the Chancellor haggled over yesterday with the Prime Ministers of the federal states, but the one with the most concrete consequences: Germany From 2023, you will receive a monthly ticket valid throughout Germany for local transport at a starting price of 49 euros. For the ticket, the federal government transfers 1.5 billion euros per year to the federal states, which are to inject the same amount again.
Forecast: Traveling across Germany with the regional train will probably remain a hobby for enthusiasts. But for all those commuters who have often had to pay three-digit amounts for their monthly tickets, the Deutschlandticket finally makes environmentally friendly mobility cheaper. And easier too, because you no longer have to ask yourself at every honeycomb border of a transport association whether you have bought the right ticket. I will definitely be among the customers.
Otherwise, the federal and state governments happily pushed the billions for the various energy relief packages back and forth. And the costs for refugee accommodation and hospitals ended up at the federal marshalling yard. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing – where it’s all about money, it’s not about ideology, and that makes compromise easier.
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My colleague Julian Olk has summarized for you what citizens and companies can expect in terms of state aid with energy costs.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is traveling to Beijing with a business delegation today and will meet China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping tomorrow. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil ensures the right Tschingderassabum before departure to the East. He calls for an industrial policy offensive, because: “The industrial core of Germany is threatened by the current situation.”
In the Handelsblatt interview, Klingbeil is concerned about the isolation of authoritarian states, but also about the “tough industrial policy” of the USA. For this reason, the German state itself must invest in the development of certain sectors, such as semiconductor production or battery production, and develop a “raw materials strategy”. Klingbeil also advocated a new course when dealing with China: “We have to name security-relevant areas that China has to stay out of.”
Well presented, Mr. Chairman! Now all Germany needs is a government that successfully implements this industrial policy without getting bogged down in the minutiae of lobby interests. And perhaps one could cautiously add: The best industrial policy is not necessarily the one that regulates in detail which industry has to develop and how. But the one that creates framework conditions so that companies like to invest in Germany and the brightest minds from all over the world like to live with us.
A cleverly designed social system is one of the basic conditions that make a business location attractive. This must reconcile two goals that are difficult to reconcile: Nobody should fall below the subsistence level – but nobody should have more in their pockets without work than with. Or, as Labor Minister Hubertus Heil puts it: “We have to make sure that work pays.”
With the citizen’s income planned by the federal government, however, this principle is broken in many cases. The recipients of this social benefit, which is intended to replace the previous Hartz IV, should in many constellations have significantly more money at their disposal than low-income households – unless they also apply for citizen income. Calculations by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) show this on the basis of various comparisons between recipients of basic income and households in which a sole earner toils full-time for the minimum wage of twelve euros.
In addition to the standard rate, which will be raised from the current EUR 449 to EUR 502 for singles, recipients of citizen’s income are also entitled to reimbursement of rent and heating costs. In the case of employee households, the IfW researchers also took into account entitlements to child benefit or housing benefit in addition to earned income.
Extreme example: A family of five in expensive Hamburg receives – depending on the age of the children – up to 3776 euros a month with the basic income and would therefore have 884 euros more available than a corresponding five-person household with the minimum wage. If there is only one child in the household, the difference is still up to 392 euros, as our chart shows.
The problem from my point of view: Even a minimum wage earner is still deducted around 400 euros from the gross salary per month, mainly for social security contributions. Such low earners in particular urgently need more net from the gross, for example through a basic allowance in social security. Then the distance to those receiving citizen income will also decrease – in many constellations, work begins to pay off again.
And then there is a trial in London that a colleague from the Financial Times reports: A London subsidiary of the Swiss commodities giant Glencore has pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery, the sentence is due to be announced today, Thursday. If the testimony of the witnesses in the court is to be believed, the Glencore envoys flew across West Africa in a private jet to bring bribes to their destination. The managers of state-owned oil and gas companies in Cameroon alone are said to have been bribed with 13.7 million dollars between 2012 and 2015. With the bribe payments, the Glencore subsidiary wanted to secure better conditions for oil deliveries.
In one case, according to witnesses, a middleman collected 6.3 million euros in bribes in cash in Switzerland – and posted the expenses under “office expenses”. The sum puts my own expense reports in a clearly mitigating light.
According to the Financial Times, a Glencore representative said the behavior was “inexcusable” and that such practices no longer existed “in any form or company” of the Glencore group.
How did German rapper Das Bo once rhyme? “‘Course, ‘Course – sure, fat man”.
I wish you a day you never have to distance yourself from.
Best regards
Her
Christian Rickens
Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt
