We do not know whether analogies to “Verdun” that one can read about are really correct. The only thing that is clear is that after almost three months, the Ukraine war has reached a stage where the respective predictions about the end of the other troops are becoming more and more drastic. The British diagnose that the Russians have lost a third of their forces. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell even speaks of “world records” in losses in Putin’s army.
In this stalemate, it is striking what the former Russian colonel Mikhail Chodarenok is doing on Putin’s state television of all places: Russia’s main problem, he rumbles, is that it is in a way totally geopolitically isolated: “Even if we hate to admit it, practically the whole world is against us. This is the situation we need to get out of.”
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A week ago, the military expert said it was wrong to send people into a 21st-century war with outdated weapons. If the rebellious military expert doesn’t soon have to serve in the camp alongside Alexei Navalny, we can assume that Putin is weakened.
Once upon a time there was a chancellor of the unit who had seven employees available in his large Berlin office in his well-deserved retirement. Gerhard Schröder, then the respected chancellor of state restructuring, wanted it just like Helmut Kohl. The office cost the state purse almost 420,000 euros in 2021.
And Angela Merkel, 67, didn’t want to be left behind (she ruled nine years longer). In the future, thanks to more equipment and a total of nine employees, it could even produce annual costs of 800,000 euros in Helmut Kohl’s old office. That’s more royal than republican. If multi-supervisory board member Schröder, 78, earns an estimated 900,000 euros at Rosneft and 300,000 at Nord Stream per annum, but his former chancellor’s office is orphaned on the other hand, there is only one question: what’s the point?
This process of self-questioning was also undertaken by the “big spender” himself, the federal government. Result: The traffic light coalition wants to present a reform to the budget committee by tomorrow, Thursday. According to the “Tagespiegel” information, the orientation posts in this wasteland of downstream privileges are provided by a proposal from the Federal Court of Auditors from 2018: The former heads of government start with a uniform equipment, which is reduced in the following years of dwindling importance.
That could currently mean a zero solution for Putin’s PR force Schröder and cuts for Merkel. Schröder’s office in the Bundestag will be “put on hold,” according to an application by the SPD, Greens and FDP budget committee to the budget committee, which has been submitted to the ARD capital city studio. The federal government should also ensure that the official appointments of former chancellors “take place in accordance with the ongoing obligations from the office and are not related to status”. With Voltaire we mean: “Destiny will have its reasons.”
If you want to attack one of these large oligopolies, which are common today, you have to rattle loudly and bang hard. Ralph Dommermuth from 1&1 from Montabaur does this against the phalanx of Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica – with its own fourth mobile network. “Our network will be the most modern in Europe,” he says to my colleagues Philipp Alvares de Souza Soares and Sebastian Matthes in a long interview.
Only one thing annoys him: that the forthcoming reallocation of “area frequencies” favors the established trio – and they will be extended without an auction. Dommermuth, 58, then wants to sue. In detail, the self-made billionaire says about…
- attacking the market leaders: “The project will challenge me for a few years and will certainly be my last major entrepreneurial challenge. I didn’t plan the construction of the network well in advance, I took an opportunity.”
- the business perspective: “Today we pay network rent for every gigabyte that our customers use. Having your own infrastructure is expensive, but once it’s well utilized, additional customers cost next to nothing.”
- politics: “We prefer to convince with good arguments than with an army of lobbyists. We also rely on the independence of the Federal Network Agency. In the past, this has ensured that the market is not closed to newcomers.”
Telekom boss Tim Höttges had announced in a big way that he would be buying all over Europe – and now he has to take care of a fourth in the game at home.
When it came to the reconstruction of Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen always referred to her own successful Corona aid program of over 750 billion euros. The European Union is discussing a number of options for financing the new burdens in a paper that will be adopted today. The states can finance the Ukraine action themselves – or authorize the Commission to “finance the loans on behalf of the EU on the capital market”.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner angrily rejects such a mutualisation of debts in the EU, which von der Leyen propagates. In a Handelsblatt interview before today’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the seven most important industrialized nations (G7), the FDP leader explains: “I see no advantage in sharing risks before the risks are reduced. The responsibility of the member states of the monetary union is their public finances.”
There are people who have accused Allianz of being solid but boring in business. The business conduct of the US unit of the fund subsidiary Allianz Global Investors (AGI) was unsound and not boring either.. In a settlement with the American authorities, it has declared itself guilty of securities fraud, since managers are said to have manipulated certain hedge funds (“Structured Alpha”). Investors had lost seven billion euros.
The deal with the judiciary provides for payments: 2.33 billion dollars in fines, around 1.3 billion in further investor compensation, 463 million for the state coffers. In a separate settlement, the SEC gets $675 million. Even more serious is the fact that AGI will no longer be allowed to do business with investment funds that have a US license for ten years. Incidentally, AGI chief investor Greg Tournant is accused of conspiracy, securities and investment fraud and obstruction of justice – and has turned himself in to the authorities in Denver.
Conclusion: All this is reminiscent of a bad crime thriller – and not of the honorable financial world in Munich’s Königstrasse.
And then there’s Maye Musk, 74, suddenly stealing the spotlight from her eccentric, talkative son Elon. The billionaire mom is the oldest model to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated in a bathing suit. Also appearing alongside her are reality star Kim Kardashian, singer Ciara and fashion entrepreneur Yumi Nu. “If I thought I was a swimsuit model for Sports Illustrated, people would have locked me away as a crazy lady,” says Maye Musk. “And now I’m here.” Not the busy son Elon, but daughter Tosca Musk wrote about the ” unstoppable mom,” who has a degree in nutrition, knows about dieting, and appeared in a Beyoncé video.
We end today with Rainer Maria Rilke: “The most beautiful moments in life are not those in which you breathe, but those that take your breath away.”
I wish you a breathtakingly beautiful day.
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
hp.: Due to the turbulence in Bitcoin and Co., numerous investors have recently lost a lot of money. We are interested in your opinion: Is the big crypto hype over? Can the turbulence spill over into traditional financial markets? Do we need stronger political controls? Write us your opinion in five sentences [email protected]. We will publish selected articles with attribution on Thursday in print and online.