An eventful year comes to an end: the editor-in-chief’s weekly review

I recently read on a social network that January 3rd is the last day on which one can say “Happy New Year”. After that it’s annoying. Since, I suspect, we haven’t met in the coffee kitchen for the most part this year (and Knigge gives a deadline of January 15): Happy New Year to you! We would be delighted if you would continue to read, listen to, watch, comment on and discuss with us our Handelsblatt content in 2023.

As Head of Digital, as the new year begins, I’m thinking hard about how we can make the Handelsblatt even better for you. This can perhaps be explained with a private example: For Christmas, my five-year-old son wanted a life-size, brightly flashing, electrified police motorcycle to ride himself. He received a scissors-cutting learning set. You can probably imagine that he would rather not hire Santa Claus for his services again.

Accordingly, my request: If you have any comments, criticism or requests for the Handelsblatt – please contact me at [email protected] Apart from that, I can already tell you: We have a lot planned for this year – a scissor-cutting course is not one of them, I promise.

Top jobs of the day

Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.

Numerous technical developments are dedicated to saving the world

Technology rules the world – and could make a difference in the future.

If you are also interested in what the world of tomorrow will bring, I recommend our current weekend title. The colleagues Larissa Holzki, Thomas Jahn, Catiana Krapp, Kathrin Witsch and Stephan Scheuer have that the most important tech trends of the new year tracked down, including at the CES technology fair in Las Vegas. Because even if a lot of discussions last year revolved around the Ukraine war, arms deliveries and cold apartments – there are still good ideas with which we might still be able to get the major crises in the world under control.

What else kept us busy this week:

1. The Ukraine war does not take a break at the beginning of the year. In the meantime, there were reports of a possible ceasefire on the part of Russia over the Orthodox Christmas holidays, which was rejected shortly afterwards by Ukraine. Instead, another spectacular piece of news made the rounds: After the announced deliveries of tanks by the USA and France to the Ukraine, Germany will now also participate after all.

After a phone call between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden, the Chancellor promised to deliver several “Marder” tanks. Delivery should be ready by the end of March. The federal government is thus crossing one of the red lines it has set itself, as commented on Friday by colleague Frank Specht.

Of course, you can find current reports on the situation in Ukraine in our 24-hour live news blog.

2. Surprising for some after the difficult year 2022: According to Ulrike Malmendier, who took office in August 2022, there is reason for optimism. She said in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “We are not experiencing a mega-recession and certainly not deindustrialization.” The not so good news: Germany is still too dependent on China – the pandemic that is spreading there will also hit us again. “Supply chains will collapse again.”

3. Also related to the economy, although not as self-explanatory: The “Lipstick Effect”. In the phenomenon described by colleague Michael Scheppe, cosmetics sales go up in times of financial uncertainty because people tend to treat themselves to small everyday luxuries instead of making large investments.

In fact, we are currently seeing increasing sales of lipsticks and decorative cosmetics in Germany – which is considered a bad omen for the economy.

4. By 2025, US chip companies will exceed $122 billion put into new plants in America. For comparison: According to the supply chain specialist Everstream, it will only be 32 billion euros in Europe by then. So the shift in power in the chip market is massive – away from Europe to the USA. Colleagues Joachim Hofer and Stefan Scheuer have analyzed what this means for Europe – and why the funding of chip factories has failed so far.

5. In April 2022, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner spoke of a “loss of prosperity” that would also occur in Germany as a result of the Ukraine war. My colleagues Martin Greive, Jan Hildebrand and Julian Olk have now calculated for the first time how high this loss could be due to a lack of growth, rising energy prices and inflation-driven wages.

6. Oliver has been Bäte for more than seven years CEO of Germany’s largest insurer, Allianz. Now his contract is due to be extended. Bäte is considered a great modernizer of Allianz – but also very direct in his criticism of his own group. “There are many indications that the decision will be primarily up to Bäte himself,” writes Christian Schnell in his large Bäte portrait this week in the Handelsblatt.

Oliver Bate

Bäte is known for occasionally openly making fun of what’s going on in his own home.

(Photo: Reuters)

7. The crypto industry has been accustomed to success for years. Then came the crash last year, which culminated in the visually stunning arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in December. In the fifth part of our series “Investing 2023”, Astrid Dörner and Dennis Schwarz recorded this week how cryptocurrencies could continue in 2023.

8. When people have children, there are often only two issues for them: How does the baby sleep and how is his digestion? Regarding the former, my US colleague Annett Meiritz wrote a very readable text this weekend, in which she describes how US parents put their children to sleep with sleep training. In Germany, parents often still look at the use of this technique as if they had just fed the baby chicken nuggets and cola.

Apparently, things are working so well for colleague Meiritz that she was able to follow the quarrels about the election of a new Speaker of the House in the US House of Representatives in detail this week.

9. It’s a veritable mass movement: People who want to get out of the job and become financially independent. My colleague Markus Hinterberger asked himself how this could work and analyzed the strategies of this so-called Fire movement (“Financial Independence, Retire Early”). His sample calculations even include a 30-year-old who wants to retire in ten years, at 40. After reading the text, however, I have to say: Retirement at 40 is probably not in sight for me.

I wish you a nice weekend.

Best regards
Her
Charlotte Haunhorst
Head of Digital and member of the Handelsblatt editor-in-chief

You can receive the Morning Briefing plus free of charge as part of your Handelsblatt digital subscription or subscribe separately here.

source site-12