the critical question is almost as old as the company itself: How does Amazon actually want to grow? Well, so far the group has always managed to open up new areas of business – and in doing so has repeatedly justified the ambitious valuation of its own shares.
The goal: Amazon also wants to take over the worldwide transport of goods for the retailers on its marketplace, starting with the manufacturer. Customs expert and commercial lawyer Francine Dammholz reports on discussions with clients and says: “Amazon massively undercuts the prices charged by the freight forwarders.”
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AGL has recently been shipping entire containers to Rotterdam via seaports such as Ningbo in eastern China. The US giant has recently also offered its marketplace dealers the option of picking up the goods directly from the manufacturer overseas – even from remote regions of China. Medium-sized forwarders in particular should be prepared for a bumpy road. Because Amazon can use its enormous economies of scale when purchasing freight services.
Small consolation: Even the mega-corporation from Seattle isn’t successful in every new business field – or is anyone still using Amazon’s “Fire Phone” here?
Moving on to the next question: who is the start-up capital of the EU? Paris and Berlin are in a tight horn-to-horn race in this discipline: the French capital has 19 young companies with a market valuation of at least one billion euros in its area, and 18 of these so-called unicorns are grazing in the German capital.
In terms of the amount of venture capital that both cities were able to attract, Berlin was ahead in 2019, Paris in 2020. At the end of last year, according to the “State of European Tech” study, it was again 7.1 to 6.5 billion dollars for Berlin.
The result is as similar as the way to get there is different: In Berlin, start-ups benefit from comparatively low costs for salaries or office rent. Paris, on the other hand, is expensive – but France has made it a matter of state to promote the tech ecosystem, says Christian Miele, President of the Federal Association of German Startups.
Why should we care? Because these tech ecosystems of scientists, entrepreneurs, talents and venture capitalists tend to form clusters: Where there are already many, there are also many – and the title of Europe’s Silicon Valley is yet to be awarded.
We learn: Unicorns are herd animals.
In an era before our time, when mobile phones still had buttons and jackets had three buttons, peculiar customs prevailed in capitalism: When a country borrowed money, it had to pay some kind of fee. It was called interest, and everyone thought it was normal. Now this funny custom is making a comeback: the yield on ten-year federal bonds has left negative territory after many years and is now over 0.2 percent.
Sure, given 5.1 percent inflation in the eurozone, real interest rates are still knee-deep in the red. Anyone who lends money to the German state gets back significantly less than they lent, adjusted for purchasing power.
But some states have become so used to ultra-cheap money that even the smallest increase in interest rates becomes a problem. Economists are particularly keeping an eye on the significant increase in risk premiums in Italy, the most heavily indebted euro country. The yield on ten-year Italian government bonds is 1.8 percent, its highest level in more than a year.
This is a warning signal for Ifo boss Clemens Fuest: “The rise in spreads over the past few days shows that investors are only willing to hold government bonds from highly indebted countries in Europe at low interest rates if the ECB gives a quasi-guarantee to support prices.” Actually, the central bank wants its own reduce bond purchases. But can she really?
Gabriel Felbermayr, Director of the Austrian Institute for Economic Research, believes it is possible that the ECB will raise interest rates because of high inflation, but will still continue to buy bonds. That would be like stepping on the gas and the brake at the same time when driving a car.
Are you looking for a way to cheat the negative interest rates, but don’t want to invest even more money in the same index funds on the MSCI World? Then take a look at the island. Since the Brexit vote in 2016, the British stock market has been considered an underperformer. While the largest US index, the S&P 500, has doubled in five years, the leading British index, the FTSE, has almost stagnated.
British companies have by no means forgotten how to make money, which is reflected in high dividend yields. With the shares of the 100 FTSE companies, investors are currently raking in an average dividend yield of 3.6 percent. That’s more than can be gleaned from any other major indices.
And for investors who really want to dare something, London correspondent Carsten Volkery and stock expert Ulf Sommer have also put together five promising individual stocks from the island.
I promise: You have never heard of at least one of the companies.
And then there is the corona vaccination requirement in the healthcare system, which could lead to Olaf Scholz not only taking power for the SPD in the federal government, but also in Bavaria.
The Prime Minister there, Markus Söder, has been saying for days that he will not implement the vaccination requirement that will apply from mid-March – which he is obliged to do because it is a federal law. There now follow about two dozen intermediate steps and all sorts of legal minutiae, which we will omit here for the sake of a better overview.
But in the end, if Söder persists in his refusal, Scholz could apply Article 37 of the Basic Law for the first time and, with the approval of the Bundesrat, activate the so-called federal coercion against the Bavarian state government. In order to enforce this, the chancellor can even send a representative to Munich with the right to issue instructions.
Perhaps the SPD should consider which Federal Commissioner for the Protectorate of Bavaria can annoy Söder the most. My favorite for the job and I really can’t say why: Ralf Stegner.
I wish you a day when you don’t let anything or anyone bother you.
Best regards,
Her
Christian Rickens