In November 2023 there is a special anniversary in Germany: 50 years earlier, the government issued a driving ban due to the oil crisis and a delivery stop by Opec, the world’s most notorious cartel. Citizens had to leave their cars at home, one moved on four car-free Sundays on the autobahns with deep relaxation on bicycles, roller skates or go-karts.
If SPD leader Saskia Esken has her way, the fitness program could be repeated because of the high petrol prices and the zero number “tank discount”. The Energy Security Act of 1975 allows the government to “order temporary measures such as driving bans on Sundays,” she threatened in the “Tagesspiegel”. The state must intervene “in case of doubt” if “supply and pricing” are not correct. And the battle for the sovereignty of interpretation and the best recipe begins.
The Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck is threatening stricter antitrust laws and a break-up, which the five international multinationals Shell, BP, Exxon, Conoco and Total are likely to register casually. As early as 2012, the Cartel Office identified a “non-competitive oligopoly” that has a very simple market principle: one pays, one collects.
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A strong dollar may bode well for American identity and a price dampening as imported goods cost less. For US corporations with large foreign business, however, the powerhouses of the “greenback” are unfortunate: What they earn in euros or pounds or shekels is worth less after conversion into dollars.
There are initial estimates that this “rate impact,” this price strength, which is a weakness, will rob American companies of around $40 billion in profits. The company Microsoft, which is rolling out its Office monopoly including the cloud globally, was the first prominent company to issue a profit warning based on the excessively strong dollar. It cut $460 million in profits.
Conclusion: This is how a key currency becomes a suffering currency.
This tie is portrayed by most media in France as a victory for Emmanuel Macron, 44, but not as a stalemate. In the parliamentary elections, his party won 25.7 percent of the vote, just as much as the left-green alliance “Nupes” of the socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 70. The Macronists will be the best in next Sunday’s runoff election for the majority in the constituencies trusted opportunities. But the absolute majority is uncertain.
Marine Le Pen Macron’s right-wing national Rassemblement National party managed 18.7 percent, but in the end it should only get 45 seats at most – everyone will unite against this bloc. The Republicans suffered the next election debacle with 10.4 percent.
He is an example of how great new things can be achieved in Germany – and you don’t have to run around with a megaphone like Elon Musk. Ugur Sahin is praised everywhere because he contributed 0.5 points to the German gross domestic product and one billion euros in trade tax to the city of Mainz. And it symbolizes the German virtues of discipline and perseverance.
There is no one better suited to the Handelsblatt’s next “Innovation Week”, and so my colleagues Kirsten Ludowig, Siegfried Hofmann and Bert Frönhoff conducted a five-star interview with Sahin. The founder and CEO of Biontech takes the opportunity to point out that there is no internationally coordinated corona vaccination strategy for the fall. The main issue was the blessing of research and the question of when cancer can be cured. Pioneer Sahin said about…
- the fight against Corona: “It has been shown that new Covid-19 variants are very assertive. A vaccination as well as a previous infection only help temporarily. We will most likely continue to need vaccines in the future.”
- own goals: “Our potent mRNA technology acts as a booster for Biontech’s transformation. It is about new cancer therapies that are individually tailored to the patient. We want to significantly increase the chances of recovery with new, tailor-made drugs that aim to ensure that the immune system recognizes and destroys these degenerate cells.”
- own risk: “We are in the middle of a technology and knowledge evolution. It used to be better to take few risks, today there is an incredibly dense amount of knowledge available. Biotechnology remains a difficult business, competition has increased significantly, not only in the USA.”
The Biontech founder also told us how exciting he finds the question of whether it is possible to “rejuvenate and reprogram cells in the body.” Someone who found something against Covid is also believed to be capable of such a project.
We think of Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited.”
Tens of thousands demonstrated in the United States over the weekend for stricter gun laws. They are unlikely to be satisfied with the proposal for a slight tightening of gun laws, which the Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate have agreed on. According to this, gun buyers under the age of 21 should be checked more intensively in the future. The perpetrators of the massacre in a supermarket in Buffalo with ten dead and in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas with 21 dead were each 18 years old.
The US states should also receive money to introduce laws to prevent gun violence. The proposal “doesn’t do everything I think is necessary,” commented US President Joe Biden, but it reflects important steps in the right direction.
And then there is Transport and Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), who suddenly has to share power and money, as a strategy paper from the Federal Chancellery shows. There it is very clear that “interdepartmental cooperation” with the ministries of economics, interior and finance is “essential”. And the head of the chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt, will be responsible for the “overarching strategic control of digitization in the federal administration”. In concrete terms, this means that Wissing has to share the digital budget planned for 2023 with the other three departments.
We learn with Winston Churchill: “A wise man does not make all mistakes himself. He also gives others a chance.”
I wish you a promising start into the week.
Best regards
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor