Lufthansa becomes Bodenhansa. Germany’s flight monopoly had scared away its clientele with flight cancellations and a blatant lack of staff, but now the chaos is increasing again.
A total of 1,000 flights have been canceled by Thursday. Due to such conditions, 134,000 passengers have to be careful not to blow up because of the constant anger at the company.
The German hubs in Frankfurt am Main and Munich are now virtually out of service because the Verdi union called on around 20,000 ground crew workers to walk out. She wants better working conditions and higher salaries.
Obtaining Russian gas is becoming more and more like a lottery. And one in which the hopeful ticket buyers have to withdraw with nothing but rivets. Russian President Vladimir Putin now wants to chase 20 percent of the usual cargo through the Nord Stream pipeline using his blackmail vehicle Gazprom, which immediately prompted the four leading German economic research institutes to carry out larger calculations. According to this, it could just be enough for the Germans in winter to come into spring without shivering.
However, a residual risk remains – above all that that Putin first reduces it to ten percent and then to zero percent. He is still benefiting from the steeply rising gas price, which yesterday temporarily increased by almost eleven percent to 196 euros per megawatt hour.
In Brussels, the EU energy ministers have meanwhile agreed on a gas emergency plan, according to which each country is to reduce consumption by 15 percent by the end of March. But as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it: “Life is a big celebration / if it can’t be calculated.”
Sometimes supply and demand just don’t match. Example vocational training: German companies are looking for trainees with increasing desperation. Tens of thousands of apprenticeships are vacant.
One in five apprenticeship positions has recently remained vacant; 600,000 new apprenticeship contracts in 2008 contrast with the current low figure of 473,000 for 2021. On the other hand, there is no shortage of potential buyers who don’t withdraw at the last moment – and yet there is no “matching”.
We analyze the reasons for this labor force problem in one focus. One truth is that many high school graduates just don’t see the opportunities in the market. Conclusion: There is a lack of information – sometimes also of realistic expectations.
In the past few months, politicians from the Republican Party in the United States have been shooting at Blackrock, the most powerful financial firm in the world. Your accusation: One overwhelms with climate protection demands and operates a “woke” capitalism against the companies.
However, there was little reason for this criticism in 2022. The world’s largest asset manager (assets under management: almost ten trillion dollars) only supported shareholders in ecological and social advances in the general meetings in 24 percent of the cases. The year before, the rate was 43 percent.
In the industry as a whole, the decline in support for such eco-positions was more modest – it went from 36 to 27 percent. The initiatives were too binding, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the investment methodology, argues Blackrock:
“Many climate-related proposals have attempted to dictate the pace of firms’ energy transition, with little regard for disruption in fiscal strength. Others failed to recognize the progress made.” Blackrock boss Larry Fink will hardly be accused of “greenwashing”, as has happened, but rather of “greenbashing”.
The major Swiss bank Credit Suisse has hit every blunder in the past few years. Rows of managers deserted, affairs exposed a desolate management culture, the collapses of Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Management in 2021 damaged the balance sheet.
This Wednesday, when the probably disastrous quarterly balance sheet figures are announced, a lot of sadness is to be expected – also about the departure of CEO Thomas Gottstein, 58, after only two and a half years. He thought they were looking for a renovator, but they were looking for a god on Paradeplatz in Zurich.
Ulrich Körner is to follow Gottstein, reported the Financial Times on Tuesday evening, based on four sources. The restructuring specialist Körner is currently Head of Asset Management at Credit Suisse. The names of chief investment banker Christian Meissner and chief asset manager Francesco de Ferrari had previously also been mentioned.
Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe recently used the word “if” strategically. So if in France the TV market leader TF1 of the contractor Martin Bouygues were to become the national champion against Netflix, Amazon & Co through the planned majority purchase of the previous Bertelsmann broadcaster M6, then their own RTL group in Germany might at some point also be able to beat its rival ProSieben Take over Sat1.
However, the French antitrust authority puts a spoke in the wheel of such wishful calculations. In a report, she expresses strong concerns about the threat of television advertising dominance.
Tough conditions threaten, possibly even a ban. The fact that the postulate of lively competition also plays a role in the whole deal mania of the corporations can be seen as a positive sign.
And then there’s Kate McCann, presenter on Talk TV, the new channel of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 91, who believes he needs to please British viewers with a clone of his right-wing US hooligan Fox News.
The ratings were so low at the start that Talk TV is only now getting a bit of attention – due to a medical emergency. During a lively TV duel between the two aspirants for the legacy of outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, interviewer McCann passed out after a good 30 minutes.
Onlookers heard a loud noise, Secretary of State Liz Truss said the OMG formula (“Oh my god”). The debate between her and ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak was not resumed, although the presenter soon recovered.
Perhaps the single job in the Murdoch kingdom was just too much for her: The correspondent Harry Cole, who was intended to be the co-moderator, had canceled at short notice because of Corona. In the end, a piece of advice from Theodor W. Adorno helps us: “The almost impossible task consists in not letting the power of others nor your own powerlessness make you stupid.”
I wish you a thoroughly insightful day.
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor