Nancy Pelosi and the Taiwan Question

On the other hand, they also accept the country’s “one China policy,” and that includes Taiwan. The Red People’s Republic promptly sees Pelosi’s visit as “crass interference in China’s internal affairs,” according to a spokesman. The People’s Liberation Army will “not stand by” and China “will certainly take vigorous and decisive action to protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Conflict expert Gerhard Schröder would speak of “saber races”. We agree with Confucius: “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

The outgoing CEO Frank Mastiaux, 58, from the Karlsruhe state energy group EnBW has demonstrated a sense for renewable energies. After the nuclear shutdown, he corrected the course. Now, after Vladimir Putin’s energy weapons campaign using his monopoly tool Gazprom, he is hinting at slight corrections again. In the Handelsblatt interview, the manager says about…

• an exit from the nuclear phase-out: “We have explained to the federal government what is technically feasible. We would be ready for such a temporary continued operation if it is wanted. Much electricity can no longer be drawn from the remaining nuclear power plants.”
• the supply of nuclear power plants with fuel elements: “I can only say that for Neckarwestheim, and it’s about weeks, not months. Whether and how much that would help us is something the federal government must examine and decide on the basis of the stress test. If you were to change the fuel elements to gain more time, that would be a more in-depth intervention than stretching.”
• Robert Habeck’s suggestion to take shorter showers: “I find it out of place when such examples are sometimes corrupted. We definitely need to save energy wherever we can. And there is still a lot more to do – without that resulting in a loss of quality of life.”

In times like these, the term “wimp” is no longer wimpy satire, but a harsh reproach.

Since many are currently talking about impending impoverishment and loss of prosperity, an effect of Putin’s multiple threat strategy that Putin calculated, the result of a new wealth study is as surprising as it is encouraging: “Germany is considerably richer than the official statistics show.”

This is what Thilo Albers from the Humboldt University writes, Charlotte Bartels from the German Institute for Economic Research and Moritz Schularick from the University of Bonn. Firstly, this is due to the many unlisted companies (some “hidden champions”), which are considerably more valuable than their book values. And secondly, to low valuations for real estate – which would be ten trillion euros, not eight trillion.

All of this means that the gap between the middle and upper classes is smaller than assumed – but the gap between the poorer half of the population and the elite is much larger. This is where the social gap widens, also because the rich achieve much higher returns on investments than people with little wealth. The permanent diet in interest rates has also led to a new class issue.

The real estate group Adler Group, which fights allegations with eloquent denials of being a “Wirecard in small” in terms of balance sheet, has another problem. The financial supervisory authority Bafin certified that the Luxembourg subsidiary Adler Real Estate had presented incorrect consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2019. After that, she overvalued a real estate project (“Glasmacherviertel”) in Düsseldorf-Gerresheim by up to 233 million euros.

The group would have broken a threshold for the debt level when bonds were sold, repayments of up to 1.8 billion euros would have threatened and with it the economic heaven.

It is unfortunate for Adler that Bafin, who has awakened from the dead, is only talking about a “partial error determination” – but the audit of the accounts for 2019, 2020 and 2021 is ongoing. Conclusion: This clearly falls under the category “More to come”.

The Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas may soon be able to promote some new products as the face of the listed New York cosmetics group Estée Lauder. Her employer wants to close the biggest deal in the company’s history – and buy the luxury brand Tom Ford for three billion dollars, as the “Wall Street Journal” reports.

The buying company, which offers Clinique, MAC, Jo Malone, Aveda and La Mer, is primarily interested in the takeover target’s cosmetics business, and the investment bank Goldman Sachs is already involved.

The fashion textile business (as well as glasses, handbags) of the company founded in 2005 by star designer Tom Ford would probably continue to be licensed. The luxury business in the US is still relatively stable, but Estée Lauder shares have lost more than 26 percent this year.

When it comes to mergers (of relationships), Simone de Beauvoir had her own views: “Marriage is a duty, taking a lover is a luxury.”

And then there is Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger from the Free Voters, who doesn’t just rant like his head of government from the CSU about “Bavaria bashing” by the northern traffic light coalition as if he were talking about a Franconian bratwurst, but prefers to specifically help a farmer in the Upper Bavarian community of Pähl.

His cows had allegedly left such gigantic patties on the street that, after a resident complained, he was ordered to pay a 100-euro fine plus a 28.50-euro cow patty processing fee.

The alarmed politician first tried the power of free speech: “I just can’t fly the cows to the pasture with a helicopter and I can’t put diapers on them either.” Then he informed himself on site (“cow dung is biogas capable”) and finally gave the Reconciler: The manure complainant (“a newcomer, doesn’t mean anything”) should shovel the cow dung to fertilize his garden.

Respect, Markus Söder, who is struggling for an election campaign topic, can also learn something. However, we could also argue with a wisdom from the IT data world: “Crap comes in, crap comes out.”

I wish you an insightful day, forget the crap of the moment.

Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor

PS: nuclear power? No thank you. Or rather: Yes, please? How do you feel about the debate about keeping the three remaining nuclear power plants connected to the grid longer? Would a “stretching operation” make sense beyond the turn of the year – and for how long? What about the repository and safety issue? Which reasons are decisive for you? Write us your opinion in five sentences [email protected]. We will publish selected articles with attribution on Thursday in print and online.