One looks fascinated at the obligatory group photo, for which a new federal government appears quickly after taking office. The male part looks consistently slim, one dares to “slim fit” with the suits, conveys a willingness to jump and wears a tie with the feeling of quick-tempered bourgeoisie.
Only the medic and soloist on duty, whom they already call “Charlemagne”, wears the shirt open. The impression of squat masculinity, which the previous cabinet characterized with phenotypes such as Peter Altmaier or Helge Braun, has given way to a fit-for-the-job philosophy.
The female part, on the other hand, is as colorful as the republic is: three Christmas red and three Mediterranean blue, but also two black. In any case, this group picture is very different from what German companies have brought up. It will not be forgotten how wide-legged the five-man board of Engel & Völkers was photographed in March 2019 and otherwise praised the opposite sex. It was women’s day.
In practice, the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz immediately met with the Prime Ministers of the federal states on matters relating to Corona. At Christmas there is a warning against carelessness, but no restrictions. Scholz: “We have to be prepared for the fact that we always need a prick to be well protected.”
His health minister Karl Lauterbach, who now speaks dizzy with his knowledge not only on talk shows, but also in government rounds, has ordered an inventory day for this Friday. He wanted to know how many of the existing 30 million vaccine doses can really be vaccinated this year. Looks like someone is looking for structure in the chaos.
“Anyone who can should now be boosted immediately,” says virologist Christian Drosten on ARD. The immunity of the vaccinated with Omikron is significantly weaker than with other variants, so Drosten. If the Scholz government is successful, it will become a booster government.
Fear of inflation and a persistent phase of negative interest rates repeatedly provoke one question: What should you do with the money? What are strong growth stocks that not only promise good returns but are also inexpensive? First of all, it shows that the 500 largest US corporations are worth the equivalent of just under 32 trillion euros, the top 500 in Europe, on the other hand, only twelve trillion – and the profit level in the land of dishwasher careers is twice as high as on our continent. Our stock exchange specialist Ulf Sommer has now identified three stocks in eight categories.
- As expected, the Americans completely dominate the IT sector with Facebook, Microsoft and Google.
- In the case of raw materials companies, on the other hand, with Rio Tinto (Netherlands) and Rosneft and Gazprom (both Russia), only Europeans can be found, as they are growing faster and are more profitable, but on the other hand have a low rating.
- In the field of mobility, BMW even beats the stock market superstar Tesla, who is hopelessly overrated by all business criteria and ripe for a pit stop.
Conclusion: Whatever, think of André Kostolany: “Profits on the stock market are compensation for pain and suffering. First comes the pain and then the money. “
Everyone at Volkswagen is making love again. After a month-long power soap opera, the combatants talked their way into a pre-Christmas peace at a press conference yesterday. But if you pull the tinsel a little to the side, you can see: the emperor is naked, but nobody says it. Herbert Diess is allowed to remain CEO, but has to give up operational power. The initiative for this “enclosure” goes back to the works council and the state of Lower Saxony, comments VW expert Martin Murphy.
The ailing business in China, central to the welfare of the Wolfsburg-based company, now has to be dealt with on site by Ralf Brandstätter, who has moved up to the central board. Diess not only surrenders China, but also sales (to Hildegard Wortmann). And finally, with Chief Legal Officer Manfred Döss, a proven critic of the CEO moves up as the legal director. Once they blasphemed in the group about “Diess & Das”, now people are already talking about “Diess & Döss”.
(Photo: BASF SE)
Two other company stories stand out, positive and negative. On the one hand, there is the chemical company BASF, which is pushing for the green restructuring. Ludwigshafen wants to move away from oil-based products and raw materials, investments and research will be “increasingly directed towards sustainability, climate protection and transformation”, says board member Melanie Maas-Brunner in an interview with Handelsblatt. The oil and gas subsidiary Wintershall-Dea is expected to go public in 2022.
And CEO Martin Brudermüller is the mainstay of the federal government’s new innovation alliance with business, trade unions and associations. On the other hand, Continental is in the spotlight. Because the automotive supplier was drawn into the diesel exhaust scandal late, the employee representatives criticize the chairman of the supervisory board Wolfgang Reitzle, 72, in a year-end letter. which looks like a clean bill of health with no value. According to the works council, they want a “credible new start”.
My culture tip for the weekend: “And just like that” on Sky. A kind of compulsory piece for all those who liked the biting joke of the TV series “Sex and the City” two decades ago. The antics of four New York women in search of a thrill in trash, gossip about men and eroticism. In the follow-up work, Samantha fled to London, the actress Kim Cattrall clashed in reality with leading actress Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie, whose husband (“Mister Big”) falls dead from the peleton in the stress of leisure.
With Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) she now lives the life of women in their mid-fifties who have to learn to somehow age well, but until then continue to suffer from orthopedic pain in high heels. The first episodes show: You are now on Instagram, Afro-Americans are also playing, and the humor is refreshing a bit inconsistently. But the latter can still be.
(Photo: AP)
And then there is Joshua Kimmich, incapacitated national soccer player. At the record champions FC Bayern Munich he will be out until the end of the year, at least. Kimmich had initially shown himself skeptical about the vaccination, so he remained unvaccinated and then became infected with corona more than two weeks ago. Now he cannot train because of slight infiltration in the lungs; the virus affects the bronchi or alveoli.
Intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis: “We know corona cases that regress quickly, and we know cases that take a really long time to regress, even with initially mild courses.” consider the corona to be flu and serums as hazardous substances.
But however crippling the never-ending story of the pandemic may be, it applies to Marcus Aurelius: “One should not fear death, but that one will never begin to live.”
I wish you a happy weekend.
I warmly greet you
Her
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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