When it comes to Corona, from the nation’s silent partner to the “Captain Future”, from the driven to the driver – and from now on he has to prove whether he can handle the crisis as well as his role model Helmut Schmidt in the Hamburg storm surge in 1962: Olaf Scholz. Yesterday evening the Olaf Scholz Festival was on German television, according to his motto: “The leadership is there.”
After the chat with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Minister (to be repeated tomorrow), the Social Democrat announced a whole arsenal of measures, above all that the general compulsory vaccination should come by February 2022. The Bundestag is supposed to adopt it as a coercive measure against the still far too high quota of refusal to vaccinate – and all interested parties can read the sacred vows of the top politicians of all parties that there is no compulsory vaccination in a freedom society. For some, “Freedom Day” quickly turned into “Unfreedom Day”.
But Captain Scholz lists a lot more on his tour through the TV studios, understanding everything as an “act of national solidarity”:
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- 30 million booster vaccinations by New Year’s Eve, an astronomical number for which Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer as the commander of the crisis team is supposed to take care of
- 2G in retail and catering, the end of clubs and discos, masks in schools and a quasi-lockdown for the unvaccinated
- Tightening of the recently passed Infection Protection Act
Conclusion: The designated Chancellor wants to put an end to the Corona cacophony – including his own – in Hanseatic cool. But ambition in the right place is not a guarantee of success. Let’s see what his health minister says about it, who – against the opposition of the united talk show society – will definitely not be called Karl Lauterbach. The ZDF already brings Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher into play.
And of course they are again Football stadiums turn, Söder & Co’s favorite topic: If they couldn’t fill up quickly enough in autumn, they’ll soon be empty again. Witching hour! When it comes to symbols, politics quickly changes to extremes, even if a limitation of the number of spectators would have been sufficient for the time being.
In any case, the Federal Constitutional Court, which subsequently approved the federal emergency brake in the spring, can feel encouraged to take “tough measures”.
Donald Trump’s dream of being able to return to the White House in 2024 despite severe legal violations of all kinds will come true early on. Current First Lady Jill Biden has decided to hang a gold-framed picture of Trump and his wife Melania when decorating the Christmas tree. In a large piece of analysis, our USA correspondent Annett Meiritz describes how Joe Biden disenchanted himself in the office of Prime Minister.
Many US citizens therefore doubt whether the 79-year-old could even manage a second term. You whisper Trump’s bad word about “sleepy Joe”, but you also don’t know what to think of Vice President Kamala Harris. The advance praise with which it once started are wilted.
The global investment crisis that has existed for a decade annoys savers and makes start-ups happy. They are now considered to be the best bet on future growth in value and on the future in general. And so venture capital specialists sometimes literally throw the money, which is extremely cheap by the central banks, after the founders.
In the second round of financing (“Series B”), companies in Europe are now collecting almost three times as much money as they were five years ago, a Handelsblatt report shows. And the ratings are a good four times as high, while the founding teams still hold an average of more than 50 percent of the shares (previously 40 percent). Silicon Valley is everywhere now – including the new power of start-up bosses.
Marta Ortega, 37, had waited a long time for the day the family company Inditex came to power. And then that: The shares of the Zara parent company collapsed by almost six percent. That was less because the daughter of the extremely wealthy, 85-year-old founder Amancio Ortega (share: 59 percent) took over the management of the board of directors, but rather because the CEO was changed at the same time.
The new head supervisor, unlike her predecessor, will not take on any executive tasks, we describe in a portrait. “I’ve lived and breathed this company since I was a child,” explains Marta Ortega, who started her career at 23 in a Zara store in London. Modesty is an adornment of the Spaniard: “Be big at work and small in life: this is one of the best things I’ve ever heard.”
The software and cloud group Microsoft is firmly established in funds that invest specifically according to ecological, social and corporate ethical criteria (“ESG”). That could become more difficult in the future, because something unexpected happened at the latest general meeting: Shareholders supported the protest mobilized by Arjuna Capital against the lax, opaque manner in which the company dismissed allegations of sexual harassment in the past.
That happened against the background of revelations that co-founder Bill Gates had, among other things, a liaison with an employee, whereupon he resigned from the board of directors.
Microsoft now promises to investigate contentious cases quickly and to report openly about them. More details are known from CEO Satya Nadella’s share deals: He sold around 840,000 Microsoft shares, half of his package. Total value: more than $ 285 million. His “personal financial planning” is mentioned as the reason for selling, but it could also just be his very personal tax planning.
(Photo: AP)
And then there are the heirs of the Italian fashion house Gucci, who don’t exactly turn out to be movie buffs. The current movie “House of Gucci” by Ridley Scott, in which real people from the family are played, lets all the seams burst.
Gucci vs. Gucci: The family threatens to file a complaint for believing the description of themselves to be wrong and distorted. “The Gucci family reserves the right to take any initiative to protect their name and image and that of their loved ones,” said a letter.
What doesn’t fit here is the artist’s impression of Patrizia Reggiani, who has her ex-husband, company boss Maurizio Gucci, killed years after the divorce. Lady Gaga plays the commissioner of the murder and has shown sympathy for the Italian who rose from a small background in interviews. The perpetrator, who was imprisoned for 18 years, is shown as a victim, the Guccis lament – while they themselves only appear as “bullies”, “ignorant and insensitive to the world around them”.
I wish you a harmonious day, in all colors and cuts.
I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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