A few days ago I was sitting on the plane back from the USA next to an American: mid-20s, video producer, traveling at the invitation of a German “YouTube star” (whom I didn’t know, but that doesn’t mean anything). He had never been to Germany before and he knew next to nothing about his destination, but he had heard of the “energy crisis”.
Whether there is also war because of the struggle for energy in Germany, he wanted to know. I was speechless for a moment and wondered why he hadn’t found out at least that before his trip, also for his own sake, but then uttered an indignant “No” and tried to explain in logo! style. You know, the children’s news, where even the most complex situation is wonderfully understandable.
I don’t know if I succeeded, but at least I was able to convince him that we weren’t at war. Even if the federal government upgrades its rhetoric more and more. Keyword: “defensive screen” with “double boom”.
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One could also simply have talked about a 200 billion euro aid fund for citizens and businesses. The traffic light on Thursday also said once again that Russia uses energy as a “weapon”. According to the resolution, the situation has “deteriorated dramatically” in recent weeks.
Despite – or perhaps because of – this gloomy present, I would like to look to the future with you: to the regions in Germany with the greatest future prospects. For many years, metropolises like Munich have dominated the ranking of the economic research institute Prognos, which we regularly report on in the Handelsblatt. That is past. Now the small ones, the provinces, are pushing forward.
You can read about their names and the factors driving their rise in our weekend title. There you can also check how your region is doing. My home town of Bochum ranks 297th out of 400 cities and districts evaluated. So there is still room for improvement for Grönemeyer’s “Flower in the Revier”.
What else has kept us busy this week?
1. SPD, Greens and FDP agree: The gas price brake is coming, although no one knows what it will actually look like. Above all, the financing was controversial in advance, because Finance Minister Christian Lindner absolutely wants to comply with the debt brake in 2023. The solution is a booking trick that is easy to see through: the aid is to come from the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF), a kind of shadow budget. This was set up during the pandemic to help companies. It expired in the summer and is now to be reactivated and given new credit authorizations of over 200 billion euros. According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the controversial gas levy is “no longer needed”.
The gas price brake does not change anything in the dispute between the federal and state governments about the financing of the third relief package. In view of this number, the dispute is likely to be fueled even more: in the first eight months of this year, the 16 countries achieved a budget surplus totaling 23.6 billion euros. This emerges from a template from the Ministry of Finance, which is available to the Handelsblatt. The scramble at a prime ministers’ conference continues on Tuesday.
2. There are still many unanswered questions after several leaks were discovered on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines: what happened? How was the sabotage possible? What effects can be expected on the war in Ukraine? A team of Handelsblatt reporters will answer the most important questions about the process, which could also be the basis for the next James Bond film.
Russia has denied all allegations and on Friday declared the four Ukrainian regions of Cherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Donetsk to be Russian territory. In his almost hour-long speech, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin demonstrated that his perception is increasingly at odds with reality. In response to the annexation, the US imposes further sanctions, also against the head of the Russian central bank Elvira Nabiullina.
3. It was a precision landing, in a negative sense: In September, the inflation rate in Germany and in the euro area was 10.0 percent each – and, as feared, was in the double digits. Larry Fink, head of the world’s largest wealth manager Blackrock, believes that high inflation rates are a permanent phenomenon. Our reporters from the company department have researched which companies want to pay their employees a special bonus to compensate for inflation.
4. Yes, it is still there, the pandemic – and the number of infections is increasing dramatically. Nevertheless, Karl Lauterbach and experts see Germany well prepared. The Minister of Health is again expecting a four-digit seven-day incidence, as he said on Friday at a press conference with the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler. “But I’m confident that we’ll have it under control,” said Lauterbach. However, there is one big unknown.
5. Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume, who is also the head of the VW subsidiary Porsche, spoke on Thursday on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange of a great dream that was about to come true: “It’s a historic moment.” stock exchange listed. At EUR 84.00, the first price was above the issue price of EUR 82.50 and closed at EUR 82.82 at the end of the day. An initial public offering (IPO) was thus successful, for which the market environment could hardly have been worse.
My colleague Ulf Sommer analyzed how Porsche compares to other auto stocks. The Zuffenhausener are valued more than half lower than Ferrari. Both manufacturers are most comparable when it comes to quantities and the search for uniqueness and luxury that is widespread in the financial markets.
6. The MSCI World, the most popular exchange-traded fund (ETF), on the other hand, is currently under pressure. Our investment expert Andreas Neuhaus spoke to experts about how investors can set up their ETF portfolio more independently of the MSCI World and gives an overview of four options.
7. Shortly before the Tory party conference, which was actually intended to be the first highlight of Liz Truss’ young term in office, the British Prime Minister has already been counted: On Tuesday evening, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sent a blue letter to London, in which he criticized the government’s “untargeted” fiscal measures as inflationary and unfair and called on Truss to reverse the trend. A public censure from the IMF for the government of a leading economy is extremely rare. In a major global risk report, our London correspondent Torsten Riecke describes an industrialized country that is on the way to being sidelined.
8th. Have you already submitted your property tax return? No? Then you feel like me and the city of Jena. Municipalities also have to submit property tax returns. However, the first communities, including Jena, are now capitulating and getting an extension of the deadline – which the government denies the taxpayer.
9. In the new episode of our Rethink Work podcast, which I moderate alternately with my colleague Charlotte Haunhorst, I spoke to Peter Vajkoczy for an hour – an exceptionally long time. Why? Because his profession and the world in which he works are so alien to me and at the same time so fascinating. Vajkoczy is a neurosurgeon at the Charité and specializes in operations on the head and brain. He talks about his craft, the latest surgical technologies, the service to patients and – what is special – about the people behind the world-renowned doctor. Have a listen!
Finally, back to my trip to the USA. My suitcase arrived home four days later than me and with the start of the autumn holidays there is a risk of even greater chaos at the airports, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin. I wish those who are standing in queues or at the baggage carousel strong nerves and I wish you all a nice weekend!
Best regards
Her
Kirsten Ludowig
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt
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