there are two worlds when it comes to Ukraine and Vladimir Putin. One consists of appeals for appeasement and hope for the old energy world, the other of the struggle for freedom and the fear of a new Soviet Union. The growing minority, which wants “world one” under the insinuations of the Putin bloc party AfD, should be able to learn something from the current resolution of the UN General Assembly.
143 of the 193 member states – including Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabia – voted to condemn Russia’s illegal annexations of Ukraine. Along with Russia, only Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria voted against. Among the 35 countries that abstained are China, India, South Africa and Pakistan. The resolution calls on Russia to reverse the annexation of the partially occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. The decision is not binding under international law, but it boosts morale in the West immensely.
The EU intends to counter the supply power of the monopolist Gazprom and other state giants with its buying power. At a meeting in Prague, the energy ministers of the Union agreed to buy gas together from 2023 – in order to better withstand speculation and price spikes. The EU Commission is due to present a package of proposals next Tuesday. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck had repeatedly advocated joint gas purchases: “If Europe, as a large customer, uses its market power strategically, then it will bring prices down.”
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However, there was no agreement in Prague on a gas price cap that many EU countries are calling for. Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson brings up the idea of calling the Union alarm for gas shortages – then the EU states would have to reduce their gas consumption by at least 15 percent (current EU value: minus ten percent). Simson warns: “Any action we take to lower prices must not send the wrong signal and increase consumption in the EU.”
We also experience the principle of supply power versus buyer power in the food retail sector. Here the well-armed battalion of the retail groups Edeka, Rewe, Lidl and Aldi, there the impressive front of multinationals like Nestlé or Mars. The American giant for chocolate bars (“Snickers”, “Bounty”, “M&M”, “Twix”) and animal feed (“Whiskas”, “Pedigree”) no longer supplies Edeka and Rewe after a three-month dispute.
The retailers reject the price demands of the US family group. Edeka argues that other brand multinationals such as Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble are currently trying to ride the wave of inflation out of greed for profit. In circles of manufacturers like Mars, on the other hand, reference is made to rapidly increasing costs – and that retailers should participate by not passing on price increases in full to consumers. We learn: Even in the economic war between self-sufficiency and democracy, profit margins are not sacrificed.
If you want to know what went really wrong in the last decade of cheap money, just take a look at the inflation-adjusted statistics using the example of Frankfurt am Main. After that, prices for condominiums rose by 110 percent, rents by 28 percent and incomes by 10 percent. In other words: If a high earner from the service industry wants to buy a 60 square meter apartment, he has to raise eight annual incomes. The investor, on the other hand, only recovers his purchase price after 41 years of letting.
This bitter calculation results from the ranking of the cities with the biggest real estate bubbles, which the major bank UBS compiles: Toronto leads ahead of Frankfurt, Zurich and Munich. “The air is gradually coming out of the bubble,” says the German UBS chief investment strategist Maximilian Kunkel: “The boom is over.”
A state offensive, on which the “Alliance for Affordable Housing” has agreed, is also having a hard time against this whirlpool. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz, the former SPD chief applicant couple, presented 187 points yesterday, such as digital building applications, recycling of building materials, reliable new building subsidies or streamlined approval processes. You have heard about this so often in theory that you would like to experience it in practice.
While Scholz is sticking to the annual goal of 400,000 new apartments, his minister puts it into perspective in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “It will take some time.” The political scientist goes on to say about…
- the declining number of social housing: “The federal government is providing financial aid of 14.45 billion euros up to 2026. But social housing is the responsibility of the federal states. In the alliance, they commit to co-financing federal funds. The trend reversal has already happened in Saarland.”
- the situation of the tenants: “People are doubly burdened. First by the extremely increased additional costs and then the associated increase in the rent. I see an urgent need for action. In the future, indexed leases could refer to the general rent development and no longer to the general price development.”
- building limits: “We have a problem with material bottlenecks and significantly increased costs for construction work. And we have a capacity problem.”
The 187-point program is a start, but somehow one has to think of George Bernard Shaw: “If a commission had been appointed when the world was made, it would not be complete today.”
Finally, we come to well-known people in public life, say business celebrities, who suddenly find themselves unfavorably illuminated. This applies, for example, to the President of All Metal, Stefan Wolf: According to a report in the RTL journal Stern, he is said to have employed his private housekeeper on the black for years. The woman is said to have worked five days a week for the owner of the automotive supplier ElringKlinger, bypassing the tax authorities and social security funds. Wolf said he would not answer questions about his private life.
His works council also accuses him of having classified low-paid part-time workers at the Langenzenn site near Nuremberg in wage groups that were too low. The hope of saving the jobs in this way was not fulfilled: production in Langenzenn is to be stopped completely.
A promotional video appearance by Reimund Neugebauer, 69, head of the Fraunhofer Society, a power in German research, is also a problem in the media. The mechanical engineer advertised a new product from the Austrian company Huberpflug in a three-minute image film that was published in February 2021. The subtitles presented Neugebauer as Fraunhofer President – but not as a shareholder who had recently acquired shares in the company.
Neugebauer confirms that he held a stake in Huber Soil Solution GmbH between December 2020 and July 2021 through his investment company Innoshare Consult (ISC). The video was published “unauthorized” and “without knowledge” by Neugebauer and the Fraunhofer Society. The video has since been deleted and is no longer available on YouTube.
And then there is star chef Alfons Schuhbeck, 73, who is so many things: Bavarian original, star restaurateur, entertainer, chatterbox, master chef, spice guru, but certainly not a businessman. Before the Munich I District Court, he made a partial confession to the allegation that he had evaded around 2.4 million euros in taxes through manipulated accounting. Schuhbeck managed the feat of switching back and forth between the little sinner and the show master very cheerfully and presenting his vita (“was technically more of a bottle”) so wittily that it could be enough for the Valentin Karlstadt Prize.
So he talked about having “done something wrong” and having fooled everyone: “I was always everywhere and nowhere.” In the “ginger” process, the bankrupt also informed – as routinely as eloquently – about the health benefits of ginger, but also of garlic, cardamom or turmeric. The judge, who asked quite briskly, managed to smile several times. At some point Schuhbeck said on this day of self-knowledge: “I could talk for hours about spices, but this is probably the wrong time.”
I wish you a well-seasoned day with commercial success.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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