Let’s start the week with the man who topped the politicians’ list of popularity ratings for a long time, but who is suddenly seen not as a poster boy, but as the coalition’s “blunder boy”. Robert Habeck, 52, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, can use positive messages well, after all the manual blunders of his gas levy, which should be the top topic at the coalition meeting in Meseberg Castle tomorrow, Tuesday.
Let’s hope: A gas shortage this winter is becoming less likely.
The great filling level story competes with the harsh reactions, also within the coalition, to the state gas surcharge of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour, which customers pay for the Putin disaster – and also lets the coffers of crisis profiteers ring, who would not even need state aid. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil accuses the eloquent Habeck of technical errors and calls for corrections and a policy with substance instead of “nice words”. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai considers the gas levy to be “extremely problematic” because the financial situation of a company is “completely disregarded”. And CDU leader Friedrich Merz lectures the Watschenmann minister about lobbying: “If the state puts up a pot of honey on the market square, then you shouldn’t be surprised if the doors around it open and everyone is up to their upper arms in this pot. “
From “Business Insider” we learn that representatives of the breathless Goliath Uniper and two other energy companies even had their shoulders in the honey pot – they are said to have had the idea of the levy and eagerly helped to write the regulations in the service of the fatherland.
This is not how you imagined political work under a green leader. It is part of the choreography of the Habeck crisis, which escalated over the weekend, that the master of the word himself appeared in ZDF’s “heute-journal” last night and gave a taste of his rhetorical problem solving.
The botched gas surcharge appears here as a “solidarity mechanism” because it is not a business model for the state to support energy companies such as Gazprom Germania and Uniper with billions (which must probably continue to be done). The problem with the “free riders” (the ones with honey upper arms) in the surcharge will be solved, In addition, they want to decouple the electricity price from the high gas prices. In the end, you will have to see who might have contributed to new solutions.
The latest controversy between Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and his health colleague Karl Lauterbach (SPD) speaks for the heightened style of conflict within the federal government.. When asked about the reactivation of the legal status of the epidemic situation of national scope, the social democrat explained that this emergency tool would be manageable if there were no new corona variants. He hopes so – which includes the fact that he thinks that’s exactly what’s possible.
Buschmann countered this in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine”: “I don’t believe in scaremongering at all. There are currently no signs of such virus variants anywhere.” And explained: “The Bundestag would have to agree to this for reactivation. There is no majority in the coalition for this. Because the Free Democrats have said that hell would have to open up among us before we agree to that two ministers.
Nikolaus von Bomhard, 66, is known for his incisive economic analysis, but not as the most powerful supervisory board in German business. But according to our current ranking, this is exactly the role that the Munich lawyer assumes – thanks to his mandates at the top of the control bodies at Munich Re (where he was CEO) and Deutsche Post. There is a trend towards supervisors with a lot of financial expertise on the supervisory boards of the 160 listed German companies, analyzes the Göttingen economics professor Michael Wolff. The reason lies in the new law to strengthen financial market integrity.
The influence of women on supervisory boards is also slowly increasing. In 2022, three inspectors made it into the top ten: the former McKinsey consultant Clara-Christina Streit, ex-top manager Margret Suckale and the car lobbyist Hildegard Müller.
Top climber Streit appreciates the detailed work in the committees, but obviously doesn’t become a “Gremlin”. In the Handelsblatt interview, she says about…
- own stages of development: “As a member of the supervisory board, you are particularly in demand in extreme situations, for example: hostile takeovers, the CEO goes to the competitor, mergers, pandemics, war. There is a kind of crisis or exceptional competence, and that increases with committee experience.”
- the work in committees of the supervisory board: “I have never been on a committee on any board of directors. The work in it is much more substantive and concentrated than in the large committee. The dough is still soft, it is being kneaded in the committees, if I may say so.”
- the change in control work: “The discussion culture is much more involved. This means that we on the supervisory board no longer primarily monitor, we advise and give impetus. The Anglo-Saxon model style with more active non-executive directors is on the rise.”
The old evil proverb “The more supervision, the less insight” would have to be rephrased as: “The more insight, the less supervision.”
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa)
The central bank conference in Jackson Hole, America, is something of a summit for global monetary policymakers. When the illustrious group met again in a valley in the Rocky Mountains last weekend, the US Fed chairman set the course: “Restoring price stability will probably require the continuation of a restrictive monetary policy for some time,” said Jerome Powell. Another “extraordinarily large” rate hike could become necessary.
A number of players in the European Central Bank (ECB) are also calling for a sharp rise in interest rates at their planned meeting in September. One should be open to discussing both a 0.50 and 0.75 point raise as “possible moves,” Latvia’s Martins Kazaks said in Jackson Hole. The key interest rate is currently 0.50 percent, it had been raised for the first time in eleven years. “In this environment, central banks need to act forcefully,” says ECB Director Isabel Schnabel. “The longer inflation remains high, the greater the risk that the public will lose confidence in our determination and ability to maintain purchasing power.”
And then there is the dream of man on the moon, even on Mars – whose realization NASA wants to get closer to today with the launch of “Artemis 1”. After 50 years, another US rocket flies to the moon. The plan calls for the spacecraft to fly to the moon, make multiple orbits, eventually return to Earth and land in the Pacific Ocean on October 10. A main question is whether the heat shield will hold up, after all, the next time people are supposed to be sitting in the Orion capsule.
The subtitle of the “Artemis” program (“Moon to Mars Mission”) and the costs of more than 93 billion dollars by 2025 show that something big is at stake, namely in the race with China. And that’s what US Vice President Kamala is talking about today Harris in Houston, cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs “America the Beautiful” with the Philadelphia Orchestra, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock plays the national anthem, probably very dignified and not aggressive like Jimi Hendrix once did at the Woodstock Festival.
Conclusion: We praise the innovative spirit, but also remember the legendary Jules Verne: “When a person flies to other celestial bodies and sees how beautiful it is on our earth, space travel has fulfilled one of its most important purposes.”
I wish you, of course, a rocket start into the week.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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