Nicolas Chaillan, who until recently was “Chief Software Officer” at the Pentagon, creates a shocking analysis for the USA: According to this, the USA is lagging behind China in future technologies such as artificial intelligence. The US military’s cooperation with Silicon Valley is not working, and companies like Google are mistrusted too much, says Chaillan: “We are at war with China. We just don’t know yet. “
That seems exaggerated because the US government is under no illusions. Jen Psaki, White House spokeswoman, has now announced that President Joe Biden will not send any diplomatic or official representatives to the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Reason: the “genocide” in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and other human rights violations.
On the other hand, soon-to-be Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to have conveyed to Beijing that it wanted to continue Angela Merkel’s China policy, so the “Wirtschaftswoche”. On this issue, he will keep his two coalition partners in check.
Whoever has the money has the power – if you look at the financial resources of the departments of the new federal government with this premise, you get a certain reddish cast. In 2022, the Chancellery of Olaf Scholz and the seven SPD ministries alone will dispose of 72 percent of the budget. The FDP comes to 18 percent, the party of the Greens – after all, the second strongest party in this coalition – only to ten percent. This is mainly due to the fact that Hubertus Heil’s Ministry of Labor orders over 162 billion euros and Christine Lambrecht’s Ministry of Defense has over 50 billion euros available.
By the way: when appointing departments and roles among the Social Democrats, the Hessian opposition politician Nancy Faeser surprisingly advanced to the position of Minister of the Interior.
Karl Lauterbach became – contrary to many expectations – minister of health. In the Lauterbach case, Scholz followed the “vox populi”. The political loner is considered by many to be the right person in the corona fight, even if he was wrong with some statements and wants to learn how to manage the authorities. One thing is certain: the 58-year-old will not solve the virus problem on talk shows.
In its forecast for 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) still expects inflation to be only 1.7 percent. Austria’s central bank chief Robert Holzmann, on the other hand, considers it “very unlikely” that a value of less than two percent will be achieved in the euro area. In the Handelsblatt interview, the ECB Council member said in detail about …
- Monetary policy: “It’s like when you drive your car and a smoke screen comes up: in this case, you brake and drive on sight. This is also recommended for monetary policy. We shouldn’t commit ourselves too long and react to the data. “
- the low interest rate trap: “The reasons for the low interest rates are the low productivity of the economy, the aging population and the excess of savings. Only structural and financial policy can change that. For example, by investing in digitization or converting to a climate-friendly economy. “
- Expectation management: “The previous forward guidance comes from a time when deflation was more of a threat than inflation. They didn’t want to spend too much money on bond purchases, so they promised low interest rates for a long time. With higher inflation it looks different. ”
Entertainer Robert Lembke saw it this way: “It is not true that everything is getting more expensive; you only have to try to sell something once. “
PwC’s auditors and consultants are going through tough times. The tax authorities believe that the company has accounted for consulting services via the tax paradise Switzerland, although they were provided in this country. Petra Justenhoven, the new head of Germany, will be responsible for these and other problems from July 1, 2022.
The 54-year-old surprisingly won 51 percent of the votes from 600 partners against the previous incumbent Ulrich Störk, 52. The person who was voted out was only responsible for four years, but lacked leadership and charisma. Justenhoven can be quoted with three questions. “Who, if not we? When, if not now? What if not together? “
The times in which the TV and digital group ProSiebenSat.1 set standards have blown away. As the head of the supervisory board, Werner Brandt, 67, was so little up to the matter that a change was welcomed with a little flourish. Andreas Wiele, 59, once a board member at Axel Springer and most recently a KKR consultant, will take on the task. Bert Habets, formerly co-boss of the rival RTL Group, joins the supervisory body. Brandt had recently supported Rainer Beaujean’s board of directors in the fight against major shareholder Mediaset; now he is “dead man walking”.
The Italians claim three of their own supervisory board seats and want to make ProSiebenSat.1 part of a European holding company in Amsterdam. The headline for the chatter can be found in the ProSieben program: “The Big Bang Theory”.
Bill de Blasio is Mayor of New York City for only three weeks. Shortly before the finish line, he lets the walls shake and calls for a mandatory vaccination for all employees in the private sector. By December 27, the more than 184,000 companies have to see a vaccination certificate from their employees. Also, only those who have been completely vaccinated are allowed in restaurants, cinemas, theaters or fitness rooms; so far, one vaccine dose was enough. Children between the ages of five and eleven must have received at least one injection. The fatal thing about the last-minute initiative: De Blasio’s successor Eric Adams rejects all of this wholeheartedly.
After 16 years, Angela Merkel will hand over the official duties to Olaf Scholz on Wednesday. What do you think: How will Olaf Scholz cope with crises like the pandemic? What will he do differently as Chancellor? And what do you expect from his government in terms of economic policy? Write us your opinion in five sentences [email protected] We will publish selected articles on Thursday in print and online, with attribution.
And then there is US billionaire Michael Steinhardt, who is banned from buying antiques for the rest of his life. The New York Public Prosecutor’s Office had such a ban for the first time: For decades Steinhardt had “shown a greedy appetite for looted artifacts, without worrying about the legality of his actions,” said prosecutor Cy Vance. The investment banker concerned has returned 180 illegally acquired antiques – works of art, masks, bowls – back. They are being returned to their countries of origin, Syria, Israel, Greece, Egypt, Italy and Turkey.
“Antiques are the kitsch of the day before yesterday at today’s prices,” says French actor Jacques Tati.
I wish you a pleasent day.
I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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