she really did it: The US Federal Reserve announced yesterday evening that it would abandon its ultra-loose monetary policy. The purchases of bonds will be throttled much more than previously assumed – and at the same time six hikes in the key interest rate (previously zero to 0.25 percent) are in prospect by 2023. There are three lessons to be learned from this:
- The phenomenon of interest is no longer wrapped in candy wrappers, but is discussed in an unadorned way. For the first time in a long time, the Fed no longer uses the word “temporarily” in connection with monetary devaluation. “This is not the inflation we expected,” admits Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
- There is a risk of a dangerous double game of rising interest rates, which will dampen two things: on the one hand inflation (currently at 6.8 percent in the USA), but on the other hand growth.
- Since the monetary policy markers of the Fed had been expected by analysts, the stock exchanges reacted positively: The Dow Jones closed a good one percent stronger, the S&P 500 gained 1.63 percent. David Zervos, chief strategist at the finance firm Jefferies, is recognizably so attached to vaccination jargon that he expresses his Powell praise: “It will give the market a boost.”
The US is simply realizing that the high demand for capital and consumer goods and the limited supply due to delivery problems do not go together. Although we know from Joachim Ringelnatz: “What is certain is that nothing is certain. Not even that. “
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“That was and is nothing more than state terrorism, a sign should be set.” This is how the Berlin judge Olaf Arnoldi turned against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He had previously sentenced the Russian Vadim Krasikow to life – he had murdered a native Chechen in the middle of Berlin’s Tiergarten who allegedly fought against Russia.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sees a “serious violation of German law and sovereignty”. She called in the Russian ambassador and declared two employees of his embassy to be “undesirable people”. Incidentally, undesirable such as poison gas attacks, infiltration via Telegram and RT (formerly “Russia Today”) or annexations in the Ukraine.
The economy is growing again after the lockdown, but with it the attacks by activist investors. The number of campaigns by hedge funds at listed companies rose by a quarter in Europe in 2021, analyzes the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal. It affects companies such as RWE, Aareal Bank or the engine manufacturer Deutz. In the USA, the “motherland” of the activists, however, the trend is on the decline.
Anything but the all-clear for Corona comes from Europe’s top disease fighter. In an interview with my colleague Sandra Louven, Andrea Ammon explains that the pandemic will not go away for at least the next two to three years – everything else is “wishful thinking”. The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which she directs, anticipates a further rapid increase in the number of Omikron cases in Europe. In particular, Ammon says about …
- Omikron: “I would like to warn very strongly against thinking that the variant is not that bad. We just don’t know enough yet. “
- a new lockdown: “In Germany the incidence is currently falling. If it stays that way, the measures taken so far will be sufficient. The booster vaccinations must now be given quickly – three to six months after the second vaccination. “
- the compulsory vaccination: “This can increase the vaccination rate in the short term. But I’m not sure whether coercion has a long-term advantage if you don’t manage to generally increase willingness to vaccinate. We will probably still need various vaccinations against the coronavirus. “
Jean-Jacques Rousseau comments: “Human freedom does not lie in the fact that he can do what he wants, but rather that he does not have to do what he does not want.”
Interviews with trained journalists are not always productive (they know how the questioner goes about it). The longtime “Tagesthemen” presenter and today’s WDR director Tom Buhrow, 63, let out a lot in the Handelsblatt. In the fight against US streaming giants such as Netflix, ARD, which he headed for two years, is relying on a digital program offensive, on partners such as Sky and Telekom, and on the strategy of offering everything from a single source. Earlier thought games of selling shares in the production subsidiary Bavaria are a thing of the past.
Although, according to Buhrow’s vision, ARD and ZDF will have a large joint media library by 2030, he clearly rejects a merger. In the end, Buhrow reveals that after eight and a half years at the helm, he wants to go back to the roots: “After the ARD chairmanship, I will look at the question of journalistic activity in peace.” Sounds like Marius Müller-Westernhagen: “I want to go back to the streets … ”
The essence of populism is its volatility, against which only new benefits or enemy images can help. Boris Johnson’s arsenal, a caricature of an Eton pupil with a wild love for the tribune, is obviously as empty as an oyster at dessert. In any case, almost 100 of 361 MPs in his Conservative Party voted against Johnson’s plans to limit the new Omikron variant with 3G – even though the British prime minister had thundered, “we should do the right thing for our country tonight”.
It was only thanks to the help of the opposition Labor Party that Johnson prevailed in the end. Since he is not flattering backbenchers and because his Tories are currently up to eight percent behind Labor, his popularity is very limited. It looks like the citizens of London, Leeds and Liverpool are trying to put some kind of lesson on their prime minister.
And then there is the Russian billionaire Oleg Burlakov, who died in June at the age of 72, who once attracted attention with the black sailing yacht “Black Pearl”. Not the ship, but a “menage à trois” aroused the minds – and prompted Lyudmila Burlakov to initiate a war of divorce after 48 years of marriage. The reason was his lover Sofia, who was 50 years his junior. If it was initially believed that the will made Lyudmila and Burlakov’s two daughters heiresses, a handwritten will from 2019 emerged after the death of the “cement king”.
Accordingly, Burlakov’s sister and Sofia should also benefit. The women are now fighting over Burlakov’s fortune of 3.5 billion euros and a villa in Monaco (value: 88 million euros). The US comedian Jerry Lewis took it with humor: “There are certainly many reasons for a divorce, but the main reason is and will be the wedding.”
I warmly greet you
Her
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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