The gas levy is about to end

one could always get the impression that the energy trading company Uniper has big problems, but on the other hand the government’s cornucopia is being poured out a little too impetuously over the candidate for bankruptcy. Because the federal government, as a repair shop for capitalist damage, decided to buy shares, finance loans and also decide on a gas levy for customers, which would have been used primarily by Uniper SE, which is still majority owned by the Finnish state-owned company Fortum.

Now Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck is completely questioning the poorly prepared, unpopular gas levy, the ARD capital city studio is spreading the word. If the gas supplier were to be nationalized by a majority, the gas surcharge should ideally be replaced by comprehensive state aid, the Greens politician said internally. Habeck justified his departure from the gas surcharge with “doubts in terms of the financial constitution”.

The news could keep Lower Saxony citizens from frustration preferences in the upcoming state elections. Andreas Jung, energy policy spokesman for the Union faction, comments somewhat ruthlessly on the permanent course corrections: “The traffic lights are going haywire.”

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The possible election of post-fascist politician Georgia Meloni, 45, as Italy’s prime minister on Sunday has spooked many in Europe. But not Andrea Orcel, Head of the major Milan bank Unicredit. “We believe in Italy,” he says in an interview with the Handelsblatt, “the political risk is overestimated.” Many are not clear: “If Italy falls, then Europe falls.”

In the Handelsblatt interview, Andrea Orcel skilfully circumvents any denial of a purchase of Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

(Photo: Marc-Steffen Unger for Handelsblatt)

Half of the Roman national debt is in the hands of Italian citizens and institutions, Orcel reassured. He then praises the best result of the Munich subsidiary Hypovereinsbank for ten years and cleverly circumvents any denial of a purchase of Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “No one can make any predictions in the current situation, but I can tell you that we are concentrating on building our market share in Germany,” Orcel said. Mergers and acquisitions could be an “accelerator”. Opponents of such a deal could see this statement as a fire accelerator.

Christian Lindner’s idea to resume talks on a free trade agreement between the USA and Europe (TTIP) is unlikely to materialise. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai says in an interview with Handelsblatt that the spirit of TTIP is embodied in the new Trade and Technology Council (TTC) between the two partners.

Washington wants votes on individual issues, but not a big deal like TTIP. Tai, whose Chinese parents immigrated to the United States via Taiwan, also explained, “The version of globalization we’re trying to develop does away with the idea that more trade is necessarily better for everyone.”

Rather, this new form focuses on resilience rather than just efficiency. Efficiency here means squeezing every last dollar out of supply monopolies, on which one then makes oneself dependent.

It should be noted that Germany’s largest car rental company, Sixt, will soon say goodbye to petrol and diesel. “By the end of the decade, we want to have converted 70 to 90 percent of our fleet in Europe to electrified vehicles,” CEO Alexander Sixt told my colleague Markus Fasse. They put 50 million euros into the expansion of their own charging network, especially the rental stations at airports and in inner cities should get fast chargers – Sixt wants to take over the charging for the customer.

All of that is necessary. A year ago, when I wanted to drive from Berlin to Hamburg in a Sixt electric car, I realized shortly before the city limits that the battery was not sufficiently charged as promised. A Sixt branch in Wedding was overwhelmed with the problem, so the way led back to the city center, where the Renault Zoe was exchanged for a petrol engine – and I drove off an hour and a half late.
But: Ex-CEO Erich Sixt admitted in 2018 that he did not believe in electric cars: “Electric cars are a catastrophic mistake for a variety of reasons.”

Writing such a morning briefing is night work, but probably not all ideas are as golden as the prices of the German stock index (Dax), which, thanks to Wall Street, tend to develop positively in these dark times. The asset manager HQ Trust from the Harald Quandt family has drawn up an informative comparative calculation.

  • Investor one buys the Dax at the beginning of the year and sells at the end of the year. Return over the past 30 years: 8.8 percent.
  • Investor two, type “daily investor”, enters the Xetra trading platform at nine in the morning and sells at the closing price at 5:30 p.m. every day. Result: annual loss of 3.6 percent.
  • Finally, investor three, the “night investor”. He buys at the Dax closing price in the late afternoon and sells at nine o’clock in the morning the following day at the opening price. That way he would have actually made a 10.2 percent gain.

In a report, we set out what follows from this in concrete terms for the investor. A little tip for the courageous who want to copy Mr. “Nachtinvestor”: The bill does not include any fees, and these can vary greatly depending on the custodian bank.

Rising inflation, a rethinking of fossil fuels due to the Ukraine war and the growing resistance of republican states in the USA: Climate targets used to have it easier in the global economy. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment from Norway (assets under management: 1.2 trillion dollars), is now publicly speaking up again for sustainable investment, as laid down in ESG rules.

Nicolai Tangen, head of the oil fund from Oslo, explains in the “Financial Times” that one sees a setback for such issues in some areas of America. However, even in volatile times of the economy and the financial markets, it is “more relevant than ever to focus on these extremely important issues”. As an investor, you cannot escape, says Tangen: “If part of your own portfolio pollutes and destroys the environment, you will also be hit in another part of the portfolio.”

Will Smith caused a scandal at the Oscars in March.

(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Press)

And then there is the digital company Apple, which had prepared something special for its subsidiary Apple TV+ during the “streaming wars”.: the film “Emancipation”, a story about a runaway southern slave who then fights with the northern states. Hollywood star Will Smith got the lead, and everyone was like, what could go wrong commercially? Well, the hand can slip. The box office guarantor beat comedian Chris Rock, who insulted Smith’s wife, on stage at this year’s Oscars and was subsequently banned from all Oscars for ten years.

Netflix immediately put two projects with the star on hold — and Apple has been pondering the problem for months about what to do with the finished film, which cost $120 million and was very well received at screen tests. Apparently, the company is not taking “Emancipation” for the next Oscar campaign (could be a slap in the face), but will not be bringing the film to cinemas and its own streaming platform until 2023. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscar, doesn’t want to hear anything more about “Will Smith and the slap in the face” for the time being.

It comments Thomas Paine, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States: “Easier to retain attitude than to regain it.”
I wish you a pleasant day showing attitude.

It greets you cordially

Her

Hans Jürgen Jakobs

PS: Why doesn’t Germany just frack its own gas? Is that too dangerous? Could shale gas provide any short-term relief at all? Write us your opinion in five sentences [email protected]. We will publish selected articles with attribution on Thursday in print and online.
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