The plan for the Bundeswehr

Mentioned are the US F-35 stealth jet, heavy transport helicopters, the armament of the Heron TP drone and the ECR Eurofighter. 19.3 billion euros are planned for the “sea” (navy) sector, and 16.6 billion for the army. More than 20 billion are earmarked for the modernization of communications, for example for the expansion of satellites in space. Only two billion go into the “clothing and personal equipment” of the soldiers, which was important to Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD). Maybe someone drops some helicopter money over her.

Our two financial giants have recently been the subject of a little too much talk due to serious mishaps. There is, for example, the raid that prosecutors carried out yesterday morning in the twin towers of Deutsche Bank and in the neighboring building of its fund subsidiary DWS. The initial suspicion: capital investment fraud through “greenwashing”. The fact that the allegations made by former sustainability officer Desiree Fixler were being dismissed here in Frankfurt is now taking revenge – if only because she is taking revenge.

Fixler had informed the FBI and the SEC that her ex-employer was making green financial products greener than they were. In the early hours of the morning it became known that DWS boss Asoka Wöhrmann was resigning. He is followed by Stefan Hoops.

For the insurance group Allianz, on the other hand, a little sunshine falls into dark corners. Most recently, the Munich-based company had to pay many billions of euros in the USA in order to compensate for false speculation and fraud at a hedge fund from Allianz Global Investors (“Structured Alpha”). There were already fears of a lack of competence. But now the good news is getting out of the market that Allianz is more diverse than any other German group. With 63.3 points, it leads the “German Diversity Ranking 2022”, ahead of SAP (58.7) and Deutsche Telekom (57.4). The “Beyond Gender Agenda” initiative by entrepreneur Victoria Wagner has set up this hit parade for the second time.

It is commendable that Allianz – just like Puma, Adidas, Telekom, Zalando and Delivery Hero – has its own organizational unit for diversity. “The life insurance of any kind is diversity”, wrote the Chilean writer Isabel Allende, “Diversity guarantees survival”.

With more than half a million apartments, Vonovia is the largest landlord in Germany. The tenants gathered here will rub their eyes when they read our interview with CEO Rolf Buch. He carries messages that cost money.

• the rapidly rising energy prices could cost an additional two months’ rent per year according to Buch’s accounting. People are already spending 30 percent of their disposable income on housing: “If I pay them two more months’ rent for ancillary costs, I’ll write an invoice for the entire income they have in the month. So there is social explosives in there.”
• the general inflation the Vonovia CEO wants to convert one to one. “If inflation is permanently at four percent, rents will have to increase accordingly every year in the future. We can’t pretend that inflation is bypassing rents. That will not work.”

The merger of the Dax group with Deutsche Wohnen was once justified with synergies and pending ecological tasks. In Berlin in particular, those who wanted to warn against the real estate giant from Bochum were talking about rising rents from Vonovia.

If you drive to the gas station today, If you want to benefit from the vaunted “tank discount” and really want to fill up again, you could be disappointed. Of course, the tax burden on fuel will fall by the end of August by 35.2 cents per liter for premium petrol and by 16.7 cents per liter for diesel. But what the gas station operators and the few oil company oligopolies make of it is their business and their secret. It could take a little longer with the discount luck. But what is a “discount” in view of previously sharply increased prices?

With E10, for example, the fuel was more than 18 cents cheaper at the end of April than it is currently. Finance Minister Christian Lindner is responsible for fumbling with the prices – not at all FDP-like. He announced yesterday in the Bundestag that it was now the “task of the Cartel Office” to ensure that the tax cut “reached the hearts of motorists and commuters”. The mineral oil companies will certainly put up with the resubmission.

The Axel Springer group has been in the picture at Politico in the USA for months. For months, Springer’s CEO Mathias Döpfner, 59, has been at the center of a debate whether he can remain President of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) after a number of reputation risks. Now Döpfner himself has announced that he will give up his post early in the fall (two years too early). He explains this primarily with the assignment in Manhattan, although the board of directors Jan Bayer has been specifically assigned there. Springer is in a crucial, time-demanding phase in the USA.

Döpfner was criticized for his camaraderie with the rabid, later fired editor-in-chief of “Bild” Julian Reichelt. Most recently, allegations of plagiarism related to his doctoral thesis, which is currently being examined by Frankfurt’s Goethe University. We know from Goethe: “Character rests on personality, not on talents.”

And then there’s the newly crowned Italian soccer champions AC Milan, once the pride of Silvio Berlusconi. The club has now landed again with American investors. After Chinese shareholders and Paul Singer’s hedge fund Elliott, former Goldman Sachs banker Gerry Cardinale and his investment company Redbird are emerging. The deal in Milan was worth 1.3 billion euros to him. If he needs advice, Cardinale can simply knock on the door of Liverpool FC coach Jürgen Klopp, because the passionate rower also has a $750 million stake in his parent company Fenway Sports Group. The financial company Investcorp from Bahrain had also tried to get the Milan kickers. But shareholder Elliott, who is staying with a few shares, ended up tending toward the American compatriot, an eminence grise in sports and show business.

We could now join the ex-soccer star Andreas Möller in exclaiming: “Milan or Madrid – the main thing is Italy!”, but still rely on the philosopher Georg Simmel: “There is certainly no clearer symbol than money for the absolute character of movement in the world.”

I wish you an active day.

It greets you cordially

Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor