The vaccination sayings of Jens Spahn – Handelsblatt Morning Briefing

once the reputation has been ruined, it is quite uninhibited. Health Minister Jens Spahn still acts according to this motto. His “track record” in office is now partially a “dirt record”, so that an application for the CDU party chairmanship is no longer an option. But in this case it also applies: the greater the need, the brisk the slogans.

Yesterday the Christian Democrat knocked out two: He was certain that everyone in Germany would be “vaccinated, recovered or died” by the end of this winter. With that he made it into the international press. His second saying, referring to doctors as a source: “Biontech is the Mercedes, Moderna is the Rolls-Royce” of vaccines, could not inspire either doctors or the 16 federal states. They turned in unison against Spahn’s idea of ​​capping the Biontech vaccine. No one in the country can currently be found claiming that Jens Spahn is the “jaguar of politics”.

It’s strangely quiet in Germany these days. It’s the calm before the storm. One word circulates through the rooms, that of the “compulsory vaccination”. Winfried Kretschmann uses it just like Markus Söder. But because this measure would hardly help in view of the critical Corona values, a second word is back: that of the “lockdown”, verbally prepared by Angela Merkel. She announced in the CDU board that the previous corona rules were not sufficient, i.e. the 2G and 3G ideas of the traffic light parties.

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Austria, districts in Upper Bavaria and Saxony and soon parts of Thuringia are the first zero movement zones. If it continues like this, almost 70 percent of Germans who have been vaccinated will also surrender a large part of their civil liberties to the nearest police station. Because too few get vaccinated, the Basic Law is de facto suspended for everyone. If someone is looking for a current example of “moral hazard”, they will find it here.

Perhaps the most prominent moral rascal when it comes to vaccinations is Markus Anfang, 47, who was a football coach at Werder Bremen until recently. He is suspected of having used a forged vaccination certificate. The public prosecutor’s office is now providing hard evidence that the beginning was not, as claimed, vaccinated in Cologne. Neither his personal details nor the batch number in question are available in the computer system of the Cologne vaccination center. The control committee of the German Football Association (DFB) also determined. Because of the investigation, he resigned a few hours before the Bremen home game against Schalke 04 on Saturday. To put it in the wording of the “Bremen Town Musicians”: Here it’s up to you and good advice is expensive, the wind really doesn’t blow – and the Werder fan makes “a face like three days of rainy weather”.

Volker Wieland (left in the picture) and Marcel Fratzscher are considered to be representatives of different economic schools.

(Photo: DPA)

The economists Volker Wieland, more conservative, and Marcel Fratzscher, more social-democratic, are considered to be representatives of different economic schools. But when it comes to the dangers of inflation, both parties agree in the Handelsblatt conversation that the period of lax monetary policy must come to an end in the medium term at the latest. After all, the Bundesbank is forecasting an inflation rate of almost six percent for November.

  • The Wieland economy analyzes that in addition to shortages and general shifts in demand, the general price level is also rising. The European Central Bank (ECB) should change course: “Whether we will have higher inflation rates in the longer term will depend on monetary policy – and that is still very loose in the euro area.”
  • For Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), on the other hand, the inflation values ​​are “nothing to worry about at first”. In the medium term, however, the shortage of skilled workers could increase and inflation could become a problem. Therefore, here too: The ECB must “prepare to exit its loose monetary policy”.

The wisdom of economists will meet politicians’ fear of a crash caused by higher interest rates. As the playwright Eugène Ionesco already knew: “Those who are used to the absurd can find their way around well in our time.”

In the United States, concerns about surging inflation turning into galloping one determine that everything will remain the same at the top of the Fed. President Joe Biden refrained from hoisting his Democratic party colleague Lael Brainard into office and only declared her deputy chief. So for four more years the Republican Jerome Powell remains the top fighter against monetary devaluation, which should lead to higher interest rates here earlier than in Europe. The markets breathe easy.

Powell has “shown stable leadership in an incredibly challenging time,” praised Biden, citing the economic slump and Donald Trump’s attacks on the independence of the Fed. Times are so eventful that the man in the White House currently only longs for one thing: continuity. Not more trouble.

We have just said goodbye to coal mining and sung the last climber his song. But of all things, the Green Deal for a better climate, brought about by batteries and electromobility, could bring about a renaissance for the buddies. “We should also approach our climate policy in terms of industrial policy,” says MEP Hildegard Bentele (CDU). Today she is voting with her colleagues in the European Parliament on a new strategy to use more raw materials from the EU and partner countries in the future in order to free herself from dependence on countries like China.

The People’s Republic, for example, masters the important substances rare earths, magnesium and bismuth; China is the main supplier for 19 out of 30 relevant basic substances. But so far the EU has made a mistake on the future issue and refuses to finance an important phosphate mine in Norway. Michael Wurmser, founder of the opencast mining parent company Norge Mining: “The EU Commission does not seem to be prepared or interested in raw material projects in Europe.”

What the auditors from EY so individually audited at the lost Dax group Wirecard, where they pinched or did not look properly, would still be a secret matter of command of the Republic today – had the Handelsblatt not published the special report of the investigator (“Wambach Report”). Now the company, which was once called Ernst & Young, is taking legal action. She has filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons – for passing on the report that led to its publication. The “Protocol of Failure”, that was our headline at the time, is likely to get longer and longer.

Daily topic Corona: Christmas markets have been canceled in Dresden, Munich or Nuremberg, they are open in Berlin, Frankfurt or Cologne. In some places 2G applies, in others 3G, sometimes 2Gplus. In view of the chaos of rules, we would like to know from you: Is it appropriate for Christmas markets to be held this winter? Which requirements should apply there? And will you visit such a market yourself? Write us your opinion in five sentences [email protected] . We will publish selected contributions on Thursday in print and online, with attribution.

And then there is a manuscript by the physics genius Albert Einstein, with which he prepared his theory of relativity – and which will be auctioned this Tuesday in Paris by the auction houses Christie’s and Aguttes. Estimate: two to three million euros. Back in May, an Einstein letter with his famous formula E = mc2 went away for $ 1.2 million. Of the 54 pages of the dossier now for sale, Einstein wrote 26, his Swiss colleague Michele Besso wrote 25, three pages filled them together.

According to the organizers, it is “without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript that has ever been offered at an auction”. The scientist was also strong as an aphorist: “If people only talked about what they understand, the world would be very quiet.”

I wish you a busy day with lots of insights.

I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor

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