In recent years, the state and the financial sector have become so attuned to the weal and woe of debtors that they see creditors as a kind of forgotten species.
Modern Monetary Theory did not envisage them any further. They could be maltreated with negative interest rates, and no financial “amnesty” came forward.
It is therefore not surprising that the turnaround in interest rates is slowly making people aware of how much investors could benefit from it.
Maybe take a look at what ING Germany is doing. As the first large private customer bank, it will eliminate negative interest rates for almost all of its clients from July. Specifically: The allowances for credit balances on giro and money market accounts will increase from 50,000 to 500,000 euros.
However, the other financial institutions are more cautious. Their maximum promise is to end negative interest rates if the European Central Bank in turn withdraws the negative deposit rate. This is only conditional happiness and not absolute prosperity.
Not so long ago, Apple was the first company in the world to be worth more than $3 trillion. The world cheered and willingly clicked the mouse that founder Steve Jobs had trained his audience to be.
Out of the mouse – now, of all people, the oil princes of Saudi Aramco, a fossil of the world economy, are threatening to push the Apple makers off the top of the list of the most valuable companies. Within a week, the Apple share lost 226 billion euros in value.
“Think different” – some investors have probably interpreted the slogan of the group from Cupertino as an invitation to exit.
No consolation, but an important loss: Yesterday, the digital currency Bitcoin slipped below the psychologically important mark of 30,000 euros for the first time since July 2021. The professional investors are leaving, the hobby speculators are staying.
Two Twitter kings among themselves: one multi-billionaire, the other multi-provocateur, one buyer, the other aficionado. Despite public pressure, Elon Musk plans to reverse former US President Donald Trump’s ban on Twitter soon.
It had been pronounced because of Trump’s involvement in the plot to storm the Capitol. “I would lift the ban,” the Twitter owner-designate said, saying it was “morally wrong” and “just plain stupid.”
Trump had been banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube after expressing sympathy for his supporters who stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. The freedom of expression Musk talks about is actually freedom of propaganda.
And yet it moves, the federal government. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was the first cabinet member to visit Ukraine during the war. The visit was overdue and demonstrated the Green politician’s communicative skills, which contrast greatly with the chancellor’s accountant gesture.
At a reception, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Germans for their support in the war against Russia. Baerbock, on the other hand, who was shocked after an appointment in the Butscha massacre site, announced in Kyiv what had never been heard from anyone in the Scholz cabinet.
According to the Foreign Minister, in future Germany will have to get by completely without energy from the “aggressor” Russia: “That’s why we are reducing our dependence on Russian energy to zero – and forever.”
On the other hand, my colleague Christine Lambrecht from the defense department is making a somewhat weaker impression these days, who is already called “helicopter mother” in mocking Berlin. And which is also taught that the Air Force and Lufthansa are different units.
The reason for the excitement is that Lambrecht’s 21-year-old son flew with her on April 13 from Berlin to Schleswig-Holstein in a state-owned helicopter.
Lambrecht visited a battalion, then we went to Sylt for an Easter holiday together. Everything in order, “full compliance with the guidelines”, SPD and ministry in Morse code. But some things seem to have slipped away.
At first it seemed as if Lambrecht had already settled the costs privately, but then it was said that a cost accounting was currently being prepared. That could take time.
If it serves to find out the truth: Here is a quote from Jean Cocteau that you can use again and again: “A half-empty glass of wine is also a half-full one, but half a lie is by no means half the truth.”
And then there is Fifa, although until now it was not immediately clear whether the world football association, which is in love with account balances, was meant, or the popular computer game from the Electronics Arts (EA) group..
Now, after 30 years, the collaboration ends. Gaming football will be called “EA Sports FC” from autumn 2023. The provider saves an annual license fee of around 150 million dollars, which the association wanted to increase significantly.
And you now feel completely free not to have to ask the football officials every time whether the selected third-party companies are acceptable.
If, for example, it is a sporting goods manufacturer, you have to take the association partner Adidas.
Now the EA group is blowing the offensive on the “soccer metaverse”, but should never forget an old wisdom from national coach Sepp Herberger: “People go to the stadium because they don’t know how it will end.”
I wish you an atmospheric day.
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
hp A 100% female board of Dax quality? You can get it only here. In 2021, Handelsblatt and Bain & Company appointed five board members to a Female Allstar Board for the first time.
I look forward to the first board meeting. The German Merck boss Belén Garijo and BMW labor director Ilka Horstmeier have departments. If you want to be there tomorrow, Thursday at 5 p.m., you can register for the live stream here.