what a name, “Uniper”! An artificial word made up of “unique” and “performance”. Unfortunately, the only unique thing here at the moment is that the biggest case of nationalization in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, which may already be announced today, is approaching.
The federal government has already invested 15 billion euros in the gas supplier, which was once closely linked to Russia when raw materials were offered cheaply there. 15 billion are now due again for buying out the previous majority shareholder Fortum, including the assumption of a loan.
The federal government says automatically: nuclear power? Yes, thanks! Because the portfolio includes Swedish nuclear power plants, as well as Russian coal-fired power plants, for which buyers are being sought. And what about the power, the “performance”? 12.3 billion euros half-year loss, somehow also unique.
The real drama is beyond the giant Düsseldorf corporation with its feet of clay. It is expressed in shock-like burdens on the middle class, in a cost explosion and in a crisis of fear, in which the word “deindustrialization” is making the rounds. The pressure on the industry is expressed in a gigantic number: 45.8 percent. Producer prices rose so sharply in August, more violently than at any time since statistics began in 1949.
Large corporations like BASF are enduring the surge in inflation, but small companies are suffering because the cost explosion means they can no longer keep up with foreign rivals, analyzes our cover story. Is there a wave of layoffs? Jens-Oliver Niklasch, economist at LBBW, speaks of the “unbelievable price hammer”: “None of this bodes well for inflation. She came to stay.”
If the resources in the Federal Ministry of Economics are no longer needed for the gas levy that is up for discussion, the officials there could perhaps develop concrete models of what the promised help for medium-sized companies struggling with energy costs will look like. In all regions of the country, the local members of the Bundestag are currently being asked tough questions about politics in Berlin, to which there are still no answers.
Militarily things have been going badly for offensive warrior Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. Russian troops had to evacuate conquered areas, surrendering corpses and torture chambers. What should now succeed politically what fails militarily. Moscow is making it easy for itself, as it did on the Crimean peninsula in 2014 – four Ukrainian regions are to be quickly incorporated into the Russian Federation via referendums scheduled in an ad hoc procedure. These are the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east and the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks of “sham referendums” and “imperialist aggression” which violate international law. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on the other hand, stated that the international community would make it clear that a so-called gunpoint vote in the head could never be accepted. And EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell didn’t stop at such verbal criticism – he threatened Russia with further sanctions.
As is well known, Putin’s tanks have also crushed globalization and promises of prosperity. And so we leaf through the now published, annual “Global Wealth Report” of Credit Suisse almost nostalgically. He describes an amazing global increase in wealth for 2021. After that there were a whopping 62.5 million millionaires, and total assets grew by almost ten percent to $463.6 trillion. They “nearly saw an explosion in wealth,” reports the author of the study.
But this trend is guaranteed to reverse in 2022. Unlike in the US and China, the wealth boom in Europe was modest given the weak euro. Only the non-euro country Switzerland is conspicuous, where the average wealth of an adult reaches the peak value of almost 700,000 dollars. For comparison: The USA comes to 580,000 dollars, Germany only manages 250,000 dollars.
The great playwright George Bernard Shaw once made a completely different calculation. After that, it’s not hard to find people who are ten times as rich at 60 than they were at 20 – “but not one of them claims to be ten times as lucky”.
Everyone who attended the “Ada Lovelace Festival” in Berlin learned that Olaf Scholz was once a real “early adopter”.. In an interview with Miriam Meckel, co-founder of “ada”, the chancellor revealed that he bought his first mobile phone back in 1990, “so big and so heavy that I always hid it a little, because otherwise you were considered a yuppie “. Otherwise, the SPD politician said on this occasion about…
- AI in politics: “There is also the case that people vote for me even though they do not agree with all of my positions. Artificial intelligence has no logical answer for such a situation.”
- his possible avatar in the Metaverse: “Well, at least he wouldn’t have any hair on his head. I think you should own what you look like.”
- the best of the internet: “The democratization. As a result, many people find a public, can obtain information and exchange ideas with the whole world.”
- the worst thing about the internet: “What worries me the most is the return of prejudice. If we are sorted in everything, when the algorithm suggests friends or interlocutors, it is convenient, but it does not broaden our horizons. We all need something new, surprising, challenging.”
Incidentally, Scholz also said that he reads newspapers in their entirety, “not just the parts that are directly necessary for my work”. It is, so to speak, its own search engine.
Soon Heidelberg Materials: The Heidelberg Cement company, founded in 1874, has undergone numerous name changes.
(Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images)
And then there is the building materials manufacturer Heidelberg Cement, which is opting for a new name due to the climate. People in beautiful Neckarstadt now prefer to be called “Heidelberg Materials”, and at group level with immediate effect. The national and international subsidiaries will then gradually follow from 2023. An image problem is decisive for the change of name. Word has now got around that the building material on offer is a climate killer, since large quantities of CO2 are emitted during production.
“We are proud of our cement business, but the company’s range of services goes far beyond cement – today and even more in the future,” explains PR-technically correctly CEO Dominik von Rechen the dilemma. In 2024 they really want to offer CO2-free cement.
When it comes to the topic – and in view of the tense world situation – we think of a saying by the former and 28th US President Woodrow Wilson: “Friendship is the only cement that keeps the world in limbo.”
Have a fun day with friendships that stand the test.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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