9.1 percent more inflation, that means for the masters of money in Washington, to raise the interest rate by 0.75 points for the second time in a row – now to a range of 2.25 to 2.50 percent.
The message should be clear, the policy rigorous: loans are becoming more expensive, price increases should be reduced, even if economic growth is suffering. He doesn’t believe that America is in a recession anyway, says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell – and triggers price table fireworks on Wall Street (plus 1.4 percent). The frustrated shareholder is also happy about small gifts.
What is fatal about the western sanctions against the war nation Russia are the smoke-splittors in their own camp. A clandestine – sometimes not so clandestine – German faction from CSU General Secretary Doctor Martin Huber to Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, supplemented internationally by dubious figures such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, raises doubts as to whether the anti-Putin measures mean much more to us harm than the Kremlin.
A paper by the US University of Yale, based on data beyond Putin’s propaganda, dispels such reservations: The sanctions would “catastrophically paralyze Russia’s economy” and there was “no way out of economic oblivion” for the country.
Although Europe can be blackmailed because of its gas dependency, Russia would be hit much harder by an embargo. 83 percent of gas exports went to the EU in 2021. China cannot fill the gap as most of the pipelines head west. Although oil is easier to transport, China and India have pushed through a $35 discount on Ural oil. At all
China: Exports to Russia fell by more than 50 percent to a modest US$ 3.8 billion from January to April.
From the Yale report follows: The Russian head of state is running out of alternatives. And that’s why Western politicians, with all justifiable caution, could begin to exorcise the fears of the citizens.
Germany’s corporations appear to be more relaxed about the entente of the Beijing potentate Xi Jinping with gambler Putin than large parts of politics. In the first five months of the year, their investments in China increased by a whopping 21 percent year-on-year. In our cover story, we analyze that hardly any company boss wants to miss out on the growth opportunities there – despite all the warnings and risks.
- The Ludwigshafen-based chemical group BASF recently released the funds for the crucial phase of the ten billion euro construction of a Verbund site in the south of China in the province of Guangdong – and without a joint venture partner. The state-owned company Sinopec is still a big player in the Nanjing network.
- The automotive supplier Hella has now announced that it will expand its production capacities with a new lighting plant near Shanghai.
- The discounter Aldi wants to open hundreds of supermarkets in the communist republic.
The federal government points to the Ukraine learning effect. “The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine shows the problems of economic dependencies on autocratic systems,” says Franziska Brantner (Die Grünen), State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics.
BASF, once one of the most fanatical promoters of the Putin cooperation and today a constant warning of an energy embargo, has also had similar experiences. Now BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller is defending the money for China with similar arguments as his predecessors used to defend the money for Russia: “China is the fastest growing chemical market and will account for half of the world market by 2030. It’s difficult to say that you don’t take part in it.”
It had become the standard of German governance: Social security contributions should not exceed 40 percent. The fact that the traffic light coalition did not want to give a corresponding guarantee made people very skeptical. Now comes the bill. The symbolic mark will soon be exceeded, the reason being the rampant costs of statutory health insurance.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), who has almost gotten used to it, wants to increase the additional contribution by 0.3 points to 1.6 percent. This should compensate for the health insurance deficit of 17 billion euros expected for 2023. The situation in statutory long-term care insurance is also critical (contribution rate: still 3.05 percent). And in unemployment insurance, the increase from 2.4 to 2.6 percent is considered set. Steffen Kampeter, general manager of the employers’ association BDA: “You can’t invite inflation peaks on the one hand and cheerfully raise social security contributions on the other.”
Perhaps Lauterbach misunderstood the nature of “concerted action.”
When VW presents the half-year figures today, CEO Herbert Diess, who will be leaving at the end of August, will be absent – sorry. CFO Arno Antlitz represents him, because it is rightly assumed in Wolfsburg that otherwise the focus would have been on the loss of Diess’ workforce instead of the group’s profit. There are so many questions about this personality that even working software could not answer them.
The 63-year-old chaired his last board meeting at Volkswagen last Tuesday. In the future he will collect allowances, is a consultant and has blocking clauses for competitors like Tesla, but not for the accommodation industry.
In autumn he wants to open his first hotel in northern Spain. In Munich, Diess ran the Itxaso tapas bar for a while, with which his son made significant losses. Now it’s off to a new adventure, loosely based on Miguel de Cervantes: “There are only two types of families in the world, the have-I and the would-have.”
Wembley, Football Final, England versus Germany. That has a historical dimension, also because the thing with the “Wembley goal” is 1966, which was only recently thought about intensively again in the obituaries of the then captain Uwe Seeler.
Now the constellation is repeated – not with the recently disappointing male kickers, but with the national players. Because they had goal scorer Alexandra Popp and a bit of luck, the German team is in the final of the European Championship on Sunday after beating France 2-1. In front of 90,000 spectators, it should be difficult against the English women, who recently played in goal frenzy, but, of course, “you’ll never walk alone”.
And then there is the hearing aid entrepreneur Martin Kind, 78, a broadcast-conscious medium-sized company, who is now having a very unusual experience: he was fired.
The drama took place at the second division soccer team Hannover 96. Connoisseurs remember better years, when a child steered with capital and tricks – also as club president – and a certain Gerhard Schröder, his friend, was the chairman of the supervisory board, as until recently 2000 kilometers further east at Rosneft in Moscow.
But Kind has been on shaky ground internally for a long time after a failed takeover of the professional football business. Now he has been removed from office as managing director of the professional football company “with immediate effect for important reasons”.
Although Kind is the majority shareholder of the GmbH & Co. KGaA in question, the parent club, i.e. the club members, decides on the top position according to the “50+1 rule” of the German Football League. And on the supervisory board and in the executive committee, child opponents are now setting the tone.
Conclusion: The deposed family entrepreneur only has the insight that a good player knows how to win a game, but a good character knows how to lose it with a laugh.
I wish you a victorious day, and with a smile.
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor