the monetary politicians in the USA are making the fight against inflation (8.3 percent recently) a serial product. For the third time in a row, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has raised the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points – and is now raising it to a range between 3.0 and 3.25 percent.
Also in Frankfurt, on the square of the European Central Bank (ECB), they are now discovering the value of fireproof monetary stability – although she is quite powerless against skyrocketing energy costs. ECB President Christine Lagarde even held the “Karl-Otto Pöhl Lecture” in the metropolis on the Main in honor of the former President of the Bundesbank, who could be very squeamish about the government’s spending requests.
The French lawyer argues like her colleague Powell and hints at further rate hikes if inflation expectations solidify. The ECB is dealing with two shocks (pandemic, Putin).. These would have limited the supply, but also shifted the demand – so it came to the extensive, long-acting reaction of inflation. Here we should best quote the old master Pöhl himself: “Inflation is like toothpaste. Once it’s out of the tube, it’s almost impossible to get it back in.”
The Russian airline Aeroflot first emphasized that it would not restrict ticket sales.
(Photo: IMAGO/Marc Schüler)
The “partial mobilization” that President Vladimir Putin decreed in a threatening and rude speech is understood very differently in his Russia. While the coercive state understands this as the deployment of 300,000 reservists to the war front against Ukraine, many young people interpret it as a signal that it is time for one last cigarette: they quickly mobilized to take part in the siege of the border to travel abroad by car. The demand for one-way flight tickets also rose sharply.
Finally, in more than 35 cities, Russians took to the streets against the war, and around 1,300 people were arrested. Opposition hero Alexei Navalny reports from prison: “It is clear that this criminal war is getting worse, more intense, and Putin is trying to involve as many as possible.”
Before the UN General Assembly in New York, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded punishment against Russia for war crimes in a video message: “Russia should pay for this war with its assets.” US President Joe Biden, in turn, accused Moscow of wanting to wipe out Ukraine’s right to exist as a state: “Whatever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe in should make your blood run cold.”
Biden’s speech left the flow of blood in the capillaries of the Chinese representatives unchanged. But they, too, figured out on their own that Putin had outmaneuvered himself. This suggests that the State Department spokesman is calling for a ceasefire and a speedy resolution that addresses “legitimate security concerns by all parties.”
Optimists play the track “Russians” from Sting’s 1985 album, the first Gorbachev year: “We share the same biology, regardless of ideology / Believe me when I say to you / I hope the Russians love their children too.”
In the never-ending story of the gas levy, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) now wants to introduce it on October 1 – although he himself has expressed constitutional doubts about it. In this case, courts would have to examine very quickly whether the soon-to-be-nationalized gas supplier Uniper, which mainly benefits from the cupping measure, is being served excessively with citizens’ income.
When the CDU-CSU parliamentary group briefly summoned the minister from the budget committee to the Bundestag on the gas levy matter, Habeck began a rant that seemed like a release from the frustration he had experienced. He accused the Union of not following the demand that the gas surcharge “must go” of its own. Annoyed, handball fan Habeck shouted: “Are we here in the football stadium, or what? That’s not politics. What’s coming instead?”
It is about 35 billion euros to ensure the future of the gas traders and the energy supply – the Union has not said where the money should come from. The football stadium video is doing the rounds on the internet, but the companies and households plagued by gas prices and the levy don’t feel like laughing.
The now confirmed Wirecard process in brief: 474 pages of indictment, 700 volumes of files, 42 terabytes of data, 340 relevant companies, 450 people, more than 1100 bank details. It is a legal process of superlatives, because the suspected commercial gang fraud of the bankrupt Dax group also satisfies the laws of the superlative. In the balance sheet, 1.9 billion euros were mere invention.
Probably at the beginning of 2023, the long-time CEO Markus Braun will have to appear in court together with ex-vice chairman Stephan von Erffa and Oliver Bellenhaus, former governor in Dubai, who has a dual role here as accused and witness. A spokeswoman for Braun rejects all allegations and brings “severe information and investigation deficiencies” into play. In any case, Asia board member Jan Marsalek, alleged mastermind of fintech Rififi, should be in the dock – but the man is a fugitive in the dark realm of Vladimir Putin.
A few interesting trivia emerge from the indictment:
- To the annoyance of the inspectors, the Management Board converted a statement pre-formulated by the Wirecard Supervisory Board on April 21, 2020 with hard revelations for an ad hoc announcement about a special audit by KPMG into a message that tended to be exonerating. The price of the share – actually a junk paper – rose again impressively to 140 euros.
- E-mail traffic revealed that CEO Braun urged the chief lawyer Andrea Görres, almost against her will, to spread the fake information about a civil lawsuit from the USA received in November 2019 that it had “not been legally served”.
- A witness reports appointments with CEO Braun where the “numbers were massaged”. And Erffa’s chief accountant describes how Braun regularly informed him of last-minute business deals for inclusion in the annual financial statements – the alleged sales came from the realm of the fugitive Marsalek.
- After the “Financial Times” reported on an inflated customer list in Dubai and Dublin, the Wirecard boss is said to have made it clear that “this list should not exist”.
If all that is true, the united imposters of literature – from Felix Krull to Eugène de Rastignac to Julien Sorel – are harmless in comparison, as a group of suburban crooks.
The long-standing Wirecard CEO has been in custody since July 2020.
(Photo: dpa)
And then there’s New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had “big news.”: She announces civil charges against former US President Donald Trump, who wants to return to the White House, for financial fraud. The real estate entrepreneur would have committed “breathtaking fraud” in association with his children Donald Junior, Ivanka and Eric and the family holding company Trump Organization between 2011 and 2021.
The allegations fill more than 200 pages. The Trump Organization is said to have artificially increased or decreased individual property values in its annual reports. If you wanted cheap credit, the values were high (you needed collateral). If, on the other hand, taxes were saved, real estate was valued low. So she juggled billions of dollars like balls, rings and clubs at the same time.
Attorney General James is demanding $250 million back from the Trumps and demands that they never run a business in New York again or buy any real estate for five years. Donald Trump backs down the hardest: the black prosecutor is a “racist” and “cheater”.
I wish you a pleasant day with friendly people.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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