Wake-up call for a tired country: The editor-in-chief’s weekly review

Good morning dear readers,

to be honest: I’m glad this election campaign is over. The past weeks and months have been an imposition. One could almost get the impression that Germany had no real worries, I commented in the weekend edition of the Handelsblatt. Political leaders withheld unpleasant truths from voters. The relevant topics were bypassed in an almost negligent manner.

We have been discussing this phenomenon in the editorial office for weeks – and analyzing the central challenges in a major cover story. To this end, we spoke to the most important experts and collected specific suggestions on how Germany must reinvent itself in the next few years.
As always when things get politically sensitive, most CEOs and company representatives have stayed out of this discussion. In small groups, however, the discussions were all the more intense, as I’ve seen several times. But diplomacy prevailed on the open stage. I think that’s a mistake.

Of course, CEOs aren’t paid to make politics. Above all, they are committed to the owners of their business. But by often dwarfing themselves to be administrators of the balance sheets and profits, they are also wasting a chance. Namely to point out that in the next few years – in which large parts of the industrial economy will have to be rebuilt – an unbelievable amount will be at stake.

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One exception is Allianz boss Oliver Bäte, whom I interviewed last week with my colleague Christian Schnell. He demands a clear economic strategy from politics for the next four years – and above all honesty: “Politicians must finally honestly say that climate protection is not possible without higher costs for mobility, energy and sometimes also food.”

Bäte found the election campaign “incredibly frustrating”. Important topics such as rising inflation or record social spending would have been missing. The Allianz boss warns: “It is not clear to many that Germany’s entire business model is at stake.”

Clear words. No wonder that this interview was the most read text of the day yesterday.

What else has been on our minds this week

1. For days, a very real crisis has kept the economy in suspense. Natural gas has never been as expensive as it is today – and prices continue to rise. There are many reasons for this: empty storage facilities, delivery bottlenecks in Russia, strong demand from Asia. “The gas companies gambled away”, analyzes Handelsblatt energy reporter Kathrin Witsch. You bet on lower prices and lost.

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2. What many do not want to admit: The rising energy prices are just the beginning. The politically agreed goal of operating climate-neutrally by 2045 means nothing more than: “Fossil fuels, regardless of whether they are gas, coal or oil, are getting expensive, really expensive”, as my colleague Daniel Delhaes comments. Further hardship threatens at the gas pump. The price of fuel there will soon have to rise by 70 cents if the next government takes the applicable laws seriously and sets everything in motion in order to still achieve the agreed climate targets in the transport sector.

3. For my podcast Handelsblatt Disrupt, I spoke to one of the country’s most interesting founders this week: Daniel Wiegand, CEO of the air taxi start-up Lilium, who listed his company on the US stock exchange a few days ago. We talked about the criticism of his technology, concerns in Germany – and his extremely ambitious schedule. After the conversation it was clear: Everything is possible with Lilium, from global success to crash landing.

4th The clock is ticking for the staggering Chinese real estate developer Evergrande. The heavily indebted group did not pay out due interest to bondholders on time this week. Officially, however, a payment default only occurs if the outstanding claims are not settled within a 30-day grace period.

Meanwhile, property buyers, suppliers and construction companies can hope for government support. The government cannot afford the Chinese to stop buying apartments for fear of another Evergrande. What surprised me: The real estate sector recently contributed around a quarter of the country’s economic output. Our two China correspondents Dana Heide and Sabine Gusbeth are following the situation.

5. Nine months after Brexit, Great Britain is a country at the limit, reports our correspondent Carsten Volkery from London. At the fast-food chain McDonald’s there were temporarily no more milkshakes, the furniture store Ikea deleted a thousand product lines from its range in view of the empty warehouses, and in the supermarkets there are more and more gaps in the shelves with the signs: “Please be patient with us.” The reason for the misery: delivery bottlenecks, but above all a lack of truck drivers. Economists are alarmed.

The British groan about empty shelves in supermarkets – a result of labor shortages and delivery bottlenecks.

6th How do asset managers and family offices actually invest the money of their wealthy clients? Our investment team investigated this question. Conclusion: Investors can definitely learn from these strategies.

7th One of the craziest stories came from the Handelsblatt energy team last week. As we all know, coal is being phased out. Nevertheless, RWE will still make dazzling profits from the fossil fuel – because Germany’s largest electricity company has made a highly attractive deal.

8th. But there was also good news this week: Never before have corporations worldwide invested as much money as in 2021. And we know: Investments are the foundation on which the future is built. In 2021, the 2,000 largest corporations invested more than three trillion euros in topics of the future. Incidentally, Amazon is in first place with 37 billion euros. Deutsche Telekom is a leader in Europe.

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And now all that remains for me is to wish you an exciting election weekend. We follow and analyze the events for you around the clock. And if you like, write to me [email protected]which topics and projects, in your opinion, need to be tackled the fastest after the election.

Sincerely,
you

Sebastian Matthes
Editor-in-chief Handelsblatt

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