What we can learn from the Dax board members

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The interview with the longest-serving board member in the Dax, Claudia Nemat from Deutsche Telekom, shows that women often grow up with the idea of ​​not being able to set the direction, but only being able to serve tea. Nemat says that as a child she wanted to be a stewardess. Her grandfather then said to her: “If so, then please go into the cockpit!”

The ideal CEO: The women at the top of German companies are international, highly educated, and team-oriented.

The cover story of our Handelsblatt weekend edition is suitable for reading for both men and women. After all, as confirmed not only by the board members, but also by numerous studies, companies are more successful that are not only managed by Christians and Thomassen.

If you let your gaze wander upwards on train platforms or at airports, you will often see small cameras that monitor law and order there. “Big brother is watching you”, as George Orwell’s dystopian work “1984” put it. What is meant by this is an authority that has insights into the everyday life of the citizens via modern technology. With us, this instance could be in Beijing.

Because, as a Handelsblatt research revealed, the federal government has even sensitive areas monitored with security technology by companies that have close ties to the Chinese state. If requested, these companies could be forced to pass on the collected data to the regime. It is particularly explosive that these surveillance systems from the Chinese manufacturers Hikvision and Dahua are also used in the area of ​​critical infrastructure – for example at train stations, airports or by police authorities.

In other countries, such as the USA, Great Britain and Australia, surveillance technologies from Chinese companies are already banned for reasons of national security. In this country, people continue to rely on German security “Made in China”.

Anyone who often listens to the words of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) will encounter a certain promise again and again. “We will check subsidy payments,” says the top treasurer in a stately manner, sometimes adding a small but important word: “if necessary”.

Actually, all parties should welcome it if superfluous financial gifts were deleted. After all, this can save a lot of money that can be spent elsewhere – without incurring new debt. But the problem is that politicians hardly dare to take gifts away from citizens. The abolition of subsidies usually remains an empty promise.

There is enormous potential in this area, as new calculations now show. If superfluous subsidies were abolished and opportunities to save on social benefits were used, a total of 78.5 billion euros would be available. The largest chunk comes from climate-damaging subsidies. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the state finances this with 65 billion euros per year and thus counteracts its own climate goals.

“That’s absurd,” comments the head of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, on this schizophrenia in an interview with the Handelsblatt. For the sake of transparency, it should be said at this point that Messner was my professor at the University of Duisburg a few years ago. Even then, I remember, he was always available for pithy statements. I therefore warmly recommend reading his current interview.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD): German industry is asking the chancellor to make their concerns about the IRA clear in Washington.

(Photo: AP)

Olaf Scholz has to clarify something. The Chancellor is on a lightning visit to Washington to have a serious word with US President Joe Biden. “Face to face”, from head of government to head of government. There is enough to talk about, for example about the refusal to send German Leopard tanks to Ukraine without escort from American Abrams tanks. Or about the Inflation Reduction Act, America’s gigantic subsidy program for green technologies.

The USA could use this to snatch important battery producers away from the Europeans by luring them into their own country with tax credits. According to Handelsblatt information, however, there is a compromise here. Apparently, this is a raw material partnership that could make it easier for European battery manufacturers to access the US market. So it is good that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is also planning a visit to Washington. In just under a week, Biden will receive the next German guest in the Oval Office.

And then there is Deutsche Bahn. You don’t really have to write more to have the sighs on your side. But the current case is strong stuff even for die-hard train fans. Because the Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport, Michael Theurer (FDP), promised ZDF a timetable for the “Deutschlandtakt”. The modernization program promises trains every half hour and a doubling of passenger numbers.
When is this program coming? Theurer promised full implementation by 2070. Former Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU) had spoken of 2030.

The Germany clock is currently delayed by an estimated 40 years – even at Deutsche Bahn this is very rare.
Have a good day walking distance to everything important.

It greets you cordially

Her

Teresa Stiens
Editor of the Handelsblatt

Morning Briefing: Alexa

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