What a year is behind us!
Corona, home office, lockdown - these three words alone outline the whole 2020 drama.
Because for none of us did 2020 go the way we had hoped a year ago when we started the "Roaring Twenties".
In our editorial team, no one would have thought that we would spend months researching from attics, bedrooms and gazebos and interviewing CEOs from the kitchen table.
And also not that we talked to economists and investors via Zoom (who, please, knew Zoom ?!) about R-Wert, V-Wirtschaft, supply chains, but also Green Deal, Tesla and the stock market boom in the midst of the "crisis of the century" (even so a 2020 word) would discuss.
And as if that weren't enough, the Wirecard case also shook our confidence in two really important institutions in Germany as a business location: auditors and the financial supervisory authority BaFin.
We are happy to help you again today to keep track of things.
The main economic topics of the day:
Icon: enlarge
Politics with a 2020 look: Xi Jinping, Charles Michel, Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel voted for the last negotiations on the EU-China deal.
It is unclear who of them said the video conference sentence of the year: "Your microphone is still off".
Photo: Johanna Geron / AP
The Berlin historian
Herfried Münkler
recently made a commitment: China is this year's big winner.
The CP managed the corona crisis in such a way that in the struggle of the systems (state capitalism there, federal democracy here) China's "soft power" has grown immensely, thus claiming leadership and ability in a world that is reorganizing itself.
On the penultimate day of the year,
Europe and China
have now
signed a deal
.
After seven years, the EU and KP agreed on an investment agreement.
Both sides celebrated.
Here is the message.
And here you can find out what's in the EU-China deal.
The British, more precisely: the British House of Commons (which is a small but subtle difference), also quickly
approved
the
Brexit trade pact
with the EU
before the end of the year
.
And they were the first nation in the world to approve the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
As with the Biontech vaccine, the government is pushing ahead with this.
As
usual,
Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
spoke of a "triumph for British research".
The study data on the drug were, shall we say, unclear;
No rapid approval is therefore expected either in the USA or in the EU.
But for the island the responsible minister announced: The shots will be put into the arms of the people as quickly as they can be produced.
The
stock exchange
has also already closed 2020.
The Dax recorded a slight minus, but ended the year at a record level.
Despite the "crisis of the century", the Dax rose by 3.5 percent over the year.
Nevertheless, there is only one German company among the 100 most valuable companies in the world.
In terms of market capitalization, only
SAP
makes it
onto the list - at number 71. And there has also been a change at the top.
Our review of 2020:
As you are used to from us: Short and clear and with the possibility of digging deeper into the content with lots of exclusive information.
Our
manager of the year
: Timotheus Höttges from Deutsche Telekom.
Why?
Read here.
Our
manager of the year
: Belén Garijo, the future head of the pharmaceutical company Merck.
What makes your career so special?
Explains them in detail in the interview.
Winner of the year
: Elon Musk.
He overtook everyone with Tesla this year.
Just as a reminder: In July there was a message that Tesla was the world's most valuable car maker for the first time - today Tesla is worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and General Motors combined.
And why is that explicitly due to Elon Musk personally?
Read here.
Loser of the year
: Donald Trump or Markus Braun or Schalke 04.
Your
favorite story of
the year: Our exclusive research on the internal courses for mass layoffs in the Daimler Group.
Our most
elaborate story of
the year: The bosses' crisis diary - when we traced the first Corona months in intensive discussions with entrepreneurs, managers and supervisors.
The
most fascinating company history of
the year: The Lightspeed project from Biontech.
The
comeback of the year
: the state.
In the course of the crisis, politicians saved companies, jobs and industries with multi-billion sums and considerable creative drive.
Also included: a new super fund.
However, we cannot yet say whether the comeback will be successful in the long term.
The
dramas of the year
: the rescue of Lufthansa, the management chaos at Volkswagen, the family tragedies at the Schaefflers and the Haubs.
The
supporting roles of the year
: The research on the medium-sized automotive suppliers Benteler and Brose met with overwhelming interest in you.
The
blender of the year
: Jan Marsalek.
In order to deceive the auditors, the former Wirecard board member operated with actors and fake bank backdrops.
And of course:
You can find the
500 richest Germans of
the year here.
That was the last newsletter that you will receive from us in 2020. I wish you a good start into 2021. Stay healthy, after all, the "Roaring Twenties" await us. Sincerely, your Lukas Heiny