Saturday, September 17, 2022

Three German News Stories

 1.  In the last couple of days, the German federal government took possession of three properties/refineries owned by the Rosneft company (Russian operation).  

The term of expropriation came up.  In legal terms....thats where a state has taken a property (legally) and you have to compensate the loss to the company.  

I should note here, in the midst of this chatter....Rosneft quickly stood up and said since they weren't in charge of the refineries now....they couldn't swear the place was 'safe'.  I won't suggest things are bad off, but it would make you question why they uttered the comment.  

Cost factor, if taken into court?  Well...almost everyone in the journalism trade has avoided giving a value to the refineries.  It wouldn't shock me if Rosneft said they were valued at 1-billion Euro or more.  Court to decide this?  Probably, but it won't be ended in 2022 or 2023. 

2.  Lot of chatter for short-time work for business operations affected by the natural gas pricing escalation.  

Short-time means you have a full-time employee but don't have the work for him to be there, so he might only work 10 to 20 hours a week.  In this situation, the government would make up most (not all) of the missing money. It's designed for 12 months though.  

The general belief?  More gas will appear in 2023, and the lessening of prices would occur.  My belief in this?  I'm skeptical that the pricing will decrease to 'normal'.

3.  For the week, a lot of chatter over Russian tanks left behind as they retreated in the Ukraine (lack of fuel).  As much as the Ukrainians were critical of the Germans not handing them tanks.....they've made up for the German position. 

No comments: