Friday, October 25, 2024

25 Oct 2024: Six German News Stories

1.  German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (of the FDP Party) had a talk yesterday....with the revised results of the tax estimate for the 2025 federal budget.

The fed level, the states and municipalities will have to carve up the 2025 budget (again)....to handle 12.7 billion euro less tax revenue in 2025....than was expected. Some signs of less-spending going on (recession chatter).

Looking beyond?  2026, 2027, and 2028?  58.1 billion Euro are missing.

If you asked me...they need the Ukraine-Russia war to end....soon, and a fair sum which was planned for climate change...will have to be delayed or cut.

I should add here....more hints of a early break-up of the coalition gov't came up yesterday.  This continual argument over the 2025 budget consumes a lot of patience.  

2.  Lillum, the German air-taxi development company?  Filing for bankruptcy.  Any blame?  Well....they were expecting a 50-million Euro surge of fed-money, but the Greens were slow to  buy into the technology of a air-taxi.

3.  The Maybrit Illner forum show came on last night (ZDF).  They had the Chancellor on.  It wasn't that impressive and there was a bit of criticism that Scholtz got.

I'll just say....the technology was interesting (I've seen demos of the basic craft).....but I would suggest it would ONLY benefit major urban areas (like Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, and Berlin)....where you were in the middle of town and needed to be at the airport in 15 minutes.

4.  Presently, 22 of  the top 25 German cities (in size) are holding back the mailing-out of new property estimates until after 1 January.

What I'll generally say....a LOT of Germans who have received their new estimates...are disgruntled.   

For my wife's property....the new property tax letter has yet to arrive, and if you were asking me how bad it'll be?   I'd suggest it'll be a minimum of 50-percent higher.  Affecting the rent of the two apartments in the structure?  Yeah...it'll probably trigger a 20 to 30 Euro (monthly) escalation.  Across the nation, it'll be a 2025 inflation 'helper'.  

5.  Sales of heat pumps in Germany....dropping like a rock.  That 'surge' that came in 2022....was short-lived.

6.   Odd event Schwalmstadt-Ziegenhain (2 hours north of Frankfurt).  Suicide-by-police.

What the police say....some 20-year old German woman, with a police-record....drove up to the local station....fired a gun at four policemen around 6 AM yesterday morning.....with them returning fire and hitting her.  She died on the way to the hospital.  No motivation given (yet).

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