Category Archives: Economics

Diesel-Nachrüstung? Geht doch!

Deutsche Welle: Diesel-Nachrüstung? Geht doch!

Während die deutschen Autobauer weiter nur Software-Updates für Diesel anbieten, bietet ein Mittelständler aus Witten eine Hardware-Lösung an, die nicht nur bezahlbar, sondern vor allem effizient ist.

“Bundesumweltministerin Svenja Schulze (SPD) drängt zwar auf eine Nachrüstung der Hardware von Dieselfahrzeugen, doch die Automobilhersteller lehnen eine Kostenübernahme ab und halten eine Softwareupdate für ausreichend.

Dabei gibt es eine Hardware, die die Stickoxidwerte nachweislich sogar unter die Euro 6-Grenze von 80 Milligramm pro Kilometer drücken kann. Zum Nachrüstungspreis von rund 3000 Euro.

Entwickelt hat dieses System das Zulieferunternehmen Twintec in Witten in Nordrhein-Westfalen, ein auf Abgasnachbehandlung spezialisiertes Tochterunternehmen der Baumot-Gruppe.
[…]
Im Prinzip ist dieses System reif für die Serienproduktion. Schon bei der Entwicklung habe man nach den Worten von Marcus Hausser immer darauf geachtet, “dass wir Großserienkomponenten verwenden. Zum einen wegen der Dauerhaltbarkeit, zum anderen natürlich aber auch wegen der Verfügbarkeit. Und nicht zuletzt auch wegen des Preises.”

“[I]t is not even clear that the president himself knows what that strategy is.”

The Washington Post Opinions: Trump’s actions on North Korea have consequences. Here’s a list of them. By Anne Applebaum, columnist. Published May 25, 2018.

“Remember, Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal didn’t automatically return the Middle East to where it was before the pact was signed in 2015: It returned us to a worse place. We’re now unable to reimpose sanctions on Iran because the coalition that enforced them is broken. Trump’s withdrawal from the Kim summit doesn’t return the Korean Peninsula to status quo ante either. Even if he returns to the negotiating table next month, we do not live in the same world that we lived in on March 7, the day before a plan for the now-canceled summit was announced. Actions have consequences. Here’s a list of them.

We don’t have the credibility that we had before. This is the most important consequence of Trump’s impulsive decisions, first to agree to a summit with no warning, and then to cancel the summit with no warning. The one “card“ the United States has always held on the Korean Peninsula was its military presence, coupled with the presumption that, if provoked or attacked, U.S. forces would respond. Now that it’s clear how eager Trump was for a summit, how much he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize that Fox News promised him, and how rapidly he pivoted from calling Kim “Rocket Man“ and “maniac“ to “very open“ and “very honorable,“ any further bluster from the president will just sound ludicrous.

A U.S. president’s ignorance has been on naked display. I was with apolitical Polish friends in Warsaw just after the summit cancellation was announced. Normally they don’t pay much attention to North Korea, but this time they were filled with questions: Doesn’t Trump have any advisers?”

Researchers in U.S., U.K. measure volume of automated tweets, find that bots may have contributed to, even tipped, elections.

Bloomberg: Twitter Bots Helped Trump and Brexit Win, Economic Study Says.

“Twitter bots may have altered the outcome of two of the world’s most consequential elections in recent years, according to an economic study.

Automated tweeting played a small but potentially decisive role in the 2016 Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the National Bureau of Economic Research working paper showed this month. Their rough calculations suggest bots added 1.76 percentage point to the pro-“leave“ vote share as Britain weighed whether to remain in the European Union, and may explain 3.23 percentage points of the actual vote for Trump in the U.S. presidential race.

“Our results suggest that, given narrow margins of victories in each vote, bots’ effect was likely marginal but possibly large enough to affect the outcomes,“ “

Link via MetaFilter.

Apotheken in Deutschland

In diesem YouTube-Video wird in 3 Minuten 30 erklärt, warum ich nicht bei Versandapotheken bestelle – weder rezeptpflichtige noch rezeptfreie Medikamente. Ich finde es wichtig, dass die Apotheken vor Ort bestehen bleiben, und dazu müssen sie genug Kunden und genug Umsatz haben.

In Not – die Apotheken in Deutschland. Das Video wurde von den beiden Apothekerinnen Pharmama (Schweiz) und Ann-Katrin Kossendey-Koch (Deutschland) erstellt.

Ich möchte nicht dazu auffordern, die verlinkte Petition zu unterzeichnen (zumal fraglich ist, ob sie etwas bringt), sondern zum Nachdenken und bewussten Einkaufen von Medikamenten.

“That language is not going to further your cause. If anything, it will do the opposite. Good luck with the new job“

The Washington Post: Hours into his new job, Trump’s ambassador to Germany offends his hosts.

“In a tweet after President Trump’s announcement to leave the Iran nuclear deal, Grenell wrote that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.“
[…]
“It’s not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the U.S. ambassador. But he does appear to need some tutoring,“ said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s mainstream Social Democratic party, striking a sarcastic tone. The Social Democrats are part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and are in charge of key responsibilities, including the Foreign Ministry.
[…]
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Germany’s Der Spiegel newsmagazine that the tweet was an “impertinence.“

“This man was accredited as ambassador only yesterday. To give German businesses such orders … that’s just not how you can treat your allies,“ Asselborn said.”

Link via MetaFilter.