#Weekly #Review - Financial Markets & Economics: Commentaries by Fabian Wintersberger

It is hard to believe that this year is already coming to an end. On the one hand, it was such an eventful year, but on the other hand, very little has changed. While we thought that we handled the pandemic when the first vaccines were introduced and finally could concentrate our thoughts on the Grande Reopening , reality has come back to us, especially in Europe, where there was hardly any Grand Reopening .  For now, it is Omicron. As usual (during these times), the warnings become louder and louder that policymakers need to remain cautious as we face the potential beginning of a fifth wave ( at least in Europe ). In South Africa, the origin of Omicron, the public is mostly unaware of a new variant  around now. Although infection rates go through the roof, one has to acknowledge that death rates remain stable at deficient levels. Maybe we should listen to Dr. Angelique Coetzee , who describes the symptoms of this variant as primarily mild,  and thus Omicron should be seen as a gift .

While the corona pandemic worsens on the European continent and infection rates rise in countries with high vaccination rates (like Portugal), geopolitical problems also intensify. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is getting more severe as many news corporations speculate about Russia's possible invasion of Ukraine. After Europa and Russia have gone back and forth about natural gas delivery, Vladimir Putin is finally back on the world stage, after former US President Barack Obama has stated that Russia is not more than a regional power  in 2014.  For more than 20 years now, Putin has been the most powerful man in Russia. While I sometimes feel that within the Biden-Administration sometimes the one hand does not know what the other hand is doing, Putin makes the exact opposite impression. Obama's statement probably encouraged him to improve Russia's position on the grand chessboard .  However, it seems that there are 3 parties involved: The Good (Biden), The Bad (Put

  It's the final countdown... I guess there is no one to blame... The song 'the final countdown' was published by the band Europe in 1986 and has one of the most famous keyboard riffs in the 80s pop era. Interestingly, the band members first thought it was  too dumb  to be used in a song and nearly threw it away.  This brings me back to today's events. More and more European countries are preparing for lockdowns again or are already in the middle of it. Austria, once again, is a pioneer: the government has sent 30 % of its population into prison  home-quarantine (except for buying food and going to work), just to impose a lockdown on its whole population a few days afterward. At the latest, everyone should understand that Covid-19 infection rates are coming and going in a seasonal pattern, just like every other coronavirus. The winter wave  is running the same way as last year (mostly because politicians changed nothing on their approach). Regardless of what politician