Dear reader, it should be different, but it is the way it is: The topic of pensions plays a far too small role in the federal election campaign that is coming to an end today.

The demographic development is clear; no one can ignore new ideas for financial security in old age.

It is therefore interesting to read the conversation that the business editors Sebastian Balzter and Dennis Kremer had with Richard Gröttheim, the head of the Swedish pension fund AP7.

Because the Swedish pension fund is seen as a role model for Germany

.

It is state-owned, but still invests part of the pension contributions of all Swedes in shares.

Will Swedes lose their pension if the stock market falls?

Carsten Knop

Editor.

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Not surprisingly, Grötheim says no. Only 20 percent of the contributions went in stocks. “Every contributor can choose from more than 400 different private funds. Those who do not make their own choice automatically entrust us with their contributions to the investment. Most Swedes choose this. We have achieved an average return of 11 percent over the past 20 years. The private funds averaged 7 percent. ”The system appears to be very flexible and geared towards the individual co-decisions of the respective contributors. Worth reading - and perhaps also worth emulating. Unfortunately, says Gröttheim, his system is only open to Swedes. Too bad. By the way: If you absolutely do not want any shares, you can switch to funds that only invest in fixed-income paper.“But I wouldn't recommend that to anyone,” says the pension expert.

Speaking of investments and professionals. Ulrich Bindseil is Director General for Market Infrastructures at the European Central Bank (ECB). Before that, the economist was general director for market transactions for seven years, deputy general director in the same division for three years and head of risk management for four years. Jürgen Schaaf is an advisor in the same business area of ​​the ECB as Bindseil. The economist focuses on digital central bank currencies and modern retail payment strategies. Both wrote an interesting guest post for us.

Her thesis: The promises of the most popular crypto system Bitcoin are unrealizable, its flaws are underestimated.

They wrote down why, from their point of view, Bitcoin is more spooky than gimmick and why it also fails in terms of sustainability. Obviously, this is not a good substitute for pension savings. Perhaps for basic information: Technically, a blockchain is a chain of data blocks that is updated over time and managed as a distributed register. To prove this, the computers have to solve a mathematical crypto puzzle for each block, for which a reward beckons with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins. New bitcoins are shaped by the decentralized "mining" of countless users and their computers. The maximum total number of Bitcoins is technically limited to around 21 million, of which almost 19 million are already in circulation.

 We'll stick with money, or at least in business. Does the company name Sartorius mean anything to you? Should he!

After all, no listed company in Germany has developed as well as Sartorius in terms of share price over the past ten years.

America has Elon Musk and Tesla. Germany has Joachim Kreuzburg and Sartorius.

They may not be as colorful as the American electric car pioneer and space flier, but they are very reliable suppliers of positive surprises for their shareholders. In 2003, Kreuzburg took over the management of the company as a young man from Utz Claasen. At that time the market value was 94 million euros. Today it is a good 40 billion euros, more than 400 times as much. An unusual development, to put it mildly. Sartorius got into the Dax on Monday. Our business editor Daniel Mohr introduces the company.

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Your Carsten Knop


Editor of the


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung