Do I have to convert my entire investment now?

Journalism in 2022 is when the podcast listener meets the newspaper reader and the digital consumer and the television viewer. And the meeting then also takes place in the traditional journalists' club in the Axel Springer building. Modernity meets relevance, speed meets tradition, entertainment meets information. The same goes for journalism at WELT and WELT AM SONNTAG. Accordingly, the stage was set for the club members of WELT, who were now live at the business podcast "Deffner und Zschäpitz".

When the permanent optimist Deffner, born in Franconia, meets me – born in Leipzig – then controversy and contradiction are programmed. And so the audience was presented with the world of business and the stock market from two perspectives. Deffner expects that the stock market will now go up again and that there will at most be a small dip in the real estate market. I, in turn, see a greater need for correction, especially in houses and apartments with poor energy efficiency.

Here, prices could also halve due to increased energy costs and high interest rates. We both believe that inflation is here to stay. But for Deffner, that's not a reason stocks or real estate need to be re-evaluated -- which I see differently. He was reminiscent of the last phase of hyperinflation in the 1980s. At that time stocks and real estate were valued much cheaper.

Above all, the subject of inflation did not let go of the club members. Do I have to change my entire investment now in order to at least maintain purchasing power? Can the European Central Bank (ECB) raise interest rates at all in order to bring inflation under control again, or do the monetary authorities have to take into account highly indebted euro countries such as Italy, France or Spain, where the debt burden is well over 100 percent of economic performance? Those were just some of the questions.

Despite their differences, the club members of WELT proved to be political citizens with economic expertise. You obviously have a good sense of what would be economically desirable on the one hand, but on the other hand there is political consensus at all. "We can no longer afford high interest rates in Europe," said one entrepreneur who had come from Düsseldorf.

Podcasts are quite a personal medium. The voices and stories of the moderators are mostly part of the listener's everyday life, while jogging, cooking, on the way to work. Many identify with the hosts, as the moderators of the podcasts are called. Accordingly, the evening in the journalists' club almost seemed like a big family reunion, photos were taken together, experiences shared, and of course the WELT Club members - obvious in a business and stock market podcast - were looking for new stock ideas. If prices are still falling, a question that is often asked, which stocks should we buy?

You can find the full recording of the live podcast here. You can also listen to other podcast episodes here.

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