LIQUI MOLY Managing Director Ernst Prost on economic recovery

Ladies and gentlemen.

It looks as if we barely escaped the devil. All around the loosening up

– depending on the federal state and the local sovereign, ahem Prime Minister… Plenty of flip-flopping, as the Americans say, i.e. one backwards, one forwards, one somersault and immediately one backward. Very well, you have to open the stores again nice and slowly, carefully so that a shutdown doesn’t turn them into a shambles. Careful… but also consequent to avoid the economic death. Consumption has to come back, buying and selling, produce and consume. Invest again confidently, courageously and forcefully, everyone – companies and private households alike.

This is the crux of the matter. In the long run, billions in state aid, short-time work, loans and the like will not help. Loans are no substitute for revenue. Only those who are allowed to unlock their company have work, revenue and profit. Drop-in money, tax cuts or increased short-time work are not only of no use if people cannot go shopping, but are also a “sweet poison” for those who now demand more from the government than they are prepared to deliver themselves. Bridging the gap is ok… help anyway, but alimony must not become a permanent state. We need to restore the situation we had before Corona happened, every consumer is also a producer and vice versa. In an multi sided economy everybody creates for everybody and everybody benefits from everybody. If we all have work, we all have an income to buy items. Sounds simple, but it is also the heart of our free market economy. Full employment with adequate wages and salaries is the goal. It is not the state that has to set it, but society, the citizens, the companies with their teams, in other words all of us. Now is the time for the creative, the hard- working, the enterprising, those who believe in a future, those who believe in themselves, those who get in motion, who come up with ideas and do something.

With work prohibitions to retain the short-time work allowance to prevent them from being stopped, will not result in an upswing. That’s what I mean by “sweet poison”. You can always find work, there’s plenty to do. Of course, if you flip the switch completely and bring the company down to zero – as some people have done without any compelling reason – you shouldn’t be surprised if nothing works anymore. But it’s not the crisis that is to blame, but how you react to the crisis. I have enough concrete examples of this.

Since we continue to produce and sell, we have all kinds of needs for goods and services. We don’t always get what we need: “You know, we have short-time work, sorry”. But that can’t be the case now either but anyway… WE carry on and we fill the gaps that our competition is currently opening up. We use our chances, especially in times of crisis, because we don’t leave or put ourselves in the care of the government, but because we hold our ground and are getting down to work – as it should be!

Yours,

Ernst Prost Managing Director