Jenny · March 8, 2026
When Oliver Blume became CEO of Volkswagen Group in September 2022, he inherited 12 brands, 120 factories and 650,000 employees. Within two years, Chinese EV competition and German structural costs had combined into an existential financial crisis. By December 2024, Blume had agreed to cut 35,000 jobs, close two SAIC plants and commit to €4 [...]
Jenny · March 8, 2026
In 1988, Larry Fink co-founded BlackRock with eight partners and $5 million in seed capital. By end-2025, BlackRock managed $14.04 trillion in assets — more than the GDP of every nation except the US and China — and reported a record $698 billion in annual net inflows. That 37-year journey is inseparable from one conviction: [...]
Jenny · March 7, 2026
In 1984, Bernard Arnault acquired the bankrupt Boussac textile group for $15 million of his own capital — gaining control of Christian Dior, which he identified as the single asset worth saving. Forty-one years later, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton generates €84.7 billion in annual revenue, employs 211,000 people across 75+ brands, and is the [...]
Jenny · March 7, 2026
In April 1993, Jensen Huang founded Nvidia with $600 at a Denny’s diner in San Jose. In October 2025, Nvidia became the first company in history to exceed $5 trillion in market capitalisation. In FY2026, it reported $215.9 billion in revenue — up 65% year-on-year — and $120.1 billion in net income. These numbers describe [...]
Evelyn · March 7, 2026
In 2021, Russia supplied 45% of EU gas imports. By 2025, that share had fallen to 13%; Russian pipeline gas — once 40% of EU pipeline flows — represents just 6% today. This transformation is the result of the most ambitious energy policy reorientation in EU history: legally binding phase-out legislation, €300 billion in projected [...]
Evelyn · March 7, 2026
A January 2026 joint report by the ECB and ESRB confirms that geopolitical shocks lower expected growth, heighten financial stress and cause banks to reduce lending — especially cross-border. For European banks, geopolitical risk is no longer an external variable to be monitored from a distance. It is a direct input into credit, liquidity, market [...]
