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Anna wrote that US media would exceed themselves in attacking Donald Trump and supporting Volodymyr Zelensky. She claimed that Zelensky is more popular than ever in the US, while Trump’s approval ratings continue to decline. According to her assessment, nearly every second post on X is directed against Trump – even on Elon Musk's platform. As an example, Anna mentioned Ben Meiselas, a lawyer and co-founder of MeidasTouch. He had warned that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may have committed a crime in connection with a diesel deal and referred to "criminal behavior." Meiselas explained in a video the laws that Bessent allegedly violated. Trump’s immunity does not apply to the Treasury Secretary, Anna wrote. She described the development against Trump as an avalanche that he himself triggered. #Trump #Selenskyj #Medien (translated)

Austria's Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer is to become the new chairman of the SPÖ, aiming to stop the party's downward trend while also finding a balance between social responsibility and austerity measures in the coalition with the ÖVP and the Neos. #SPÖ #Österreich #Finanzpolitik (translated)

Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer is cold-shouldering the Neos and refers to joint government resolutions, while Beate Meinl-Reisinger refers to the newly introduced package tax as nonsense and calls for its abolition, yet without presenting any concrete alternatives. #Paketsteuer #Neos #Finanzministerium (translated)

Anna asked whether a diesel agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin could have been made before its announcement. She wrote that the tanker Minerva Zen left Saint Petersburg on September 22 – 17 days before Trump's announcement. The ship, sailing under the Greek flag, had an undisclosed destination since its departure and was supposed to reach the US East Coast on October 11 or 12, according to data from Windward and Vortexa, a week after the House of Representatives voted for the Graham sanctions law. The route is documented, but the cargo is not, Anna wrote. Shipping papers are not available; estimates range from 230,000 to 300,000 barrels of diesel. Shipping analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann could not say whether the ship had been redirected after Trump's announcement or whether an agreement had already existed before. Anna also pointed out that the US Treasury Department had issued General License No. 135 less than 24 hours before the report, allowing the import of Russian diesel until April 2027. She related the issuance on Thursday, a phone call on Friday, and the departure of the tanker on September 22, stating that the timing seemed unusual. While Kyiv had urged Congress to implement the Graham law, Washington could have already planned differently, according to her account. She cited Windward and Vortexa, quoted by Nasha Niva, as well as UkrMedia and NPR. #DieselDeal #Trump #Putin (translated)

Furkan Yildirim wrote that the US Treasury could auction fewer long-term government bonds as early as November and possibly discontinue the 20-year term altogether. According to Yildirim, Citigroup expects Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to announce a $3 billion reduction in auctions for 20- and 30-year bonds each on November 4. The financing gap is to be closed with government securities maturing within a year at the latest. The department may also ask large banks next week whether pension funds now prefer bonds from Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet to those of the state. The 20-year bond was reintroduced in 2020 after a 34-year hiatus and now offers nearly 5.7 percent interest, more than any other US maturity. At the end of 2020, its yield was just under 1.5 percent. At the same time, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, and SpaceX had already issued dollar bonds amounting to more than $180 billion in 2026; according to Yildirim, Amazon's bonds extend to 2076. According to asset manager TwentyFour, which Yildirim cited, Japanese investors are now receiving enough interest at home to invest their money there. Citi strategist Jason Williams wrote that pension funds may currently be more inclined than usual to invest in long-term corporate bonds of good quality. However, BNP Paribas strategists doubted that smaller auctions would reduce the government's financing costs. Yildirim also pointed out that the yield on 10-year US bonds serves as a basis for mortgages and many other loans, and Bessent had referred to it as an important measure of his success. With an annual deficit of nearly $2 trillion, the debt burden continues to grow as competition for long-term buyers increases. #Finanzen #Anleihen #Wirtschaft (translated)

Regina Laska wrote that Donald Trump promised hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel after a phone call with Vladimir Putin. The U.S. Treasury then allowed an exemption from the sanctions. Given the midterms in four weeks and a diesel price at record levels, Laska interpreted the move as a possible campaign maneuver. In mid-September, Trump publicly called on Volodymyr Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries. According to a Reuters report led by Laska, at that time three of the six largest Russian diesel refineries were shut down or operating at limited capacity. She also pointed to a Russian export ban on diesel until the end of October and noted that Russia imported almost seven times as much diesel from Belarus from January to July as in the same period of the previous year. Deputy Prime Minister Novak is now talking about surpluses, she wrote; however, it is unclear whether the announced delivery quantities and deadlines will actually be met. Zelensky offered to stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries if Russia ends its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Laska referred to this as a symmetrical de-escalation offer that is on the table for the Americans. She also cited rocket attacks on a residential building in Pryluky, glide bombs on city buses in Kramatorsk, and shelling of the energy supply in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa. She warned that Russia would respond to the diesel with terrorism. The EU also criticized Laska: On September 22, Usmanov and Fridman were removed from the sanctions list under pressure from France, Slovakia, and Luxembourg. According to Laska, Zelensky pointed out that the attacks had since increased. At the same time, the EU extended the remaining personal sanctions from six months to three years. Latvia had long resisted the compromise and ultimately paved the way for it by abstaining. Laska compared Trump's diesel concession to Russia with the European compromise in favor of unanimity. In her view, the costs of such agreements are borne not by their authors but by the people in Pryluky, Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Oleshkiv. #Trump #Putin #Dieselpreise (translated)

Donald Trump announced an agreement for the delivery of hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel from Russia for the USA and the world market after a phone call with Vladimir Putin, for which the US Treasury Department granted a temporary permit. #Trump #Putin #Diesellieferungen (translated)

The agreement of the EU finance ministers on the "Package for Market Integration and Financial Supervision" represents a significant step towards the capital markets union, but is hindered by Germany's resistance to a central oversight of the German stock exchange under the EU authority ESMA, which jeopardizes the implementation of equal competitive conditions. #Kapitalmarktunion #EU #Finanzmarkt (translated)

The article by Markus Marterbauer addresses the challenges faced by the Finance Minister in Austria, whose increasingly close ties to the structurally conservative representation of workers prevent him from pushing necessary reforms such as tax relief and an increase in the retirement age, while at the same time the country's debt burden is rising. #Wirtschaft #Politik #Österreich (translated)

The EU finance ministers have taken an important step towards a capital markets union by adopting a reform package that simplifies cross-border trade and temporarily grants special treatment to certain financial centers, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. #Kapitalmarktunion #DeutscheBörse #EUFinanzminister (translated)

The article highlights the role of Harald Christ as an influential advisor to Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, who may benefit from his commitments as a lobbyist and investor, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest. #HaraldChrist #Lobbyismus #Interessenkonflikt (translated)