Welcome to My Blog
Articles and advice on all things legalSnippet 2021 – 37
Economy Been there done that: our roiling markets reflect the uncertainty that another lockdown will do to those sectors of our economy affected most by the Covid pandemic. Think travel/hospitality/tourism. On top of this uncertainty are two negatives that also...
Snippet 2021 – 36
Economy Some salient economic issues are: Old hat, but still – Our Post Office is in financial trouble; unsurprisingly, when last did you post a letter? What is not nice is that the Post Office has not paid over taxes on salaries, despite having deducted this. You try...
Snippet 2021 – 35
Economics There is some good news to report on and for this the Prez should be lauded even though much of this is not directly attributable to his leadership: Our new Minister of Finance stuck to the expenditure containment script and even stated that he prefers job...
Snippet 2021 – 34
Economy There are two tenuously related topics in our economic development, which are topical today: The world has been galvanised by the COP26 summit and we will see huge sums being spent on re-energisation. Good; the realisation that our current energy use is...
Snippet 2021 – 33
Economy Since 1994, our per capita GDP, compared to the rest of the world, has deteriorated by approximately 20%. Even when compared to the rest of Africa, we have retrogressed. In 1994 Eskom generated more electricity per capita than the rest of the world. Today our...
Snippet 2021 – 32
Economy The expected GDP growth in China is down to 4.9% from 7.9 in the preceding quarter. There are several reasons for this, amongst which is an electricity shortage….sound familiar? Much more topical is the ongoing discussion of our inflation rate and what it...
Snippet 2021 – 31
Economics The basics (yawn): the IMF upped its estimate of our growth to 5% and BNP expects the Rand to strengthen towards year end. This is broadly in accordance with business expectation for the immediate future. There are, despite the rosier outlook above, several...
Snippet 2021 – 30
Economy There’s not much new in circulation regarding our economy other than re-statements of the following: the Reserve Bank saying that SA cannot rely on high commodity prices for our economic recovery; the World Bank projecting our after-CV 19 growth rate at 4.6%;...
Snippet 2021 – 29
Economy The following article, ex the Daily Friend, deals with EWC; however, it is worth reading simply for the economic history of South Africa. For those who long for the good old days pre-ANC – do read this: things financially were not as great in the early...
Snippet 2021 – 28
Economy The SA inflation rate for August is 4.9% – compare this with Kenya which hit 4.5% in January…and the EU which averaged 0.68% last year. Just this shows why our currency must needs depreciate against the Euro and Dollar. The elephant in our fiscal room is how...
Snippet 2021 – 27
Economy Our economic news is mildly interesting: our economy grew by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter; Old Mutual forecasts a 5.5% economic growth for South Africa, next year; our economy is some 11% bigger than we thought, shown up by the rebasement of our GDP; and Zimbabwe’s...
Snippet 2021 – 26
Economy Two independent, but related economic articles, were floated this week past: the first a note that the production cuts in China had put pressure on iron ore prices; the second a broadening of this result into a curtailment of the runaway commodity prices (also...
Snippet 2021 – 25
Economy Pundits do not agree on our GDP trajectory for the next year; these are the predictions: Momentum 4% PwC 2.3% Old Mutual 5% The question is we are we going. As far as Rand value is concerned, Prof Grant (a publications editor for the Free Market Foundation)...
Snippet 2021 – 24
Economy The Economist published a note on the effect of CV19 on the world markets: it says that the fault lines that will develop between the jabs-had and the jabs-not will increase. The economies of countries, which attain full inoculation against CV19, will burgeon,...
Snippet 2021 – 23
Economy Those in the know say that our Rand, at its current US dollar exchange rate, is now fairly valued. If one accepts the Big Mac Index, the real value of the rand should be at about R5.93/US $. That index says that ours is the third most undervalued currency. You...
Snippet 2021 – 22
Economy Reform? Us? Those who govern us are not listening: the World Bank says that SA’s medium-term growth outlook is too low to significantly improve socioeconomic conditions and reduce unemployment: Reference Most economists predict that our repo rate will probably...
Snippet 2021 – 21
Economy Our state needs to save money to meet budget restraints. Transnet employees were given a 5% rise. The state has just made an increase offer to it public servants generally of 1.5% plus R1000 – for the bottom end bunch this amounts to an effective 11% pay rise...
Snippet 2021 – 20
Economics C Ryan: ”… the JSE Top 40, in red, looks decidedly pedestrian against the S&P 500, which returned 278% over 10 years against the Top 40’s 28.3%.” Our Reserve Bank governor held, a week-and-a-half ago, that there is a case for lowering the banks inflation...
