by Daan Steenkamp | Apr 5, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy Broke? A report on Defenceweb dealt with a litany of woes, revolving around funding which has resulted in inadequate training, lack of readiness, the un-serviceability of combat craft and so on. Much the same may be said of our civil service which is well-paid...
by Daan Steenkamp | Mar 29, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy Topical news is a note on what will happen if Russia defaults on its debts? Exactly this happened in 1998 and interest rates shot up all around the world – ours hit 25%. The suggestion made was that Russia will probably default on its debts in the next month...
by Daan Steenkamp | Mar 25, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy Four things greater than all things are women and horses and power and war. Kipling I’m a sporadic reader of the history of war and my understanding is that, generally, the crowd with the deepest pockets wins. The below graph, drawn from the World Bank, is...
by Daan Steenkamp | Feb 28, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy What has happened in the Ukraine happened to Georgia: what does a state do when the majority of a population in a province wants to belong next door? Mr Putin simply capitalised on this, twice. Anyway, we will pay more for petrol but our tax revenues from...
by Daan Steenkamp | Feb 23, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy This week our Minister of Finance will explain his budget to us. Have you ever wondered why we trail comparable countries in development? Consider the graph below: a hundred years ago, we were more or less on par with other colonial countries, yet we lag their...
by Daan Steenkamp | Feb 17, 2022 | Business, Economy, Practice, Property, Snippet
Economy The value of the Rand, to some extent, reflects how others see us. For years the Big Mac index has been the laymans rule of thumb to the purchasing power of our currency. That index currently holds that a big Mac costs 55% less here than in the US. Who, at our...
