You’re on Mute!

If only I could get a cent for every time that I have been on a ‘lockdown’ video call hearing someone saying “…, you’re on mute”, only for the person implicated to answer after an uncomfortable... 

Two economic hat-tricks

Two economic hat-tricks A hat-trick is the achievement of a generally positive result three times in a game or in another endeavour. Well, not in this instance, I am afraid. But before we get... 

Slow train coming?

On March 20, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the ratings of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation rating, two of South Africa’s State-owned... 

Protectionism on the increase

Contrary to popular belief, economists are not oracles, and neither are they clairvoyants, even though they make frequent reference to their crystal-ball insights. They are mere trend spotters – no... 

Déjà vu as another SOE Council is announced

To genuinely appreciate South Africa’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs) – the infamous 131 – while retaining a positive demeanour, it would be best if you were prone to regular bouts of amnesia. If... 

Internalise an external cost

If you know nothing about sin taxes, then your salvation lies in the mere expression of the four words in the headline. Merely mentioning them will elevate you to the status of a tax expert, and... 

Misoneism

This could well be the most apt one-word summary of government’s approach to the South African economy – a dislike of what is new or represents change. How else can one explain government clinging... 

End of print magazine era?

In a world obsessed with extinction, where the instinct is seemingly to protect anything and everything from extinction, an extinction is seemingly occurring unnoticed in South Africa. Is the lack... 

A whole new world?

“I can show you the world; Shining, shimmering, splendid; … A whole new world; A new fantastic point of view.” If only South Africa could emerge from its economic slumber, as the song from Disney's... 

Look mommy, there’s no plane up in the sky

What do the kakapo, the takahe, the weka, Comair, SA Express and South African Airways (SAA) have in common? The first three are flightless birds, and the latter three are on the verge of becoming... 

Fight, flight, freeze or fawn

You might be more familiar with American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon’s flight-or-fight response, which describes a physiological reaction to a perceived harmful event, attack or threat to... 

Zombie economics

A zombie is a spirit that wanders about the Earth, tormenting the living. Economics has its own zombies, as it does its own apocalyptic events, one of which is a recession. In addition to a... 

The economy in the time of Covid-19

The title is that of the World Bank’s semi-annual report for the Latin America and Caribbean region, which was released on April 12. There is much for South Africa’s policymakers to learn from this... 

SA’s Fermi growth estimate

We might well be living the Chinese curse – not Covid-19, but the interesting times that it will deliver. A global economic tragedy is inevitable, only its true extent cannot be determined. If “all... 

Nelsonian knowledge

What do you understand the headline of this piece to mean? Hint: the phrase originates from across the ocean, where it was used by English judges. The Conglomerate of June 25, 2005, cites it in a... 

Three out of three is bad

“Baby, we can talk all night; But that ain't getting us nowhere; I told you everything I possibly can; There's nothing left inside of here; . . . Now don't be sad; 'Cause two out of three ain't... 

Will the one C survive the other?

By March 21, most countries had introduced some form of enforced lockdown and/or self-isolation. The Gambler has just played his last hand. Of Kenny Rogers’s music, it is not Islands in the Stream... 

For whom the bell tolls

As I heard the church bells toll on the evening of March 16 – which is when I wrote this piece – I was reminded of the phrase 'for whom the bell tolls'. It refers to the church bells that are rung... 

You break it, you buy it

“Beautiful to look at, lovely to hold, but if you should break it, consider it sold.” This rhyme evokes memories of the terror I experienced as a youngster when I was about to enter a shop... 

Focus on tariff determinations

The National Budget has always tended to be an uninspiring affair as far as customs, excise and international trade are concerned. Its focus tends to be limited to increases in the so-called sin... 

TFA – three years on

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO's) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the first multilateral deal concluded in the WTO’s 25-year history, celebrated its third year of existence on February 22.... 

Stumbling from failure to failure

To avoid embarrassing him, I will not mention the name of my economics professor from Eastern Europe who had a small bust of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, on his desk. Although,... 

Geographic indication in Brexit aftermath

For as long as I can remember, my favourite meal, if it qualifies to be called that, has been a toasted cheese-and-tomato sandwich. I fondly recall many an afternoon at what was then Café 101,... 

Brexit: end of the beginning

As I gazed across SW15, the postcode of the city famously known as London, at 00:01 GMT on January 31, Brexit – a portmanteau of ‘British’ and ‘exit’ – which signifies the withdrawal of the UK from... 

It’s time govt went back to basics

During the week of January 20, the UK-Africa Investment Summit took place in London and the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. As I contemplated the two events from a... 

HS2022 edition launched

The World Customs Organisation (WCO) announced on January 8 that the seventh edition of the Harmonised Commodity, Description and Coding System (HS) nomenclature, used for the uniform... 

2020: the year of the IMF bail-out?

The year 2020 is the Year of the Rat. This is according to the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese believe that the rate signifies wealth and surplus. In South Africa, 2020 is anticipated to be the polar... 

It’s time to put South Africa Inc into business rescue

To complicate something simply means to make something more difficult to deal with or understand. Why not simplify it? Take the South African economy and its performance – it is no more difficult... 

Variable outlook with persistent challenges

We live in a world where words have been deprived of their original meaning. So accustomed have we become to seeing and hearing some words that they have lost their impact. We have become numb to... 

SOEs the worst they have ever been

The above headline is part of a sentence in a report released by the Auditor General on November 20, which reads: “The overall audit outcomes of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are the worst they... 

It’s time to set South African Airways free

You might have one schoolteacher or more who made an enduring impression on you. It might be something that they said or that they attuned you too. Although their name might have faded in memory,... 

Moulting, molting, sloughing or ecdysis

There is one word missing from the title that, in biology, refers to the process where many invertebrates and animals routinely cast off a part of there body, which, in many instances – but not... 

Hitting SA’s economic challenges head-on

I write this column at a time of celebration. 32-12. Need I say no more? Capturing the English psyche on the day, the advertised prime-time programme is about that ‘unsinkable ship’ – the RMS... 

The bobbin industry’s contribution to English

You may be familiar with or have used or still use the phrases ‘knock off’, ‘fast and loose’ and ‘happy hour’. What you might not know is what the three phrases have in common. A hint: they all... 

The real cost of graft in South Africa

Speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit, in London, on October 13, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the cost of this predecessor’s decade-long rule “runs way beyond, in my view, more than... 

Africa’s trade bloc mirage

The word ‘mirage’ originates from the Latin mirari, which means to look at, to wonder at, to mirror or to admire. There are, in fact, three categories of a mirage: inferior, superior and Fata... 

Economic recovery and transformation strategy

A mounting challenge facing all South Africans is not what you might might think of. The challenge facing us is that we are confronted with words and phrases that simply do not mean what we might... 

The Presidential Economic Advisory Council

US satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer is credited with saying: “The ‘new’ approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you are doing rather than to get to the right answer.”... 

SA’s Brexit approach: Roll over and play dead

I concluded the August 30 instalment of this column, which was titled ‘Brexit – we’re not gonna take it’, with this sentence: “It is time for South Africa to step up and take the game to Britain.”... 

The route to perpetual inequality

This week I continue my trip down memory lane. I focus on that formation – economic or political, depending on your preference – that was in 2001 referenced as BRIC by then chairperson of Goldman...