After the horrors of the financial crisis of 2007/8, it’s natural to look around at the state of the world – crises in Europe and America, bank collapses, unemployment, stagnation, and struggles – and ask ourselves if we’ve learned anything, in particular, anything that will help us prevent this all from happening again. According to … Read more
One of the common laments you hear about the economies of Africa is that they are insufficiently entrepreneurial. Although the streets of any given African capital are usually abuzz with hawkers,the overall impression we have of the continent is that it is an entrepreneurial vacuum. Some lay the blame at the feet of African nations’ governments, … Read more
News that R700bn Glencore is working on a secondary listing on the JSE has brought focus onto the issue of pent-up demand for global stocks among South African institutional investors. Because they’re limited by legislation to how much they may invest abroad, there’s billions of investible rand available for stocks like Glencore once they list … Read more
There’s much to be said for personal experience. My first stock market bubble was in 1987. Things were so crazy back then that my employer, Prescon, ran a daily share tipping service. Punters would phone an answering machine which would play my recorded “tip” of the day. They paid the equivalent of R8 000 a month … Read more
Hi there, I had a hunch last week’s invitation to write for Biznewz would generate positive response. What actually happened blew me away. Best read stories on the site on Wednesday and Thursday were both by community members. And today we’re heading for a trifecta with the lovely “What it means to be an African”. … Read more
South Africa is a complex society. Shaped over centuries by social engineers who “knew” they were right (the “know F-Alls”) all who occupy it today live with daily reminders of the consequences of such idiocy. We need to embrace complexity. Doing so allows each of us to realise how little we know. To keep an … Read more
I met SAA’s financial director Wolf Meyer about a year ago. It wasn’t in the greatest of circumstances. One of my then colleagues had discovered the GM of a Moneyweb subsidiary, Editor’s Inc, had been bribing SAA’s procurement officer to ensure its publication was carried in the airline’s cabins. I was horrified at the discovery … Read more
Had a lot of fun on CNBC Africa’s Power Lunch today co-hosting with Gugulethu Mfuphi. I’ve got Biznewz blogger Irvine Green to thank for that. A couple years back he earmarked Gugu as a rising star (Irvine “discovered” her on Radio 702) and we managed to convince her to join Moneyweb. It’s been delightful watching … Read more
It’s not enough to save, if you want to be wealthy. What you do with your money is just as important. In this excellent piece on financial planning, investor Enrico Liebenberg shares his personal insights on how you can transform that R500 you squirrel away each month into a sum of R3m and more. Don’t … Read more
Experienced journalists build a base of “go-to” guys, one refined over years through their deep knowledge – the rare pundits who never let you down with confusing chatter. When it comes to the working of the markets, David Shapiro is in a class of his own. Irnest Kaplan is my man on tech companies; Allan … Read more