Alec Hogg’s regular column covering investment, economics, moneycraft and, occasionally, something very personal.
With a hectic work and social schedule since getting back to Johannesburg, scraping away time for a night at the movies is a challenge. Seems when we do want to visit the big screen, there never seems to be anything available at a convenient time. Thank heavens for Box Office. Like yesterday afternoon when our lazy Sunday afternoon became a special one. Courtesy of Meryl Streep’s brilliant portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
You have to feel for Cyril Ramaphosa. Until Lonmin hosted the spectacular explosion of the festering sore that is mining labour relations, he seemed blissfully unaware of a nasty human trait called envy. Allowing his mind to drift to a thought that his time at the top was coming. The Presidency of South Africa. One day not too far away.
Alec Hogg (53) is a South African financial journalist and media entrepreneur. His career kicked off in 1980 when he was employed as a trainee financial journalist at The Citizen newspaper. After progressing through senior positions at national newspapers and magazines, Hogg started his first business, a financial news agency, in 1988. After an unsuccessfully publishing … Read more
May 28, 2011
This article uncovers the way in which a predator feasted on over-optimistic small investors led by a hero to the punting class, Greg Blank.
In the share market, fact is sometimes stranger than fiction. Take the case of the JSE-listed oil exploration company SacOil Holdings, which in the past year rocketed from oblivion to stardom – but this week showed signs of falling back into obscurity.
Steve Jobs, 14 June 2005
Thank you. I’m honoured to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, “We’ve got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?” They said, “Of course.”
I wrote this tribute on Thursday, 1 November 2012, shortly after hearing the news that my friend and long-time colleague David Carte had passed away in the early hours that morning. He was 67. – AH By Alec Hogg David Carte phoned me on Sunday. Neither suggested this would be the last time we spoke. … Read more
By Alec Hogg MOOI RIVER – A good friend involved in a listed industrial group put me onto one of the exciting stocks to be featured in our show tonight. As you can’t beat an endorsement from a competitor, when he started waxing lyrical about Durban-headquartered ARB Group my ears flickered. OK, not really, but … Read more
By Alec Hogg OMAHA – It’s part of the human condition to offer advice. We all do it, even though our suggestions would be better left unsaid. But occasionally one does get advice that can be used to our advantage long after the initial conversation. Such pearls are to be treasured. Last weekend reminded me … Read more