The Editor's Desk - Tue 17 Feb 2026: Taxing the rich, the AI hysteria, and the end of the prime rate

In today’s premium briefing, we dive into why the "rich getting richer" narrative fails when viewed on a post-tax basis and why entrepreneurs are reaching a breaking point with global tax hikes. Alec also explores the long-term reality of the AI revolution and a significant shift in South African monetary policy that could see the end of the traditional prime overdraft rate by 2027..Don't miss out on future episodes of The Editor's Desk. Subscribe to BizNews Premium and get the podcast delivered to your inbox daily..Listen here.Edited transcript of today's Editor's Desk episode.Whether it’s the shifting sands of geopolitics or the political currents that are shaping our economy, that is what we do here. We strip away the polish to tell you the backstory and why it actually matters. This is the Editor’s Desk: exclusive analysis for our premium members. Today is Tuesday, the 17th of February, 2026. Let’s take a look behind the curtain. I remember sitting in a room with the head of Oxfam, who was quite a forceful character. It was at a World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, and he was, I suppose, having his umpteenth interview and explaining why the rich were predatory and why a smaller and smaller percentage of wealthy people earned a bigger and bigger slice of global assets. And I thought, as any rational person would, that this was really kind of unfair. We are human beings, all of us. We are born with the same capabilities. Theoretically, some people’s brains maybe work a little faster than others, but generally speaking, while one is less gifted, the other person is more so, and it all kind of ends up in the wash. It also irritates many people to look around at fancy houses owned by the truly wealthy that are hardly ever lived in; they are almost like status symbols or trophy assets. So there is this inherent view on it. I remember interviewing him and then getting feedback from a good friend of mine who is extremely rational and a self-made, wealthy person. He said, "Hang on a minute. If it weren't for people like myself, who sacrificed, who worked hard and risked everything—the entrepreneurs, the small percentage of people prepared to do that—then organisations that have transformed the world would not exist. And if there was no incentive for them to do that, then maybe they wouldn't." Now, I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m not sure if all entrepreneurs are driven by money. My view is that an entrepreneur is actually driven by doing something better. You just get this feeling that you can do something better, so why not do it? But I’m sure the financial side motivates a lot of people who get into difficult situations and think, "Well, okay, I can get through this if I just hang on here. I could have a life of leisure in time to come, and that would be my reward." What I’m building up to is an article we have on BizNews today from The Economist, which discusses governments around the world becoming more like Robin Hood—robbing from the rich to give to the poor—rather than the Sheriff of Nottingham, who takes from the poor to give to the rich. They use a lot of data to explain that although there was a shift in pre-tax income towards fewer people in the 80s and 90s, on a post-tax basis, it has more than rebalanced. Because governments have been jacking up tax rates so aggressively, especially at the top end, it has more than offset that gap. So, when we look at these issues, instead of going the Oxfam route and looking at only one side of the balance sheet, we should look at the other side and ask: "What about after tax?" Of course, it’s easy to argue that the rich can afford financial advisors and tax consultants to structure their affairs to pay less tax. True, but only up to a point. We know with our South African Revenue Service (SARS) that the weighting has moved away from the wealthy being able to "get away with it." Indeed, this is happening all over the world. It is an important piece for all of us to look at because, at some point, those who are contributing to the greater good are going to ask, "Do I really want to pay that much tax? Isn't it just going to be easier for me to lie in my hammock or play golf rather than sacrificing day after day to build something that improves the lot of those around me?" I don’t know what the answer is, but it must give pause to the entrepreneurial class. Thankfully, in South Africa, that doesn't seem to be the case right now, despite the many obstacles. Next time somebody argues that "the rich are just getting richer," remember the data: on a post-tax basis, they aren't. Looking to the future, we have an excellent piece by Parmy Olson where she refers to a paper by Mitch Schumer. It argues that Artificial Intelligence is going to hit professional jobs in a big way. As a consequence, all of us should be spending an hour a day practising AI and preparing for what is coming. We all need to be ready for the robots, whether they are software agents or physical robots. I’ve seen clips on our premium WhatsApp channels showing the progress China is making, and we know Elon Musk is going "hell for leather" on that front as well. However, Parmy argues against the panic we saw in the stock market when Anthropic released 11 plugins to the Claude code. Investors sold off entire chunks of the market, particularly software companies. She reminds us that we always overestimate the impact in the short term, even if we underestimate it in the long term. I saw this myself when I was running a public company and acquired an "old media" business. I thought we’d have to close it within five years, but 19 years later, it was still generating cash. The Internet didn't transform every industry overnight, but looking back, it has transformed everything. A similar story is likely with AI. Finally, the South African Reserve Bank has released a policy paper regarding the prime overdraft rate. We have a complicated system where the Reserve Bank’s policy rate is at 6.75%, yet the prime overdraft rate sits at 10.25%—350 basis points higher. This gap has existed since 2001. The problem is that if you are a "Triple A" client, you often negotiate a rate well below prime, such as mortgage rates at 1% or 2% under prime. The Reserve Bank is suggesting that this system has outlived its purpose and we should move towards a single rate aligned with the policy rate. This would align South Africa more closely with international standards and support the mission to pull the inflation target down to 3%. If we achieve a 3% inflation rate, we will be aligned with our major trading partners, which helps retain the value of the Rand. Getting rid of the prime overdraft rate could also increase competition among banks, potentially as soon as 2027. I’ll leave it there for today. Keep an eye out for tonight’s Director’s Cut. I had a fascinating interview with David Woollam. As a chartered accountant, he noticed discrepancies in the income statements of Tongaat Hulett years ago and approached the board, but they ignored him. This week, Tongaat Hulett—once the industrial icon of KwaZulu-Natal—has finally gone bankrupt, 37 months after entering business rescue. It’s quite a story. Thanks for trusting us with your time. I’m Alec Hogg. Until tomorrow, cheerio.

The Editor's Desk - Tue 17 Feb 2026: Taxing the rich, the AI hysteria, and the end of the prime rate

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