Appropriate description of the most important cogs in an economy's wheel

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I’m thoroughly enjoying James Dyson’s autobiography which is appropriately tag-lined Invention: A Life. Now 75, the man whose creative mind and persistence (5 127 prototypes) revolutionised vacuum cleaners, comes across as a person we’d all love to spend time with.

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It’s an appropriate treatise after having spent a week among his type. Because a high proportion of those at BNC#4 are business builders and self-employed professionals. Most accurately described as “entrepreneurs” a term I use for the most honourable of occupations.

Not everyone sees them the same way. Dyson, who came from Art School, writes that most of his counterparts from non-commercial backgrounds understood entrepreneurs to be “dodgy wide boys at one end of the spectrum, property developers somewhere in the mix and buccaneering playboys at the other – stereotypes milking the system for as much ‘moolah’ as they possibly could.”

Which might describe the distrust of job creators within arts-graduate-heavy SA society. Dyson explains: “The true French meaning defines a combination of builder and architect, which I rather like.” Me too, James. Those whose goal is to extract maximum return in the shortest possible time are traders. Entrepreneurs are animals of an entirely different colour – they’re givers not takers. There’s a huge difference.

More for you to read today:

The Other Doomsday Scenario Looming Over Markets. A U.K. fund manager says the big worry isn’t inflation, it’s the Fed reversing quantitative easing.
U.S.-Stock Funds Are Down 17.3% So Far in 2022. After a weak end to August, stock funds are unlikely to be able to close the year in positive territory.
A Slowing China Helps Rein In Inflation Around the World. China is a key factor in falling costs for energy and commodities, but domestic factors are still keeping U.S. inflation high.
Enough, Bosses Say: This Fall, It Really Is Time to Get Back to the Office*. After more than two years, corporate leaders say time is up on avoiding in-person work.

**Polling data shows ANC a sniff above 50% with 56% voter turnout – Dr Frans Cronje explains:** Independent analyst Dr Frans Cronje’s think tank, the Social Research Foundation (SRF) has issued a report showing the ANC would likely win an absolute maximum of 52% of the vote in an election modelled on voter turnout of 56%. The SRF report has garnered significant attention primarily because polling company Ipsos puts the ANC at only 42%, according to its latest polling data. The big difference between these two is the SRF report dealt only with registered voters while Ipsos didn’t. South Africa’s voter turnout is historically poor. In the 2019 national election, about 66% of the electorate turned out, dropping from 73.4% in 2014. For the 2021 local government elections that figure is even bleaker, at 46% down from 57% in 2014. Among registered voters, Cronje says they’re polling the ANC at 46.9%, “and then when we start creating election scenarios, factoring in voter turnout levels, the highest we can get the ANC to is 52%.” He says the data regarding the slumping fortunes of the ANC is unambiguous. The SRF report highlights that if only urban South Africans voted, the ANC would muster only 33%. Conversely, if only rural SA headed to the polls, the ANC would win a two-thirds majority. ANC voters are ageing and rural in an urbanising economy. Cronje is adamant that the future survival of the ANC come 2024 is less dependent on anything it does or says, but “is a question of whether the people who wish to beat it are able to pull together sufficiently to shore up confidence in coalition options”. If the ANC manages to scrape by in two years’ time, it will be a reflection of a disjointed and ineffective opposition in South Africa which simply couldn’t get their act together. Polling data shows ANC a sniff above 50% with 56% voter turnout – Dr Frans Cronje explains

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