16 May 2013 23:39

China and the middle-income trap

How likely is a major slowdown in China & what will it mean?

Growth in China is slowing. Its industrial output is falling, GDP growth has been coming in below expectations, and things are generally cooling off in the once super-hot economy. Part of this is cyclical – economies go through phases just like anything else – and of course, China has been feeling the chill emanating from the recession-riddled Eurozone. But observers fear that part of it may be secular, that China may be entering a new phase marked by slowdown and stagnation; in short, that it may be falling into the middle-income trap (MIT).

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14 May 2013 23:22

Four things South African retailers need to do better online

Steps SA retailers can take to give online shopping a boost.

For a long time, people thought about online retailing in South Africa in terms of questions like “Is it a feasible model for the country?” But that kind of thinking is several years out of date. Online retailing is a real and growing trend, and the question now is, how do online retailers keep the growth coming?

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09 May 2013 23:41

Three disruptive technologies that will change your life

Google chairman Eric Schmidt lists three high-impact new techs.

One of the main drivers of economic growth through the millennia has been technology – technologies like seed planting and the plough made the turn to agriculture possible, technologies to harness fossil fuels ignited the Industrial Revolution. Technology has also transformed healthcare, our societies and families (think birth control pills), and the transformations just keep coming (my iPhone does more than the communicators on Star Trek!).

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03 May 2013 00:35

Crowdfunding: Hot or not?

US investors are buzzing over crowdfunding, would it work in SA?

Among the many things that the internet has made possible is what experts call “many-to-many” communication – that is, sites where a large number of individuals can individually and collectively communicate directly with a large number of other individuals. This innovation is what underlies the idea of crowdfunding.

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26 April 2013 00:57

Investment themes in the US

China’s slowdown, domestic opportunities, & new emerging markets.

It’s been a banner year for US stock markets so far, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting record highs in April. However, for many investors, this is more troubling than anything else, because the last two times the S&P breached the 1500 mark it spelled disaster – the first time was in the early 2000s during the dotcom boom which rapidly turned to a bust, and the second was just before the 2007 financial crisis.

Such anxieties aside, though, there are a number of interesting trends driving investment patterns among US investors and stock market returns this year. Today, we’ll take a look at the three of these.

1. China slowdown

It’s no secret that growth in China is coming off the burners...

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