Archives

More blog posts

Latest Comment

so SA is going down?
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” Adrian Pierce Rogers
by william is back

Read full post

31 August 2010 01:45

Things get gloomier

As the public sector strike rocks the nation, the economic outlook darkens.

It's a downright depressing time for South Africans. Last week, against the troubling backdrop of the public sector workers' strike, and images of babies starving in hospitals, came the release of some very weak economic data.

The most notable piece of data was the fact that gross domestic product growth (GDP growth - a measure of the increase in the total value of the goods and services produced by the economy) slowed sharply in the second quarter, despite the boost from the World Cup.

Read full post

25 August 2010 01:05

Fund managers see market rising

Survey shows that South African fund managers expect JSE, economy to improve.

The evidence in favour of getting more of your money into the South African equity market is mounting; a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) survey showed that 60% of South African fund managers believe that the JSE will be higher in six months' time.

Fund managers don't agree on exactly what level the JSE All Share Index (Alsi) will reach, but 40% said that they expect the index to get above 30,000 points, which is more than 10% higher than its current level.

Read full post

17 August 2010 02:53

Does money buy happiness?

Just how much joy can you buy?

Usually in this column, we talk about how to take care of your money and help it grow, but for a change of pace, this week we're going to talk a little about whether or not you should bother pursuing wealth at all (and what you should do with it once you get it).

You're probably reading this at work (I won't tell), where you spend nine or so hours a day making a  living, trying to cover your bills, set aside some money for retirement, and have enough left over for the occasional dinner and a movie. You probably hope to earn more and more every year, and are willing to work extra hours or extra hard to make sure that happens.

Read full post

10 August 2010 01:19

Strategies for a low-growth world

Time to get braver, crazier, and deeper into the market.

By all accounts, it's going to be an unpleasant few years. Growth in most economies will be slower than it has been over the last decade, unemployment will be persistently high in many regions, and meeting personal investment goals will be more challenging than ever.

Investors are going to have to make bolder choices if they want to come out wealthier on the other side of this; in the brave, new, low-growth world, returns on all asset classes will be much lower, and that will have a negative impact on investors' ability to hit their wealth targets. Consider the predictions of Peter Brooke, head of Macro Strategy Investments at Old Mutual Investment Group SA (Omigsa).

Read full post

03 August 2010 01:12

Chances of an SA growth shock

How likely is it that South African growth will surprise on the downside?

After the Reserve Bank's decision to hold rates steady, most economists agreed that we can probably only expect to get another rate cut if economic growth were to surprise on the downside; therefore, it's worth asking how likely that is.

There is definitely a strong, tangible risk of unexpectedly slow growth. Recent weakness in manufacturing data, for example, hints at the fragility of our recovery, and economists have taken to hedging their predictions with a lot of boilerplate about uncertainty.

Read full post