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13 November 2009 19:23

Civil servants get unlucky, or do they?

Locksmiths, IT teams have been busy ensuring the latest departee can't change his mind.

DURBAN - Although it is just mid-November there are already a few Yuletide markers showing up in the shops and the market. Durban temperatures are at last edging up towards the 30s, and so tinsel and canned snow are putting in an appearance. On the JSE, the average daily trading range of most of the indices is contracting, which suggests that traders are starting to worry more about holiday plans than trying to chase prices up and down. However, the All Share Index level itself in the last few weeks has been setting the year's high and is 50% above the March low point when the 2008 crisis was declared to be "over". At that time the gold price was at a record R10 000 an ounce, presumably an indication that the metal was being used as a safe haven. As the year wore on, however, the price ...

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06 November 2009 17:27

Duelling computers ruin the rand

The little devils decided to trade the rand all on their own.

DURBAN - It is very worrying that the newest hot button topic among the leadership is the concept of nationalising anything and anyone who catches their eye. What exactly is it that these excitable politicians have in mind? My understanding of the process of nationalisation is that the state identifies an enterprise which they believe is either too vulnerable or too valuable to be left in the hands of mere private citizens. The bureaucrats, almost none of whom have any skill or experience in working for a living, one day declare that they are offended by an organisation selling goods and services at prices which exceed the costs of creating and providing those goods and services. This practice is declared to be not "in the public interest" and it is "policy" that the state should gain c...

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31 October 2009 16:30

So where is all the bad news?

And the cost of getting Jacob Maroga to leave Eskom.

DURBAN - There was great excitement when the USA announced that growth in the third quarter was a stunning 3.5%. Importantly, this number was even better than expected and so it was "off to the races for the bulls". Untroubled by concerns of valuation and similar dismissible nonsense, buyers must be sure that any shares they buy now will be sold shortly at a much higher price to someone even more optimistic than themselves. Bears and sceptics immediately began to dissect this growth figure, pointing to the very large impact that various government stimulus packages had made on the result. Since that was the object of the official interventions, the designers and supporters of the packages must be delighted.

In SA we watched the new finance minister do quite a good job of telling...

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