You do sort of wonder about how secure the state is when the government minister in charge of that sort of thing was allegedly totally unaware that his wife was running an international drug trafficking ring. I doubt he will feel any obligation to resign and just as soon as he completes his application to become a member of The Reputation Institute, will issue a bland and convoluted statement about how his wife’s extracurricular activities have had no impact on his own ability to do his duties. Earlier this week we were treated to a similar declaration when the government released a comment about the American hunting excursion into Pakistan. It must have been prepared by someone whose real job is as an economic analyst in the financial sector, so perfect was the indecisive ambiguity of the words and sentences. It is completely unclear whether this country thinks that the death of a terrorist king pin is good or bad.
The sole piece of unarguably good news to emerge from the story about helicopters, Seals and shootings was that there is a place in Pakistan with the delightful name of Abbottabad. Reportedly founded by one Major Abbott who wandered those parts in the nineteenth century, he might as easily have disembarked his boat from London a month or two earlier and now be remembered as Abbottsfontein.
Contrary to some bulls, the event has not been good for the market and the JSE All Share index has spent the four working days of the month shedding 1500 points. However the small slide in the dollar gold price may be a result of some investors believing that the world is now a better and more stable place.
It is currently a quiet time for company results and reports, but it does seem as if only those who sell consumer goods directly to the public are likely to be having a good year so far. Even the big banking groups do not yet all seem to be able to report improvements in their businesses. The petrol price now back at over R10 per litre is surely going to impact spending habits and make saving even harder. Pay negotiations season has started though and as usual the labour organisations seem to be prepared to make some appalling sacrifices with other people’s jobs in order to maintain their leadership and lifestyles. The sole solution to unemployment is for government to cease their meddling and to scrap all controls on why, how and when one party will pay another to do a task for them. The fact is that the supply of labour exceeds demand and reams of regulations mostly instruct the demand side what to do about it. The response is usually to try and do without labour and the reported decline in even the domestic labour market size shows that people are fearful of exposing themselves to litigation merely by asking someone to push a broom.
I am delighted by the story that the ATMs in the Vatican City offer Latin as a language option. Presumably there is no number pad and MM results in the machine dispensing 2000 euros. Amounts like 1385 will take a little longer to figure out. (MCCCLXXXV)
This week RMB listed an ETN on the price of coal. This is an instrument that offers a share whose price is related to the rand cost of one ton of coal being shipped through Richards Bay. Obviously there is both rand dollar and coal price risk here and I am unsure why that might be useful to most people. The previously issued ETN on the oil price does provide a somewhat indirect hedge for the local petrol and diesel consumer; as the oil and fuel prices rise, then so too does the share price.
It’s disappointing that one of the 5-day tests against Australia at year end has been changed to a T20 pyjama game. With just two tests in a series an unsatisfying draw is a possibility.
James Greener
6th May 2011
