Exactly as everyone suspected, the
US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged but did pop a somewhat thin
and mangy cat into the pigeon loft by muttering the dreaded words “Next time….”!
Share prices, however, are so determined to go up, that adverse reactions were
meagre. Developments in SA though are turning many an analysts’ mind towards
further rand weakness and a touch of the inflations perhaps. Hence the scramble
to own more shares, which in theory, should offer some protection against
currency calamity – especially if the company has a forex earnings stream. This
doesn’t get away from the fact that almost all of those companies are expensive
by any traditional valuation measure. Just closing one’s eyes and buying
doesn’t feel like a strategy.
If you don’t pay careful attention
it is easy quickly to lose track of all the different mechanisms the government
has for spending our money. Now in the
news, because of course it has dried up, is a fund under control of Minster Red
Rob Davies called the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Program or MCEP
to its mates. The very name is chilling, implying that there are bureaucrats
who are able to judge Competitiveness and distribute cash accordingly. Reportedly
about 1250 companies have shared in the R5bn of taxpayer’s money that was used
to launch the program half a dozen years ago. That of course was the time of
the great “global financial crisis” when banks realised rather belatedly that
lending to people who were very unlikely to repay the money was a poor business
model and closed their doors to any more similar borrowers. Hence the
government decided that it would then play the role of banker, and predictably
the chickens are now roosting. The massive student support fund is suffering an
identical fate.
Student Ms Anele Nzimande is
obviously not yet up to date with her swatting program for the end of year
exams. As leader of an outfit named the National Shutdown Coalition she has
been offering her opinions about the protest movement. Apparently she believes
that “People listen when students speak.” But when they say things like it
would be “morally repugnant” for students to give up their protests and write
their exams, most people probably stop listening. What we all would really like
to see and hear from our future leaders is a clear and simple proposal of where
the R20bn that the universities need will come from. Frankly, those threatening newspaper adverts being
placed by the Taxman about not trying to hide one’s wealth isn’t going to rustle
up that kind of cash.
And Comrade Dr Blade Nzimande (no
relation?) hasn’t come up with anything very good yet either. He has spoken
about raiding a few caches of unspent funds in various training budgets and
maybe slap a tax on graduates. Rather revert to Plan A which is to cut down on
corruption, wastage, and grandiose schemes that the country just can’t afford.
Like having one of the largest diplomatic corps in the world.
And now in the wake of unwinding the
disastrous changes to the visa rules, the government is offering a R1m a year
salary to someone who will set up and run a Socio-Economic Impact Assessment
System (SEIAS). This outfit will check proposed legislation for “unexpected”
reactions to proposed laws It would of course be a whole lot cheaper and more
effective if the lawmakers listened to and heeded the comments and criticisms
that they actually invite the private sector to make before sending the dog’s
breakfast to parliament for approval.
The
main concern at the bowling club bar is that laws of the sport don’t envisage a
result where both teams in the Rugby World Cup Final can lose. The best we
green and gold supporters can hope for is that the ref dishes out a royal flush
of yellow and red cards and the resulting brawl sees the match abandoned! And
the Cup is then awarded to the team that comes third, which tonight will be the
‘bokke.
James
Greener
Friday 30th
October 2015
Thank you to the many readers who sent words of comfort and
outrage about our burglary last week. A common theme in those messages was how
many of you had suffered similar experiences.
