During the last month it looks as
if the JSE and the rand have behaved quite satisfactorily while bonds have done
nothing special. The big loser in August was the US dollar. One now needs about
120 US pennies to buy the much-reviled euro. This is almost 15% more expensive
than it was at the beginning of the year. The Dow Jones index of US share
prices is up by about the same amount in the same period. This suggests that
non-US folk have a much dimmer view of that nation’s future than do the locals.
My just ended trip to that
country to experience the total solar eclipse would confirm this impression.
The majority of the charming, friendly and helpful people in North America have
scant interest or knowledge of very much beyond even their State Line let alone
the national border. The place is so vast and seemingly bountiful that
non-domestic matters have no impact on people’s lives.
The eclipse event was momentous
and its impact in real time and place is impossible to convey to anyone who has
not experienced one.
Meanwhile it is pleasing to
notice that little has changed back home. Our president’s attitude towards
arithmetic and public money is starting to rub off on the youth. The lass who
splurged a goodly chunk of the R14million paid to her in error (what?) by the
Student Loan Fund is set for high office. Obviously neither the principles of
loan finance nor ethics form part of her course work.
And the sports story to catch the
eye of this weary traveller is that our national soccer team has to beat the
Cape Verde islanders in an away match tonight to help their hopes of getting to
the next World Cup. Just for the record that country has a population smaller
than a tenth of ours. Bafana had better have some pretty good excuses prepared
if they muck this one up.
James
Greener
Friday 1st
September 2017
