After the
dreadfully violent wars and conflicts that dominate the Middle East regions,
perhaps the next most significant events to watch are the US presidential
elections and the Eurozone financial fandangles. Neither makes any sense to
anyone expecting reasonable, logical and civilised behaviour from erstwhile role
models for such things. Words and concepts like faith and science and honour and
debt and promise and trust are being misused and devalued to the point where
they convey no meaning. Similarly in one recent but small incident in our
industry a big cheese has resigned from a well known investment bank with an
open letter that spills the beans on the way things sometimes work in some of
those businesses. Sadly I can confirm that he is not making that stuff up. Greed
scores way above integrity with just enough people for the rest of us in or
around this industry to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when we admit what we
do.
The bull
can also see nothing to be scared of (that is the nature of bulls of course) and
the All Share Index attained another new high this week, propelled there by
rises in most of the top big caps. Main attention grabber, however, is the sharp
up-tick in US long bond interest rates, followed
somewhat by our own. No credible explanation for this behaviour has yet been
offered but it is worth watching.
I am not
the only commentator to be amazed by Eskom’s very relaxed acceptance of their
requested 26% price rise being pared back to 16%. The CEO even remarked that
this would not derail any projects or affect its financial sustainability. What?
Really? My disappointment is that the regulator (who must find it hard to feel
businesslike and dignified with a name like NERSA) did not look after us
consumers and shoot back with a second offer of 0%. The trade might have
settled at 8% or thereabouts.
The KZN
provincial government have kindly provided me with a full-colour glossy pamphlet
detailing their plans for spending R83.6bn in the new fiscal year. Only R2.3bn
of this sum is collected by the province itself with all the rest being
distributed from National Treasury. This does, however, mean that the
surprisingly modest R59million earmarked for the expenses of The Royal Household
places no burden on the rest of the country. We pay for our own royalty down
here. In the scheme of things this is not a great deal of money but perhaps we
should expect a bit more work from them. As long as it makes no further impact
on the leopard population it would be nice if our King and his family could be
persuaded to appear in traditional regalia for photo ops and other suitably
harmless activities like opening stuff and waving at commoners. Travel in open
horse drawn carriages would be quaint but perhaps even more disruptive to
traffic than blue-light flashing car convoys.
The
general secretary of an outfit that operates under the name “The Black Business
Council” is very offended that it has been accused of being racist. Many of us
who believe we understand language but obviously don’t understand politics are
puzzled why this and several other similarly-styled organisations, with
membership apparently determined by physical characteristics, are deemed
appropriate, legal or indeed necessary. The fact that the accuser is someone
who would himself be eligible for membership of that very council provides an
irony that we South Africans delight in and love to pour scorn and ridicule
upon.
To divert
attention from the fact that here in the southern hemisphere we are almost
half-way down the slope towards midwinter, comes the start of the Grand Prix
season. These early ones start too soon in the day to provide background noise
for the post Sunday-braai snooze. Nevertheless it will be fun to see the new
cars and what rule changes have been dreamed up to quell the excitement. Banning
the mid-race refuelling stops was disappointing for those of us who enjoyed fuel
nozzle uncertainties and the occasional pit-side conflagration. Rugby will not be mentioned this week. The Lions have a
bye.
James Greener
16th March 2012
