Overwhelming numbers of voters in Europe
have reached the conclusion that they don’t wish to play this Austerity game anymore.
Simply, they want their governments to resume doling out the goodies that
everyone was getting used to. The people have no interest in where the money
will come from. That’s the government’s problem. Support for this view appeared
from Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz who was this week dispensing his wisdom in
front of the cameras here on the southern tip. Reportedly he thinks that the SA
government should help the nation by printing rands and using them to buy
dollars. Just why the state should be able to do something that its citizens
are forbidden to do (print their own money) is for proper economists to explain.
Maybe they too will win a Nobel Prize. The rest of us are doubtful.
It really does look as if recessionary times are returning.
Commodity prices are pretty weak and jobs are getting harder to find –
especially in the US
where they take that sort of thing very seriously in an election year. It is
worth remembering that the superheroes (aka politicians and bureaucrats) leaped
into battle last time with whiz-bang remedies and promised that it would all
get much better and importantly would never happen again. Predictably the result
of people rather than markets allocating resources has caused unanticipated
effects, like bankers getting bonuses when they should have got pink slips.
There is something so promising and serene about the name of the Mapungubwe
Institute for Strategic Reflection. Hitherto this Institute has been sorely
neglected amongst the think tanks of the world but this week it offered a word
or two about the battle for the presidency of the ANC youth league where
Strategic Reflection is definitely lacking. We look forward to more input from
the Limpopo philosophers who bewilderingly are
located in an office park in Woodmead. At the very least one imagined robed
monks sitting around a carefully raked stone field with baobabs.
Well fancy that. Thousands of small businesses are in flagrant
defiance of the new Companies Act by failing to establish a Social and Ethics
Committee. Isn’t that just the most pressing thing to do when you are wondering
if you will be able to meet this month’s payroll because your customers in turn
are ignoring your invoices. Perhaps they are busy setting up their own
committees. In the meantime remember to register for The African Renaissance
Conference which is happening down here in Durbs later this month. This will be
a real blast with several cabinet ministers promised on the speaker’s list.
When does anyone have time to do any work?
The Western Cape
is in the naughty corner for electing the wrong party but really is it
necessary to punish them by sending Massmart to teach the farmers around
Polokwane how to make wine? This too of course is part of a punishment on the
retailer for daring to merge with Walmart before getting permission. It’s
unclear whether or not the fact that Cape Town does not seem to be hosting any
of next year’s African Cup matches is also a slap on the wrist or a deliberate choice
by the mother city. And why does Cricket SA need to spend buckets of money on
legal fees to recover the money that their own officials misallocated (to
themselves)? Why not just report a case of theft and let Mr Plod do his job? Oh
yes, I see now. Sorry.
Any one who took the easy option at school of that non-subject Maths
Literacy is now really battling with the permutations of the points outcome of
Super 15. As I see it the Sharks need to win a lot. The Lions need to consider
another sport.
James Greener
11 May 2012
