At first glance, the -3.59% total return (including dividends) for
May was not as bad as the September 2011 figure of -3.61%. However since the 1st
of April the tax man has been grabbing 15% of our dividend income and so actual
returns for most of us will be lower than suggested by the indices. Actually it
was a rather dreadful month, with very few of the very many indices that are
now calculated to baffle and entertain us, able to add much during that
unusually long month.
The real tragedies lie in the mining sector where now the platinum
sector has followed gold mining into the abyss. To what extent this destruction
of value is directly due to government interference will be argued for years.
Was there too much – and see what has happened – or maybe there was too little
– also see what has happened. Official involvement was either lethal or
useless. There are no mining skills in government. That much has been proven.
It is wonderful news that SA is going to host a large chunk of the
world’s next giant science project. The Square Kilometre Array is indeed a huge
piece of kit – well lots of pretty large pieces actually – and in common with
all big science these days will generate torrents of terabytes of data.
Handling this will require somewhat more connectivity and bandwidth than that
available from an off-peak dial-up line through the Calvinia telephone
exchange. Together with the giant optical telescope at Sutherland also spewing
out digital data at a mighty rate these projects should have been seized upon
by the near-monopoly Telkom as a business opportunity to lift their revenue and
profile. Instead the sorry story continues with the news that Telkom will be
replaced in an international index by Mr Price, the clothing store and Sharks
sponsor which now has a superior market capitalisation. Mind you the utility is
subjected to exceptional helpings of useless interference from even the
cabinet. Today they were told to send their new best friends from Korea straight
back home. Bafflingly it seems we need neither their money nor their skill.
Basel 3 is not a remake of a TV sitcom with Mr Cleese as the embarrassing
guest house owner. It’s even funnier. It’s the name given to the current
edition of a set of guidelines about risk levels and solvency ratios and other
good banking stuff that bankers think up for themselves mainly in an effort to impress
politicians and divert them from trying to perform the same but undoubtedly far
more damaging stunt. The problem with Basel,
however, is that bankers and taxi drivers are very similar. Just as in the
e-tolling saga where some classes of driver think that someone else ought to
pay for the roads they use, there are bankers who would like others to pay for
the risks they take. What seems prudent in one place is claimed to be ruinous
in another. For mere mortals it is a mystery but predicting higher banking
charges will result is a sure winner.
The “little fella” Grant Henry’s advice to Argentina on how to beat
the big three when they join the expanded Tri-nations competition later this
year is simply to score more tries. That’s real wisdom and has, I hope, been
noted by the Lions ahead of the Sharks fixture at Ellis Park tomorrow. In the
meantime one has to sympathise with Lion’s coach John Mitchell’s plea to be
told the truth about next year’s SA teams line-up for the Super 15. So far all
we are getting is SARU mathematical gobbledegook about how five is divisible by
six with no remainder. And shouldn’t it be The Four Nations competition anyway
if the Pumas are coming along?
James Greener
1st June 2012
