At a ratio of nearly 27 barrels of oil
for a single troy ounce of gold – a millennial high – prospects for our gold
rich, oil poor nation should be amazing. Instead, however, we are wondering how
to keep the lights on, the national airline solvent, the broadcaster honest and
the citizenry from attacking each other. The most recent spur to the financial
excitement, which includes rising prices of both share and bonds, was the
announcement by the European Central Bank that they are unspooling the fire
hoses and will be spraying money into every corner of the euro zone at a staggering
rate of 60 billion euros a month for at least 18 months. Just 1 week of that
would wash away our fiscal deficit! The majority opinion is that this massive
intervention is a good thing, but the price of gold, especially in euros, has
risen sharply. Does this suggest that some folk feel safer in a hard asset?
Meanwhile over in Zurich, the Swiss
Central Bank chose to give up pretending that it knew what the right price of its
currency should be and turned that job over to the markets,. This brave and
good move was quite unexpected and resulted in several speculators becoming
seriously holed below the water line and sinking without trace in minutes. Let
this be a warning for those who feel tempted to respond to the breezy
invitations to become a currency trader that appear in our media from time to
time.
The Davos extravaganza is becoming rather
annoying. If the advice, opinions and solutions offered there by the allegedly
intelligent and powerful were any good, the condition of the global economy
would improve with each passing year. Instead, it most definitely does not. Taxpayers
and shareholders are of course footing the bill for the politicians and
executives who feel that a snowy background confers gravitas to their waffle. Carefully
timed for this shindig, a well known charitable organisation barely managed to
hold back the tears while announcing that their research has revealed that rich
people own far more stuff than poor people. Just identifying this astonishing
and unsuspected inequality was not enough, however, and it naturally triggered
an avalanche of demands that governments must redistribute wealth and tax every
one and everything into submission.
This proposal of course makes the
completely erroneous assumption that politicians are the best and most
effective people to spend money that other people have earned. It is
interesting to note that really rich people seem to prefer setting up their own
charitable foundations rather than simply pay more tax and trust the
bureaucrats to make sure it reaches the right places. Nevertheless there are
plenty of rich folk ambling around Davos at the moment and every mendicant and
his agent is desperate to get an invitation to attend to make their pitch.
Number 1 is there together with the wife who made the most credible claim for
looking good in skiing kit. Our delegation includes half a dozen cabinet
ministers, at least one of whom has been on TV gravely explaining that the
Eskom team decided to save money and not attend the jamboree! Has it dawned on
someone that there are far more important things to do back home?
At last we are going to be given sight of
the list of the 204 National Key Points which hitherto had been deemed confidential.
We know that the president’s private residence, swimming pool and cattle kraal
is on the list but there are bound to be surprises. Aside from ports, dams and
power stations (if working) there’s probably not all that much else we would
miss if they fell into enemy hands. Hopefully a few breweries and wine cellars
will be listed as indeed should be Ellis Park, the venue for our historic
victory over the All Blacks in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final.
For someone who was at the unforgettable
“438” defeat of Australia at the Wanderers in 2006 it was just a tad sad to see
that record shattered this week. Oh wouldn’t it be great if the Proteas carried
this form through to world cup starting next month? And also starting very soon
is the Super Rugby series. Nearly unthinkable in this present heat though.
James Greener
Friday 23rd January 2015
