At long last the “experiment” being
conducted by central banks of holding interest rates at ridiculously low (negative
even) levels may be coming to an end. Numerous doctoral students now have
floods of material for their theses and the debate about the effectiveness and
success of the policy will rage for years. Those of us who believe that even
the price of money is best resolved in a free market will begin to feel a bit
happier. Savers have had the worst of it and there is scant evidence that
borrowers did very much more than use the opportunity to extinguish debts
incurred a decade ago. Economic recovery has been patchy. A widely held theory
maintains that higher interest rates tend to depress share prices. Present
movements in the markets seem to lend support to that theory. The JSE is rather
wobbly.
It will be surprising if Telkom’s plan to
let a quarter of its workforce go doesn’t cause a great deal of labour unrest. It
will surely not improve telephone line repair response times. Surely all
government departments and state owned enterprises could also fire 25% of their
staff. And do so starting at the top. A pair of photographs published on the
web, show the official line-up of Obama’s and Zuma’s cabinets. The USA squad is
sparse and sleek. But only a wide-angle lens was able to capture all of JZ’s top
team. It’s now dawning on us that the plan to create millions of jobs is
largely about making every government supporter a civil servant. If there’s any
sort of problem there, well no one in power has spotted it yet
The snappy BRICs acronym that was coined
a few years ago for four countries with similar economic potential is no longer
very useful. The rot probably began when South Africa invited itself aboard
and capitalised the fifth letter.
Despite the insistent claims, our mismatch with most of the other
members is massive and the presence and contribution of our delegates to the
meetings is probably regarded by the by the Chinese and Indian behemoths as a
comedy slot by a potential (very) small customer. It remains to be seen just
what benefits, if any, our
nation gains from this club beyond a dodgy deal for nuclear power, medical
treatment for Number 1 and the obligation to help fund a brand new development
bank. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn that the others ran a book on which wife JZ
brings to the junket each time?
At last the mystery of youth has been
solved. There is no limit to being young. The ANC Youth League has scrapped the
35 years upper age limit for membership. After all, 35 was just a number and the
rule was quite probably ageist. Now let’s wait to see if the ANC Woman’s League
removes their sexist membership criteria. However, what is most definitely
racist is the innovative and unusual government program to lend to suitable
black farmers each a
herd of 30 cows in-calf plus a bull. The debt is repayable with a similar sized
herd in 5 years time. Successful ranchers could soon be reaping handsome
profits if the bull is up to it. The
nice part is that the cattle are of the majestic and beautiful Nguni
breed!
Apparently our locational privacy is
under threat. This is the newest and strangest reason being advanced for
opposing the e-toll system. The problem is that the government could use the
e-toll records to monitor our movements. While this is true, cell phones also have that
capability and can do so all over the world, not just on a few roads in
Gauteng.. But given that the government can’t yet send out correct and timeous
invoices for the tolls perhaps we have little to fear from any imminent queries
about our suspicious journeys.
The rugby being played by the baby bokke
is entertaining and gratifyingly successful, unlike most of Sharks’ games this
year. Tomorrow’s match will be so hampered by emotional farewells that the
Stormers have sent their B team reserves to Kings Park to wrap things up. There
will be more tissues than tries you can be sure of that.
James Greener
12th June 2015
