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Why the poor get poorer, and how to change that 2006-02-08 06:00:01 "Dead assets." That's how deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka describes the assets owned by the poor and marginalised of our economy. [Full Story...] Media groups look after their own interests first 2006-02-01 06:00:01 During the brief skirmish with PSG, Naspers's directors made much of the claim that independence "is of great strategic and practical value to media companies, both in the local and international arena". But they failed to explain why. [Full Story...] The priceless value of gift giving 2006-01-25 06:00:01 Christmas has been over for four weeks and by now everyone will have tried to cash in or exchange all those presents that weren't quite right - not your style, not your size or just plain odd. [Full Story...] West founders in tyranny of choice 2006-01-18 06:00:01 It was a cold December afternoon and at 3.30pm it was already dark outside. I nestled a cappuccino in my hands and tried as best I could to avert my eyes from the haunted looks on the faces of so many of the people outside in the cold, dark streets. ... [Full Story...] Corporate SA: a new year, a new leaf? 2006-01-11 06:00:01 There are only 354 days left in 2006 so you should all be rushing to complete your New Year's resolutions. As I spend much of the last six months of each year in a sloth of despair about unattained resolutions I am generally well prepared by January 1 because setting out new, even more ambitious ones is the only way to salve my anguish. I ignore the realisation that there is an even greater likelihood that these will go the way of the previous year's. [Full Story...] The best seat in the financial house 2005-12-07 06:00:01 Yesterday was another one of those ho-hum work days. The sort that makes you feel really lucky to be a financial journalist in South Africa in 2005. [Full Story...] Regulation a necessary step in SA's growth 2005-12-06 06:00:01 Media reports indicate that regulatory compliance cost local business R79 billion last year. Analysts are quick to lambast the government that regulatory compliance cost is too high without looking at the benefits of compliance. [Full Story...] Unions not engaging merging parties 2005-11-30 06:00:01 Section 13A(2) of the Competition Act requires that in an intermediate or large merger, the merging parties must each provide the employees, or their representatives, or the relevant trade union, with notice of the proposed transaction. [Full Story...] Remuneration committees link a flawed process 2005-11-16 06:00:01 As Dave Berry might have said, without wishing to point the finger at any one institution, I'd have to say that without doubt it is all the fault of the remuneration committees. Ban them and we might get relief from the excessively high levels of remuneration that are foisted upon our hapless chief executives. [Full Story...] Sweetheart pay in a sweet spot economy 2005-11-09 06:00:01 "These excellent results highlight the sweet spot in which the South African financial services sector currently finds itself." Did anybody else notice how this remark by chairman GT Ferreira was given so much prominence in the 2005 preliminary annu ... [Full Story...] Fierce rivalries keep powerful oil players in check 2005-11-02 06:00:01 What a relief. At last it was all over: 18 days of exposure to the oil industry. More detail had become available to the public in those 18 days than in the previous 50 years. [Full Story...] Sasol's fantastic system of import-parity pricing 2005-10-26 06:00:01 By now most of you will have heard about import-parity pricing. For those who haven't, it is the process whereby a dominant local producer of an indispensable commodity such as steel sells to the outlet down the road at the same price as it would cost that outlet to buy it and ship it in from some far-flung place. [Full Story...] Staff Wanted signs may mean the start of the turnaround 2005-10-19 06:00:01 It was the most amazing sight. I hadn't seen anything like it for years in this country. I did recall the same sense of confusion and amazement when I'd spotted a similar sight on one of the streets of Dublin back in early 1994. It was almost unbeli ... [Full Story...] With 'champions' like Sasol, who needs enemies? 2005-10-12 06:00:01 Occasionally during the competition tribunal hearing into the proposed merger between Sasol's liquid fuels business and Engen, mention is made of the "national interest" or of "SA Inc", as though Sasol represented this vague concept. [Full Story...] Former bedfellows fall out over proposed marriage 2005-10-05 06:00:01 Oil executives, economists, lawyers and journalists - the room was full of them. I felt a little concerned as I recalled the results of all those surveys on the public's perception of various professions and realised that what was in this room was pretty much the low end of trustworthy humanity. [Full Story...] Hurricanes lay bare whimsical nature of capitalism 2005-09-28 06:00:01 It would be difficult to imagine a more appalling display of the whimsical nature of the global shareholder capitalist economic system than what we have witnessed over the past month. [Full Story...] Surprise! FDI is not a cure-all for Africa 2005-09-21 06:00:01 Ooops, it does rather seem that two decades of obsessing about the need for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa may have been a tad misplaced. [Full Story...] Roll up, roll up, take your chances on that credit card 2005-08-17 06:00:01 The other day I heard what I was sure was an ad for one of the casino groups, urging whoever was listening to take a chance and accept whatever it was that was on offer. [Full Story...] Will shareholder activism perhaps replace the strike? 2005-08-10 06:00:01 What impact do you think this particularly aggressive strike season will have on the members of remuneration committees across the country? As many commentators have noted, this year's strikes are against a backdrop of reasonably attractive wage incr ... [Full Story...] Competition bodies do well to rein in the bully boys 2005-08-03 06:00:01 The thousands of people who did manage to get on to a domestic flight last week will no doubt be feeling particularly relieved that SAA does have competition on the local front. [Full Story...] Is democracy inaction hurting economic growth? 2005-07-27 06:00:01 The government has two major difficulties as it attempts to lift economic performance on to a higher growth path. The first is democracy and the second, related to the first, is time. [Full Story...] Customer care: the great 21st-century oxymoron 2005-07-20 06:00:01 Well, now that Bob and Bono have sorted out poverty, surely the next big issue to tackle is customer call centres. [Full Story...] Offer to Absa minorities is a good exit opportunity 2005-07-04 06:00:01 The offer by Barclays Bank to acquire up to 60 percent of the outstanding shares of JSE-listed Absa Group shines radiant light on the entire question of offers to minorities and schemes of arrangement. [Full Story...] There's no economic logic behind remuneration 2005-06-22 06:00:01 It seems that the market for top retail executives clears at a package of about R100 million. And if you were in the market for a top executive for one of the big banks you'd have to be offering a package of about R60 million. [Full Story...] How much lower do employers want wages to be? 2005-06-15 06:00:01 It is difficult to understand the calls for a dual labour market in the context of the recent report published by the Labour Research Service (LRS). [Full Story...] State must decide whether graft is the price of growth 2005-06-08 06:00:01 How sad and how ironic that just weeks after President Thabo Mbeki urged the country to debate the applicability of the Irish model to the South African situation we should be faced with a high-profile court case in which the issue of the corruption of politicians is placed firmly on centre stage. [Full Story...] Anheuser-Busch's message to US beer drinkers lacks taste 2005-06-01 06:00:01 "Why did Anheuser-Busch just pay $700 million [R4.7 billion] to the Chinese for the Harbin Brewery? Anheuser-Busch invested in China so we could generate more profit to bring back to the US. [Full Story...] Refresher course is needed to grasp why good guys are losing 2005-05-25 06:00:01 Apparently, the only economic law or principle that can usefully cope with the challenge of being applied to reality is the law of diminishing returns. [Full Story...] Corporate greed blocks wealth redistribution 2005-05-18 06:00:01 The need to boost employment prospects and reduce the pervasive levels of poverty and inequality that exist in this country does justify considering all manner of proposals. Even worth considering is the application of something along the lines of I ... [Full Story...] Annual reports tend to get minimalist on disclosure 2005-04-20 06:00:01 At first I wasn't sure which was my favourite part of Nedcor's recently released 2004 annual report. Was it the note on how much Nedcor believes that "stakeholder dialogue" is to be encouraged? Or perhaps the impossibly dense reference to performanc ... [Full Story...] |
