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Standing out for the right reasons

17 April 2018

It is ironic that the president of a communist country is now the leading voice in support of free trade and globalisation, but this is the upside-down world we live in now. In a widely anticipated speech, President Xi Jinping of China promised to further open up the world’s second largest economy to participation by foreign firms and to lower tariffs, including US-produced cars. He warned against a “Cold War mentality” and while there was nothing much new in his speech, it did calm investors’ nerves after weeks of talk of trade wars. So far it is still just talk, and world trade is largely unimpeded. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) last week forecast 4.4% growth in world trade volumes this year, after growth rose to 4.7% in 2017, the best performance in six years. However, the WTO warned that tit-for-tat trade retaliation could dent business confidence and discourage investment.

South Africa, Ramaphoria and the global backdrop

28 March 2018

A new word has entered the South African vocabulary. Ramaphoria. The warm fuzzy feeling that permeates the fabric of the new “New South Africa”. It is really amazing how (effectively) changing one person can make such a difference. The future looks much brighter.

SA dodges ratings bullet but much still needs to be done

27 March 2018

94% of South Africans still on the junk watchlist.

Inflation puzzles

20 March 2018

One of the last public acts of the acclaimed physicist Professor Stephen Hawking – who passed away last week – was to defend the concept of cosmic inflation against sceptics in an open letter. On earth, inflation has been making a muted comeback, but it too has its doubters.

quick poll

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If you had to choose one approach to protect your hard-earned investment cash from today’s market madness, which would it be?

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