Talked About Features

There’s No “Bad” Time To Retire

A Friday rant about inflation, interest rates and the phishing phenomenon

I received 20 or more emails from South African retail banks this week, but only one was from a bank I conduct business with. Monday through Thursday, one after the other, I received messages about bank account compromises and unauthorised transactions, warning me to take urgent action or lose thousands of rand. One after the other, I condemned these phishing attacks to the deleted items box, and I encourage you to do the same.

This human is already feeling the AI squeeze

AI has been on my mind of late, as, I am sure, it has been on yours. My LinkedIn feed is chock-full of AI-generated images and posts, with individuals, and increasingly machines, spewing more content than anyone could hope to read. And my inbox is a literal minefield of transcripts and lengthy summaries of meetings that I should probably not have attended to begin with.

Investors brace for state-led assault on crypto asset ownership and privacy

If you believe the latest headlines, the South African government is preparing an all-out assault on your crypto assets and financial privacy. The 35-page draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, issued by National Treasury (Treasury) under the Currency and Exchanges Act, 1933, have crypto investors up in arms as digital assets become entangled in South Africa’s legacy exchange-control machinery.