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A financial journo’s trying tango with writer’s block

08 September 2023

It is official. After a couple of hours staring at a flashing MS Word cursor, this writer determined that he was suffering from a severe case of writer’s block. Or at least the first half of the Oxford Languages definition of the phrase, which reads: ‘the condition of being unable to think of what to write about, or how to proceed with writing’. In most cases a quick trawl of the online media cures this ailment; but this morning, despite diving in-and-out of myriad websites and even wasting an hour-or-so on the YouTube … nothing!

More BRICS in the wall, with apologies to Pink Floyd

25 August 2023

All matters financial took a back seat this week as South Africa hosted the much-anticipated 2023 BRICS Summit, the 15th annual get-together of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Top of the agenda this year, apparently, was whether or not the five current members of the bloc would allow other countries to join, sending this writer on a nostalgic Spotify.com trawl for one of the few songs he knows to have BRIC in the title. Thank you, Pink Floyd for your 1979 hit tune ‘Another BRIC in the wall’.

Ray of hope as life claims pay-outs fall 31%

17 July 2023

The best way to demonstrate the value of life insurance is where the proverbial ‘rubber hits the road’ at claims pay-out stage. Case in point, Momentum Retail Life Insurance’s 2022 claims statistics confirm that ZAR6.18 billion was pumped back into the domestic economy over the 12-months to 31 December 2022. This represents a 31% decrease from the previous year, showing the diminishing impact of COVID-related death claims on overall claim statistics.

A tailor-made solution for SA: Introducing the ‘stitch in time’ paradigm

02 July 2023

If today’s basic education is remotely comparable to that which this writer was subject to, back in the 1980s, then anyone age eight and up should be familiar with the proverb ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. A proverb, for the learners (sic) trapped in South Africa’s schools circa 2023, is defined on Dictionary.com as “a short popular saying, usually of unknown and ancient origin, that expresses some commonplace truth or useful thought”. PS, apologies for the ‘dig’ at local education standards but we have it on good authority that eight-in-10 South African 10-year-olds cannot read for meaning!

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

View the Results

Green washing and other ESG phrases that do nought for your bottom line

15 June 2023

These are the external risks you need to fret over…

02 May 2023

Dear broker, I pranged my Ferrari

27 March 2023

Baseball & other economic malarkey that mires your client’s financial outcomes

10 March 2023

Hum-budgetary… The four or so guesstimates that leave Budget 2023 exposed

27 February 2023

Would you bet your pension on SA infrastructure?

07 February 2023

Where to for intermediaries in 2023?

17 January 2023

Farm-gate… Busting my opinion streak for some breaking news

02 December 2022

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Talked About Features / Straight Talk