Greece is the canary. Europe is the coal mine. One voice calling it yellow and black.
Harsh but true words on Greece, the Euro
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More utterly misguided criticism of medical schemes
I wish this would be the last time I say this (or the first or the second):
“Medical Schemes are non-profit entities are don’t make profits for shareholders.” There are administration companies that charge administration fees that have shareholders and make profits. However, if my medical scheme pays me a greater benefit, they will be removing a benefit from someone else or making everyone pay more in contributions.
It really is a simple idea, but clearly this misguided “GP” doesn’t understand the first thing about the organisation he is criticising. Note that I’m not commenting on a particular medical scheme’s practices, but rather the universal reality of medical schemes.
US Fed trying to counter deflation
The US Fed is trying to counter deflation risks by committing to low interest rates for longer. This is a good idea, but such a pity it’s so late. The real question is whether the Fed has sufficient credibility in this statement to counter the massive credibility they created around controlling inflation “no matter what”.
This is progress.
More teachers. Can’t be a bad thing. Now just to fix the quality and motivation.
Link
More teachers. Can’t be a bad thing. Now just to fix the quality and motivation.
Dangerous information
Land Restitution is an emotional issue.
It’s not really a practical issue since recent history has shown that not all beneficiaries of land restitution ultimately want to work the land. This is also entirely reasonable given the change of our economy from a primary economy to a secondary and tertiary economy over the last 50 years.
So when I read that the SA Institute of Race Relations states that more land could have been returned to black beneficiaries if money was not offered instead, I just wonder what the point is.
If people are accepting cash rather than land, it may well be because they want the cash rather than the land. Given land, I’m not aware that there is a prohibition on selling that land (which would be a poorer form of property right than they originally had so surely can’t be allowed) so we could end up in the same situation.
The danger for me is that the measures of land restitution could so easily, accurately and misleadingly, refer to the amount of land that has been restituted, or the amount of land currently in the hands of black South Africans, when this is clearly not an accurate measure of what progress has been achieved.
Fitch downgrades outlook for South Africa
Aside
Fitch downgrades outlook for South Africa to “negative”. Ferial Haffajee highlights a difference in reasons given by Treasury (blame the international economy) and Fitch (unemployment).
SAM and Basel III deadlines
Meanwhile, it seems the FSB is still committed to a 2014 deadline for SAM. Given the range and size of stumbling blocks still to be traversed, I expect if we do go live in 2014 it will be with some transitional measures.
Telecoms firms entering profitable segment of insurance market
Aside
Telecoms firms entering profitable segment of insurance market. What’s interesting here is that Vodacom have obtained a licence to sell insurance and MTN apparently already has a licence. With all the regulatory change (SAM, TCF, POPI et al) going on in the insurance market it requires view of significant volumes and profits to warrant the complexity and costs of a new licence.