From FT.com Official data showed the UK economy contracted 1.5 per cent in the last three months of 2008, the biggest quarterly slump in 28 years. The figures confirmed that Britain had entered its first recession since 1991. The figures, a preliminary official estimate of output, showed a contraction in services, manufacturing and construction. But…
A comment came in today on an old article about the dodgy lending scheme Rudie Visagie was proposing. The reader “trymore” provides some details of a new deal apparently being run by Rudie Visagie. As I stated last time this gentleman’s name came up, I have no personal interest or involvement here at all. My…
Mbeki has responded with the ANC’s request to resign by agreeing. No word as to who will become president in the meantime. Plenty of contitutional issues to address, and from some reports it seems that neither Mbeki nor the ANC fully understand them. No plan, no idea for succession, global markets in turmoil with risk…
I struggled to find a decent data-set of past economic indicators off the web. I’m sure there’s an easier way, but I had to trawl the horrible formats of Stats-SA and the Reserve Bank to get the mangled data underlying this graph. Seems like Stats-SA is either deliberately obfuscating their data, or they’re working on…
A day behind the news Talk about the wrong weekend to be struggling with upgrading wordpress. Turns out, we have all that is bad about governments around Africa, the worst bits of South America’s corrupt politicians and distinct flavours of mob-era Russia rotting from the head. I missed this story until this evening. The Sunday…
CNN article on Zim’s currency billion for one consolidation
Zimbabwe’s inflation is accelerating towards Germany’s 1922 record of 204 billion percent. Estimates currently put Zimbabwe’s inflation at between 2.2million and 15million percent. The effect on the exchange rate is proportioate. So what would happen if Zim were to abandon the Zim Dollar and use the South African Rand as legal tender? It is a…
