The debate around jobs, jobs at any cost, fair wages, fair working conditions, exploitation and what truly is best for the economy is complex. Â Don’t let anyone tell you different. Â If it really were that simple we’d have finished having the same debate while the Feudal System was still active. However, the recognition of the…
You base your estimates of the ERP on US history alone Your ERP estimate is too high because your calculation suffers from survivorship bias and errs by including the largest economy for which the most data is currently available rather than a random sample. The US has been a spectacularly successful economy over the last…
Decreasing interconnect fees was supposed to lower telecoms costs, promote competition and create world peace. It’s done none of these because the logic underlying it was flawed. Analysts focused on interconnect as an expense, happily ignoring the revenue side (since it was a fee paid to another company within the industry). Never has a telecoms…
Insightful, counterintuitive cure, or good-money-after-bad, asset-bubble creating folly? That seems to be the decision when it comes to the low interest rate, money supply expanding, liquidity promoting actions of many central banks. Paul Krugman, amongst others, is seriously considered about the US (and the developed world together) entering into a Japan-style (or worse) liquidity trap…
Shocking unemployment statistics (but what do they mean?) Someone threw a shocking figure at me today. They said that the unemployed under age 35 in South Africa comprise 75% of the unemployed population. I believe the figure comes from Adcorp. Like many statistics that are bandied around for shock value, this one is more fluff…
Brian Richardson, CEO of mobile banking company Wizzit doesn’t understand the monetary policy, or so it seems. He claims there is approximately R12bn of money outside of the formal banking system, or “under mattresses” as I believe he put it. This may be true. Then, and this is where I have a problem, states that…
Sharemax appears to be spiralling to its doom. Multiple stories today report that they are late on dividend payments to investors and may not be able to pay dividends in the forseeable future. Cash has run out. The overvalued, over-geared properties cannot support the income stream that was demanded from them. No surprises here then.…
Lightstone have a trick up their sleeves. Their raison d’être is collecting, analysing, understanding and packaging data for themselves and others to use to understand past, current and future property valuations. Their housing price index is more robust (and more independent) than those of the banks based off their own data and target markets. Rather…
