The ANC and EFF being excluded from a 2024 coalition government would be a great leap forward. Yet this will remain both unlikely and insufficient in the absence of a robust growth plan. Behavioural economists, like Nobel Laureate and best-selling author Daniel Kahneman, spotlight how the ‘status quo’ bias creates resistance to change at the…Continue reading How focusing on solutions provides a fresh perspective

Few societies have ever been able to fund abundant imports through extracting below-ground riches. Such geological free lunches have recently given way to today’s prosperity-inducing free lunches – which South Africa ignores. We should better understand how broad prosperity is achieved in the 21st century, as a majority of our young adults are unemployed, poor…Continue reading Why SA ignores today’s prosperity-inducing free lunch

Over-prioritising redistribution entrenches poverty. This legitimises racial discrimination which stokes sufficient polarisation to cripple accountability. The pandemic has tested many organisations, with most failing to meet expectations. Conversely, a handful of pharmaceutical companies have vastly exceeded expectations. That these companies remain generally underappreciated shows how accountability can be enfeebled by subjectively indulging values. While countless…Continue reading Why SA leads in politics of polarisation

South Africa’s challenges are imminently manageable. The disconnects are complex and they run deep; yet they can be unpacked and dispatched. The disconnects mostly reside amid the intersection of politics and economics. People are busy, their reactions to complex social challenges are rarely analysis based, rather they are based on personal values. People’s values and…Continue reading Convictions versus Disconnects

Business Day October 29 2018. Haphazard policy-making routinely traces to the ANC being overwhelmed by corruption and discredited ideologies. But why can’t any of the nation’s other key actors propose a workable growth model? The persistent methodological error is to see SA within an SA context. Might a protracted US-China trade war provoke the global…Continue reading SA constrained by insufficient purchasing power and its failure to tap global sources

By Fanie Brink    08 OCTOBER 2018 – 05:04 Business Day I am an agricultural economist with more than 40 years’ experience. I am also one of 30 economists who participate in the Netwerk24 Economist of the Year competition to predict the outcome of a couple of economic indicators, and therefore have to keep myself updated on current…Continue reading LETTER: Growth depends on profit

Business Day 12 SEPTEMBER 2018 – 05:08 Policymakers resist growth strategies of top economies and favour redistribution ahead of competitiveness, writes Shawn Hagedorn SA has reached a “truth or consequences” juncture where improving economic outcomes requires the country’s economic dialogue be upgraded to grasp the big picture. Among the concepts central to policy debates that…Continue reading Inverted economy twists SA against itself and fails to grow middle class

Politicsweb.co.za 3 August 2018 Shawn Hagedorn says the two countries are polar opposites regarding policies and trajectories SA produces global stars in many fields while being devoid of what it needs most, and what China and India excel at creating: commercially savvy experts in development economics. China further benefits from remarkable institutional capacities reflecting its…Continue reading What does China really think of SA?

Business Day 17 JULY 2018 – 05:06 We are putting faith in an elected governing party — whose policies are incompatible with how the global economy is reinventing The dangers of SA’s party-boss-friendly structures are amplified by high levels of mineral wealth, poverty, inequality and historical racial discord, says the writer. Can the cause of…Continue reading Dilute power of party bosses to accelerate growth trajectory

Business Day 28 JUNE 2018 – 05:04 Having recently acknowledged that cracking down on corruption and patronage appointments is necessary but insufficient to spur meaningful growth, SA must now unravel how it creates its own limitations. Two pervasive beliefs preclude adequate growth. Policies presume domestic wealth and purchasing power can fuel broad prosperity. Another erroneous…Continue reading Exports rather than redistribution are key to prospects for SA’s growth