07 JANUARY 2016 – 07:00 SHAWN Hagedorn’s attempt to explain the current discourse in SA politics on a thesis of “value-based politics” Life of the party and the hangover, January 5) is incorrect and mitigates the real crisis that the current ANC leadership has endowed to its citizens for 2016. Mr Hagedorn’s prescription that the ANC-led…Continue reading LETTER: ANC unconstrained by settlement

05 JANUARY 2016 – 08:18 LEO Tolstoy began his novel Anna Karenina with: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” SA’s unhappiness is unique and unsustainable. The country’s cultural identities and historical wounds are being channelled to repackage factional interests as values. This constrains, compromises and undermines co-ordination…Continue reading Life of the party and the hangover

23 SEPTEMBER 2015 – 07:59 Harsh realities dawn for SA’s political economy that has never served interests of populace and prolonged stagnation is set to entrench desperation, writes Shawn Hagedorn ASTUTE policy making is trumping manufacturing prowess as the base ingredient for raising a nation’s prosperity. Political legitimacy and economic performance have become inseparable. This…Continue reading Patronage cannot fire up growth

10 DECEMBER 2015 – 13:04 SA’s geographic isolation and its geological abundance promote the rise of debilitating patronage Across the world for millennia, social stability was achieved because peasants accepted their inferior status and because they had a strong sense of duty to their lords and chiefs. Then the political and economic needs of industrialisation…Continue reading Eventually, the patronage machine runs out of fuel

24 NOVEMBER 2015 – 07:55 Consumption lending is holding back growth, writes Shawn Hagedorn SA’s economy will struggle to average even 1% or 2% annual growth on a per capita basis in the next several years because its three primary sources of growth have been overwhelmed. Growing value-added exports will be more elusive than ever,…Continue reading Not loan sharks but piranhas

19 OCTOBER 2015 – 07:59 Much of sub-Saharan Africa will be endangered by ghost-town economics as the global economy shifts away from coal and other commodities. China must reassess relations with Africa and restructure its engagement modus operandi with sub-Saharan African resource suppliers to benefit all, writes Shawn Hagedorn IT IS tempting to believe that,…Continue reading Commodities rout will hit SA hard

04 SEPTEMBER 2015 – 07:55 SA’s policies stand in opposition to how prosperity is advanced in the 21st century, writes Shawn Hagedorn SOME of today’s most heralded economists insist that the global economy exited the Great Recession mutating towards a “new normal”. Yet, as China’s economy slows and rebalances, it is becoming clear that its…Continue reading New normal economics elude SA