News
Back to homepage
Business in Times of Corona: A Gathering Storm Darkens the Prospects of Africa
Even before the corona virus made its presence known, market analysts had no need for prescient powers to predict trouble ahead for South Africa. Already in February, consumer and business confidence had approached a 30-year low as the country’s anaemic
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: The Dangerous Fruit of the Magic Money Tree
In one of life’s little ironies, it was not the senator from Vermont but the billionaire businessman from New York who brought social democracy to the United States. The massive federal aid package now working its way through Congress is
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: Pandemic Puts Eurobonds Back on the Table
The leaders of nine Eurozone countries on Wednesday refloated the previously discarded idea of issuing Eurobonds, a collective debt instrument backed by the combined securities of participating countries, as a way of pooling risk and mitigating the economic impact of
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: Wise Words from Omaha
The life lesson imparted by the Oracle of Omaha does not require much deciphering: Cash is King. Long criticised for hoarding large amounts of readily deployable cash, the third largest publicly listed company in the world, Berkshire Hathaway, stands to
Read More
Evan Harvey, Nasdaq: Medium Is the Message – ESG Delivery and Market Distrust
Despite cultural assumptions surrounding content and interpretation, we tend to believe that the way we communicate is meaningful. “In operational and practical fact, the medium is the message” — this sturdy pronouncement from Canadian philosopher and social theorist Marshall McLuhan
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: Time to Make America Great Again
The corona pandemic rapidly engulfing the world has led to a sudden reversal in the plight of the nation state as a concept. Rescued from well-deserved oblivion, even smaller countries that have traditionally embraced multilateralism as the only viable way
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: World Bank and IMF Ready to Assist Low- and Middle-Income Countries
As concerns grow over the impact of the pandemic on less resilient economies, multilaterals such as the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are readying and deploying emergency response packages. Earlier this week, Kenya received a
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: Trillions mobilised to Prop Up Economies
There seems to be no upper limit to the volume of funds that governments can deploy to keep the fires burning. As the US administration mulls a whopping $1.2 trillion stimulus package, the European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday surprised
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: The Human Factor
War, pestilence, and other major calamities that threaten to rip apart the fabric of society, usually bring out the best in people. However, if there is one factor that strategists and planners consistently overlook as they prepare for the worst,
Read More
Business in Times of Corona: Steering Economies by Dead Reckoning
Ridiculed and even vilified last week for refusing to drive interest rates deeper into negative territory, President Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank proved ahead of the curve as she urged – up to four times in about thirty
Read More