Tag: inequality

A withering takedown of four billionaires (from Andreessen to Zuckerberg) who are selling us fantasies while the world burns. At a time when multiple crises are compounding to create epic inequality, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter.

We are pleased to share our fifth South Africa Economic Outlook report for 2023. This edition focuses on the need for companies to report non-financial data in order to help measure socio-economic progress better than is currently being done by the calculation of gross domestic product (GDP).

Although the world of crypto-related financial services is in turmoil at the moment, its underlying blockchain technology has a vital role to play in the future of banking and other financial services. In the world of finance, we are currently seeing real consensus between the traditional and the Web3 players that the combination of secure private banking, blockchain technology and Bitcoin custodianship is the future and holy grail of banking.

After years of sustained pressure especially from organisations like Sakeliga, the government relented in November last year and promulgated regulations stating that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) no longer have to comply with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), requirements when awarding government contracts.

Billionaires, Boris Johnson, big tech monopolies, raging inequality, Russian oligarchs, cancel culture, superyachts, spaceships to Mars, Twitter wars, a potentially devastating global inflation crisis… These may seem like entirely disparate issues, but they are all connected.

The Unaccountables skilfully profiles the large corporations and private individuals implicated in economic crime and never held to account. This book will anger many, who will be able to put names and faces to those behind some of South Africa’s biggest corruption scandals, from apartheid to state capture.

There is one serious missing link at the centre of today’s capitalism. It is a disequilibrium between increased economic interconnectedness and increased isolation/exclusion. This unique challenge in the 21st century calls for a unique solution: Ubuntu.

South Africa is the second largest and the most technologically developed economy in Africa. However, according to the World Bank, South Africa is also the most unequal country in the world. A full report published by the World Bank states that the country's extreme inequality is due to “inherited circumstances over which an individual has no control”.

As jobs disappear, wages flat-line and inequality grows, this timely book presents a compelling analysis of the need, conditions and possibilities for a universal basic income (UBI) in South Africa and beyond. Highly topical and distinctive in its approach, In the Balance: The Case for a Universal Basic Income in South Africa and Beyond offers a robust and critical examination of a universal basic income.

With the right investments by state finance institutions supported by private investors, SA could achieve more meaningful and scalable impact. In a recent interview I was asked what my view is on economic transformation within the context of empowerment financing or investment in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) transactions and companies.