Tag: inflation

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.

Can switching to renewable energy solve climate change? More than 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are now covered under targets set by countries and corporations, after COP26 last year, and more than 700 of the world’s largest corporations have set Net Zero targets.

We often hear that South Africans are not saving and investing enough. A report from Genesis Analytics in partnership with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) showed that 90% of South African retirees can’t sustain their standard of living prior to retirement, and two-thirds of members have less than R50,000 in their retirement fund.

Saving money is all about sticking to very strict budgets, sweating while crunching numbers, and skipping out on fun to get serious about your finances, right? Well, according to South Africans it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Savings goals don’t have to equate to life becoming all work and no play. 

Inflation around the world is a hot topic as many countries struggle with increases in inflation on consumer goods. This has put a spotlight onto the 'cost of living' topic and how it affects inflation in the media industry.

Interest rates have gone up several times in the last few months in South Africa, and it looks like they will keep rising for the foreseeable future. So, this begs the question: what are interest rates, why are they rising, and how do they affect you?

Significant uncertainty, marked by rampant inflation, fears of a looming recession and growing geopolitical risk, clouds the near-term global outlook. The knee-jerk reaction is to retreat to safe assets and preserve capital until the storm has blown over.

Central banks around the world are hiking interest rates to battle rising inflation. Recessions are now expected in the US, UK and Europe in the next year. Interest rates around the world are rising at an alarming pace, as central banks admit that inflation is becoming more ingrained, rather than just a series of transient shocks.

As countries realise that inflation is linked to the shortfalls of globalisation, the world may see more 'slowbalisation' and 'sticky inflation'. Slowbalisation occurs when countries start diversifying their supply from single to multiple trading partners, and local manufacturers.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), historically finding its expression in the Currency and Banking Act of 1920, is today premised on section 224(1) of the Constitution. Has the Reserve Bank been acting constitutionally since its legal foundation changed? Has it been protecting the value of the Rand in the interest of balanced and sustainable economic growth as required? How would the Reserve Bank meet its constitutional objective?