Tag: Moorfield Storey Institute

The Washington Post recently ran an opinion piece by Colbert I. King about immigrants to America and the remittances they send back to family and friends in their home countries. Mr. King was speaking of immigrants to the United States but this holds some important lessons for South Africa as well.

Milton Friedman is one of my favourite people, but I must say I found his 'A Friedman doctrine - The Social Responsibility of Business Is To Increase It's Profits' a little disappointing. The title is not the problem. It is the points he makes and the logical leaps he takes.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently told the World Economic Forum he intended to break up Eskom’s monopoly over energy. Eskom’s reputation, around the world is one of corruption and mismanagement, so something must be done.

In markets there is inequality of wealth because there is inequality of production. Some people produce more than other people. Not all labour is equally valuable. Structural inequality relies on politics. The state may put roadblocks in front of some people in order to benefit others. This sort of economic inequality relies more on political pull than on productivity.

During a long conversation with a friend while driving from shutting up a house in Italy for the winter and heading back to Germany, he asked what I thought about the economics of Christmas. One thing I always try to do is think of things people much smarter than I have said. To do that, I have to figure out the best way of approaching the topic.

A small group of naïve billionaires in the United States are lining up begging for higher taxes on the super rich. I say naïve because they itemise a whole list of problems they imagine can be solved with this additional tax. The whole thing reminds me of the history of foreign aid in Africa.

Venezuela is proof of the miraculous impact of socialism. They took a prosperous nation and destroyed it almost overnight. That’s a problem for that other socialist paradise - Cuba.

When it comes to land expropriation in South Africa, you can’t help but think, it’s déjà vu all over again. How things went in Zimbabwe, when President Mugabe desperately resorted to a similar policy, is an important warning to consider.

Now, I’m a fan of rhinos. I will admit the one that chased us one day wasn’t on my list of favourites at the time, but she didn’t stop me from going back into the bush later to look for more. I spent a little more than a decade living in Africa and would visit wildlife reserves 3 or 4 times per year at the least. One rhino reserve was about 30 minutes from home, but I often visited the larger reserves in Kwa-Zulu Natal or Mpumalanga. 

There is a humorous saying: 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 'It’s often attributed to Albert Einstein, but he isn’t the one who said it. It isn’t the definition of insanity either—but it does describe a trait we could call crazy. Our species tends to repeat past mistakes hoping our 'good intentions' will be enough to change the results—this time.