Reports

Strategy on Iran threatens world peace

The decision by the United States to up-yours the United Nations by implementing unilateral and, in terms of international law, suspect sanctions against Iran over dubious claims about its nuclear programme, is pushing that country deeper and deeper into a no-win corner. In the process, it is not only increasing the risk of conflict in the Middle East, but has made most of the rest of the world a more dangerous and potentially volatile place in which to live.

Full Article

Talk about nationalisation adds to the negative environment

International analysts and investors are increasingly viewing South Africa’s once world-leading mining sector – already suffering from a variety of serious pressures – in negative terms. The latest is a suggestion by Bank of America Merrill Lynch that Anglo American plc should split its international assets from its South African operation and thereby up its value by as much as 17%. Renewed talk about nationalisation is the last thing this sector needs, as the country’s largest employer.

Full Article

Replay of an apartheid nightmare

The reintroduction of the Protection of Information Bill to parliament is to certain older news hounds like a replay of a nightmare of some of the darkest days of apartheid when, under the guise of state security, the government of the day held full control over certain elements of the flow of information via the media to the public. In some instances, relatively junior civil servants could decide what the public would or would not read.

Full Article

Has globalisation outstripped governance structures?

In November 2006, almost a year before the financial crisis that struck in 2007 and the recession that followed in its wake, Bloomberg Business Weekly put forward an idea that sounded radical at the time: A Big Big Idea – probably  too big to even consider right now – would be the creation of global institutions for governing the world economy. History tells us that market economies are prone to financial crises, to which the only solution is a strong central bank. During the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, for example, the Fed played that role.” The idea is increasingly appearing less radical as the world seems to be heading for a completely restructured economic dispensation, along that which is likely to be a messy path.

Full Article