As the globe continues to grapple with Covid-19 and its societal and economic impacts, it is noteworthy how some positive themes are emerging: Increased pressure is being brought to bear on president (Trump), and past president (Zuma), to hold each of them accountable for ‘unusual’ payments to avoid tax and to prove guilt on corruption…
South Africa has one of the highest measures of income and wealth inequality in the world. But we are not alone. The benefits of economic growth in many major developed economies are increasingly not being shared evenly. Governments can play a key role in making economic growth more inclusive through various actions: Rethinking policy goals…
While 2020 has been a year unlike any other and we certainly hope that we are through the worst of it – the infection rates, the lockdowns, the economic impact, the fear and the uncertainty – perhaps we need to realise that this is potentially the new normal and not just an isolated bump in the road.…
This week’s theme focuses on success and regress over the past week within corporate and country specific contexts. Ironically, we feature the Tesla share price as a loser, although we continue to support the profound innovation and global disruption emanating from the company itself. Conversely, traditional homegrown South African grocer Shoprite, delivered a most impressive…
This week’s global news focuses on a somewhat positive aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic – the acceleration in adapting and developing technologies that can minimise the impact on the environment: France is allocating a significant portion of newly available funds to green technology; Amazon is making progress in overcoming legislative hurdles to enable it to…
Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Tesla are notable beneficiaries of the accelerating trend towards a digitalized economy. This week it was announced that the world’s richest man is now also the world’s first $200 billionaire. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos broke the wealth barrier on Wednesday as the shares of his company continued to surge on skyrocketing demand for online…
As at the time of writing, the S&P 500 is headed to its fourth-straight weekly advance, with technology companies amongst the leaders in the benchmark’s gains. It is common knowledge that major technology companies have been a beneficiary of the acceleration to digitalisation caused by business and consumer responses to Covid-19. But on Wednesday, Apple…
Since the lows on 23 March 2020, the S&P500 has bounced by just over 50%. This has largely been driven by technology heavyweights, such as Apple (up 102%), Amazon (up 65%) and Tesla, which is likely to soon be added to the S&P500, (up 280%!). Together the top technology companies comprise about 22% of this…
Since the heavy crash and subsequent rally in global equity markets in the first half of this year, many investment market participants have been asking about the extent and timing of the recovery from the rapid and devastating impact of the fight against the spread of the Covid-19 virus. These questions are often based on…
