National Health Insurance (NHI), the Public Protector, Eskom, ANC infighting, Trump, Trade Wars, the Fed… the list goes on. These are all factors that have been impacting the rand of late and may continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The rand fell by 12% in 24 days from its intra-day low of R13.80/$ on…
With the change to the exemption for foreign-earned income coming into effect on 1 March 2020, many expatriates are being advised to financially emigrate in order to ensure that they are not taxed in South Africa on their world-wide income. Such advice is not necessarily correct and will depend on the factual circumstances applicable to…
Deep divisions within the ANC remain We survived the election and the second wave of turbulence surrounding President Ramaphosa’s Cabinet announcement. Does this mean that there are blue skies ahead? There will be some turbulence and it will now take different forms that a full Parliament and Executive is in place. The Cabinet provides some…
The election circus The election circus has come and gone with the advertising posters on light posts all that remains. There were lots of harlequins, clowns and jesters whose antics were neither funny nor entertaining. This may explain the disturbing 7.4% decline in voter turnout. Citizens were simply not amused. About 9 million eligible voters…
Ivor Sarakinsky has been Dynasty’s primary consulting political analyst for some years now, he teaches at the Wits School of Governance, has a PhD in Political Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, and recently obtained his professorship. He has achieved much in his career — for example he was an expert for the ANC’s…
The old political year ended with spectacles of beach parties in Cape Town while the new calendar year begins with the ANC celebrating its 107 birthday. Both will shape the political landscape in South Africa in the build-up to the election in May and the ability of a new administration to act thereafter.
Growth assets disappointed in the recent past. It is understandable that some investors may want to give up. But only looking backwards may lead you to the wrong conclusions. Recent Outcomes Were Weak Recent experience has planted doubt in the minds of some investors as the risk-return trade-off did not hold. The truth is that…
In my first article in this series about behavioural investment, I looked at some of the cognitive biases and emotional responses that prevent investors from optimising returns from their portfolios over the longer term. I mentioned the cognitive bias of ‘loss aversion’, the human tendency to avoid the possibility of losses today even at the…
The news that South Africa has moved into a technical recession has rattled the rand and the local stock market at an already volatile time. As we survey the market, we find it helpful to look at the circumstances causing the rand to weaken as well as what has happened in other periods of rand…
