Michael Power, a strategist at Investec, has written an interesting piece on what he considers to be the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be (it is not AI). He says that every such Revolution has been linked to a power source – steam, electrical, computer – and so the Revolution would be driven by access to almost free, renewable energy. It is an exciting Friday read, here is the link.
Global news
- Italian politics has been tumultuous this week causing a multitude of knock-on effects.
- Moody’s has put Italy’s credit rating under review amidst the political turmoil.
- George Soros has said that “We may be heading for another major financial crisis,” citing the increase of anti-European Union Sentiment, the disruption of the Iran deal, the soaring dollar, and investors taking money from emerging markets as bad for the global economy.
- Donald Trump has extended his steel and aluminium tariffs to those allies who were given an initial reprieve, namely the EU, Canada, and Mexico.
- Canada has already hit back at the US with tariffs of their own equating to approximately $16.6 billion. Mexico has also vowed to retaliate, and we are sure the EU will too.
Local News
- In a meeting with Desmond Tutu, President Ramaphosa apologised to him for the leadership under Zuma.
- Last week Friday Standard and Poor’s released their review of South Africa’s credit rating which they left unchanged. Here is a link to analysis on why South Africa’s rating is still on junk status.
- Standard and Poor’s did recognise that that South Africa’s economic outlook is improving but noted that government’s debt is still on an upward trajectory. Structural reforms to be introduced to deal with economic and social challenges could have a positive impact, but only in the medium term.
