Here we go again!!
Just as the European Union was confronting the ugly reality of Covid-19 infections forcing countries to go into lockdowns and the US still dealing with the Delta variant threatening to take the steam out of the economy going into the holiday season, South Africa...
What Would Milton Friedman Do?
The three most influential economic minds of all time are, and few would dispute - Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and Milton Friedman. In these times of rising inflation, the world needs a little bit more of Friedman. The Nobel Prize winner, best known for the...
Failing companies spin off to create several more failing companies
The most high profile rewiring is General Electric, in decline since 2008, which announced that it is spinning off its businesses into three separate companies - Aviation, Energy and Healthcare. Toshiba, another company that has been struggling for a decade, announced...
Sins of deceit – India sticks it to China as Covid deaths cross 5 million
China recorded 600 cases in the last 15 days as the delta variant has forced the country to impose strict lockdowns. The United States surpassed the sobering milestone of 750,000 COVID-19 deaths despite the widespread availability of vaccines. Worldwide, the pandemic...
Tesla enters the dumping ground – Rental car market
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, took another step in defying conventional wisdom by agreeing to provide Hertz with 100,000 Teslas to be delivered by next year. The news was extremely well received by Wall Street and took Tesla’s market cap past $1 trillion and in the process...
Market is looking for direction – Stay invested or say goodbye
With Q3 earnings season kicking into gear, the three major U.S. stock averages stayed near record highs in the past week. But inflation may be damping investor sentiment. Fund managers turned bearish on growth prospects for the first time since the depths of the...
Dealing with the mother of all traffic jams
Supply chain shortages; Inflation worries; Rising oil prices; Fed tapering concerns; Interest rate hike timeline - these are the topics that have been filling the business news cycle all week. Let's break it down: 1. Supply chain shortages - The root of the...
“Wet Paint” – Don’t touch. But, people do it anyways.
Stocks fell Friday after a weak jobs report added to speculation about the Federal Reserve's plan to taper its bond-buying program. September was the slowest month for job growth this year, with just 194,000 jobs added compared to consensus estimates for a...
Covid – Please go away
The stock market bounced back on Friday after the major indexes suffered their worst month of the year in September amid rising fears of inflation, slowing growth and rising rates - the Dow Jones was down 4.3%, the S&P 500 fell 4.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite was...