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All About Money Part IV: The Demand for Money, Money in Circulation
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Author Archives: Mikey
Prisoners Dilemma: A Powerful Application of Game Theory
International Currency Markets: Part II – Foreign Exchange Risk & Hedging
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International Currency Markets: Part I – Implications for Nations
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Cost of Capital Part III: Cost of Debt, Weighted Average Cost of Capital
All About Money Part III: Central Bank Digital Currency
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CJ Mogoeng and his foot-in-mouth
It can’t be argued that we didn’t know what we were getting when President Zuma decided to appoint Mogoeng as the CJ of South Africa. Mogoeng was apparently already well-known among the judiciary for his strong religious beliefs, and he certainly didn’t hide his position during his public interview.
I have, in fact, been a supporter of the CJ since he was appointed. He is, however, off the mark on Israel, and his pronouncements on the COVID vaccine were bizarre, to say the list.
While I have no quarrel with his strong religious beliefs, after all, as he himself asserts, this is guaranteed in the best constitution in the world, I have a problem with his naïveté. On the one hand, he allows himself to be used by the Israeli lobby, while on the other he espouses cultish beliefs. This wouldn’t matter much from an ordinary person or a minor leader, but to be coming from the CJ of the country, especially while acting in his official capacity, is problematic.
Although he has opted to challenge the sanction of the JCC on his Israel pronouncements, he would do himself a great deal of good if he simply apologised and moved on.
Mthokozisi Ntumba: Stop arming police during peaceful civil protests!
Numerous times police actions during civil protests have resulted in deaths or serious injuries on the part of protesting citizens and bystanders. Surely, enough is enough?!
A number of points need to be made in addressing this issue.
First, our police are clearly sadly untransformed, despite having Black leadership. Black leadership seemingly will never guarantee transformation, as long as the police tactics, methodologies and tools are the same as they were under Apartheid.
Second, clearly our police don’t have a clue about dealing with peaceful civil demonstrations. Under Apartheid, the then government and their police force didn’t care for Black demonstrators, because for them they were the ‘enemy’ (as wrong as that thinking was). Using armed force, therefore, seemed ‘justified’, and in any case they didn’t care about the loss of Black lives or well-being. Human rights were non-existent.
In a democracy, however, that dichotomy doesn’t and shouldn’t exist. Moreover, the role of the police is not just to protect property, but more importantly to protect the lives and well-being of citizens, both the protesters and non-protesters. Participating in a protest doesn’t suddenly remove or reduce one’s constitutional rights; in fact, the very act of peaceful protest is protected by the constitution.
However, coming armed to a protest clearly belies this. It appears that our police view Black demonstrators in similar fashion as happened under Apartheid, as the ‘enemy’. It appears the default position of the police is always to come to a protest to ‘kick-ass’.
It is high time for the government and parliament to take drastic steps to create a new policing paradigm fit for a human rights culture. This includes retraining the police command, but also more critically, ensuring that police deployed to a civil protest are never ever armed, not even with rubber bullets.
State-of-the-Field Conference on Cyber Risk to Financial Stability -Liberty Street Economics
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York partnered with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) for the second annual State-of-the-Field Conference on Cyber Risk to Financial Stability on December 14-15, 2020. Hosted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference took place amidst the unfolding news of a cyberattack against a major cybersecurity vendor and software vendor, underscoring vulnerabilities from cyber risk.
— Read on libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2021/02/state-of-the-field-conference-on-cyber-risk-to-financial-stability.html
Collaborators
At different times in history, and under different circumstances, the word “collaborator” has connoted something negative. To be dubbed a collaborator meant you were a bad person, you had sold out your “people”, your comrades.
Those Black people and leaders who collaborated with the Apartheid regime in South Africa, who chose to “work within the system” were reviled because they were used as an instrument of oppression, they were used to spread the lie that there was Black self-government, they were used to institutionalise the homeland or Bantustan system.
In Europe, collaborators worked with the Nazi occupiers to oppress and repress their citizens. They helped to out members of the resistance, and to point out those who were hiding Jews. There are countless other similar instances throughout history and in different parts of the world.
In science, in tech, in business, however, collaboration is a good thing. To be a collaborator shows maturity and intelligence, especially emotional intelligence. Numerous inventions, numerous endeavours, would not have been possible, or they would have been difficult, to achieve without collaboration. Frequently many projects are only possible through collaboration. The race to build the atomic bomb in America was a collaboration of a number of eminent scientists. The International Space Station was and is a collaboration of a number of nations, including political, military and security rivals (or enemies?) Russia and the United States. In fact, for many years until late 2020, the US didn’t even have the capability to send astronauts to the ISS and had to rely on the collaboration and cooperation of Russia. The United Nations system, the World Bank and the IMF, etc., all are a result of cooperation and collaboration. The latest example are the several COVID-19 vaccine initiatives, both on the side of Big Pharma and researchers, and on the side of nations.
Developing a healthy regard towards collaboration is key to success and progress. While competition is also good, after all it too does drive success, it is foolhardy to disdain collaboration. We require more, not less, collaboration. We need to grow more collaborators. In science, in tech, in business, to be dubbed a collaborator is a badge of honour.
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