whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

Good article showing just how challenging talent management can be. Interesting approach with discussing African complications, as that is often something that is overlooked.

2.
(Comments)

...orward to going over the rest of it. A little confused though, you\'re making the case for FDI going into Africa as their only source of alleviating themselves from their current condition. Thats all ...

3.
(Comments)

...nd reform the state starting from libertarian principles in the informal sector. Given that 40% of South Africans earn their living in this sector (even though it only makes up 6.5% of the economy) i...

4.
(Comments)

...at all shy to draw attention to it, as if somehow it\'s the formal sector\'s fault. Thabo Mbeki, in South Africa, happily speaks about the \"first\" and \"second\" economy, and the need to address the...

5.
(Comments)

Nope, Freedem, doesn\'t wash. The South African government disputes the connection between HIV and AIDS and won\'t distribute medication even though it\'s been donated. The US government doesn\'t li

6.
(Comments)

Your analysis is spot-on, it made the Editor\'s Pick on AfricanLoft. http://www.africanloft.com/whythawk-on-zimbabwe-the-war-of-informal-markets-against-central-states-a-bellwether-of-support/

7.
(Comments)

Ah, so the article got you in exactly the way it was intended. I called South Africa a \"microcosm\" and waved the \"race\" flag around the way many people (like Naomi Klein) do. The issues are not

8.
(Comments)

...enting. However, I detest the \"its so incorrect I won\'t even dignify it with a response\" so: >South Africa has a mature black lead government >Many of the wealthiest people and surely the newly...

9.
(Comments)

.... This article is about Zimbabwe. A few short years ago Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. Did they get poor because of rich Americans or government corruption and failed econo...

10.
(Comments)

...viduals and families; Russia 3) Big-firm - most of the economy exists in a few large corporations; South Africa 4) Entrepreneurial - most of the economy is controlled by small firms; er, no-one actu...

11.
(Comments)

...f you are unable to appreciate that we have two overlapping, and occasionally blurred, economies in South Africa. There is plenty of wealth in the informal economy - which is why it exists. All th...

12. Overcoming the Conservation of Energy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ecome rusted heaps if they aren't maintained correctly. Such neglect is visible throughout the South African economy; most obviously in public schools, public health, and public electricity. Min...

13. The hazard of market dominance
(Analysis/Analysis)

... greater the impact on price inflation. Effective control of the economy is in very few hands. The South African government comprises over 34% of the economy, as well as defining prices through legis...

14. When no-one is held accountable, everyone suffers
(Analysis/Analysis)

...a was the main despatch and purchasing hub for international buyers. Back home, the failure of the South African government to hold the health ministry to account sees millions dieing from AIDS. Ele...

15. Netscape, the Internet and Creative Destruction
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tion rates. By the end of 2007, 71% of Americans were Internet users, 43% of Europeans, but only 4.7% of Africans. In 1998 the US Government passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act and deliberately chose...

16. Electricity Redux - Electricity Quotas Will Work About As Well As Race Quotas
(Analysis/Analysis)

In 1998 the US state of California partially deregulated electricity production and sales. The "partially" bit is where things came ungummed. The private companies that purchased the righ

17. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

... replaced by a family member, a sibling, relative or child. This culture appears to have rubbed into many African leaders who, against the wishes of their "subjects," hold onto power; often ...

18. Funding departments instead of people cheats everyone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d Medi-Clinic, is worth about R 63 billion a year. Yet this large number is only 4.6% of the total South African economy. State spending, as a proportion of total economic income, is 34.2%. If any...

19. Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ket of goods used to calculate it are available. It is against this backdrop that Jacob Zuma – the African National Congress' newly elected president – declares that he finds South Af...

20. Higher food prices mean downgrading that Turkey to a Chicken
(Analysis/Analysis)

...riculture. In the developed world agriculture is now only 2 – 3% of economic production. In South Africa agriculture is a "mere" 4% of total GDP. This shrinking profitability has re...

21. The Speculator: Pricing in the Future
(Analysis/Analysis)

... national revenue given over to agriculture (10%) and industry (35.5%) is strikingly different from South Africa's. Our agriculture is 3.8% and industry is 32%. Both sectors are in rapid decline...

22. Simba the Saviour?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...in the field of economics and business consulting. His work experience has been spread widely across the African continent. In 1980, at the age of 30, he was appointed deputy minister of agriculture....

23. Exports and parliamentary laziness
(Analysis/Analysis)

...w PG Glass float line plant in Springs is their second line, and only the third in the whole continent of Africa. Chairman Ronnie Lubner, speaking at the official launch, was – momentarily &nda...

24. Podcast: China's expansion in Africa offers risk and opportunities
(Podcasts/Emerging Market Risk)

China is rapidly becoming Africa's largest investor.  They require little in the way of good governance and are aggressively creating new infrastructure in their drive to secure resources for

25. Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent
(Analysis/Analysis)

...need to be based in a safe environment that respects property rights. One of the worst excesses of South African state negligence has been regarding HIV / AIDS. Many large firms, from Anglo American...

26. Podcast: The US dollar's decline effects aid and trade in Africa
(Podcasts/Emerging Market Risk)

Aid and trade are essential to Africa's further development.  The US dollar declined by 30% during 2007. This has an effect both on the real value of aid and on the world economy. Download th

27. Searching for objective measures of value
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d – by 1980 – it was $641/ounce. An interesting caveat to this story is its effect on South Africa.  Without this exponential rise in the value of gold Apartheid would never have b...

28. This festive season: the accumulating effects of individual activity
(Analysis/Analysis)

...k and start preparing dinner, bathing, and watching television. In small family groups. Given that South African electricity monopoly, Eskom, hasn't invested in their network for thirty years the...

29. Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills"
(Analysis/Analysis)

Trevor Manuel, South Africa's long-serving Minister of Finance, has had a busy time of it. When he hasn't been demanding reform at the IMF, he has been lecturing the US and Western Europe on

30. Contradictions resolve in ways you don't intend
(Analysis/Analysis)

"Run your small business as if it is a big business," says Erik Parker, South Africa's franchise guru, as one of his points for business success. Or, if you're more of a socialist,

31. Slaves to land, the policies of Land Affairs
(Analysis/Analysis)

...has the capacity to unlock trillions of dollars of "hidden capital". De Soto has visited South Africa on several occasions to present his ideas to government officials. It appears that the...

32. Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom
(Analysis/Analysis)

... a warning to those who take unearned wealth that is not freely given. It is a lesson few governments in Africa have cared to learn. Last week saw Robert Mugabe's thuggish regime claim ownership ...

33. Africa, China and Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa receives more than 20% of the foreign direct investment (FDI) placed in Africa each year. Don't celebrate too quickly. Of the US$ 334 billion in total FDI in 2005 only 9.3%, or US$

34. China, Toys And The Tragedy of Xenophobia
(Analysis/Analysis)

...l ugly nature of the protests against China are seen. Imagine it differently. A few winemakers in South Africa have, on occasion, embellished their product by adding ethylene glycol (antifreeze) int...

35. The spectre of loyalty over ability
(Analysis/Analysis)

There is a spectre stalking South Africa. It is the spectre that rewards loyalty over ability; craven sycophancy over talent and innovation. The result is lost opportunities and a diminished economy

36. Investment cannot happen if the market isn't private
(Analysis/Analysis)

...lures of government strategy on AIDS and Zimbabwe, they may be right. Foreign tourists arriving in South Africa in 2010 will (all going well) see nice new roads and sparkling stadiums overwhelming ne...

37. Black Economic Empowerment, like charity, is not investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

South African businesses have become one of the largest investment blocks in Africa.  Many African countries regularly fret that they are losing their local business ownership to their cousins do

38. Black Diamonds and the trouble with statistics
(Analysis/Analysis)

...to invest.  Without meaningful and reliable information poor investments can be made. In 2001 South Africa was suffering from weak economic growth.  High interest rates (broaching 25%) wer...

39. Black Swans, Cost Overruns and Industrial Tariffs
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa currently has two large Cinderella projects: the Gautrain and the 2010 World Cup. Both projects are astonishingly expensive. When the Gautrain was announced in February 2006 it was to

40. Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality
(Analysis/Analysis)

Benin Mwangi, who blogs about doing business in Africa, asked me recently: "should the discussion be about how to get the informal sector to become part of the formal sector or should it be how t

41. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e. The book was a product of its times. Communism was raging through Europe, South America and Asia and Africa. People's Republics were all the rage and the most productive people became the sla...

42. Department of inJustice: the corruption of high office
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ruption is a result of poor disclosure and weak systems and institutions. The bankruptcy process in South Africa is from the Victorian era and tends to place a terrifying burden on all involved. The m...

43. Zimbabwe: the Hollow State
(Analysis/Analysis)

...lion of Zimbabwe's most educated and productive citizens are in exile and working in the UK and South Africa 4 million people need food aid; the average life-expectancy of Zimbabweans is 37 for...

44. Science gone wrong: when self-delusion leads to death
(Analysis/Analysis)

... are treated like criminals. Consider: life expectancy is longer than ever (in every country except the African continent) but what you can achieve during that lifetime is greater than ever too. Th...

45. Everything is coming up Capitalism
(Analysis/Analysis)

...duals and families; Russia 3) Big-firm - most of the economy exists in a few large corporations; South Africa 4) Entrepreneurial - most of the economy is controlled by small firms; er, no-one a...

46. Zimbabwe: recovering the irrecoverable
(Analysis/Analysis)

...so will only summarise here by saying that massive currency inflows from Zimbabwe's diaspora in South Africa and the UK is ensuring that most have a safety net. The support of other African natio...

47. South Africa's two tiers
(Analysis/Analysis)

In 1994, when we achieved our democracy, we were neck-and-neck with Brazil for the title of the country with the highest measure of inequality. Since then, as the economy has grown, the gap between t

48. People, Planet and Profits: the complexities of corporate governance
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ers and executives who run the show. Globalisation makes things even more complicated. "If a South African firm forms an alliance with a Portuguese firm to build a bridge in Bangladesh and a di...

49. The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support
(Analysis/Analysis)

... this instability. Remittances and Inflation There are 3.5 million Zimbabweans living in exile in South Africa and the UK. They all send money home as often as they can. Modern telecommunication s...

50. After Enron: the Corporate Governance of Corporate Social Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...rial for fraud, as well as kidnapping and assaulting a journalist. Winfrey's representative in South Africa is a co-accused after being caught up in the debacle. Chatting after the briefing Arms...