Category: News
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Brian Judge on BizNews: The AI threat to financial stability
The US Federal Reserve’s new task force on AI is examining jobs and inflation, but glaringly ignores financial stability, writes Brian Judge of UC Berkeley. AI data-centre debt is set to overtake mortgage debt by 2030, with hyperscalers needing trillions in revenue just to break even. For South African investors watching Wall Street’s AI-fuelled rally…
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The Economist: Elon Musk’s vision of the future
Elon Musk, briefly the world’s first trillionaire, has told The Economist that AI could soon surpass combined human intelligence, potentially rendering work “optional” within a decade. In a rare 90-minute interview, the Tesla and SpaceX boss called for governments to issue “universal high income” as machines take over jobs, while admitting he is unsure whether…
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BN Daybreak: Ramaphosa interdict bid; Fed holds rates; Fauci’s Fifth Amendment; Zambian kwacha
Listen here In today’s episode, the Fed leaves interest rates unchanged amid a fractured vote and market sell-offs. Locally, four parties are challenging President Ramaphosa’s impeachment interdict, while Treasury controversially releases funds to 69 failing municipalities. We also cover Dr. Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment regarding the Covid-19 response, Zambia’s kwacha surging against the rand,…
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A rare opportunity that may never come again: Historic St George’s Park Campus heads to auction on 27 August 2026
For more than a century, the landmark campus at 8 Park Drive, St George’s Park has been woven into the educational and architectural fabric of Gqeberha. Now, for what may be one of the last opportunities of its kind, this exceptional property is being offered to the market. Occupying an expansive 30,189 m² site in…
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Murder, mayhem, treachery, and court battles = SA politics: Solly Moeng
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Political Commentator Solly Moeng, talks about four political parties joining in a Constitutional Court bid to try and overturn President Cyril Ramaposa’s impeachment committee interdict; a murder investigation into the death of General Sindile Mfazi, who was investigating an unauthorised undercover operation to cover up wrongdoings…
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BizNews Edge: Treasury pays 69 errant municipalities anyway, SARB rate hold is punishing the Rand
Treasury switched off the taps to 69 municipalities for doing nothing about corruption and mismanagement. Today it switched them back on anyway, days before its own deadline. Alec Hogg asks the obvious question nobody in government wants to answer. Plus: why last week’s Reserve Bank rate hold is already punishing the rand, a foundation funded…
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The other side of our Reinet bet – Piet Viljoen says “avoid”
In yesterday’s portfolio update, I swapped the Ricardo ZAR holding in SABVest for Reinet. Nothing wrong with the SABVest performance – Chris Seabrooke’s operation continues to deliver. But Mr Market has radically rerated the stock. We have done well with SABVest over the years, but it now trades within 7% of its stated net asset…
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Cape Town’s wealth boom draws a new private members’ club to the V&A Waterfront
Kasada Capital Management, backed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and Accor, is opening Maison Grace, a private members’ club at the Cape Grace hotel on the V&A Waterfront, next month. It’s the latest marker of Cape Town’s rising wealth and status, with Henley & Partners tipping it to overtake Johannesburg as Africa’s richest city by…
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China, not America, is the country African youth now admire most
The latest release of a biennial survey of nearly 5,000 young Africans has produced an uncomfortable number for Washington: 95% now view China’s influence on the continent positively, against 85% for the United States, with the UK, Germany, the EU and India all ranking higher than the Yanks. The finding comes from the Ichikowitz Family…
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Rate hold, Rand fall: The SARB’s costly miscalculation
This article was first published by The Common Sense When the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee held interest rates at 7.00% last week, defying near-universal expectations of a hike, the rand punished the decision within hours, shedding almost 3% of its value. The Common Sense Editorial Board, led by Dr Frans Cronjé, argues below that the…
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ASML’s China problem couldn’t have come at a worse time: Lionel Laurent
Bloomberg’s Lionel Laurent argues that reports of a Chinese firm nearing production of rival chipmaking machines have rattled ASML investors at the worst possible time, given the Dutch company’s AI-driven sales boom. While analysts still see China 7-10 years behind ASML’s technology, the bigger worry is that US-led export controls meant to contain Beijing have…
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Paul Hoffman: Scrap IDAC now – it’s unconstitutional by design
By Paul Hoffman* The good reason for closing down IDAC is not the resignation of its leader and her underwhelming showing at the Madlanga Commission. It is that IDAC is not a constitutionally compliant body and has none of the qualities required of it by the rulings of the Constitutional Court. Our anti-corruption machinery of…
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FT: If you think your profession is dying, it could soon be gone
The Financial Times’s Sarah O’Connor argues that fear of automation can become self-fulfilling: workers abandon a trade before machines actually arrive, creating shortages that then justify the very automation they feared. Her evidence stretches from horse-drawn “teamsters” a century ago to today’s truck drivers deterred by driverless vehicle trials, despite autonomous trucking remaining marginal. The…
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BN Daybreak: SA gun stats; Phala Phala; Fed rate debate; Oil scenarios; Nvidia on AI
Listen here In today’s BizNews Daybreak, SK Hynix posts profit gains while Nvidia’s CEO defends open-weight AI amid safety warnings and new hacking reports. Ford raises its outlook and Visa cuts 2,600 jobs. In South Africa, SAPS data reveals over 99% of gun murders involve unlicensed firearms, while the Phala Phala impeachment battle reaches the…
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Don’t sleep on medical aid in your 20s
By Dr Themba Hadebe Your 20s are a crash course in adulthood. Between your first job, submitting your first tax return, learning how to budget and figuring out what belongs in a washing machine, there’s no shortage of new responsibilities competing for your attention. Yet one responsibility that often gets overlooked is healthcare cover. For…
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BizNews monthly webinar: Strategic rebalancing in unpredictable markets
In this month’s Ricardo portfolio update, we unpack strategic shifts driven by changing margins of safety, market volatility, and historical investment cycles. On the global front, the team is pivoting away from high-spending tech giants heavily exposed to the AI infrastructure boom, shifting focus instead to the “picks and shovels” – the essential utility providers…
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Ian Cameron: 41,000 killed with illegal guns and the factional battle for control of SAPS
Listen here In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, talks about the revelation that – in the last four financial years – over 41,000 murders were committed with unlicensed firearms, but fewer than 400 murders with licensed firearms whilst the government is pushing for stricter…
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The Economist: How AI has helped turn the US into an entrepreneur’s paradise
US business applications have nearly doubled since 2019, and this piece credits AI with much of the surge, letting solo founders build websites, handle admin and launch ventures once out of reach for anyone without capital or a team. Full-time self-employment has hit a century high, though the share of “high-propensity” startups likely to hire…
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BizNews Edge: Cyril’s impeachment battle heads to ConCourt, billions wiped off AI chip stocks
Two judges signed the same court order and can’t agree on what it actually stops. Now Ramaphosa’s impeachment fight is headed to the Constitutional Court, with the ANC’s own GNU partner pushing Parliament to keep working in the background regardless. Meanwhile South Africa’s bookmakers want prediction markets like Polymarket treated as illegal, three JSE-listed companies…
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Cape Town’s governance lead, quantified: $12bn ahead of Joburg
Equal-sized commercial property markets, wildly different fortunes: office space in Cape Town now costs roughly double Johannesburg’s, and a new Gmaven study pins the difference squarely on governance rather than economics. Johannesburg’s strained finances, poor service delivery and corruption scandals are pushing capital, jobs and skilled workers toward the coast, while Cape Town’s construction boom,…