Respective election manifestos
CAMPAIGN PROMISES, and a dose of reality As my regular readers know, most of my essays are forays into challenging economic issues. They reflect my own attempts to gain an understanding of their...
View ArticleThe UK general election 12/12/19
TODAY’S ELECTION – WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT Emile Woolf The looming election appears patently divisive. But it isn’t the election itself that’s doing it. The division arises from the starkness of...
View ArticlePOST-ELECTION SCENE – WITH REFERENCE TO ECONOMICS
WHERE WE ARE NOW – A FESTIVE SUMMARY Emile Woolf – December 2019 There were dire warnings….. Over and over, we heard it. We heard it from the great and good, all authoritative sources with impeccable...
View ArticleSELECTIVE RECOLLECTION AND ECONOMIC REALITY
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 72 Those still shedding tears over our departure from the EU invariably refer to the success of the EU in healing post-WW2 wounds and keeping peace in Europe for 75 years. By...
View ArticleAllocating taxpayers’ money where it will do most good
Getting the principle right If government has a duty to protect the lives, property and civil liberties of its subjects, ours is currently guilty of failing to display any meaningful police presence...
View Article“SAVINGS: more important than the unstable money that measures it”
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 75 PARTS 1 & 2 PART 1 – “SAVINGS: more important than the unstable money that measures it” I am typing this in the SAA Business Lounge of Durban airport, awaiting a call to...
View ArticleLost production cannot be retrieved
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 76 Can lost production ever be recovered? EMILE WOOLF – APRIL 2020 It’s easy to blame Covid-19 virus for the nation’s woes and, up to a point, that’s understandable. People who...
View ArticleSo we think we are the experts?
Well, are we? In the course of more than four weeks of self/family isolation we have all encountered mountains of speculation on the sources of Covid-19; how it spreads; estimates of its final tally...
View ArticleTHE VIRUS CIRCUS – AN OBJECT LESSON ON SOCIALIST ECONOMICS
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 78 and GOING POSTAL It’s not quite like having to start the economy from scratch, but this lockdown-induced recession warrants some detached assessment. We are aware that viable...
View ArticleBALANCING DISEASE AND CURE – AND IT’S NOT JUST THE VIRUS
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 80 [GOING POSTAL – 1st June 2020] EMILE WOOLF In his latest book (“The Body – a Guide for Occupants”) Bill Bryson highlights the limitations on what money can buy. He points...
View ArticleREFORM & REAL REFORM
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 84 [July 2020] Those of us struggling to get a grip on Chancellor Sunak’s latest relief-measures should note the terminology. He seeks to revive the Covid-stricken economy...
View ArticleBasic Principles: more than meets the eye
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 86 Every primer on economics cites the familiar factors of production, land, labour and capital, as prerequisites for productive activity. Sometimes entrepreneurship is added to...
View ArticleINTERNATIONAL TRADE: THE CURRENCY EFFECT (1 September 2020)
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 87 SEPTEMBER 2020 The tenacity with which certain economic fallacies persist is truly remarkable. Take the notion that the euro currency is too strong for certain countries,...
View ArticleEconomic Perspectives 89 – the Covid Catalog [of cock-ups]
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 89 Economic consequences – always ask: Who benefits? Things don’t just “happen”. Everything in the passing parade of phenomena is the result of something that preceded it:...
View ArticleWhere we are – and where we might have been
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 88 – OCTOBER 2020 More than six months have elapsed since the devastating lockdown measures were first imposed on the nation, since when we have been shrouded in a fog of...
View ArticleHOW THE CRISIS UNFOLDS
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 91 – 14 NOVEMBER 2020 EMILE WOOLF Economically speaking, we are in a pickle. The blame-game is in full flow in its search for scapegoats. The most obvious culprit is, of course,...
View ArticleSOME UNSEASONAL REFLECTIONS ON MONEY
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 92 – DECEMBER 2020 SOME UNSEASONAL REFLECTIONS ON MONEY Several comments and questions on my last essay deserve a thoughtful response, which is the theme of today’s essay. You may...
View ArticleLayman’s guide to the coming currency collapse – January 2021
THE ECONOMIC CHASM CONFRONTING US – A LAYMAN’S ASSESSMENT The huge economic harm caused by Covid-19 is seen and experienced clearly and directly on a daily basis. Less obvious is the damage wrought in...
View ArticlePost-Covid Conjectures
Economic Perspectives – 94 POST-COVID CONJECTURES – FEBRUARY 2021 EMILE WOOLF While speculation is rife about what the post-Covid economy will look like, we must remember that economic fundamentals...
View ArticleUnderstanding Trade Imbalances
Economic Perspectives – No. 95 [21-2-21] – see also EP 14 “Back to Basics” – International Trade TRADE SURPLUSES AND DEFICITS Any country’s trade balance is the difference between the totals of its...
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