Classic Business

Classic Business

By Easy ClassicalBusinessInvesting
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Classic Business episodes

  • Risks to investors in the current environment.
    As we look back on the first quarter the dominant theme has undoubtedly been the rise of inflation as the number 1 concern for money managers surpassing concerns about the pandemic for the first time in over a year.
    Volatility has also dissipated and equity markets around the world are printing fresh highs.
    Despite the recent correction in the markets, leading to a hedge fund imploding, investors remain exuberant. The hopes for more stimulus, government spending, and Fed liquidity displace fears of a correction.
    Jason Zweig, Columnist for The Wall Street Journal, summed up the current environment well.
    “This isn’t a bull market or a bear market. It’s a know-nothing market. Bragging rights used to go to those investors who worked the hardest at learning the most. Now the glory often goes to those who know the least and don’t even care.
    "‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,’ a young man said in a TikTok video in January. 'I just know I’m making money.’ He added that he’d been trading stocks for only three days, but ‘just like that, made $300 for the day.’ In the next few weeks that young man, Danny Tran, racked up roughly 500,000 followers on TikTok.”
    That is the new investing world we live in. A world where individuals are getting investing “expertise” from young individuals on social media with huge followings. It is effectively the “blind leading the blind.”
    Michael Avery sat down with Adriaan Pask, Chief Investment Officer, PSG Wealth, to talk about the real risks to investors in the current environment.
    20 min
  • Philanthropy: Digital animals in cyberspace generate real-world funding for wildlife conservation in South Africa
    Non fungible tokens (NFTs) have grabbed headlines for some of the more bizarre things you can buy like tweets, but I came across a story recently that is putting this new blockchain backed technology to fantastic use in wild life conservation.
    Digital representations of animals in cyberspace are generating real-world impact for thanks to the efforts of Wildcards, digital animals on the blockchain have now raised the equivalent of over US $30,000 in cryptocurrency donations for Wild Tomorrow Fund’s conservation work in South Africa.
    Wendy Hapwood, Wild Tomorrow Fund’s co-founder & Chief Operating Officer & Jason Smythe Co-Founder of WildCards at Avo Labs GmbH, shared the story of the world’s first NFT’s for wildlife conversation.
    15 min
  • RMIPPPP gaslights energy policy
    When it comes to energy policy in South Africa there are so many competing voices and vested interests that it’s often hard for the public to discern lobbying for one technology over another to benefit a specific vendor or group over genuine concerns around long-term energy policy and planning.
    When Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe announced the winning emergency power bidders and opened bid window 5 of the REIPPP programme, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over the inclusion of Turkish power ships in particular.
    Not so much the technology solution as the term, which over 20 years, locks South Africa into a solution that is meant to fill the gap until more permanent solutions can be implemented to close the gap.
    Speculation is rife that the request for proposal was engineered to achieve this outcome which will create an anchor buyer for the further development of the Brulpadda prospect.
    This would skew and undermine the evolution of energy policy. It is far from clear the extent to which, or whether at all, gas will be a least-cost component in the South African energy mix in ten years’ time. Evolutions in renewable energy costs, battery costs, electrolyser costs and as yet unknown technology costs are exceptionally dynamic and set to become more so, driven by decarbonisation policies. Signing a 20-year PPA which essentially creates an artificial secure government guaranteed demand for some R60Bn gas from around 2025-2040 poses serious risks of closing down South African energy policy options and locking in higher costs.
    Michael Avery spoke to Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Deputy Director General, Jacob Mbele; Professor Mark Swilling, Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University; & Stefano Marani, the CEO of Renergen a junior natural gas and helium company listed here and an in Australia.
    31 min

About Classic Business

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A carefully balanced blend of the daily business beat, markets and company news. Serious when required and irreverent when warranted, never boring, always striving to inform, educate and entertain.