Delivering your bribe in a bling bag … and other national travails
It's never great to be in a position where you feel you have to refuse a bribe, but should you be insulted that the bribe on offer is very small? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss this and other questions related to South Africa’s incremental decline - and how to reverse it. The key question is whether SA’s cost of capital is too high to attract investment, and how to fix that. And would it help if politicians were not as old as they are - and podcasters!
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22:02
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22:02
Is South Africa setting its benchmarks too low? Johannesburg, for example
Are South Africans too nice? Do we demand too little of ourselves, constantly making excuses for our underperformance and over-congratulating ourselves on minor gains? Merchant banker Mark Barnes and journalist Tim Cohen discuss this in connection with the International Mathematics Olympiad and Johannesburg. Then there is also tariff torture, inflation, and, as always, leadership.
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25:22
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25:22
What DJ Sumbody teaches everybody
It's been an odd week, and not a great one. “We are moving from the rule of law to the rule of war,” says investment banker Mark Barnes in this podcast with journalist Tim Cohen. We talk crime, Transnet, debt and other cheerful topics - but also, how other nations value our fresh air. Honestly. Listen Up!
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19:23
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19:23
Is South Africa disintegrating, and would a kiss-cam help?
The news of the past week has been worrying, from the crisis in the police, to more news about the construction mafia, to SA getting bad press internationally. In this podcast Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss South Africa’s ailments - and some good news too, like the buoyant stock market and the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in KZN achieving an agreed communique. Most importantly, given the meme-of-the week of CEO’s canoodling on the kiss-cam, we have some sage advice for what to do if you find yourself a very surprised global figure at a Coldplay concert.
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21:11
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21:11
Mchunu's unusual leave of absence, and SA's politics as usual
How does the suspension of SA’s Police Minister Senzo Mchunu change SA’s political dynamic? Would you believe in the good way? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss this dramatic topic of the hour and its future ramifications - good and bad. We also discuss how AI is actually being used, and the political lessons of the Springboks victories over Italy. Listen up!
South Africa