2010 recap: the year so far

2010 is seven months old which just about defies belief.  To be rather trite and clichéd, time really does fly these days!  Anyway, with life whisking us all along at a pretty frenetic pace we thought we’d reprint some articles from each month of the year so far (Jan-Jul) to help you remember what’s actually happened in 2010 up until now in the global and SA economy.

Enjoy…

January 2010
Next Stop on the Global Snoozapalooza Tour: Davos
Hot on the heels of the HeatingHagen summit in late 2009, the Davos summit in January picked up where that fiasco left off.  As expected, Davos came and went and all there was to show for it were expensive lunch and dinner tabs.

Consumer Credit Crunch Continues
This was a recap on where South African consumers stood and we painted a pretty bleak picture.  Nothing much has changed since then and business performance in 2010 backs this up.  Times are tough out there.

February 2010
The Pro no-one budget
In February Treasury minister Pravin Gordhan tabled the 2010/11 budget to parliament.  Treasury economists patted themselves on the backs for this budget, but in reality it left far too much to be desired.

SARB Nationalisation Debate is Irrelevant
Feb also saw a lot of news articles and alarmism over the ‘nationalisation’ of the reserve bank.  As we pointed out, it was a moot point, as the bank is already a state-run monopoly.

March 2010
Micro-Malema, Macro-Megalomania
Julius.  Nuff said…

We’re All Greeks Now
By March it wasn’t only Julius Malema who had butted so abrasively into our world, but Greece was making big waves.  Back then we saw Greece as simply the start of a paper trail that led back to Washington.  We still see it that way.

Obamacare: The Systemic Gamechanger
March was a big month in the world of politics and economics, and Mr. Obama took another big step toward the socialisation of the United States with the signing into law of the healthcare bill.  As Mark Steyn quipped at the time, welcome to the nationalisation of your body.

April 2010
BIS explains the path to hyperinflation
The Bank for International Settlements spelled out nicely for us in April just how we get from sanity to insanity in a set of seemingly rational and intelligent steps.  Thanks BIS, useful.

The market will defeat the war on drugs
April was a quiet month for us here at HumanAction as other work (the work we actually get paid for!) mounted up and holidays cropped up.  Here JGalt showed us all why policing the drug trade is morally and economically futile.

May 2010
No Comment
Yip, still no comment.

It’s the end of the paper world as we know it
In May the ECB said to the European banks and PIIGS, ”Don’t worry comrades, we’ve got the tab.  And so May 2010 marked another big moment in monetary history as the ECB took some big steps in morphing into the Fed.

Care for a spot of socialism old chap?
In May the UK sent the Tories to Downing Street accompanied by a smattering of Lib Dems.  An unlikely alliance leaves the UK just about as socialist as before.  Tory budget cutting should not fool anyone – the UK requires far deeper reform if it’s to get out of this mess.

June 2010
FIFAnomics 2010 style
Ah, good memories.  What a brilliant tournament, what a sad economic legacy.

Will the real safe haven please stand up
JGalt reminding us all once again that gold is the place for serious investors.  The rest is all just candy-coated sludge.

July 2010
You say stimulus, I say stimuli…
July saw the evidence mounting for another big round of monetary stimulus from our generous benefactors over at the Fed, BoE and ECB.  Gee, thanks guys.

Who needs good credit when the state becomes your banker?
In July we not only saw calls for more monetary stimulus, but our friends over at Capitol Hill also successfully dumped a 2,315 page monstrosity upon US freedom and called it the Dodd-Frank (Donk) Bill.  One provision in the bill seems to allow for the US government to lend directly to Joe Public.  If Freddie and Fannie are anything to go by, this should all go swimmingly, no?

Chinese Ratings Agency Challenges the Status Quo
It was about time and in July finally a ratings firm started telling it like it is.

State of Play in SA: The Post-Party Reality
Human Action’s most recent synopsis of how the SA economy is doing and what challenges lie ahead.  The correct government policy for economic recovery is to do nothing.  Hopefully patience wins out over the desire to intervene and mess things up again.

So there you have it.  We’ll be sure to cover the next 5 months of 2010 and beyond in the goal of sifting sanity from insanity and promoting the principles of freedom and prosperity.