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Riaan de Lange

This economic and trade-focused column is prepared by Riaan de Lange – riaan@tariffandtrade.co.za. The views expressed in this column are the author's personal views

2020 in hindsight

By: Riaan de Lange 15th January 2021 The old adage that hindsight is 20/20 holds that looking back at a situation or event provides a clearer understanding of the situation or event and what could have made it, or could have been, better. Forget about better – what could have been worse as far as the South African economy during... →

Occupations in high demand

By: Riaan de Lange 11th December 2020 As Thomas Jefferson once said, “it is neither wealth nor splendour but tranquillity and occupation which give you happiness”. That said, do you know whether your occupation is in high demand? If you don’t, you might want to consult the Government Gazette of November 26, in which Higher Education,... →

South Africa’s Limbo economy

By: Riaan de Lange 4th December 2020 According to British rock band Queen, “too much love will kill you; just as sure as none at all”, while Cable News Network’s (CNN’s) take is that “too much bad news can make you sick”. If you read a lot of news about the South African economy, you are at risk of falling sick, if what CNN’s... →

A pledge is what exactly?

By: Riaan de Lange 27th November 2020 As my school memories fade, there is one that is stubbornly refusing to go away: the dreaded pledge page. The most memorable thing about the pledge page was its addictive smell. For the benefit of younger readers, in the 1980s, copies were made using a Rexograph, better known as a spirit... →

Bloated, unsustainable and unaffordable

By: Riaan de Lange 20th November 2020 These three words could serve as a collective description of the many ills of the South African economy, and are at the very heart of an impending economic disaster, which is attributable to a concerted government policy. It was eluded to in last week’s column. A recent Reuters headline screamed:... →

The abyss also gazes into you

By: Riaan de Lange 13th November 2020 Where to start? In the words of Arthur Ashe, the only black man to ever win Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open singles titles: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Well, here I am, rereading Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s October 28 Medium-Term Budget Policy... →

Looking back to look forward

By: Riaan de Lange 6th November 2020 Although it is too early to offer a reflection on this year, as there are still over 55 days left before saying au revoir to 2020, the release of the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan made me contemplate South Africa’s post-1994 economic policy documents. Can you recall how many economic policy... →

‘Plans’ to kick-start economy

By: Riaan de Lange 30th October 2020 Of all the articles and opinion pieces that have appeared since President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech of October 15, titled ‘Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan’, not one touched on another of the President’s speeches, delivered 755 days earlier, on September 21, 2018, and titled ‘Economic... →

A national danger, a national scandal

By: Riaan de Lange 23rd October 2020 This economic and trade focused column is prepared by Riaan de Lange – riaan@tariffandtrade.co.za. The views expressed in this column are the author's personal view. Should you be reading the electronic copy of the column, only the first 50 odd words would be visible before you would need to... →

A Victor, Uniform, or Lima Recovery?

By: Riaan de Lange 16th October 2020 The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet. In creating the alphabet, the ICAO assigned codewords acrophonically to the letters of the... →

Poverty and inequality

By: Riaan de Lange 9th October 2020 While contemplating last week’s column, ‘The poor and miserable simply cannot be let be’, it dawned on me that the meaning of ‘poverty’ and ‘inequality’ – two of the most misused words in South Africa – might well be misconstrued. The most prominent government document on the topic is the... →

The poor and miserable simply cannot be let be

By: Riaan de Lange 2nd October 2020 South Africa, and more especially its economy, is in deep trouble. When I find myself in similar circumstance, I recall the lyrics of the Beatles song, Let It Be: “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me; Speaking words of wisdom, let it be; And in my hour of darkness she... →

Knightian uncertainty

By: Riaan de Lange 25th September 2020 The 1980s in South Africa might have been an idyllic time for some, but they were a period of discontentment for others. The mid- to late 1980s were my formative years for me. My most vivid memory of the time was going to the drive-in – that is watching a movie in a car, for younger readers. As I... →

Hippopotomonstroses-quippedaliophobia

By: Riaan de Lange 18th September 2020 If “the biggest word you ever heard”, as the song goes, is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, then you are in for a shock, as this piece’s title is longer. It is, in fact, one of the longest words in the English language.[Unknown A1] The longest word in English, which is five letters longer... →

Monitoring export barriers

By: Riaan de Lange 11th September 2020 It has been 81 years since World War Two (WWII) started – on September 1, 1939 – and, as you read this piece, just more than a week since the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) launched the Export Barriers Monitoring Mechanism (EBMM). The intention of the EBMM is to help South... →

Existing together in a delicate balance

By: Riaan de Lange 4th September 2020 Long before motivational quotes found fame on electronic media, at a time when ‘www’ meant little more than the Wild Wild West – in a World Without Windows, you could say – I was given an A3 page. I was mesmerised, not by its appearance, as it was just a white page with very large bold black... →

Swelling words of emptiness

By: Riaan de Lange 28th August 2020 As South Africans, we tend to think that we have an intimate understanding of South Africa and how it operates. If this line of thinking is true, then our parents should be open books to us, but alas, even they are strangers too. All this is reminiscent of the French novelist Andre Malraux, who... →

Economics of corruption

By: Riaan de Lange 21st August 2020 If there is a single topic that economists tend to avoid researching, it is corruption, which tends to be assumed to reside in the realms of political science and sociology. At a time where another ‘C’ (Covid-19) is wreaking havoc on an unprecedented scale, corruption seems to be obscured from... →

Promises make debt, and debt makes promises

By: Riaan de Lange 14th August 2020 Let us start this week’s column with a truth, for at the moment, the truth is as scarce as a hen’s teeth. Truth be told, the title of this piece is borrowed from a Dutch proverb. If there is a single message, a single life lesson, that resonates with me, it is that one should never incur debt of... →

Trade facilitation versus protectionism

By: Riaan de Lange 7th August 2020 In the instalment of this column published on July 3, which was titled ‘Protectionism on the increase’, I expressed my concern at the intensification of the protectionist mentality. Those old enough would acknowledge that the underlying reason for the start of the Second World War was the ‘R’... →

We need to fix our education system

By: Riaan de Lange 31st July 2020 Education is the single definitive Why is there a tendency to believe that the solutions for all our present economic ills lie in the present? Could this tendency be attributable to Albert Einstein’s assessment: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”?... →

You’re on Mute!

By: Riaan de Lange 24th July 2020 If only I could get a cent for every time that I have been on a ‘lockdown’ video call hearing someone saying “…, you’re on mute”, only for the person implicated to answer after an uncomfortable pause, “I’m sorry, I was on mute”, I would be a very rich man indeed. →

Two economic hat-tricks

By: Riaan de Lange 17th July 2020 Two economic hat-tricks A hat-trick is the achievement of a generally positive result three times in a game or in another endeavour. Well, not in this instance, I am afraid. But before we get there, the term was coined in 1858 to describe cricketer HH Stephenson’s feat of taking three wickets in... →

Slow train coming?

By: Riaan de Lange 10th July 2020 On March 20, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the ratings of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation rating, two of South Africa’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Eighty-six days later, on June 25, the ratings agency announced another downgrade of... →

Protectionism on the increase

By: Riaan de Lange 3rd July 2020 Contrary to popular belief, economists are not oracles, and neither are they clairvoyants, even though they make frequent reference to their crystal-ball insights. They are mere trend spotters – no more, no less. Should you be interested in becoming a trend spotter, and by default a... →

Déjà vu as another SOE Council is announced

By: Riaan de Lange 26th June 2020 To genuinely appreciate South Africa’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs) – the infamous 131 – while retaining a positive demeanour, it would be best if you were prone to regular bouts of amnesia. If not, you would but echo the memorable Yogi Berra expression: “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” On... →

Internalise an external cost

By: Riaan de Lange 19th June 2020 If you know nothing about sin taxes, then your salvation lies in the mere expression of the four words in the headline. Merely mentioning them will elevate you to the status of a tax expert, and slipping in a reference to Pigovian taxes (also spelt Pigouvian taxes) will elevate you to tax... →

Misoneism

By: Riaan de Lange 12th June 2020 This could well be the most apt one-word summary of government’s approach to the South African economy – a dislike of what is new or represents change. How else can one explain government clinging to State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and its “I think I can, I think I can” mantra. This is, of course,... →

Thieving Presidents

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 12th June 2020 Africa has had more than its fair share of Big Men with sticky fingers. The latest to be outed as a kleptomaniac par excellence is deposed Sudanese strongman Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who amassed real estate and other property worthy an estimated $4-billion during his 30-year rule, which came to a... →

End of print magazine era?

By: Riaan de Lange 5th June 2020 In a world obsessed with extinction, where the instinct is seemingly to protect anything and everything from extinction, an extinction is seemingly occurring unnoticed in South Africa. Is the lack of a protest against this extinction indicative of an acknowledgement that doing so would be a lost... →

A whole new world?

By: Riaan de Lange 29th May 2020 “I can show you the world; Shining, shimmering, splendid; … A whole new world; A new fantastic point of view.” If only South Africa could emerge from its economic slumber, as the song from Disney's Aladdin would have. Even Microsoft’s Editor suggests that it should be a “a fantastic new”. But,... →

Look mommy, there’s no plane up in the sky

By: Riaan de Lange 22nd May 2020 What do the kakapo, the takahe, the weka, Comair, SA Express and South African Airways (SAA) have in common? The first three are flightless birds, and the latter three are on the verge of becoming flightless airlines. On May 5, Comair, the owner of kulula.com and the South African operator for... →

Fight, flight, freeze or fawn

By: Riaan de Lange 15th May 2020 You might be more familiar with American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon’s flight-or-fight response, which describes a physiological reaction to a perceived harmful event, attack or threat to survival. The ‘alarm reaction’ is the first stage of the General Adaptation Syndrome that regulates... →

Zombie economics

By: Riaan de Lange 8th May 2020 A zombie is a spirit that wanders about the Earth, tormenting the living. Economics has its own zombies, as it does its own apocalyptic events, one of which is a recession. In addition to a recession, there is an apocalyptic event called a Black Monday, which refers to an international stock... →

The economy in the time of Covid-19

By: Riaan de Lange 1st May 2020 The title is that of the World Bank’s semi-annual report for the Latin America and Caribbean region, which was released on April 12. There is much for South Africa’s policymakers to learn from this report. Do you know how many countries there are in Latin America and in the Caribbean? There are,... →

SA’s Fermi growth estimate

By: Riaan de Lange 24th April 2020 We might well be living the Chinese curse – not Covid-19, but the interesting times that it will deliver. A global economic tragedy is inevitable, only its true extent cannot be determined. If “all the world’s a stage”, as William Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy, As You Like It, would have it, then... →

Nelsonian knowledge

By: Riaan de Lange 17th April 2020 What do you understand the headline of this piece to mean? Hint: the phrase originates from across the ocean, where it was used by English judges. The Conglomerate of June 25, 2005, cites it in a quote attributed to Lord Millett, which he delivered in the House of Lords: “It is dishonest for a... →

Three out of three is bad

By: Riaan de Lange 10th April 2020 “Baby, we can talk all night; But that ain't getting us nowhere; I told you everything I possibly can; There's nothing left inside of here; . . . Now don't be sad; 'Cause two out of three ain't bad". That was how the Meatloaf song of yesteryear went, and that was how South African seemingly felt... →

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