The roots of the current crisis in #South_Africa
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/03/the-roots-of-the-current-crisis-in-south-africa
Over the last few weeks it has come to light that South Africa’s Social Security Agency (SASSA) has no idea how it will pay 17 million social (welfare) grants to around 17 million South Africans on April 1. This has understandably caused some concern, with the media, civil society organizations and trade unions accusing the…
Do #Informal_Workers’ lives matter ?
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/11/do-informal-workers-lives-matter
In February 2008 in Dakar, #Senegal, a pregnant fish trader, who remains unnamed, was fatally hit by a police car. The car was attempting to displace her and her fellow fish traders from selling on public roads near the national highway. The story of her death was casually reported in local newspapers, with off-hand commentaries […]
#Africa : Why Western Economists Get It Wrong
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/09/africa-why-western-economists-get-it-wrong
Development #economics as a field of study was formally launched in the 1950s by the Afro-Caribbean economist Arthur Lewis who, out of necessity, wanted to understand how his own country, Saint Lucia, could transform from an agro-based economy into a modern industrial state (later, in 1979, Lewis was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics […]
#Corporate_Tax is a feminist matter
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/09/corporate-tax-is-a-feminist-matter
CitiGroup, Coca Cola, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Verizon, Wal-Mart, Pfizer, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Microsoft; of all the things these multinational corporations (MNCs) agree on, two things stand out: a proclaimed devotion to the feminist agenda and a penchant for tax dodging. On the former, all MNC’s claim to dedicate some […]
#IT'S_THE_ECONOMY #activism #development #economics #feminism #human_rights #NGOs #Tax_havens
What does #Brexit mean for Africa?
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/06/what-does-brexit-mean-for-african-economies
The biggest news item of the past week was Britain voting to cancel its membership to the #European_Union. (The EU has many hoops that you need to jump through to join. Contrast this with African Union membership, for example). The results of the #Brexit (how the referendum is known popularly) vote came as a […]
African economies and the lack of a targeted industrial policy
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/06/african-economies-and-the-lack-of-a-targeted-industrial-policy
In terms of economic development, most African countries are operating below the least developed country income threshold of $1,035 per person. While developing countries in East Asia, most importantly China, have been lifting millions of people out of poverty at break-neck speed, #Africa’s poverty rate has barely budged. In 2011, 69.5% of people in sub-Saharan Africa […]
Is it too late to say sorry? #IMF Edition
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/05/is-it-too-late-to-say-sorry-imf-edition
This past week, the IMF, in their quarterly magazine Finance and Development, published an essay with the rather surprising title “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” Written by IMF economists, the piece is meant to be a critique of the neoliberal agenda, an agenda that’s been pushed, almost relentlessly, by the IMF, World Bank and other allied institutions over […]
‘Fantastically Corrupt’
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/05/fantastically-corrupt
British Prime Minister David Cameron told Queen Elizabeth II this week that Nigeria and Afghanistan were “fantastically corrupt.” Make no mistake, Nigeria and Afghanistan are corrupt. It’s just ironic coming from Cameron, a beneficiary of tax dodging. But beyond Twitter banter, there is a case to be made that it is actually the UK (and other western countries) […]
#IT'S_THE_ECONOMY #POLITICS #corruption #It's_the_Economy_Episode_12 #Tax_Justice_Network
The #PanamaPapers are everywhere …
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/04/its-the-economy-no-8
And this week we’ll spend sometime talking about them. First up, however, we’ve got some nice things to say about a conference held in Addis Ababa (31 March-5 April). (1) The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), a progressive organization based in Addis and a favorite of ours, held its annual Africa Development Conference this past […]
Decolonizing the teaching of #economics in #South_Africa
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/04/its-the-economy-no-7
Recently Ihsaan Bassier, a graduate student in economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, wrote a thought provoking essay for GroundUp, a local news website, on the need to “decolonize” the teaching of undergraduate economics at that university. Economics in South African #universities is currently taught in the manner and methods […]
It’s the economy, N°5
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/03/its-the-economy-n5
You were right, we missed a week. Something came up. In any case, here’s this week’s list. (1) Things are not looking up for the “Africa Rising” story and we are only half-way through what was meant to be Africa’s decade. Ghana, just last year, was bailed out by the IMF. Kenya, this past week, […]
It’s the economy, N°4
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/03/its-the-economy-n4
Yes, this is a weekly series. #Barclays_Bank dominates this week’s missive. Oh, what is 16 plus 6? Don’t tell us yet. Hold that till the end. (1) This past week, the British bank Barclays announced plans to exit the African market after a formal presence of about a 100 years. The bank currently employs about […]
It’s the economy stupid, N°3
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/02/its-the-economy-stupid-n3
On Twitter, T.O. Molefe announced that our new weekly series #ItsTheEconomyStupid is “My new favourite thing.” And you know, we love affirmation. So, here for T.O. and the rest of you is number 3. (1) This week we read the transcribed version of an incredible speech given by Alex De Waal in Addis Ababa. The speech […]
It’s the economy, stupid! No.1
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/02/its-the-economy-stupid-no-1
Given that we have an economist on board, it would be a crime not to ask him to do weekly post / “column”–called Its The Economy Stupid where he does a post with listicles of economic news; more like help us make sense of what mattered that week in economic policy, the markets or debates among experts. It was basically […]