Simon’s weekly wrap: While Fed under fire, is SA seeing growth?

Central bank independence is crucial for trust and stability, and I spoke with Future Forex CEO Harry Scherzer about the new threats against Fed chair Jerome Powell. President Nixon forced his Fed chair to cut rates against the best economic advice and that resulted in run-away inflation that took a decade to control, and it seems Trump is trying to go down that the same road.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

I again chatted with Herman van Papendorp, Momentum Investments head of asset allocation about emerging market opportunities. He remains bullish on the investment case for emerging markets over developed markets as the latter has dominated global investing for a decade or more. This has left emerging markets, South Africa included, at historically cheap levels.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Operation Vulindlela was launched by the president in late 2020 and has largely been a success. I spoke with Rudi Dicks from the Presidency’s Project Management Office about the wins but also some of the challenges and the last remaining items. The green shoots we’re seeing in the local economy are in part from the successes that Operation Vulindlela has achieved.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

The local mining sector had an incredible 2025 and also started the new year with gusto. I spoke with Frank Blackmore, lead economist at KPMG South Africa, about the importance of mining to the economy, even as it has seen its percentage of GDP reduce over the decades. We also touched on challenges and how we can get mining to be a larger contributor to South Africa’s GDP.

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.