Simon’s weekly wrap: Growth, governance and the jobs that never came

During all the commodity selling at the start of the week, I chatted with David Fraser of Peregrine Capital about local equities and bonds. He’s very bullish on our market, citing low valuations and potential growth helped by the likes of lower bond yields and oil prices. He still likes local bonds but feels equities offer better potential.

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

Casey Sprake is now the market strategist at AG Capital and I spoke with her about Venezuelan oil as the US tries to take over the industry. Their oil is known as heavy sour and not compatible with most refineries around the world, meaning limited utility. We also touched on the shadow fleet that is moving illicit oil and how it operates.

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

The proposed centralised Transformation Fund is meant to help companies get BEE status and then use that money to boost SMEs. However, I spoke with Jameel Khan, co-founder of The Unconventional CA and he has concerns around the skills of the board and the actual process of assisting often very small businesses.

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

I chatted with Osagyefo Mazwai from Investec Wealth and Investments on recent research he’s done on the impact of low local growth for the last decade and a half. He estimates if we’d matched the growth of our emerging market peers, we’d have added some four million jobs and halved the unemployment rate.

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