And just like that, it’s the end of another year of blog posts. 2015 has been madness:

  • Je Suis Charlie came and went – and everyone got increasingly more paranoid about militant islamists.
  • Russia quietly formed the Eurasian Economic Union.
  • The Grexit drama, with all the referendums and threats and the almost-unending array of last minutes, came and went and now seems a distant memory.
  • China had a stock market bubble and a stock market crash.
  • Everyone freaked out about commodities.
  • The world of finance spent the year watching and waiting for Janet to raise interest rates at the Fed, which she finally did as an early Christmas present.
  • 200 countries reached a deal on climate change. People are positive.
  • Kim Davis became a household name for refusing to do her job but demanding to be paid for it anyway. She also stopped being a Democrat.
  • The migrant crisis in Europe reached new heights, as the globe broke records for the number of people that are displaced.
  • Volkswagen had a massive scandal.
  • A nuclear deal was finalised with Iran.
  • The TPP trade agreement was signed.
  • ISIS destroyed a whole lot of history.
  • SpaceX landed a Falcon9 rocket – the first reusable rocket to successfully leave earth and return in one piece.
  • Donald Trump started running for president. He’s expected to continue running, owing to his excellent health. We have it on authority from his doctor, who sounds like he might also be an author for the Onion:

    Thanks Vox
    Thanks Vox

In my little corner of the internet, one of my 2015 resolutions was to write more about Southern African economics/politics. I figured that I might get more views if I focused more on the domestic issues – and that seems to have worked out! Seven of the ten most viewed posts this year have had some kind of local flavour – and one even went a bit viral.

So here are the top 10 posts of 2015:

Number 10: The Crisis of Ageing Populations

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Number 9: The Economic Theory of Relativity

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Number 8: House Flipping: Not For Amateur South Africans

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Number 7: Zimbabwean Rules for South African Load-Shedding

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Number 6: Overpopulation and Dan Brown

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Number 5: Why I’m Moving To South Africa

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Number 4: White South Africa

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Number 3: Has Wits really made a mistake? #tuitionfees

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Number 2: How SA Non-Income Taxes Are Paid

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Far and away, Number 1: But who pays South Africa’s tax?

The post that’s been read almost 54,000 times.

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And really, thank you all for reading and commenting and liking and sharing and retweeting and emailing and following and subscribing. I write for pleasure – but all those things make it so much more pleasurable.

I wish you all an excellent and prosperous 2016.

May all your resolutions come true.

RA

Rolling Alpha posts about finance, economics, and sometimes stuff that is only quite loosely related. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, or like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha. Or both.