Firstly, an observation: because I write posts every weekday, this isn’t really a fair contest. A post written in January has a lot more opportunity to be read than a post that’s written in November.
That said – most post hits take place in the first few days after publishing – so it’s not completely unreasonable.
Secondly, I’ve excluded the posts that I wrote in 2012 and 2013 (there are a few which seems to get consistent hit rates on Google – in particular, the one on overpopulation, the rent vs buy series, and curiously, a Office Politics post on mosquitoes).
Here goes:
14. Office Politics: Bitches In The Workplace
This was fun to write. It includes a list of the 7 kinds of workplace bitches that can be found in Australia. And laying the blame for their existence firmly at the door of the man/woman in charge.
When a city’s population grows too quickly, you get infrastructural breakdown. That infrastructural breakdown can head in one of two directions: either you get everyone working together to become self-sufficient as a community (Harare is an example); or you get the city fracturing into sectors that fall under the protection of warlords community leaders (Mogadishu).
And it’s particularly concerning when you look at all the African Cities that face the exact same crisis of population explosion and failing infrastructure.
12. The Book That All The Economists Are Reading: Das Kapital in the Twenty First Century
Thomas Piketty’s new tome on income and wealth inequality. It’s 700 pages long. My post is shorter than that.
11. An Open Letter: How South Africa Discriminates
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the South African economy: responsible for 60% of employment and 80% of all new jobs created. They also contribute 34% to GDP – but the important part is their contribution to the livelihood of more than half the working population.
And yet they are treated like thieving, fraudulent, uncreditable, abusive miscreants.
So I wrote a letter.
10. The Crisis of Ageing Populations
When those population pyramids invert themselves, economies get stressed. And economic growth slows.
9. South Africa. Time To See Clearly. After All – The Rain Has Gone.
Magnus Heystek declared the failed state and suggested that everyone take their money and flee.
Only, there’s no place like home. Seriously. As in: economically speaking as well.
8. Rent or Buy: Why You Should Just Buy A House
In my mind, home-owning is mostly popular because it’s a saving scheme that feels a lot like spending money (and consumption is always more fun than saving).
But there are other benefits. Like when home-owning is like having an insurance policy against moving too often. And also, those psychological benefits of home…
7. Reasons To Hate Estate Agents.
Aren’t estate agents anachronistic?
6. House Flipping: Not For Amateur South Africans
There are lots of TV shows that show you how to house-flip in America.
But it’s not so easy here in SA – mostly because we have higher transaction costs (like transfer duties and conveyancing fees), and also, we don’t really have teaser mortgages.
An analysis of how much of your total healthcare spend gets accumulated in your last year of life. And in particular, your last month…
4. African Bank: How I LOVE Me a Bailout
A post of self-congratulation in calling the African Bank bailout. And addressing the haters and gloaters.
3. African Bank: Has 36ONE Left Themselves Exposed?
A follow-up post on African Bank ADRs.
2. Is Cambist Illegal or Lying and How Does It Make Money?
Are all those during-the-rugby ads really what they cracked up to be?
Or are they just cracked?
Certainly, the collapse of Bridge Loans and OneLaw in the months since I wrote that post would suggest the latter…
1. In Defence of Eskom: History and BHP Billiton
When South Africans complain about Eskom, I think that we need to make sure that we understand how we reached this point.
Because when President Zuma blames Apartheid, he’s not altogether wrong.
Rolling Alpha posts opinions on finance, economics, and the corporate life in general. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha.