Although I have forgotten most of my own auditing experiences, a few still stand out. A client company that was in business as a confectionary retailer sold cakes over the counter, either whole or in weighed-out portions. The principal internal control was reconciling the weight of cakes leaving the bakery with the weight of […]

  [JUNE 2020 – ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 83] As the spread of Covid begins to wane we should consider afresh whether, for example, a shopkeeper who travels to work to open his business is in fact acting irresponsibly. This comes, as ever, down to the question of risk. Since some people are more risk averse […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 80 [GOING POSTAL – 1st June 2020] EMILE WOOLF In his latest book (“The Body – a Guide for Occupants”) Bill Bryson highlights the limitations on what money can buy. He points out, for example, that America spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation in the world: two-and-a-half […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 78 and GOING POSTAL It’s not quite like having to start the economy from scratch, but this lockdown-induced recession warrants some detached assessment. We are aware that viable businesses have been forced to close their doors – or keep them open to serve a paltry trickle of customers. This has been happening […]

  Well, are we? In the course of more than four weeks of self/family isolation we have all encountered mountains of speculation on the sources of Covid-19; how it spreads; estimates of its final tally of victims; how many people already have antibodies and immunity; time-frames for each phase of its progress; Ro spread-estimates; international […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 76 Can lost production ever be recovered? EMILE WOOLF – APRIL 2020 It’s easy to blame Covid-19 virus for the nation’s woes and, up to a point, that’s understandable. People who focus exclusively on the nation’s health tend to pay less attention to the economic damage wrought by Coronavirus, even though that […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 75 PARTS 1 & 2 PART 1 – “SAVINGS: more important than the unstable money that measures it” I am typing this in the SAA Business Lounge of Durban airport, awaiting a call to board a flight to Johannesburg, where we are due to take the last flight to London before all […]

  Getting the principle right If government has a duty to protect the lives, property and civil liberties of its subjects, ours is currently guilty of failing to display any meaningful police presence on our streets – beyond speeding yellow cars and vans blaring ear-splitting sirens that are actually more of a menace than a […]

SIR – Allister Heath makes a powerful case for not taxing property (Comment, February 13). However he concedes that “long-standing homeowners have made vast, untaxed capital gains as prices have shot up.” He explains that the answer is to build more houses, not to tax unrealised gains via a mansion tax. He makes no mention […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 72 Those still shedding tears over our departure from the EU invariably refer to the success of the EU in healing post-WW2 wounds and keeping peace in Europe for 75 years. By the same token they imply that, by leaving, we are creating a dangerous rift that threatens to spark a resurgence […]