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 […]

  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 – 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 […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 62 EMILE WOOLF, 2 SEPTEMBER 2019   There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take […]

  1 – Misplaced belief There is a common perception that public officials know what they are doing. They are experts paid out of our taxes, and have been doing it for years. It’s always best to leave matters to the experts, and there’s no point in interfering. This lazy, unquestioning syndrome certainly applies to […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 59 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES – AS NEVER BEFORE GOING POSTAL – 29 July 2019 The pace of change on the political spectrum is truly bewildering for mere onlookers; and as for the usual clutch of clueless columnists and TV “interviewers”, no matter how measured their misguided speculations may sound, the tripe they […]

  It is a curious development in professional auditing circles that being sued for negligence has almost been overtaken in the “nightmare-stakes” by the threat of a regulatory mauling. Widely broadcast findings that an auditor’s work has been negligent lead to severe reputational attrition and massive fines – and unlike judgments in case law, none […]

THOUGHTS ON “LEGAL TENDER” AND GAMES OF PRETENCE Economic Perspectives 54 – April 2019 Few people understand the purpose of so-called “legal tender”. It is widely believed that the government’s legal tender laws protect citizens’ money by formally designating it as the official medium for the settlement of transactions. The Latin root is “tendere”, to […]

“GOING POSTAL” 25-2-19         [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES no. 50: EMILE WOOLF] ECONOMIC DISTORTION, COURTESY OF YOUR CENTRAL BANK Governments rarely set out to take responsibility for every single issue, but that usually happens anyway. As a result there is a growing expectation by citizens that, whatever the problem, it is the government’s job to sort it out […]

Economic Perspectives 48 GOING POSTAL – 28 JANUARY 2019 How to unravel economic complexity – the simple citizen’s guide Here’s a clue: if there are things that you, as a rational citizen, would never choose to do, it’s almost certain that government should stay clear of them too. But governments rarely act rationally, and the […]