Garth Theunissen

Gwede is going to Iran to figure something out he could learn simply by looking at Google Maps businessday.co.za/news/2026-05-1…

SOUTH AFRICA IS SET TO HAVE A RECORD MAIZE HARVEST OF 16.8 MILLION TONNES. Our annual consumption is about 12.0 million tonnes.

Elon Musk just used a joke to perform an autopsy on the American economy. Two economists go for a hike. They find a pile of shit. One pays the other $100 to eat it. They keep walking. Find another pile. The second economist pays $100 back to eat that one. They stop. Neither man gained a dollar. Both ate shit for nothing. But on paper they just generated $200 in GDP. Musk: “That basically would count as a job. This is to illustrate the absurdity of economics.” That is not a punchline. That is the operating system of the federal government. Every time a politician celebrates “record job creation” this is what they are describing. Not output. Not value. Not progress. Motion. The entire bureaucratic machine exists to manufacture friction and then invoice for it. Compliance layers built to justify the next compliance layer. Oversight committees that produce nothing but the need for more oversight. Consulting firms hired to audit the work of other consulting firms. Trillions circulating through systems that have never produced a single thing you can hold in your hands. But the GDP number ticks up. So everyone applauds. The shit gets eaten. The scoreboard moves. Nobody asks what actually got built. This is why Washington treats AI like a five alarm fire. AI does not play the friction game. It does not form a committee. It does not schedule a review. It does not file 400 pages of paperwork no one will ever read. It just solves the problem. And that is the one thing the machine cannot survive. The government does not tax results. It taxes the process. The longer the process, the deeper the cut. AI compresses a ten day workflow into seconds. There is nothing left to bill. Nothing left to tax. Nothing left to skim. So they will spend the next decade warning you that AI threatens the economy. What they will never say is what it actually threatens. The illusion that activity equals progress. The $200 economy where both men ate shit and called it a job. The machines are not coming for your purpose. They are coming to prove that half the economy never had one.

I’ve got the solution to Cape Town property prices: Joburg news24.com/business/opini…

Shorter isn't better. Don't write: "He was mean." Write: "He'd cheat a widow out of her last coins, just because he could." Show, don't tell. Even if it takes longer.

The folly of having a first world inflation target in a third world economy news24.com/business/opini…

Magda Wierzycka issues dire, dystopian AI warning news24.com/business/compa…

The Reserve Bank has outlined its plan to replace the prime lending rate news24.com/business/compa…

Why would the US demand that Denmark allow Greenland to become a US-held nation? If it simply wanted what was under the ground, like its rare earths, the US could have just as easily entered negotiations to mine its resources. Why Greenland Matters: geopoliticalfutures.com/why-greenland-…

The beautiful, vacuous chaos of Davos news24.com/business/opini…

Why Investec is building a fortress banking unit in Switzerland to service its high net worth clients news24.com/business/compa…

“Snow is our oil”: Meet Switzerland’s godfather of snow polo news24.com/business/compa…

The 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland gets underway today. Here’s a quick preview on what to expect with Investec’s chief investment strategist Chris Holdsworth.

@gregsalterjhb @News24 They’ve entirely passed the buck and referred me back to the banking industry for comment.

@News24 @WriteGarth FNB moved their Prime Rate to a 325 basis point spread in August 2004. Reporting at the time was that SARB Governor Mboweni did not want confusion and insisted on a 350 basis point spread. FNB reversed their decision in response to SARB pressure. SARB should surely clarify?

The Competition Commission has confirmed that its investigation into cartel behaviour related to the prime lending rate is at an “advanced stage”. | @WriteGarth brnw.ch/21wZ4Qb

The Competition Commission has confirmed to News24 that it has an open investigation into SA banks’ use of the prime lending rate, which is at an “advanced stage” news24.com/business/compa…

@grok Read the entire Zondo commission report and say which 5 persons would be the easiest to convict in an SA court based on existing evidence

Private equity firms adding operational value to their portfolio companies

By age 30 you should have deleted Grammarly

@brucebusiness I suspect the chance will be at least one third of the way successful

@WriteGarth AKA: taking a chance