Richard J Grant

See all:  https://richardjgrant.substack.com Most recent articles:    Delta, epsilon, … short gamma: Or how we can ruin everything https://richardjgrant.substack.com/p/delta-epsilon-short-gamm a Bolt down the debt ceiling https://richardjgrant.substack.com/p/bolt-down-the-debt-ceiling

To the South African Reserve Bank:  The Viability of a Domestic Credit Card Scheme for South Africa April 2021 https://www.freemarketfoundation.com/article-view/the-viability-of-a-domestic-credit-card-scheme-for-south-africa Governments are ill-equipped for market participation Private markets, when free, are self-correcting in a way politically influenced markets cannot match 20 June 2021 https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2021-06-20-governments-are-ill-equipped-for-market-participation/

How limits to economic freedom are behind SA’s failures Business Day - 12 SEPTEMBER 2019 by RICHARD J GRANT Economics is entirely about human relationships. None of the other “scarce resources” would have any value at all without people. No resources are employed without the employment or attention of at least one person. And there is no “economy” without an exchange between at least two people. We are blessed, though, to have millions of people with whom we might find friendship and with whom we might engage in mutual service through exchange. Throughout the centuries people have engaged in trade with others near and far. Today we can buy goods made by people from almost anywhere in the world, people we are unlikely to meet. Yet, through a complex supply chain, we have a network of friendships, mostly anonymous and distant, each of which is consummated through the mutual benefits of trade. Our connection to those people makes possible the lives we lead and the stan

Private-property rights are a litmus test of a government’s respect by Richard J Grant Business Day - October 10, 2018 It is a common temptation in the months before an election for politicians to promise the moon to those voters they fear might be attracted to the similarly lofty promises of a rival party. But it would be easier to send someone to the moon than to deliver on many of the more shameless promises made by desperate politicians. The latest attention-grabbing promise, through which South African politicians have made world headlines, is that the expropriation of land without compensation will ... READ MORE  

The Bank’s shareholders have little influence over policy, but their involvement is essential for transparency and openness , writes Richard J Grant 03 July 2018 - Richard J Grant Recent calls to "nationalise" the Reserve Bank imply that the Bank is a private entity, raising questions about the correspondence between legal definitions and the realities of control, policy making, and administration. In fact, the Reserve Bank is a statutory creation of Parliament, which also determines the main policy goals that the Bank is tasked to fulfil. More than half of the Bank’s board of directors, including all the executive directors, is appointed by the president of SA in consultation with the finance minister and a governmentally appointed panel. That panel, in turn, approves a list of candidates from which eligible private shareholders may elect the remaining board members. The private shareholders have … Continue reading at Business Day https://www.businesslive.co.za/

We Can Do Better Than the Nashville Transit Plan by Richard J Grant   The proposed Nashville mass transit plan is not exactly what we would call a “lean startup.” With an optimistically estimated cost of $9 billion to be spent over the next 15 years, the new transit plan makes the Metro Nashville 2018 budget of only $2.2 billion look lean by comparison. If the transit money were spent evenly over 15 years, that would be $600 million per year of additional spending, a 27% increase over the existing budget. The trouble with the transit plan is ... Continue reading at the Tennessee Star http://tennesseestar.com/2018/04/02/richard-grant-commentary-we-can-do-better-than-the-nashville-transit-plan/

Water for all and water for none Mining Review     March 1, 2018            AUTHOR: Richard J Grant    www.pexels.com Cape Town is not the first city to face a drought, but it is predicted to be the first major city to run out of water. Municipal water restrictions are in effect and “Zero Day” is expected to arrive in June 2018, at which point the municipality will be unable to supply any water to its residents. Continue reading at Mining Review   https://www.miningreview.com/water-for-all-water-none-cape-town-global-context/

Water for all and water for none 27 February 2018                            Dr Richard J. Grant Cape Town is not the first city to face a drought, but it is predicted to be the first major city to run out of water. Municipal water restrictions are in effect and “Zero Day” is expected to arrive in June 2018, at which point the municipality will be unable to supply any water to its residents. The short-term supply problem is serious and although the current drought might be the most severe in the lifetime of anyone currently living, it is not said to be the worst drought ever faced by the Cape Town region. In the past, Cape Town has prospered and always survived the vagaries of the weather. People choose to live in cities for the very reason that they flourish in the presence of other productive people with whom they exchange goods, knowledge, and companionship. In recent years, Cape Town’s population has grown by more than half a million people per decade. Yet in the city, no on

Economic Freedom of the World: 2017 https://www.fraserinstitute.org/profile/richard-j-grant Published in September 2017