Rational Radio

From the Wall Street Journal: Why Trump is trashing Amazon (and how much it hurts)

U.S. president Donald Trump is a long-time Amazon critic. Lately, however, he has been tweeting up a storm about the online retail giant. Trump has criticised Amazon's relationship with the U.S. Postal Service and has complained that the company doesn't pay sales tax (it does in states that require it…

3 Apr 2018 21 min

From the Wall Street Journal: More tech in cars, more problems for drivers

Cars are getting increasingly high tech - they now come with touchscreens, complex software, bluetooth connectivity, and plenty of automation. But with this new technology comes a host of new problems. Drivers report screens that switch off mid-drive, problems connecting, stalled software updates and a host of other issues. While…

29 Mar 2018 6 min

From the Wall Street Journal: Don’t panic – America and China are talking trade, quietly

Despite what the U.S. president thinks, trade wars are usually neither good nor easy to win. In fact, they’re usually an “everyone loses” proposition. But there are signs that fears of a global trade war may be overblown. Despite incendiary rhetoric from the U.S., diplomats from America and China are…

28 Mar 2018 8 min

From The Wall Street Journal: Here’s what Facebook’s data scandal means for you

Facebook has come under heavy fire after revelations emerged about the uses to which Facebook user data has been put. Whatever you may think about the story, it’s crystal clear that Facebook has, at best, a very cavalier attitude towards users’ privacy. The company seems happy to give anyone with…

27 Mar 2018 8 min

From The Wall Street Journal: After pedestrian death, questions about the future of self-driving cars

After an Uber self-driving car hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, some people are asking if self-driving cars are truly ready to be out on the streets. While some states in America ban self-driving cars, many are allowing them to be tested on public roads. But is the technology…

25 Mar 2018 9 min

From The Wall Street Journal: LinkedIn is desperate to get you to use it

In 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. There have been relatively few changes to LinkedIn since the acquisition – Microsoft has seemed content to allow the professional networking platform to do its own thing. But LinkedIn is under rising pressure to get its users more engaged. So the network…

22 Mar 2018 6 min

From The Wall Street Journal: The president and the porn star - Trump and Stormy Daniels

If you've been following the saga of the president and the porn star, you'll know that adult actress Stormy Daniels has claimed to have had an affair with U.S. president Donald Trump. Trump has denied the affair, and there is a lawsuit underway over a non-disclosure agreement that allegedly prevents…

22 Mar 2018 7 min

From the Wall Street Journal: Facebook's real problem? No one trusts it anymore

Facebook has lost about $60 billion in market cap so far this week on the back of startling revelations about the misuse of user data. But the problem runs deeper than some missteps with Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has been under fire for around two years for a related string of…

21 Mar 2018 9 min

Magnus Heystek - Uncertainty over land tenure driving some farmers into a "scorched earth" approach

I've known Magnus Heystek from virtually the first day I went into financial journalism as a 20 year old back in 1980. We worked for the same publishing house and although never served the same title simultaneously, had parallel careers for a couple decades before he branched out into the…

20 Mar 2018 13 min

From The Wall Street Journal: Robots are already deciding who goes to rehab and who goes to jail

Artificial intelligences are already out in the world playing a role in our decisions. In some cases, they're going one step further and making decisions for us. Increasingly, companies, government agencies, and the police are relying on algorithms to make decisions and allocate resources. Many people believe that this is…

19 Mar 2018 18 min

Roubini exposes Bitcoin manipulators: One of the biggest scams ever, price should be 80% lower

I first came across Nouriel Roubini in 2007 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Back then, the WEF annual meeting would run from the last Tuesday night in January through to Sunday lunchtime. The first must-attend session was a high powered panel discussion on the World Economic Outlook held…

15 Mar 2018 11 min

From The Wall Street Journal: The Age of Quantum Computing is (Almost) Here

Companies in fields as far-flung as automotive, health and financial services are experimenting with quantum computing, a cutting-edge technology that has the potential to solve problems that are intractable for conventional computers. In this podcast the Wall Street Journal's team interviews executives including Martin Hofmann, CIO of Volkswagen Group, and…

13 Mar 2018 19 min

Fighting an existential threat: CEO Gerrie Fourie on Capitec's defence against Viceroy

In December 2017, a previously unknown operation called Viceroy Research shot to prominence when a scathing report on Steinhoff was put into the public domain. The allegations in the report accelerated the demise of what was then the world's second largest furniture group, providing fresh impetus to the panic which…

12 Mar 2018 17 min

It's Ramaphoria vs "Leninist" ANC as Dr Martyn Davies waves some sceptical flags

Whenever opportunity arises, I get together with Dr Martyn Davies, who possesses one of the finest minds I've ever been exposed to. That's become a lot more difficult lately. We live in different cities, and since joining Deloitte after selling his Frontier Advisory firm to the global services giant, Martyn…

10 Mar 2018 17 min

Next stop $2 000 a share as AmazonFresh accelerates its retail swamping tidal wave

In this cracking edition of Rational Perspective, top-rated analyst Scott Mushkin of Wall Street firm Wolfe Research explains why he believes Jeff Bezos's wealth phenomenon Amazon.com will soon break through the $2,000 a share level. Mushkin believes the launch of AmazonFresh will put the group onto an accelerated trajectory. Some…

8 Mar 2018 12 min

Meet "one percenter" Dawid Krige: China-focused Buffett devotee who generated 75% last year

Ever since my first visit to the Berkshire Hathaway AGM back in 2006, I’ve been keeping an eye out for investment professionals who follow the Warren Buffett Playbook. There aren’t as many as you’d expect, considering the fantastic record that the Oracle of Omaha has built-up during more than half…

18 Jan 2018 40 min

Making of a great editor - the George Palmer playbook

George Palmer passed away on New Year's Day 2018. His passing sparked an outpouring of emotion in South Africa, the country where he spent the prime years of his career as a financial editor. In many ways Palmer was the father of business journalism in the country joining the pioneering…

12 Jan 2018 41 min