Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Jacob-Zuma-Inflation-Denialist.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Jacob-Zuma-Inflation-Denialist.html The queues in Zimbabwe, that shopper's paradise, were extra long this Christmas. Ordinary people were withdrawing their maximum daily allowance of Z$ 50 million while business owners were shunted to the back. Their allowance is a substantially more generous Z$ 750 million and Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, said that they could wait. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Of-Capitalism-Socialist-Greed-Poverty-and-Remaining-Silent.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Of-Capitalism-Socialist-Greed-Poverty-and-Remaining-Silent.html It is rare that major businesses dare to stick their necks out and object to government policy. Mostly they're too busy keeping their heads down to avoid all the shrapnel sent their way. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Exports-and-parliamentary-laziness.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Exports-and-parliamentary-laziness.html There are few moments at which business executives may safely weep and earn nothing but respect and admiration. One of these is at the opening of a new manufacturing plant. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/This-festive-season-the-accumulating-effects-of-individual-activity.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/This-festive-season-the-accumulating-effects-of-individual-activity.html There are plenty of good reasons to buy hand-made or bespoke goods. There is the support of individual craftsmanship, high-quality originality, and ensuring that life doesn't become a mass of hum-drum sameness. Declaring that "hand-made" is more efficient and better for the environment is not one of them. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Trevor-Manuel-and-the-Plunder-of-Skills.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Trevor-Manuel-and-the-Plunder-of-Skills.html Trevor Manuel, South Africa's long-serving Minister of Finance, has had a busy time of it. When he hasn't been demanding reform at the IMF, he has been lecturing the US and Western Europe on their theft of valuable skilled people from our nation. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/100-Days-of-Sodom.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/100-Days-of-Sodom.html Public Works Minister Thoka Didiza is considering importing an Indian employment model that will guarantee every household the right to 100 days of paid work per year. Didiza, as a representative of the state, is promising people the right to a job based on the premise that not having a job is sufficient reason to get one. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Slaves-to-land-the-policies-of-Land-Affairs.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Slaves-to-land-the-policies-of-Land-Affairs.html The land that peasant farmers, or shack-dwellers, live on is frequently either public land, or land that vests in a tribal chief. The residents act to improve that land in some form, either by farming it or building a home on it. Neither the improvement or the land are theirs to trade. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Killing-the-Golden-Goose-a-lesson-in-Economic-Freedom.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/Killing-the-Golden-Goose-a-lesson-in-Economic-Freedom.html Aesop's Fables tell of a Golden Goose that, each day, would lay a single golden egg. The farmer who owned the goose was ecstatic but it wasn't long before his wonder gave way to greed. http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/The-Miracle-of-Investment.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/The-Miracle-of-Investment.html "Look here," said the man in the parking lot. "No, I'm not begging. Look at this chair. It is the first one he has made." http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/The-redistribution-of-poverty.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1596/The-redistribution-of-poverty.html Governments and social movements the world over often call for the redistribution of wealth; that the people with money and assets should give some of these to the poor. They believe that it is merely the absence of cash that makes poor people poor. They are wrong.