Dan Atkinson explains why the diamond continues to sparkle around the world Ask any businessperson to forecast the outlook for a product which last year saw sales dive 20% in the Far East, which meant extensive smuggling and selling on illicit markets around the world and which even saw that product enjoy its own health […]

The South African Mint is certainly coining it, reports Belinda Beresford Lost down the back of sofas, stored in glass jars, hiding at the bottom of pockets or simply discarded, South Africans are very careless with their coins and about one billion new coins are needed each year to replace those removed from circulation. This […]

South Africans have cottoned on fast to the saving — not spending — prospects of credit cards, reports Belinda Beresford More and more South Africans are using their credit cards to save as well as to spend. Banks report rising numbers of customers using their plastic as de facto savings accounts to take advantage of […]

FRIDAY, 11.10AM: INDIA’s Under-19 squad beat Pakistan by five wickets in their MTN U19 World Cup semifinal match at Kingsmead on Thursday, but it was not enough to take them into Sunday’s final at the Wanderers. Pakistan hit 188 all out in 47 overs, to which India replied with 191/5 in 40,1. South Africa are […]

Between Whitewater and “fornigate”, President Bill Clinton will probably not be remembered for his honesty or integrity. But he did get one thing right. Remember the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid”? Bandied about when he first hit the campaign trail, back in 1992, he has certainly made good his claim. The economy is going great […]

The powerful number crunchers keep getting it wrong, writes Alex Brummer Every decade or so the men in grey suits from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington touch all of our lives. Today it is happening in Asia. In its early years the fund’s main customers were the Western economies themselves: even the mighty […]

FRIDAY, 5.45PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended slightly firmer on Friday following a good performance by industrials. By the close the JSE the financial index had slid seven points to 11 209, and the gold index was likewise seven points weaker at 881, as the gold price failed to hold recent gains. The industrial index […]

Ferial Haffajee and Janet Smith The figures alone are enough to make you square-eyed. Together seven bidders for this country’s first national private and free television service have laid out R2.1- million to apply for a licence and each claims to have already spent between R2 and R3-million to finance the biggest media race yet […]

Why do we go on forking out for insurance, asks Rich Chanelle from London I give away about R8 000 a year. I don’t give it to good causes or charities. I don’t even give it to people that I like! I give R8 000 away, every year, to tycoons and multicorporations. Why not give […]

David Shapshak Subscribe to a free e-mail service and you will discover that you are merely another notch in someone’s pitch to win advertising on the Internet. Free e-mail on the Internet is driven by suppliers who view it as a way of enticing Web advertising. Their wares are displayed on a free e-mail home […]