POINT OF ORDER
TIM COHEN: South African economic debate remains mired as the world moves on
Just as economists on the right are dominated by bank economists, economists on the left are dominated by vociferous trade unionists
At the Small Business Institute’s indaba in Bryanston last week, Judge Dennis Davis, chairman of the eponymous tax committee, bemoaned during his keynote address the parlous state — in his view — of the economic debate in SA at the moment. I agree with him, but for totally different reasons. He made it clear his biggest gripe was with people he describes as "market fundamentalists", and I guess he is referring to the fact that high-level economics in SA is somewhat dominated by bank-employed economists whose job is rooted in trying to understand market dynamics rather than to change them. He makes the point, as anti-market fundamentalists (if that’s a real description) often do, that SA’s Constitution enjoins us to not only develop a free society but to build a society that provides the basic necessities for a decent life: health, education, housing and so on. During a subsequent session, I was one of the members of a panel, and this proposition was put in a question from the floor....
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