It probably matters less how your economy is being buffeted by the world if you are not sure whether it really is yours. Most South Africans don’t know this, but the markets in which many people’s pension funds are invested are in the doldrums. The main reason is not anything our politicians have said or done. It is that the president of the country with the world’s biggest economy is trying to choke the world economy by starting trade wars with his allies and is also causing great uncertainty by not saying the same thing on the issue any two days in a row. Most people in this country don’t know this because trends in the world economy are usually treated here as news from another planet. If the global economy were to collapse entirely, throwing everyone into poverty, it would probably be days before anyone here besides a handful of specialists noticed. In many countries, most people probably don’t take much notice of the world economy. What makes indifference to it here interesting...

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