Lelo Nxumalo

The following is a presentation I gave to colleagues at the Kennedy School on a book called "The Rise of the Rest: Challenges to the West from Late Industrializing Economies".  The book examines how latecomers caught up in an environment in which knowledge was difficult to access and constituted an entry barrier of incumbent firms. It analyzes the general properties of “pure learning,” or industrializing “late,” on the initial basis of technologies that were already commercialized by firms from other countries. "After World War II a handful of countries outside the North Atlantic—”the rest”—rose to the ranks of world-class competitors in a wide range of mid-technology industries. National incomes soared at unprecedented rates and per capita incomes doubled within decades."  _A.H. Amsden

Below are guiding principles (borrowed from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) focusing on who I want to be and what I would like to do. It is a personal creed upon which doing and being are based. Succeed at home first Never compromise with honesty Remember the people involved Hear both sides before judging Obtain counsel of others Defend those who are absent Be sincere yet decisive Develop one new proficiency a year Plan tomorrow's work today Hustle while you wait Maintain a positive attitude Keep a sense of humor Be orderly in person and in work Do not fear mistakes, fear only the absence of creative, constructive and corrective responses to those mistakes Facilitate the success of others I will listen twice as much as you speak Concentrate all abilities and efforts on the task at hand, not worrying about the next job or promotion Be a concerned and informed global citizen  I will be a self starting individual who exercises initiative in accomplishing ...

I recently learned that Zimbabwe was left with just over $200 in the bank after paying civil servants. "If Zimbabwe was a private company it would have closed down," Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti told reporters this week. But it appears that the Minister's remarks may have been taken out of context. According to NPR , he was making the point that the ministry does not have sufficient funds to run the upcoming referendum elections. The election will cost about 100 million dollars and the treasury has some 30 million. The revenue streams, however, do need a boost as current expenditure on such things as teacher salaries cannot, in all fairness go down. The cost of living is quite high in Zimbabwe. I know this because I was home for the holidays. The government might look at raising taxes but on whom? The ongoing indigenization laws, which require foreign firms to yield 51% ownership to black Zimbabweans will push out investment "killing the goose that lay...

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's latest loss to PM Morgan Tsvangirai at the country's highest court could signal a return to the rule of law. The appeal is over Mugabe's unilateral appointment of the 10 provincial governors despite a Global Political Agreement stating that this should be a joint decision between the three political parties. Mugabe's lawyers argued that the president could not be sued. It might be too early to tout the latest draft constitution as having had something to do with this, but one could argue that the country's judiciary is beginning to treat Mugabe as under the law like everybody else. One can only hope that the hearing on this case will be an harbinger for untainted institutions and an independent judiciary.

So the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) just upheld the key provision of 'Obamacare', namely the requirement  that all people have health insurance. Needless to say this is good news for the president's base but those on the right fear that this decision violates their freedom to choose not to buy coverage. An economic argument in favor of the mandate was presented way back by Mankiw , Krugman , and others even before the Obama team added the provision to their own plan. I advise reading the whole 2007 NYT blog post, but here is an excerpt, "...the point of a mandate isn’t to dictate how people should live their lives — it’s to prevent some people from gaming the system. Under the Obama plan [ before the individual mandate was added ], healthy people could choose not to buy insurance, then sign up for it if they developed health problems later. This would lead to higher premiums for everyone else. It would reward the irresponsible, while punishing those ...

A friend on facebook wanted to know what I thought about professor Krugman or, to be more specific, his appearance on PBS , and below is what I had to say. [Krugman] is admired and despised at the same time by many as the video shows but I have read his book, " End this Depression Now ", and I have to say his arguments are quite convincing. Many worry that the book and indeed many of his NYTimes blog posts do not really talk about the implications of amassing debt for future generations. But his argument is that we are going through a slump right now, and for a lot of people in this country things have actually gotten worse while many of the banks who helped steer the global economy into the ditch got bailed out and have started turning a profit. He recommends mortgage relief - renegotiating contracts for example, to help the ordinary people who have seen their networth tumble as they lose their homes to foreclosure. Since the private economy is not showing sufficient eno...