Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo
Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo
Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo
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21 20021 200WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS21 20021 20020 40020 20020 00019 800tTHERE’S A WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS GOING ON. Everybody knows that. Our television screens and newspapersare full <strong>of</strong> it. We’ve all heard about such things as sub-prime lending, credit crunches, collapsing banks,economic recessions, tens <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> job losses, increasing numbers <strong>of</strong> home repossessions. There havebeen sombre recollections <strong>of</strong> the Wall Street crash <strong>of</strong> 1929 when not a few investors jumped from skyscrapersrather than face disastrous stock exchange losses. If we’re students <strong>of</strong> economics we may even have enteredinto the current philosophical arguments symbolised by Adam Smith, the 18th century father <strong>of</strong> laissez faire,on one side, and on the other Maynard Keynes, the arch proponent, after the Great Depression <strong>of</strong> the 1930s,<strong>of</strong> state intervention into and control <strong>of</strong> national economies. But what does it all mean – and not least forordinary South Africans? In the pages that follow, some answers emerge from the Turfloop campus <strong>of</strong> the<strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Limpopo</strong>.19 60019 40019 20019 000To begin with, the Governor <strong>of</strong> the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni, is an honorary pr<strong>of</strong>essor in the Department<strong>of</strong> Economics and at the end <strong>of</strong> March he was on campus to deliver his annual lecture. He had some wisethings to say to a packed lecture hall. As counterpoint, the caretaker director <strong>of</strong> the School <strong>of</strong> Social Sciences,Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Sello Sithole, examines the socio-political consequences <strong>of</strong> the economic recession in South Africa.Both these contributions make for essential reading for those interested in the economic mysteries andanomalies that stalk abroad in the world today.18 80018 600P A G E 1 0