Short-term reasons for rising food prices include low stockpiles, a rough growing season, and demand for grain-based ethanol. Maybe it is a good time to start stockpiling, writes Nick Hodge in the Energy & Capital newsletter.

The mortgage industry is often described as one of feast or famine; when the economy is strong mortgage lendings are high, but when recession hits these organisations struggle with low volumes, writes Roger Warner.

With South Africa less than three months away from going to the polls in country-wide municipal elections, what has been happening in the Wesselton township at Ermelo might be an ominous sign that substantial numbers of South Africans have lost faith in the way democracy is functioning in the country. It is also not the only sign.

Over a period of less than 10 days February has already seen two announcements of mega-mergers between some of the world’s larges bourses as globalisation in share trading seems to be moving to the next level in a trend that could eventually make the concept of national exchanges obsolete.

Recent changes to South Africa’s Companies Act, placing greater responsibilities on the shoulders of board members of companies, is in line with an international push in that direction, but it could also represent in some respects a case of maybe throwing the baby out with the bath water.

When the Winklevoss twins called on Mark Zuckerberg to help them programme their new campus website at Harvard, they had no idea that they would end up fighting him for the rights to Facebook in a law suit worth billions of dollars - bringing to light some important issues regarding the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The initial hype of the massive dumping of American diplomatic cables in the public domain is behind us, but the impact of the WikiLeaks story will linger for some time to come. In fact it is unlikely to ever go back to business as usual for governments, corporations or any other institution operating in the public domain.

In his recent State of the Nation address president Jacob Zuma again promised that some five million jobs will be created in the coming years. Considering the results of previous such promises and the state of the earthly economy, many commentators regard the promises as pie in the sky. This might be more appropriate than these commentators realise.

 “At a calculated guess, it could be South Africa’s turn to grab the trophy,” is the verdict of Martin Crowe, arguably New Zealand’s finest-ever batsman, about the possible champions of the current Cricket World Cup at the end of only the first weekend of the six-week tournament.

The Lions might have come up short in terms of the scoreboard, and might
have suffered their 14^th Super Rugby defeat in succession at Ellis Park on Saturday, but it could have been an error in judgement to prematurely dismiss their title chances in this series.

The 2010 Matric pass rate of 67.8%, which has been trumpeted as a resounding success and a huge improvement by most officials, does not necessarily reflect the state of readiness which universities demand, as many high-school learners are ill-equipped to cope at tertiary level.

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“Worth a read?” is not your ordinary book review; it is a meta-review. In other words, it provides an overview of the opinions contained in a variety of book reviews published in the media at large. This week’s meta-review is of “The Mind’s Eye”, written by Oliver Sacks and published in November 2010.