Latest / Strictly Business / Shapiroworld by Strictly Business

Transcript

Shapiroworld by Strictly Business · Strictly Business

0:00
You're listening to Strictly Business Podcast with Lindsay Williams.
0:05
It's Monday so it's time for Shapiro World with David Shapiro from SAS for
0:11
Insecurities in Johannesburg.
0:13
Now, David I want to talk to you about something that has temporarily stalled the
0:17
equity bull market and this is one of the reasons for it - the main reason for it.
0:21
It says here: Dear Ambassador, President Trump has asked the following message
0:27
shared with Prime Minister Jonas
0:29
Gjersturre Be forwarded to your, and then it says named head of government or state.
0:34
Now this is the letter.
0:34
It says here, dear Jonas,
0:38
considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having
0:44
stopped eight wars
0:46
plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, capital P, although
0:51
it will always be predominant,
0:53
but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
0:57
Denmark, yes.
0:57
cannot protect that land from Russia or China.
1:01
And why do they have a right of ownership anyway?
1:04
There are no written documents.
1:06
It's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats
1:11
landing there also.
1:13
I've done more for NATO than any other person since its founding.
1:15
And now NATO should do something for the United States.
1:19
The world is not secure unless we can have complete and total control of Greenland.
1:24
Thank you President DG DJT.
1:29
Well, first of all, where does the Nobel Prize come from?
1:33
It's Stockholm.
1:36
It comes from Norway, but this was to the Norwegian...
1:41
This was from the Norway...
1:42
Oh, so what's it got to do with...
1:43
Exactly, what's it got to do with Norway?
1:45
Yeah, this is Denmark.
1:48
So he sends it to Norway.
1:51
You know, honestly, Lindsay, I understand...
1:56
I can't believe this is the presence of the United States.
1:59
I can't believe,
2:01
I don't know enough about history to claim that nobody else acted this way.
2:07
You know, I don't know enough about the former presidents.
2:10
I know very little.
2:12
I know their names probably, but never understanding what they did in office.
2:16
But each day that we, I don't want to say suffer Mr.
2:22
Trump, but each day that we're exposed to him is another day of fatiguing
2:26
fatigue and exasperation.
2:31
I can't believe this Greenland episode, that he's actually going ahead with it.
2:37
And he's antagonizing.
2:39
You see the response by the European Presidents and even Mark, I mean,
2:44
European leaders as well as Mark Carney who's now coming to their assistance.
2:50
Anybody who's NATO or he said we will send troops also to Greenland, you know,
2:56
to help protect it from Russia or China, whoever's going to invade it, which is
3:02
never going to happen.
3:04
No one would ever risk doing something like that.
3:06
And I think they've got more respect, Russia or
3:11
China, for world peace or for what it might provoke.
3:15
So I find it, honestly, when I say impregnable,
3:19
it's unbelievable that he can do go ahead and do this,
3:25
and without anybody acting up in government in the United States.
3:31
There's no filter system.
3:33
I mean, they should be able to it should be sent to a couple of mediators or
3:39
something,
3:40
or people with brains.
3:42
They'll say, Mr.
3:43
President, we know you like true social and everything, but we really think that
3:49
at 3 o'clock in the morning, because you can't sleep,
3:51
maybe your mind isn't working.
3:53
as sharply as it normally does, send it to us first, please.
3:55
He's rattling off this thing at three in the morning or something.
3:59
As soon as he doesn't get any attention, he probably watches Fox or CNN or NBC or
4:05
something.
4:05
And if he's not the top story, then he'll make himself the top story by writing this
4:12
drivel.
4:14
I mean, this is a 79-year-old president of the United States.
4:17
Nabele Price.
4:18
I mean, to talk about that, just go...
4:20
go and do what you were elected to do, run the country, run it well, make it
4:26
prosperous.
4:28
But the way that he carries about doing it is honestly childish, so infantile.
4:34
You know, what worries me though, Lindsay, is that I keep asking, I keep asking,
4:41
who else can we turn to?
4:43
You know, Macron, Starmer.
4:45
I think the only one is Merz from Germany, who's showing any kind of statesmanship,
4:52
standing up to him and maybe saying to him, "Okay, it's enough.
4:56
Just start acting maturely."
5:00
You're going to break a NATO agreement which will kill it, you know, which will
5:06
break the whole NATO apart.
5:08
You need NATO, particularly if you need a unified force against Russia, whatever it
5:12
is.
5:13
But to carry on the way that he does simply after these episodes in Venezuela,
5:19
you know,
5:21
I don't know where he ends.
5:23
You don't know.
5:25
Lindsay, you know what my worry is?
5:27
I don't know where this I don't know how this translates into business.
5:30
materialistic attitudes because he enforces how to bond business as well.
5:36
He tells you where you can trade, who you can deal with.
5:40
You can't go into this country.
5:42
And I've been discussing it with regards to South Africa because we're not the
5:47
favorite,
5:49
particularly with our friendship with Iran and Iran having invited them to
5:53
observe the exercises down in Simons Town, the naval exercises.
5:59
with China and Russia, our friendly allies.
6:05
My worry is that he can go to any business and say, "Okay, we don't want you to deal
6:12
in South Africa.
6:14
I don't like South Africa." Regardless of what Congress says about Agawa, "I don't
6:18
like South Africa.
6:20
I don't want you to conduct business in South Africa."
6:21
We had it before with sanctions where there were sanctions against the apartheid
6:26
But I mean,
6:28
he can easily do it to any business.
6:29
Yes, but David,
6:30
I think what the world has done and that was proven by that letter from Annabel
6:37
Bishop that I read,
6:39
or rather that research note from Annabel Bishop.
6:40
And I can't remember what the phraseology was.
6:42
I'm trying to find it here.
6:43
But essentially, what's happening is that people are saying, OK, well, our goods are
6:50
now 25%
6:52
more expensive in the United States than America.
6:52
So our customers won't accept that.
6:55
So they go elsewhere.
6:56
And they've been quite successful, the southern hemisphere countries,
7:03
of trading with themselves.
7:05
Now here's the article.
7:06
Please forgive me, David.
7:08
I know you're not a great fan and you think that America is the be-all and
7:13
end-all.
7:14
But actually it's not.
7:15
And I say that in the nicest possible way.
7:18
Okay.
7:19
The change in trade patterns, Annabel Bishop says, which has been a key driver
7:24
of resilience...
7:26
has included friend-shoring, near-shoring and on-shoring.
7:29
So in other words, people close to you and people that like you.
7:31
I think that's what it means.
7:33
So I don't think South Africa, if they've got a good trade minister and a good team,
7:40
should be too worried if Trump doesn't like them.
7:42
Because first of all, Trump's not going to be there forever and all this will be
7:46
reversed.
7:48
Yeah, yeah.
7:49
Go on.
7:49
OK, carry on.
7:50
No, no.
7:51
My view is no.
7:52
My view is not against the trade.
7:54
It's against...
7:55
Sitting in front of me, I've got Office 365.
7:59
Right.
7:59
Okay?
8:00
You know, I've got the software.
8:01
I use Amazon.
8:03
I use whatever I do throughout my the phone I hold is an Apple phone, whatever
8:09
it is.
8:11
It's those companies that are ChatGPT, you name it.
8:15
Those kind of the software, the programs that I use,
8:19
those are the ones that I worry about more so than than where we sell our, you know,
8:25
where we sell our bananas or where we sell our oranges.
8:28
So I think it's that side of it that they can make things very difficult.
8:32
You know, withholding tech, withholding medicine, you know,
8:38
withholding pharmaceuticals, withholding things like, So you think he might phone
8:45
up Microsoft and say,
8:47
"You're not allowed to supply software.
8:47
You're not allowed to supply this link anymore." That's easy to get around.
8:52
It's an inconvenience.
8:53
But I know what you're saying.
8:55
Is he that bothered though?
8:56
He's got so many things on his plate.
8:59
One day he'll say, "Right, who can I have a go at next because I've done
9:04
everything?" And maybe South Africa is on the list.
9:06
Maybe the whole of sub-Saharan Africa is on the list.
9:07
He's a spiteful man.
9:07
Who is a nasty little thing.
9:10
we annoy him.
9:12
We annoy him because of our friendship with China and, you know,
9:18
overtly with China, Iran, whoever, Russia, and so on.
9:24
And, you know, we put it up his nose.
9:27
So I think that he can turn very, very spiteful.
9:31
And he's that kind of person.
9:33
He can stop visas.
9:35
You know, he can stop...
9:36
I know he's got a long list of countries there.
9:38
It's very difficult to Good Aviza.
9:41
I think I might be wrong in what I'm saying now,
9:45
but if you're in Namibia and you want a visa to the United States, you've got to
9:51
put down a deposit,
9:53
a $10,000 deposit for a visa or something like that.
9:55
So those are the kind of issues that they can make very uncomfortable for us.
10:01
If you watch the youngsters here at school, they want to play basketball.
10:07
Their music is American.
10:10
I know they can...
10:12
It's not that important, but it's still a very important culture as far as we're
10:18
concerned.
10:20
People want to still be more associated with the US here,
10:22
the young upcoming people rather than Russia or Iran or
10:29
anything like that.
10:30
It's true.
10:32
I worry about that.
10:33
I don't worry any more.
10:35
I sort of got into a situation.
10:38
that you alluded to when we spoke to Viv on Thursday about becoming depressed.
10:42
At first, you sort of gnashing your teeth and say, "Oh, this is terrible.
10:45
How can he say that?" And you get a bit angry.
10:47
And then you start to get depressed by it.
10:49
And you start to say, "He can't get any worse than this."
10:52
And I thought he couldn't get any worse than this with his rant about Greenland.
10:57
And the first one where he mentioned the boats.
11:00
The boats, goodness sake.
11:01
America wasn't even invented when Danish boats, when the Vikings pitched off
11:07
wherever it was.
11:09
at Greenland three, four hundred years ago.
11:11
America was populated by Americans, i.e.
11:13
Native Americans.
11:15
They didn't have boats.
11:15
They had plenty of bison in America.
11:18
They didn't need to go to Greenland to slaughter polar bears and things like
11:22
that.
11:22
I'm being facetious, but you know what I mean.
11:23
No, you're right.
11:24
You're right.
11:25
But what worries me this time is that I was watching English or British breakfast
11:32
television and suddenly they said, right,
11:34
we're now crossing to number 10 Downing Street for...
11:35
an address to the nation by Sakhir Starmer.
11:38
You don't make an address to the nation calling for unity and everyone supporting
11:43
each other,
11:45
unless you know that something's amiss, something's afoot, something's a little
11:49
bit more serious than usual.
11:51
And I think this time, the Trump always chickens out thing,
11:55
the taco moniker that he's got isn't going to apply because of the midterm elections
12:02
coming up this year.
12:04
I think he's going to follow through with something, whether it be bullying people
12:07
into
12:08
Greenland, into letting him buy the country or buy a small invasion.
12:13
I'm not sure, David, but it feels different this time.
12:16
It does.
12:17
You know, he's got a lot on his plate at the moment.
12:19
He's got, first of all, his attack on Powell is not going his way.
12:25
You know, there's big opposition to that.
12:29
He's got the issues in Minnesota with us.
12:32
where there's a mass outcry against the conduct of those ICE agents,
12:38
the death of that lady.
12:39
I can't remember her name at the moment.
12:41
Good.
12:41
Her surname was good.
12:43
Yeah, anyway.
12:45
Whatever it is, yeah.
12:47
So there's huge outcries against that.
12:50
No one's Venezuela hasn't been well-received by the oil companies.
12:55
They don't want to be forced into doing business there.
12:57
So I think there are a lot of things that are not Really going his way.
13:02
His ratings are still rock bottom, he can't understand that.
13:07
And he's now got this issue,
13:08
the Greenland issue where his allies are coming out against him and vehemently so.
13:14
So you know it's...
13:16
and I think down the line people are just like okay we've had enough.
13:20
You know there was opposition to the Powell issue from within the banking
13:27
committees in Congress
13:29
And Minnesota, the same kind of thing, mess out crisis.
13:31
So I don't think it's all going his way.
13:35
It doesn't seem that way.
13:37
And you can see by the stock market, you can see by the bond market, you can see by
13:41
the dollar.
13:42
The bond market is the big one.
13:43
I really do believe that certain people, certain massive investors and we know the
13:49
bond market is the biggest market in the world.
13:51
We talk about trillion-dollar companies on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ,
13:56
etc., But the really,
13:58
really big money and the money that is important to the United States to keep it
14:03
afloat, of course, is foreign bond investments.
14:05
And that US 10-year bond has quietly gone from
14:09
3%, just sub 4%, 3.98%, 3.99%.
14:15
Late November, early December, I think it was when I first said to Skulk Lowe, your
14:21
mate who you're on TV with every week, I said my tip for
14:23
2026 would be to sell the bonds, in other words, the yield is going to rise.
14:26
And here we are at 4.25%.
14:29
It's a 26, 27 basis point move.
14:31
Doesn't sound like a lot, David, but you know how much money that is?
14:35
And you look at the 30-year as well.
14:37
America's going to have a problem and people's shelter costs every month, it's
14:43
part of CPI.
14:45
How much you're paying for your rent, how much you're paying for your mortgage, et
14:49
cetera, are not going to go down.
14:51
In fact, they're going to go up.
14:53
And that's a big, big problem.
14:55
problem for Trump, I think.
14:57
That's his but you see, the short rate, that's Fed policy.
14:58
You know, that's your overdraft rate or your overnight rate with the Fed.
15:03
That's easily controlled by the Fed.
15:05
But your long rate is the market, and the market is telling you what they think of
15:10
you.
15:10
That's why it's so important what they think of your policies, where they think
15:15
America will be down the line.
15:17
And they see inflation.
15:19
They see a burgeoning budget, a deficit.
15:22
and in a higher debt.
15:24
So it's not going their way.
15:27
It's steady-ish at the moment,
15:29
but look at gold heading 4,600 towards 5,000.
15:35
Platinum is going through the roof.
15:36
And silver, which is very close to Americans' hearts.
15:40
They've always been silver traders.
15:42
They're just literally taking in the family silver and having it melted down
15:49
into ingots and
15:51
ingots.
15:53
And cashing it in.
15:55
You remember, you know, in the old days of dinner parties and things like that,
15:56
you'd have a silver tray and the sugar basin.
16:01
In my house we didn't, but anyway.
16:05
Now you don't have anything like that.
16:07
You know, you have Uber Eats or whatever it is we eat out of packets.
16:11
But I think anybody who ever got that for either an anniversary, wedding, or
16:18
engagement, you're now cashing it in.
16:20
What do we do with the silver?
16:22
Hey.
16:24
Hey.
16:26
No, $90 an ounce.
16:28
Okay.
16:30
Yeah, there will be a scrap trade.
16:32
There will be a scrap trade.
16:34
Of course there will be.
16:36
Of course.
16:38
Silver, $93.45 in mid-October.
16:40
It was $50.
16:42
It's nearly doubled.
16:44
Lindsay, it's mad.
16:46
It's astonishing.
16:48
I mean, it's crazy.
16:50
You know, the silver coins you used to get, the tickies and sixpences, you know.
16:52
Yeah.
16:54
Gold is $4,667 an ounce, David.
16:56
Well, that's telling you.
16:58
The famous story.
17:00
You want a gauge?
17:02
Gordon Brown sold the last of the
17:04
Bank of England's reserves that he was allowed to sell at $252 per ounce.
17:05
Well done, Gordon.
17:06
No, it's a big worry.
17:09
The whole commodity sector is a big worry.
17:11
It is inflationary.
17:13
And I think the bond market will surprise you this year.
17:16
Whether the equities go with it or not, I don't know.
17:20
They can dislocate themselves.
17:21
They normally go in opposite directions, don't they?
17:23
But this time, I don't know, David.
17:26
I don't know if we could get a bit of a washout.
17:28
We need a washout, don't we?
17:29
You know what?
17:33
His conduct worries me.
17:34
I really mean it.
17:36
You know, I'm so bullish on the market.
17:38
When I say so bullish, I thought we were going into a year,
17:43
a much more peaceful year,
17:45
in which we were focused for the first time in years since COVID back on getting
17:52
countries
17:54
into growth, you know, into growing economies.
17:55
You know, helping creating jobs.
18:00
I think AI is a big driver.
18:02
It would have been a big driver or could still be a big driver of growth.
18:06
And starting to stabilize things where we get back into, you know, not, not, you
18:12
know,
18:13
Going from one crisis to another crisis and suddenly within two weeks of the new
18:19
year, three weeks,
18:21
we've got Mr.
18:23
Trump going mad again, you know, uncontrolled.
18:25
And with this madness now of Greenland, where does it come from?
18:29
Where does this madness come from that this is going to be invaded?
18:34
There was a very good article about a chap called one of the French cosmetic barons.
18:41
Was it Lauder?
18:43
I think it was one...
18:44
Ronald Lauder.
18:45
Ronald Lauder, yeah.
18:46
He's a big mate of Trump's and he invested a lot in Greenland and he's had the ear of
18:53
Donald Trump for a
18:55
long time.
18:57
I think it came from him because Trump obviously doesn't know where Greenland is
19:01
or didn't until it was pointed out
19:03
to him.
19:05
He had no idea.
19:07
He looks at the map from one side.
19:09
If you show him the Arctic and America and Russia from the top, he wouldn't know what
19:11
you were showing him.
19:13
You wouldn't realize that they're actually right next to each other up there.
19:15
But you know what I mean?
19:16
I think it was Ronald Lauder that got him into this.
19:19
The older brother died.
19:21
There were two Lauder brothers.
19:24
The older one died recently.
19:28
Could have been that one.
19:29
But there was one who had big interest.
19:32
I mean, how big an interest can you have in a country with a population of 57,000?
19:38
But anyway, that was the rumor going around.
19:40
It was him.
19:41
But whatever it is, he's got a bug in him and it's an itch and he wants to scratch
19:47
it.
19:47
And scratch it he will.
19:49
Honestly, yeah.
19:49
I think so.
19:51
So what do you do, Dave?
19:52
You do absolutely nothing.
19:53
I saw a really good chart.
19:54
I think it came from...
19:56
Isaac Udendahl, I can't remember where he works these days.
20:00
I used to interview him and it said, you know, market plotted events.
20:04
It says Iraq invades Kuwait and this happened and that happened right back to
20:10
World War II.
20:12
And it shows you the market reaction as a tiny little blip where it goes down and
20:16
then it goes shooting up again.
20:18
So this is a buying opportunity if it continues, don't you think?
20:20
Yeah, it will be a buying opportunity, but we just have to overcome.
20:26
You know, these outbursts from time to time and hope that there's not too much
20:32
damage.
20:34
That he doesn't do too much.
20:34
That he quietens down after a while, you know, which he tends to do.
20:38
He suddenly says, okay, I've done enough of that.
20:40
Let's go look for something else.
20:42
Yeah, it's enough.
20:45
And I don't think he expected the opposition.
20:47
He's off to Davos this week and it's going to be very uncomfortable for him because I
20:54
don't think This time, as you say,
20:56
Keir Starmer, Macron and the Wurz, all these leaders are standing up to him and
21:01
say, you know,
21:01
behave yourself.
21:02
And I don't think he can afford to.
21:05
As much as
21:06
America as powerful as America is militarily and financially in that,
21:12
you can't stand up to a bloc like Europe.
21:16
You can call them whatever you like.
21:18
He can't afford to do that.
21:21
And he's got Mark Carney on his borders.
21:23
He'll have the other, I don't know whether Mexico will get involved or anything like
21:28
it.
21:28
I don't think it's in their interest.
21:29
But, you know, in the meantime, Xi is just looking at
21:36
Trump and just saying, you know, shaking his head, say, please just keep doing what
21:40
you're doing.
21:40
You know, you're just making me, as you say with Annabelle Bishop's report or
21:46
piece, you know,
21:48
you're just making China more powerful.
21:50
I don't think Russia is a problem, but...
21:50
But certainly China is benefiting from all of this.
21:53
If you sit back...
21:54
And also his fear, his fears, you know?
21:58
The great thing is that he keeps on talking about these
22:01
Russian and Chinese submarines and warships circling
22:06
Greenland like hyenas circling a kill or something.
22:11
They're not saying anything.
22:12
The Chinese and the Russians are saying what I said in a post that I put onto
22:17
LinkedIn.
22:19
I said...
22:21
Just leave him alone and he'll destroy himself.
22:21
Who was it?
22:22
It was Napoleon Bonaparte who said that.
22:25
He said something very clever about that.
22:27
And there was also in the Art of War,
22:30
there was a quote as well that basically says just if your enemy's making mistakes,
22:36
don't intervene, just leave them to it.
22:39
And that is what Trump is doing now.
22:41
He's crossed lines now.
22:42
He's crossed a big line.
22:44
The European Union is 400 million people.
22:46
It's got 100 million more people than America.
22:49
Okay, militarily it's not as strong, but it's got a hell of a lot of purchasing
22:54
power, David.
22:56
Oh, yeah.
22:58
I know.
23:00
Of course it has.
23:02
You know, it's a bit I always call it a historical theme park, you know,
23:04
but still it's very, very powerful.
23:07
You're just jealous.
23:07
A very powerful bloc.
23:09
No, no.
23:10
Just jealous you can't walk down lovely alleyways and find little cafes and go
23:13
there.
23:14
You did right.
23:15
You did right.
23:16
I'm not even going to deny that.
23:19
I was just looking at commodities as silver year on year up 206%.
23:24
Lithium has bounced back as well.
23:26
That was in the doldrums.
23:27
That's up 94% year on year.
23:30
Platinum 148% in 12 months.
23:33
These are massive moves.
23:36
They will come back to bite Mr. Trump through interest rates and rising
23:42
inflation and everything else.
23:44
But the fact is that I'm using AI more,
23:46
which is a good indicator that the real world is as well.
23:51
And it's going to carry on.
23:53
The interesting thing about our chat with Viv was what we'd been talking about
23:57
before as well.
23:59
You've got to be selective now.
24:01
You can't just say, oh, it's got AI in the title of the company, so let's buy it.
24:05
You've got his company, Micron, that he spoke about.
24:07
I looked at the graph after that.
24:09
I couldn't believe it, David.
24:11
What does this thing do?
24:13
You know,
24:13
this is all the memory chips and more so than because you've got to retain all the
24:20
data that you're producing and developing.
24:23
So I think we've moved away from memory.
24:26
the creative chips, those that do all the thinking or the large language models.
24:34
I'm not a viv when it comes to understanding the technology,
24:38
but I think there are peripheral businesses that are going to benefit and
24:45
this is one as well as
24:47
SAMHSA.
24:49
So it's done incredibly well.
24:51
But you know, the whole chain is, the whole AI chain is very interesting.
24:55
I'm If you've seen ASML, I mean,
24:59
which is an indication of what is taking place.
25:02
You've seen TSM, Taiwan Semiconductors results, which shows you the spending is
25:09
not stopping.
25:11
I think we keep going down now to the data centers where Jensen Wang has said,
25:16
listen,
25:16
they're not going to be enough for what we're going to do.
25:19
And remember, this is...
25:22
It's not only America that has to build, the whole world has to build.
25:26
And the other one is the power.
25:27
Oh, we forgot about Mr.
25:28
Trump saying that the AI must now pay for their own power.
25:32
You want our utilities to supply your power?
25:35
We're going to put a 10% surge or whatever it is.
25:39
It carries on all the way.
25:40
He's like, honestly, it's almost like mafiosa.
25:46
He's like protection.
25:47
You've got to give us 10% protection.
25:49
You've got to give us this.
25:50
He's always dealing.
25:51
I don't know what for.
25:53
I don't understand whether he's trying to reduce the deficit or what he's doing,
25:57
but every time he opens his mouth, it's going to cost you 10%, 15%.
26:03
I mean, you don't support us in Greenland, 25% tariffs.
26:07
That's very funny.
26:08
I mean,
26:11
it's comical.
26:12
It's comical.
26:14
It is.
26:14
It is very childish.
26:15
I mean, remember when you're at school, at primary school, etc., you'd have a best
26:19
friend.
26:20
Oh, he's my best friend now.
26:21
He's my best friend.
26:22
Mum, can I have my best friend round to play?
26:23
So yeah.
26:24
And the next week, I hate him.
26:26
I hate him.
26:26
I don't like him anyway.
26:27
You're my best friend now.
26:28
It's the same with Trump.
26:30
He switches allegiances.
26:32
He'll hate Keir Starmer now.
26:33
They're supposed to have this special relationship.
26:36
I've never seen it.
26:37
Trump has played Starmer like a fiddle.
26:40
And I think it's all going to...
26:43
It's all going to collapse.
26:44
I don't think Trump likes anybody.
26:46
I don't think he has any friends.
26:47
All he has is people that are useful or not useful to him.
26:51
That's it.
26:52
It's simple.
26:52
Doesn't like his family, doesn't have any friends.
26:55
That's the end of it.
26:56
Nobody likes him.
27:00
I must say that I sometimes sit here and say, where does one go?
27:05
Where do you find peace and comfort?
27:07
Australia is not what it used to be.
27:09
I think with Albanese, certainly Europe.
27:13
you know where does one go to find peace where do you find maturity in a way you
27:20
know what what's your high
27:22
watermark or what's who's setting the bar high which country well we've got to say
27:26
what you what you want
27:28
david if you want some some lifestyle uh advice we'll get another podcast going
27:33
with a couple of other people it's
27:35
actually an interesting thing because even i'm only slightly younger than you i mean
27:40
i i find that
27:42
i've I'm making a move to the countryside now.
27:43
And I can get on a ferry, which is about a 5K cycle ride from where I'm going to
27:48
live.
27:49
And I can go to a number of North Sea Friesian islands, several of which don't
27:55
allow cars.
27:57
So you go there.
27:59
It's just pieces.
28:01
A couple of little seafood restaurants on the beach.
28:03
Long, beautiful beaches.
28:05
OK, the weather's not exactly like the Seychelles or Mauritius.
28:06
But sometimes you get a beautiful day.
28:09
This is...
28:09
beautiful and when you get there the peace sort of envelops you you can feel a
28:16
definite
28:16
change from the city when you go to places like this i don't know why you're living
28:23
there i don't know why you do it well i do your family and your
28:25
business but one day you'll leave i'm sure i
28:27
must be honest i i seek some kind of peace like that i would love to live in an
28:34
environment where i could just
28:36
walk out and do exactly what you're doing Yes.
28:37
Just get on a ferry or do something.
28:39
You can't do it here, not in Johannesburg.
28:43
I enjoy Johannesburg to a point.
28:45
I used to.
28:45
When I say a point,
28:47
it's got a vibe even over the weekend running around here and that there's a
28:54
pulse and there's still
28:56
a pace even though it's disintegrating.
28:56
Lindsay, if I took pictures of some of the ...
28:59
We've had enormous amounts of rain just to give you a prelude.
29:04
does is it creeps under the roads which haven't been repaired and suddenly you
29:11
find the foundations of those roads
29:13
just being washed away and then you get these massive potholes.
29:16
But when I say massive potholes, I'm talking about swimming pool sized
29:20
potholes.
29:22
Sinkholes in other words really.
29:22
Sinkholes or fish ponds.
29:25
You can actually breed fish in there.
29:27
And you just see, I keep asking myself, who's going to repair it number one?
29:33
And who's going to bear the cost of trying to repair it?
29:37
There's along the way with that, of course, comes outages, power outages,
29:44
water outages and so on.
29:46
And, you know, people are strange.
29:47
They just adapt to whatever's happening around them.
29:50
You know, they just adapt.
29:51
They walk around with, oh, well, you know, here's a pond in the middle of the road.
29:55
I'll just drive around it, you know.
29:58
You know what I mean?
29:59
Oh, well.
30:00
That's the attitude.
30:02
South Africans are very adaptable, aren't they?
30:04
South Africans of all classes and all races.
30:06
They really do.
30:08
The country is still there and it's still a wealthy African country relative to
30:14
other African countries, of course.
30:16
Yeah, they keep saying this is the best place in the world.
30:17
Well, I think I've seen better.
30:20
It's not the best place in the world.
30:22
I think that in terms of topography and variety of geography, it is.
30:27
Probably a contender for the most beautiful country in the world.
30:30
But as for the best country in the world, I'm sorry.
30:33
Do some traveling is what I'd say to that person.
30:39
I just look out my window and look at the traffic lights.
30:41
They're all robots, none of which are working, even though we've got
30:46
electricity.
30:48
Every day they go out.
30:49
I say, hold on a second.
30:51
When I grew up in Joburg, the levels of IT, of technology,
30:56
We're at a substantially lower level than they are now.
30:59
But the robots worked, you know.
31:01
They said red.
31:02
Now, every day they go out.
31:05
I don't know why.
31:06
You know, it's or just the general, you know, the general infrastructure.
31:13
It's decay, isn't it?
31:16
It's infrastructural decay.
31:17
And if the local authorities and the state had the money,
31:23
it would be a bonanza for people.
31:25
that fix these things, if you can find them and if it's not a...
31:29
They can't.
31:30
They can't even find a mayor.
31:33
First of all, I always say how can South Africa ever progress when the people can't
31:39
even read a...
31:41
They don't even know what a stop street means.
31:41
They don't know that you've actually got to stop or they can't obey traffic rules.
31:46
I said how can you ever take it up to higher levels?
31:50
You've got to start at the basics.
31:53
This place, even as I watch here, you can't believe what goes on on a day-to-day
31:58
basis.
32:00
I know it's traffic and that's nothing, but it's the mindset.
32:02
It's the mindset of the people.
32:04
I'm not going to stop because I don't have to.
32:06
Why?
32:06
Because there are no cops, so I stand no problem.
32:10
I'm not likely to get stopped or lose points or do anything.
32:14
Even if I kill people on the road, I'll get out of it, whatever.
32:18
Anyway, let's not be negative.
32:19
Why am I moaning about South Africa?
32:22
Let's not be negative about South Africa.
32:23
You started it, by the way.
32:26
You started it.
32:27
You said you got depressed and I told you to, you know,
32:31
my antidote to depression and I've taken action.
32:35
In a year's time, if we're still doing this, David, I'll still be talking to you.
32:38
You'll still be moaning about a big hole outside your street.
32:41
I know you.
32:44
Anyway, David, anything else you'd like to talk about on the business front?
32:47
Because we've rambled on beautifully.
32:49
I think it's
32:52
America's Clothes.
32:53
It's Martin Luther King Day.
32:55
Oh, do you see what he did?
32:55
He said there's another moment.
32:57
Did you see what jumped in?
32:59
I have to tell you because you've mentioned Martin Luther King Day.
33:02
On Martin Luther King Day, it's a public holiday.
33:07
So Americans are allowed to go into national parks for free.
33:11
And this has been something.
33:12
that has been in place for a couple of decades, whatever it is, ever since
33:17
Martin Luther King Day was made a public holiday.
33:20
Trump revoked that over the weekend.
33:24
He said, no.
33:25
He said, but I'm replacing it with my birthday.
33:27
You can go to free to the parks on my birthday.
33:30
Martin Luther King Day.
33:32
Yeah.
33:33
No, no, no.
33:34
I didn't know this.
33:35
Are you serious?
33:36
Yeah, it was announced this morning.
33:38
I mean, to me, apart from all the things we've said, it's petty.
33:43
It's just attention-seeking, et cetera.
33:45
It's racist.
33:48
It is racist.
33:49
It's just something that...
33:51
Martin Luther King's ancestor...
33:54
Sorry, what are they called?
33:59
Children or grandchildren, or I'm CNN today, and they said, you know, we don't
34:03
know what to do.
34:04
We're not surprised, but they were talking with a heavy heart.
34:09
When this was announced, they revert.
34:12
He was a peace-loving man.
34:13
He wasn't an activist.
34:15
No.
34:16
You know, he was a man to admire,
34:22
Martin Luther.
34:22
He was a man of peace.
34:24
He wanted to bring unity to America at a time where you needed someone like him to
34:30
stand up.
34:31
You know, it's, there's a remarkable monument to him in Washington.
34:38
Yes, I saw it this morning, a beautiful stone, a natural stone monument, isn't it?
34:44
And you know what the worst thing is?
34:45
I'll tell you something of the worst thing that I've been there.
34:49
And please don't take this the wrong way.
34:51
I don't know how to put it.
34:53
You never see whites there.
34:56
It's only, you know, when I've visited that and gone there, I've always, it's a
35:02
It's a beautiful monument,
35:04
a beautiful piece of art.
35:06
America for what it is, you'll only find parties of black people there or colored
35:12
people, whatever you want to say.
35:14
I just can't believe it.
35:16
There's some magnificent monuments there.
35:17
The one I love was the Korean War and so on.
35:21
But this one, if I had a chance, oh, to Roosevelt as well, around the Depression,
35:27
to
35:28
President Roosevelt.
35:30
This one, from an artistic point of view, I absolutely love it.
35:34
The Martin Luther King...
35:35
But it was only attended by black people, African Americans.
35:41
You know you'll find groups that go there.
35:45
I'll dig up a picture and send it to you.
35:48
You'll see what I'm talking about.
35:49
Anyway...
35:49
All right.
35:50
How did we get on to that?
35:51
Oh, I got onto that.
35:52
He's a good man.
35:52
Yeah, it's a holiday today, you were saying, because of Martin Luther King Day,
35:58
and I went off on a tangent.
36:00
So there's nothing really to say, David.
36:02
We've summed it all up.
36:04
There's no I'm just trying to see if there's anything out here today.
36:07
No, there's nothing new today.
36:09
Yeah.
36:09
We can talk about football.
36:10
There's no corporate news or anything.
36:12
What a weekend.
36:13
Hey, you.
36:14
It was an incredible Did you watch?
36:16
Yeah, I watched everything.
36:17
You know what?
36:17
What am I going to do?
36:18
I know.
36:21
I've got nothing to do.
36:23
So of course I did.
36:24
But the two games that really stuck out for me.
36:26
The African Cup of Nations final last night, Morocco against Senegal.
36:31
Did you see it or did you see the highlights?
36:34
Have you read the stories?
36:36
I read the story but, I mean, because my grandchildren were here watching it,
36:42
I had to go out to a dinner and I was sorry to have missed it.
36:45
Incredible.
36:46
But I think it's disgraceful to be honest.
36:52
It's disgraceful what I'm going to say now, because I think they should have had
36:58
a European referee that is used to these type of occasions.
37:00
Firstly, I don't think the referee, an African gentleman,
37:02
had the experience to handle this such an important game.
37:07
Because the African Cup of Nations is a massive tournament now and very important
37:14
to the African economy in
37:16
the very short term.
37:18
But he was so blatantly biased towards Morocco.
37:18
And people are saying, look, they've had a few...
37:21
friendly decisions throughout the tournament.
37:23
But this was just blatant corruption, to me anyway.
37:28
There was something going on there.
37:29
Players don't walk off the pitch like that.
37:32
They're experienced players.
37:33
A lot of them play in Europe.
37:35
And they just said, no, we've seen enough.
37:38
We can't win with this chap in charge.
37:40
So they walked off.
37:41
It was an amazing scene.
37:43
As for the penalty, well, that was funny.
37:46
I had to laugh.
37:47
The Moroccan penalty.
37:49
What was he thinking?
37:52
But yes, there was that and Arsenal and City and Villa all lost in England.
37:57
Weren't they rubbish, all of them?
37:59
Terrible.
38:00
Absolute rubbish.
38:01
I have to admire Man United.
38:03
I think they came back in a way that no one expected them.
38:06
I think the team of the week, certainly Man United.
38:09
Definitely.
38:10
But Aston Villa go down.
38:13
The other Newcastle draw.
38:16
You know, these were no goals.
38:18
There's just nobody scoring goals.
38:22
And honestly, it's from that Arsenal were awful.
38:28
I mean there was not one player that stood out.
38:31
Credit to Nottingham Forest for putting up a fight.
38:37
In fact, there were times that I thought they'd win.
38:41
But I'm worried about Arteta as an Arsenal supporter.
38:47
I don't think he reads the games properly.
38:50
He's top of the league by seven points, David.
38:52
But still, you know what I mean?
38:56
Yeah, he's got a good squad, but instead of knocking them out and saying we're
39:02
going for a win,
39:04
we're going to win this game, he seemed to be I don't know, he seemed to be
39:08
backtracking.
39:10
No one ever kind of you know what I mean?
39:11
If Madekwe or Saka was on his own
39:15
There were three people around him without support because everyone was like hanging
39:19
back.
39:20
Anyway, I just get frustrated.
39:22
I say, just put this away.
39:24
But as for City as well, look, I know they stretched.
39:28
I know they stretched, but also terrible.
39:31
We've got Champions League this week, haven't we?
39:33
Who are Arsenal playing?
39:35
Isn't it this week?
39:36
Yeah, they're playing Inter. Oh, that'll be a game.
39:40
Inter are doing so well.
39:41
I think, you know, they already qualified.
39:43
So if I was Arteta, I'd say, okay, listen, after that awful performance, you know,
39:50
here you are.
39:51
You've got a chance in Champions League to make a mark.
39:54
play, to take some of the lesser players and say to them, don't be a squad player.
39:59
Just show that you've got it and come with an aggressive kind of policy or
40:04
aggressive.
40:04
They don't need the win so they can afford to be expansive and try to win because
40:11
they've got Man United and Man United are pumped up at the moment.
40:15
I don't know whether they can continue it for two weeks in a row, but their tails
40:20
are up.
40:21
So you've got to get a team that wants to go out and play them, even though it is at
40:25
Arsenal.
40:25
It's a home game.
40:27
It'll be a fantastic game.
40:28
The other one I wanted to talk about, which I know you didn't watch,
40:33
I was switching between AFCON and this one, was Real Sociedad against Barcelona.
40:38
Barcelona lost 2-1.
40:40
They had three goals disallowed.
40:42
They hit the post five times.
40:44
That was that sort of game.
40:46
You knew they could have played for the It was one of those ridiculous games,
40:52
but it was great fun.
40:53
Okay, so it wasn't a good weekend for the good teams.
40:57
Yes, please.
40:58
Just one thing.
40:59
Yeah.
41:01
I'm not a great T20 player.
41:03
I'm not a great T20 follower.
41:06
But there is appeal because the kids love it.
41:10
They go there.
41:11
There's a party carnival atmosphere which you haven't got in cricket in a long time.
41:16
And I live across the road from the Wanderers.
41:19
So I see the crowds going there all the time.
41:22
And of course, I've got to follow the local Joe Bird team.
41:26
So they need to win this game against Pretoria just to secure their semifinal
41:32
berth
41:34
top four.
41:36
They go in, they put Pretoria into bat.
41:38
Pretoria are seven for five in about five or six hours.
41:43
No.
41:44
Seven runs.
41:45
This is T20.
41:46
Yeah.
41:46
So I say, well, this is going to be over in an hour.
41:49
You know, I'll rattle off the rest.
41:51
Anyway, you've got this chap, Rutherford, who's a West Indian, and you've got a chap
41:58
there,
41:58
Diavalt Bruvers.
41:59
Jeez, 144 they finally make of the 20 overs.
42:03
That's huge.
42:05
Huge.
42:06
Yeah.
42:07
So I say, okay, we'll rattle it off.
42:08
Forget it.
42:09
We lost.
42:11
We lost.
42:13
That is a sort of...
42:15
It's like being 6-0 up at half time and losing a game.
42:18
I don't want to get into a cricket thing, but that whole T20, it started with the
42:25
one days, of course, decades ago,
42:27
and now the T20 and everything.
42:28
And what's the other one?
42:30
There's a new one as well called something.
42:32
You mean the 100 balls or something?
42:33
Yeah, the 100, yes, the 100.
42:36
But anyway, it's affected cricket at the test level as well, the five-day level.
42:42
There wasn't one test match in the Ashes series, five tests that went to four days.
42:47
I think one went to four days.
42:50
And it's not quite the ticket to me.
42:53
It's not quite cricket if you know what I mean.
42:56
No, nowhere near it.
42:59
It's carnival.
43:00
It's village green stuff.
43:02
But fun for the kids as you say.
43:04
First of all, it's got big, big money behind it because of the gambling and
43:08
betting.
43:09
And so it's got massive money.
43:12
It's sponsored by Betway, which is a sports betting site.
43:21
And they attract the crowds because you can bring your kids there.
43:25
You're all over in four hours or maximum four, whatever it is.
43:30
And so for the kids, they love it.
43:32
They run around and they play and everything.
43:35
They don't have to sit there and watch ball by ball by ball.
43:38
Hmm.
43:39
So it's a big money spinner, but it's not cricket in the sense that you know,
43:45
that the Ashes or anything like that.
43:48
Okay.
43:49
Well, we have to continue with cricket.
43:52
Who are the pro teams playing?
43:54
They've got a series coming up quite soon, haven't they?
43:57
I don't even know.
43:58
I don't even know.
43:59
Oh, well, you'll find out.
44:02
You know what?
44:03
There's so much sport that you don't know where you are anymore.
44:05
You're just whatever.
44:08
But I have the lights here.
44:10
You know, I can see the lights on in the stadium across the road.
44:13
And the thing is that when you're watching TV, you hear the crowd first and then you
44:20
hear it because there's a slight delay in the
44:22
transmission.
44:24
So you know whether there's been a wicked or whether there's by the crowd.
44:26
You're a busy person.
44:27
What with your normal job?
44:28
You've got the grandchildren, the cousins, and everything running around irritating
44:33
you.
44:33
You've got...
44:33
more sport than you can shake a sticker.
44:35
And you've also got to do the robot and pothole watch every day out your window.
44:39
Yes, I know.
44:40
Exhausting.
44:41
David, thank you very much for your time as always.
44:43
David Shapiro is from SASR Insecurities, and that was Shapiro World.
44:48
The views and opinions expressed in these podcasts are those of Lindsay Williams and
44:55
various contributors and do not reflect the policy,
44:57
position or opinion of any other agency, organisation,
44:59
employer or company associated with StrictlyBusinessPodcast.com.
45:04
Assumptions made on the analyses are not reflective of the position of any other
45:11
entity other than the speaker or the author.
45:13
And since we are critically thinking human beings, these views are always subject to
45:17
change, revision,
45:19
and rethinking at any time.
45:20
Please do not hold us to them in perpetuity.