Talking wealth, healthy economies and the human
element of economics with Dawie Roodt
In this week’s Business Unusual podcast, Ralf Fletcher, CEO of Topco Media is in conversation with Dawie Roodt – one of South Africa’s most respected, expert economists. Dawie dives into the nature of economics and the way it is often only perceived as revolving around money. He discusses the human element of economics as well as the way we can expect the economy to be moving in the near future.
Key takeaways to listen out for in this week’s podcast:
1. Economics is not about numbers, but rather about people. Economists use formulas and tools in an attempt to try and understand people.
2. Wealth correlates with everything good – like life expectancy and good education. When wealth creation happens, jobs happen.
3. There are two sides to the notion of interest rates – the price we pay to borrow money and the return we get from saving money.
4. The benefit of a free market system is that there’s a continuous change taking place – although jobs are lost, more and more jobs are created and therefore become available. A healthy economy is one which discards some jobs and also creates new ones.
5. Due to the nature of the modern economy and the direction in which we are moving, we can be anywhere in the world and still get our work done. The future of economics will be service-oriented and part of the digital world.
Dawie Roodt is an economist who specialises in fiscal and monetary policy. He brings invaluable exposure to the Efficient Group through his active presence in both the local and foreign media. He has been a member of the Tax Advisory Committee of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut and has represented Business SA at Nedlac. Dawie is an ambassador for Child Welfare (Bloemfontein), Childline (Free State) and the Adopt Moreletaspruit Forum. He was also the recipient of the 2016 Sake24 Economist of the Year Award. Dawie was appointed to the Efficient Group Board in November 2006.
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