Stand Up! Business

Feb 04 2025 97 ep. 19 mins 72

Stand Up! Business Podcast artwork

Investment banker Mark Barnes and Business Maverick editor Tim Cohen unwrap the news. A new edition of StandUp!Business midweek, every week.

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Exciting Deep Seek, middling mining, boring repairs and maintenance

Feb 04 2025 18 mins

There are few things more fun than buying a new car, and few things more boring than taking it in for regular and expensive services. But the utility of making regular repairs can extend the life of everything, including as it happens, your own life. In South Africa, repair culture is in urgent need of repair. Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and journalist Tim Cohen try to keep their saga

Is there enough common ground in GNU in the year of the snake?

Jan 27 2025 19 mins

Slightly inevitably, the GNU is going through a bout of indigestion. How serious is it? Should we be buying gold, selling the rand and stocking up on loo paper? Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and financial journalist Tim Cohen discuss why it is that political parties seem to be more interested in their internal battles than they are in the problems of the SA population at large. Somewhat

Playing the Trump card - again. And the matric results ... degrees of success.

Jan 21 2025 20 mins

There is no escape. This week's news is going to be dominated by the inauguration of The Donald. Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and journalist Tim Cohen discuss how the world will change from this week - and how it won't. All of a sudden, the world itself seems to be a different place, and we will all need to look to our laurels - if we have them. And SA's 2024 crop of matriculants seems

The morality of yachts and the ANC's January 8th statement

Jan 14 2025 19 mins

What is the difference between being adaptable and actually adapting? Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and journalist Tim Cohen discuss this and other important Darwinian questions, including the relationship between humans and yachts. And that raises the question, is Africa adapting or is it just adaptable? Are names of oceans adapting, like the African Ocean for example, formally known (

The certainty of uncertainty. And numbers ... big numbers

Jan 07 2025 21 mins

Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and financial journalist Tim Cohen discuss the new year, and what we can expect, coming to the conclusion that we don't actually know what to expect because, well, global uncertainty. But we do discuss ways to operate in an uncertain world, and strategies you might use. Security threats are also part of uncertainty, so the question arrises, how many members

The year of elections ends mixed, like the best cocktails. Cheers!

Dec 10 2024 20 mins

Remember when Christmas was a day? Then it became a season. Black Friday, you would think, would forever be a day, that day being, you guessed it, Friday. Turns out, Black Friday is now fast becoming a week, and will inevitably soon become a season. And talking of seasons, it has been the season of gambling, dubious state financing, election upsets, struggling governments and regim

Presidential powers are just another brick in the wall

Dec 02 2024 21 mins

Pardon the confusion, but didn’t President Joe Biden say he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted recently on tax and gun charges? Turns out, he did say he would not. But then he did issue the pardon over the Thanksgiving weekend. Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and Daily Maverick Editor at Large Tim Cohen discuss forgiveness and, critically, whether you can forgive y

Creating money and the value of bananas

Nov 26 2024 21 mins

How much is a banana stuck to the wall with duct tape actually worth? Or, to put it another way, have we all gone bananas? Which leads on to the more important topic of the value of money, and that involves inflation. And interest rates. This week entrepreneur Mark Barnes and Daily Maverick Editor at Large Tim Cohen discuss last week's small interest rate cut, whether it was enough

Should we rent out Simonstown for bitcoin?

Nov 19 2024 19 mins

Is it Cop or cop-out; it's hard to tell. The UN’s Conference of Parties (COP) on climate action and sustainability is currently happening in Baku, Azerbaijan - the second time the conference is taking place in a petro-state. Unsurprisingly, it's currently hard to breathe in Deli. But, on the other hand, bitcoin is booming, raising the question of whether SA should rent out Simons

Money buys power; will PPP’s really work? + … ?

Nov 11 2024 22 mins

How is it possible that someone so obviously flawed as a person can become president of the world's most powerful country? Entrepreneur Mark Barnes and financial journalist Tim Cohen (try!) to explain that, and other imponderables, like the global outbreak of oligarchism. Locally we discuss the powerhouse standoff between the City of Johannesburg and Eskom, and ask whether PPP's ar