By Cees Bruggemans, Chief Economist FNB

With an imminent change in SARB Governors, one has reason to wonder whether the monetary policy emphasis may change, and if so, with what kind of implications for the two most important prices in the economy (interest rates and the Rand).

The two terms of Governor Mboweni since 1999 stand out clearly for what they achieved.

The SARB can claim successful regulatory bank oversight, an important explanation why South Africa got through the recent global financial crisis without any major bank problems.

Governor Mboweni’s era began with inflation targeting, a new approach strategically imposed by government. This was a major break with the past as the SARB started to conduct a new monetary policy (philosophy).

There was a distinct break with Governor Mboweni’s predecessors, where Governor Stals’s policy could be

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What’s the true cause of inflation? Jimmy Carter underrated? Really? And what makes Von Mises right after all these years? Read on to find out…Thank you (once again) for all your excellent responses on the Obama-Carter connection. When your thoughts and comments roll in, my only lament is a lack of space in which to reply.

Well, that and one other small quibble. Where are all the haters? Surely more of you must think I’m off my rocker, or otherwise dead wrong somehow. Let’s start off with a rare bit of snark just for sport…

The lessons learned from the past…8 years of taking us down…and now a dynamic leader trying to pull it together…and presenting a better picture of America to the world…now, can you or Rush Bimbo do that?

– TD reader NB

Rush who? I’m not up on the guy, as I haven’t paid attention to him since the early ’90s.

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The rally has lasted longer than I ever expected. It's good to see the bulls come out, but I'm not joining their party.

After all, the big move has only brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) up to early February levels. How confident were you feeling about the markets 2 months ago? My guess is that you were worried.

But sentiment is better now. Why? There is a belief that we've seen the bottom and the U.S. is moving closer to a recovery.

Certainly, there are signs of improvement. The pace of economic deterioration has slowed. Profits for many companies are not as bad as feared. Even the VIX, a measure of fear, is falling.

On the other hand, we have yet to solve the automotive or bank problems.

Though Larry Kudlow didn't want to hear me bring it up, General Motors (GM) is a

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The IMF Senior Regional Representative For Central Europe and the Baltics, Christoph Rosenberg, recently a href="http://www.rgemonitor.com/euro-monitor/254975/why_the_imf_supports_the_latvian_currency_peg"took me to task on RGE Monitor about my Latvian devaluation proposal/a (as did a href="http://www.rgemonitor.com/economonitor-monitor/254905/devaluation_in_latvia_why_not"RGE's own Mary Stokes/a), and I would like now to take a closer look at some of the points they raise.br /br /In the first place, I would like to say that I obviously regard both Chrisoph and Mary as excellent economists, and I was in no way refering to them when I said that arguing in favour of sticking to the present currency peg constitutes trying to justify “virtually the unjustifiable” according to “the implicit consensus among thinking economists.” I do still hold that the consensus is with me, but that certainly does not mean I regard those who differ from me as "unthinking", and certainly hope I didn't give the impression that I was. And with that little ...