Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2021, capping off a rollercoaster year for the South African born tech magnate and the world’s wealthiest individual.
Time’s Person of the Year isn’t always someone the whole world can easily get behind and Musk, 50, certainly cuts a controversial and sometimes divisive figure often causing a stir via his Twitter account.
Time magazine first began its annual Person of the Year award in 1927 with previous winners including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Bill Clinton, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, and Donald Trump (some good company, Elon?).
Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal tweeted: “Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than @elonmusk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is known for causing the price of cryptocurrency to move sharply because of a single tweet while recently he has been accused of not doing more to help solve world hunger and pay his fair share in taxes. Of course, to counter these accusations, Musk fired off a tweet or two in response. Would you have him behave in any other way?
On Monday, he offloaded another $906.5 million worth of Tesla stock after he promised to sell around 10% of his stake in the electric vehicle manufacturer via (you guessed it) Twitter. Following the latest stock option Musk has sold around $12.7 billion worth of Tesla stock since he first asked his Twitter followers on November 6 – a Saturday – whether he should sell his shares. Musk claims that the sale of stock also fulfils his tax requirements.
Since the beginning of the year, Musk has added almost $98 billion to his net worth, which catapulted him to the top of the world’s rich list while Tesla has become a trillion-dollar company this year.
And it’s because of this astronomical wealth that Musk’s elevation to Person of the Year drew ire and criticism from prominent figures and lawmakers in the US, like Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Labour Secretary under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich. Critics called Time magazine’s choice of Musk as the “worst choice ever”.
On the Covid-19 front, Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland told BizNews despite a fourth wave that has surged past the peak of the third wave the healthcare group, which has 10 000 beds, currently has less than 500 of those occupied by Covid patients.
He said only around 10-15% of patients need oxygen compared to 100% of patients during the third wave.
Friedland believes the Omicron variant will follow the same path of the Spanish Flu of 1918, which became less severe with each new strain.
South Africa will bin its controversial decision to send 200 000 Zimbabweans back to our northern neighbours after a cabinet meeting on November 25 where it was decided to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit.
On Monday, the department of home affairs axed the directive meaning the thousands of Zimbabweans who would have been affected were spared in what many have labelled a human rights violation, reports Bloomberg.
In the markets, the rand has started the morning above the R16-level against the US dollar as the negative contagion from the Turkish lira’s fallout hit emerging market currencies. The lira tumbled against the US dollar after S&P lowered its credit rating to negative, citing risks from extreme currency volatility, forcing the central bank to intervene for the fourth time in currency markets this month
The dollar has been on the front foot as the Federal Reserve’s FOMC started its two-day meeting. The expectation is for the FOMc to accelerate its tapering and for individual forecasts to shift to match the more hawkish rhetoric seen since the October CPI print jumped above 6%. “This could mean that a bit of US dollar strength is on the way. Asian markets are trading in the red this morning, echoing the losses suffered on Wall Street last night, with the Hang Seng down by more than 1%. The current negative sentiment in the market does not bode well for risky assets as we head into the FOMC decision; however, we expect the market to be range-bound before the event,” comments TreasuryONE.
Commodities are flat across the board, with gold holding firm around the $1,786 mark, platinum is trading at $930, and palladium is currently trading at $1,686 per oz, reports TreasuryONE.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
- Eskom was just denied a licence to pollute. Now it is worried about keeping the lights on. – Business Insider
- A basic income grant in South Africa will help combat poverty, but won’t do much to create jobs — expert panel report – Daily Maverick
- Ghost riders: the invisible lives of Johannesburg food couriers – photo essay – The Guardian
Global Business
- What could possibly go wrong? These are the biggest economic risks for 2022 – Bloomberg
- A little-known investor has outperformed Warren Buffett over the past 20 years — and grown his fund’s assets from $34 million to $1.3 billion – Business Insider
- Nike just bought a virtual shoe company that makes NFTs and sneakers ‘for the metaverse’ – The Verge
Markets
- Asian stocks dip as Omicron spreads, Fed decision looms – Reuters
- Bitcoin slide brings its loss since record high to more than 30% – Bloomberg
- Dow Jones futures rise after stock market sells off ahead of Fed meeting – Investors.com
Opinion/In-depth
- What’s driving the cryptocurrency boom in South Africa? – TechCentral
- South Africa’s most exciting startups – 2021 edition – Daily Maverick
- ROB ROSE: All of a sudden, the labs can afford to slash Covid test prices by 41% – BusinessLive
Video
- What I’ve learnt in 50 years on the JSE – David Shapiro – Biznews
- Calls for consultative fuel levy review – eNCA
- Palestine renewable energy: Generating energy on rooftops – Al Jazeera
Image: Steve Jurvetson/Flickr
