Rational Perspective

Artificial intelligences are already out in the world playing a role in our decisions. In some cases, they're going one step further and making decisions for us. Increasingly, companies, government agencies, and the police are relying on algorithms to make decisions and allocate resources. Many people believe that this is a good development, because it means objective and informed decisions made by disinterested systems. However, as this podcast explains, there is plenty of bias in our AIs, and the decisions they make are often just as prejudiced as human decisions would be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Energy analyst Chris Yelland is TH… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's rand is among the t… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I first came across Nouriel Roubini in 2007 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Back then, the WEF annual meeting would run from the last Tuesday night in January through to Sunday lunchtime. The first must-attend session was a high powered panel discussion on the World Economic Outlook held at 9am on Wednesday morning. Back in 2007, the mood among the cream of the world's economists was buoyant, so the pessimistic Roubini cut a lonely and isolated figure who was referred to in the media as "Dr Doom". He was so very right on that call. Dr Doom became Dr Right. And ever since, when the consensus looked too cosy, like many others I have sought him out as the voice of truth. So my ears pricked when the Bloomberg Surveillance team caught up with the inimitable NYU professor to ask him about Bitcoin. His response is in a similar vein to those warnings he made ahead of the Great Financial Crisis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special podcast is brought to you by RMB. Ca… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special podcast is brought to you by RMB and… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Veteran broadcast journalist Rajes… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Companies in fields as far-flung as automotive, health and financial services are experimenting with quantum computing, a cutting-edge technology that has the potential to solve problems that are intractable for conventional computers. In this podcast the Wall Street Journal's team interviews executives including Martin Hofmann, CIO of Volkswagen Group, and Bob Stolte, chief technology officer for equities at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s corporate investment bank for an inside view of how quantum computing could add competitive advantage. They also take us inside IBM's quantum computing lab in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., where they got to see a quantum computer up close. Traditional computers use binary digits, or bits, which can either be 0s or 1s, whereas quantum computers, which harness the properties of quantum physics, use quantum bits, or qubits, which can represent and store information in both 0s and 1s simultaneously. This is, in part, what allows a quantum computer to solve computationally-intensive problems

JOHANNESBURG — Pauli van Wyk, a journalist with D… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In December 2017, a previously unknown operation called Viceroy Research shot to prominence when a scathing report on Steinhoff was put into the public domain. The allegations in the report accelerated the demise of what was then the world's second largest furniture group, providing fresh impetus to the panic which erupted among investors when auditors Deloitte refused to sign off the 2017 financial year's accounts and, as a direct result, Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste resigned. A month later the suddenly famous Viceroy turned its focus onto Capitec, South African banking's disruptive force whose stock price peaked just under R1 100 a share in December having risen from R33 a decade before. Over the weekend I met with Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie, who was passing through London on his way home after a week's holiday. What transpired was a lesson in how successfully managing communications in a crisis requires total attention from the very top. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Lawyer Richard Spoor is well-known… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whenever opportunity arises, I get together with Dr Martyn Davies, who possesses one of the finest minds I've ever been exposed to. That's become a lot more difficult lately. We live in different cities, and since joining Deloitte after selling his Frontier Advisory firm to the global services giant, Martyn spends a lot of time travelling. Last year he did over five dozen presentations to Deloitte clients, and was in London last week to host a lunch on Africa and speak at Oxford University. And when he's not travelling or with his family, Martyn's out on his bicycle, giving vent to his perfectionist streak and competitive spirit. We had a fruitful hour together on Friday at Biznews's WeWork base in London. Here are the highlights of his very rational perspective... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this cracking edition of Rational Perspective, top-rated analyst Scott Mushkin of Wall Street firm Wolfe Research explains why he believes Jeff Bezos's wealth phenomenon Amazon.com will soon break through the $2,000 a share level. Mushkin believes the launch of AmazonFresh will put the group onto an accelerated trajectory. Some fascinating insights on a stock that has become the mainstay of both of Biznews's offshore portfolios - the top performing Global Share portfolio (CAGR 32% since 2014) and the newly launched US Exponential portfolio (20% since launch in November last year). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Interesting revelations were made … See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Artificial intelligence and roboti… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Skills development is a hot issue … See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — In this interview with Ricardo Tei… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — Amid the 2018 Budget Speech, South… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — In the end (and possibly against m… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JOHANNESBURG — In what is described as the first … See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.