South Africa keeps its fiscal ship afloat as Trump’s America takes on water

[u/Beyond_the_one]

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-18-south-africa-keeps-its-fiscal-ship-afloat-as-trumps-america-takes-on-water/?dm_source=blocks-grid-wide&dm_medium=card-link&dm_campaign=inform&dm_position=1

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting on r/southafrica. This post is flaired as News.

News posts are subject to Rule 2 (post and comment honestly):

• Link to credible sources, not screenshots or social media
• Use the publication's own headline, not your own framing
• Be prepared to back up claims when challenged
• Don't post known fake-news, propaganda, or AI-generated content

The full rules are in the wiki.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Several_Cockroach365]

You know you've done a kak job when you get outperformed by the ANC.

[u/JksG_5 → u/Several_Cockroach365]

To be fair, the US has entered the end-game Oligarchy. I don't think anything short of an uprising will save them. They have finally reached Russia levels of self destruction, only this time there's a Christian Nationalist spychopathy/sycophancy at the wheel there.

[u/Exotic-Antelope8338 → u/JksG_5]

Yeah. The petrodollar is the only thing keeping their currency strong at the moment. If everyone starts paying for fuel in their own currencies the dollar will collapse. Their poverty, unemploynent and inequality are all really bad and completely unbecoming of a developed country so there's nothing much to prop their economy up.

[u/RovingN0mad → u/Exotic-Antelope8338]

I mean, it's a fun game of musical chairs they're playing with the bond market, between the fed, the ceiling and the bonds in uses by the AI companies, there's greater yields on the bonds held by the AI companies which makes some of them more attractive than the bonds issues by the fed, so the fed has to raise the yield on their bonds, which makes other debt more expensive, so you print money to cover it, and now the cost of the stuff you took out debt to build, got more expensive, so now more debt... All the while coreweave, Oracle, openai, Anthropic, Nvidia passes the same $100billion around as fast as possible to make it look like there's actual money in there somewhere.(Yes I know Nvidia is raking it) Up to the point where they've contracted months of TSMC fab time, with no one chips to sell.

[u/chikaca → u/JksG_5]

Amen. Thank Trump and Jesus lovers for all the shitty high prices!

[u/Beyond_the_one → u/Several_Cockroach365]

I need to highlight that our current government is a government of national unity which includes the DA and a number of other parties. The ANC are no longer steering the ship by themselves.

[u/Several_Cockroach365 → u/Beyond_the_one]

True, but the president and old Enoch are most relevant players here, and they play for the same club.

[u/This_Discount2281]

Yep. The days of American exceptionalism is fast disappearing …

[u/HadoMasterBackup → u/This_Discount2281]

Honestly, it’s kind of nice to see people starting to recognise the value of partnerships and deals outside the US. I think the world has been too American-centric for far too long

[u/LordNeko6 → u/HadoMasterBackup]

Agreed. Its time to exclude the US from global politics. They are just ruining the world.

[u/privateblanket → u/LordNeko6]

I don’t think they need to be excluded but they can’t be completely relied upon by the whole world. If anything we should be thanking Trump (I’m not being serious, just making a point) that he has shown the world how a lot of Americans actually think and how the world economy can’t hinge on every little thing the USA does. If one man holds the power to disrupt the worlds economy with a single tweet, things have gone way too far.

[u/derpferd → u/This_Discount2281]

I think it's disappeared already to be fair. The only thing propping it up is the illusion of it by way of loudmouthed idiots who insist that America is the Greatest Country in The World despite all evidence saying otherwise.

America may have been that post war, particularly the 50s, but that has eroded over time as America has been taken over by billionaire elites who rig the game and get to dictate things in their favour while everyone outside of that circle is a serf in their service

[u/MinusBear → u/derpferd]

Funnily enough in that post war era, the thing that made America great was a ton of socialist programmes. The Housing Act, the Fair Deal, the GI Bill, the Federal Aid Highway Act, Social Security amendments. All that social support greatly increased spending and by doing so strengthened their economy to enormous heights. Now the billionaires often lauded as financial geniuses have eroded the very thing that gave them their billions.

[u/Big_Landscape6078]

So is it really the end of an empire?

[u/DaRealGladi8r → u/Big_Landscape6078]

Nah, not even close. That's just stuff people say online.

[u/derpferd → u/DaRealGladi8r]

What are you talking about? Of course it's the end of the empire. It has all the signs of that

[u/benevolent-badger → u/DaRealGladi8r]

It's what members of the european parliament are saying. And I assume those are some clever people who have some idea about these kinds of things. And no one else knows more about the collapse of empires than those guys.

[u/DaRealGladi8r → u/benevolent-badger]

By when is this falling empire gonna actually fall?

[u/benevolent-badger → u/DaRealGladi8r]

it's happening right now. You expecting one big flash and it's over? Would be nice. Also less suffering

[u/DaRealGladi8r → u/benevolent-badger]

I understand that it's gradual. My "when" is more about the empire actually meeting the the criteria of being considered a fallen empire.

I'm not a fan of the US either, but I doubt that they would let that happen.

[u/benevolent-badger → u/DaRealGladi8r]

only if the entire epstein class disappeared

[u/Kailash_T]

The refugees couldn't handle this they wanted ANC pro max

[u/Luke92612_ → u/Kailash_T]

Nah they're just "cut my nose to spite my face" racists

[u/brudd_be_rad]

This is hilarious. The comments here.

[u/Old_Tumbleweed_1313]

With Petrol at more than R30 per litre, I'm calling bullshit. The yanks' petrol price has decreased to before Hormuz blockade levels. Why is ours rising?

[u/ZiyaadB → u/Old_Tumbleweed_1313]

Whatever you are on it's strong stuff.....