Category: News Feeds

Zimbabwe is introducing a new currency in the next two weeks, according to several media outlets. The new currency targets the liquidity shortages in the Southern African country, giving the central bank monetary policy control after years of using foreign currencies. The yet-to-be-named currency will be denominated in coins and notes, with the maximum value being $0.25.

Speaking to journalists, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya said the decision to release the new currency was arrived at by the regulator’s monetary policy committee. He stated, “The committee felt there was a need to boost the domestic availability of cash in the economy for transactional purposes through a gradual increase in cash supply over the next six months.”

This is the latest twist in a country that has struggled quite a bit with its currency standards. Zimbabwe abandoned the use of its Zimbabwean dollar a decade ago after recording massive inflation which effectively devalued its currency. It then turned to foreign currencies such as the U.S. dollar, the Australian dollar, the sterling pound and the euro. This gave the country some stability, but it was short-lived, as the use of foreign currency was outlawed earlier this year.

This year, Zimbabwe has had a unique challenge: the lack of physical cash. According to local media outlets, most ATMs in the country no longer dispense cash. This is the problem that the new currency is out to solve.

And if you’re thinking that the printing of money could cause inflation, the governor clarified, “There is a misconception that once you introduce a currency, then inflation is going to increase. We are simply giving people a chance to choose between electronic balances and cash.”

Experts believe that this new currency will fail, just like other previous attempts by the Zimbabwean government. Gift Mugano, an economics professor told Al Jazeera, “The central bank doesn’t have the reserves to back the value of the currency and has only a month’s import cover at best. It’s going to be difficult to maintain the value of the currency.”

Mugano isn’t alone in criticizing the issuance of the new currency. Victor Bhoroma, a Harare-based economist stated, “It is obvious the Zimbabwean dollar will not hold any value because of negative fundamentals in the economy which include key among them confidence deficit and high demand for foreign currency to import commodities [current account deficit].”

One of the key issues that the currency faces is that the government can print it at will, but the economy doesn’t have the capability to sustain it.

Bhoroma explained, “It is also inevitable that the central bank will continue to grow money supply in the economy to fund runaway government expenditure. This will further weaken the local currency.”

As the country struggles with its currency issues, it becomes clearer by the day that there’s one solution that’s designed to fix exactly this kind of challenge: Bitcoin.

Bitcoin faces no such threat as the rate at which new coins are ‘minted’ is pre-determined using mathematics and cryptography. This ensures that nobody, be it the government or private entities can take advantage of the money supply or skew it to favor them.

And with the people of Zimbabwe really struggling to find a way to transact in their everyday economic activities due to lack of liquidity, Bitcoin could really come in handy for this as well. The real Bitcoin offers the cheapest transaction fees, down to just $0.001 currently. This makes it ideal for micropayments. What’s more, the transactions are instant which is crucial for payment solutions.

The people of Zimbabwe have already started using crypto in order to escape the uncertainty that comes with their currency. However, the regulators are yet to put in place policies that can foster the growth of crypto payments in the country. Once they do, and they will, Zimbabwe will be able to break the shackles of inefficient monetary systems that have held the country back for decades.

Post published in: Business

HARARE – As drought grips Zimbabwe, it’s not just humans who are suffering; grazing has been wiped out and thousands of cattle have died in the country’s arid southern provinces.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told MPs that Zimbabwe’s economy was expected to shrink by 6.5% due mainly to the effects of the drought.

Officials say more than 4,500 cattle have so far died in Matabeleland south province.

The worst-affected district is Beitbridge, close to the border with South Africa.

State media is reporting that in the Midlands province, more than 2,000 cattle have died due to lack of grazing.

These are just the reported livestock deaths, so the actual toll could be higher.

Commentators are urging farmers in the hardest-hit areas to sell some of their animals to buy supplementary food.

Cattle are an important source of draught power and aid agencies said their loss would hamper farmers as they prepared for next year’s crops.

Post published in: Business

INTERNATIONAL – Zimbabwe will not meet a gold production target of 40 tons it had set for 2019 because of various factors affecting miners, a government official has said. The government had set the target after an encouraging 2018 when production reached 33.2 tons against a target of 30 tons.

However, there has been a drop in deliveries to the country’s sole official gold buyer – Fidelity Printers and Refiners – because of the challenges confronting miners.

Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Polite Kambamura told the government-controlled Herald newspaper Thursday that the 2019 target was now beyond reach.

“Currently, we are not on course to meet the gold target; what we are recording is not what we were expecting,” Kambamura said. He said deliveries had been affected by power outages and other concerns by miners which were not being addressed. “We have several issue like power outages and complaints from miners, especially small scale miners, that we never dealt with diligently and I think that contributed to the drastic fall in gold production,” he said.

“I think going forward we might need to have dedicated power lines to mines.” Kambamura said one of the issues that demoralized gold miners was the foreign currency retention threshold. Government reviewed downwards the threshold from 70/30 percent to 55/45 percent.

Zimbabwe Miners Federation spokesman Dosman Mangisi said most miners were affected by the changes in the thresholds.

“The reviewing downwards of the thresholds impacted negatively on the mining sector because it made it difficult for miners to procure supplies, plant and equipment, most of which is imported,” said Mangisi.

He said miners wanted to take advantage of the Mining Indaba set for the Midlands Province city of Gweru in November to highlight their problems to responsible authorities.

“The meeting will be opened by President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is expected to have face to face interaction with stakeholders in the sector,” said Mangisi.

“We are indeed looking forward to coming up with long lasting solutions that will spur growth in the mining sector and increase production in the process.”

The government’s vision is to ensure that gold deliveries reach 100 tons per year by 2023. Due to the government’s failure to plug leakages, especially in the small-scale gold mining sector, where players are selling gold on the black market where prices are attractive.

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (Zimbabwe) in March said the country was losing about $200 million worth of gold every year, especially in the small-scale mining sector where players were selling it on the more attractive black market. Small-scale miners account for more than 60 percent of gold deliveries to Fidelity, which is an arm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Sabine Homann-Kee Tui is a social scientist with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

People in Bulawayo’s townships in Zimbabwe primarily survive on maize. Even so, the year 2019 has hit them particularly hard, with the drought drying up the supply of grain to the city. Prices of staple foods have gone up.

“Many of us know what makes a balanced diet, but we don’t have the means to access those nutritious foods,” says Thembelihle E Ndlovu, a community health worker in Old Pumula township.

Gabriel Banda, a young father, explains, “I eat at home as few times as possible so that the food can go a long way to feed my family.” Many parents are forced to make the same choice, eating just one maize meal a day.

Stella Nyathi, who is currently nursing her baby, worries, “Once she is weaned, what can I afford my baby with the little income I make as a vendor?”

Often, the onus is on the grandparents. “In our home, me, my son and my grandson go many days without food. Often our sadza (maize meal) is only held with water and salt. On better days we have some vegetables, but not very often,” says Belinda Mpanza.

As education takes a backseat to feeding the family, there is an entire generation of school dropouts. “In Old Pumula or Makokoba townships, you’ll notice many children walking around during a school day. They should be at school,” says Dumisani Nyoni, Deputy Director of Agricultural Extension Services.

Adolescents are taking up prostitution and other harmful activities to help feed their families; teenage pregnancies are on the rise. Many of these girls live with their grandparents or look after their siblings as the parents have gone to South Africa in search for employment.

“There is a new generation of children with children. The young mothers are underaged and don’t qualify for birth certificates for their children; those children will not be eligible to enter school,” says Thembelihle.

Currently facing hyperinflation at 300% and high food costs (bread prices up by 60%), citizens of Zimbabwe are struggling to stay afloat. Particularly vulnerable are the urban poor.

But a collaborative research program is now on to improve health and nutrition in urban high-density areas such as the above townships.

The United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN Habitat) projects that by 2050 about 60% of Africans will live in cities. In Zimbabwe, urban poverty has led to one-third of all children under the age of five suffer moderate or severe stunting; half of these children live in urban areas (FNC, 2019). Zimbabweans emigrate in search of greater prosperity elsewhere (IOM report 2018).

Urban malnutrition harms the very fabric of society. What is largely invisible and difficult to measure is the incidence of depression in a large percentage of the population owing to the circumstances.

A deep understanding of people’s food choices is essential but often lacking.

What can be done?

Against this background, scientists at ICRISAT, Zimbabwe, explore approaches for tackling malnutrition through healthier food choices in African cities.

The “Check It” project aims to explore options to improve dietary diversity in urban high-density areas across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Can we get civil society, health workers and the food industry together to ignite a social movement, with clear, comprehensible steps, to give a new meaning of food and nutrition? Can we bring in healthier grains such as sorghum, millets and legumes from rural supply chains and connect them to urban populations through small-scale processing efforts?

Terrence Mugova of Educate says, “The idea is to find an entry point into dialog and exchange with communities, to discover areas of needs that go beyond providing a meal. We need to mobilize people from different backgrounds to provide vulnerable communities with nutritious food.

Busisa Moyo, CEO, United Refineries Limited, says, “We need simple, replicable business models that can engage people and help them access quality foods.”

Post published in: Agriculture

Cramming for the CCPA

Cramming for the CCPA

Axiom & Above the Law

On my commute home last night to Cliffside Park, New Jersey (yes, I am one of those bridge and tunnel lawyers and no, I do not live on a specific exit off the Garden State Parkway), I was flipping through an Instagram page dedicated to memes about practicing law and attorney lifestyles, when I came across a seemingly lighthearted post. The post documented an outrageous interaction that the meme creator experienced in his recent litigation practice — the piece related to the signature block of an extremely busy attorney who would only answer calls for 30 minutes per day. I am sure most of you have already seen it. This got me thinking: Why does our profession not only tolerate but empower bad-temperedness? Civility is quickly fading in civil practice.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, the best and worst advice I have ever received from a supervising attorney: “If the law is on your side, argue the law. If the facts are on your side, argue the facts.” This is where the expression should stop, but it does not. “If neither the law nor the facts are on your side, yell louder than the other guy.” Our profession, which requires years of education and a documented history of a high ethical standard, prides itself on resolving matters for our clients in a civilized and intellectual manner. Yet our relations with our adversaries has devolved.

Spend a few hours in the hallways of 141 Livingston and you will swear that lawyers are paid to yell at each other rather than advocate for their clients. Fortunately, this is not the case in all courthouses, but even in the federal courts, civility is losing ground to underhanded tactics and routine abuse of adversaries.

Consider some of the worst abuse you have experienced at the hands of opposing counsel. More likely than not, you have a story about the adversary who made your blood boil. Now think whether the outcome of that case changed in any way due to opposing counsel’s behavior — it likely did not. As previously discussed, it is usually the facts that decide outcomes of cases. So why was such behavior necessary or appropriate in that scenario?

One of my colleagues and I were recently discussing some of the more boorish behavior we have experienced in the field. A few of the stories included a firm whose litigation practice resulted in opposing counsel being fired by his client, much to the delight of that firm; an attorney who would routinely notice motions for the day before court observed holidays so as to inconvenience opposing counsel; and a firm that made a practice of scheduling depositions for Friday afternoons to force additional fees to be incurred when out-of-state opposing counsel would inevitably need to stay over the weekend to conclude the deposition on the following Monday.

While these practices, and many like them, are on the border of what is permissible by our ethical duties, there is a deeper issue underlying them. Whether the root cause of this discourtesy is a lack of empathy among members of the legal profession, or a misguided belief that such actions somehow benefit our client’s goals — which they do not — the fact remains that we, as professionals, can do better.

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Andrew C. Bershtein is an attorney at Balestriere Fariello who represents clients in in all stages of litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He focuses practice on complex commercial litigation, contract disputes, and real estate law. You can reach Andrew at andrew.c.bershtein@balestrierefariello.com.

Which Supreme Court justice was the first to have their oath-taking ceremony broadcast live on TV?

Hint: Cameras may not be allowed when the Court is in session, but that doesn’t mean the justices shy away from a TV moment.

See the answer on the next page.

Law Schools

To debate the First Amendment.

By Elie Mystal

at 5:17 PM

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For partners in Texas considering a change, the time is now. After an unprecedented number of lateral partner movements in 2018, Texas continues to be a hotbed of activity.

There were a whopping 284 lateral partner movements in the Am Law 200 in Texas in 2018. The majority of these took place in the first two quarters, following a fairly typical pattern in years past.

Dallas beat out Houston, with 127 lateral moves to Houston’s 108. In Dallas, the majority of these moves were in corporate practices followed closely by litigation. In Houston, corporate, energy, and litigation were the top three practices areas on the move.

The high number of lateral moves in 2018 were in part driven by several office openings, including Shearman & Sterling LLP in Austin, Katten Muchin in Dallas, Reed Smith in Austin, and White & Case in Houston.

2019 is not quite at the frantic pace of 2018, but is still a very active year for lateral partners. Nearly 100 Dallas partners have lateraled to date, with close to 90 in Houston.

As we roll deeper into the fourth quarter, I expect lateral partner moves to pick up and carry over into the first two quarters of 2020 for several reasons:

1. With a potential recession looming in the background, it is more important than ever for partners to make sure the platform they are on is the absolute best one for their practice and clients.

2. The 1st and 2nd quarter are typically ideal times for partners to move after they have collected any holdbacks, true-ups, profit sharing, or bonuses which are usually paid around that time. As a lateral move can take several months, the high numbers of lateral partners moving in the 1st and 2nd quarter are a result of conversations that started happening around now, in the 4th quarter. The logistics of getting several busy schedules aligned for meetings, the lateral partner questionnaire, conflicts, and executive/management committee votes all take time.

3. A large number of Am Law 200 firms have moved into the market in the past five years in addition to several Texas firms that have been involved with major firm mergers. These big changes continue to have a ripple effect for years as partners evaluate whether their rapidly changing firm continues to make strategic sense for their client base.

4. Many partners with rate-sensitive practices are moving firms, particularly with patent prosecution and labor & employment. Regional or large firms with flexible hourly rates are using the opportunity to aggressively bulk up their groups.

Please reach out to me at mganguly@laterallink.com if you want to discuss Texas. I’m always happy to chat about the market, even if you are not actively looking.

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Miranda Ganguly is a Director based in Houston, where she focuses exclusively on lateral partner and group movements in major markets across the United States. She went straight into legal recruiting after completing her law degree, practiced law in the late 2000s, then returned to legal recruiting. Over the course of her career, she has placed attorneys in Am Law 200 law firms, Fortune 100 companies, and high-end boutiques in New York, California, Texas, D.C., and internationally in the U.A.E. and South America.

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.

[It was never one of my career goals to be an] unemployed B-list celebrity. … Because it may distract you, I’m 6 feet, 8 inches tall, it’s a freak show.

— Former FBI Director James Comey, addressing “the elephants in the room” during a speaking engagement at the University of Chicago Law School earlier this week, where he encouraged students to become ethical leaders, his life’s mission ever since being fired by President Donald Trump. “I believe that lawyers and especially graduates of this law school are uniquely suited to be ethical leaders,” said Comey. “My hope for all of you is that you take this amazing education you are getting here, realize the value of it, and use it to participate in the life of institutions of all kinds.”

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.