
Shawn Hagedorn
For 20 years, Shawn Hagedorn has been regularly writing articles in leading SA publications, focusing primarily on economic development. For over two years, he wrote a biweekly column titled “Myths and Misunderstandings” without ever lacking subject material. Visit shawn-hagedorn.com/, and follow him on Twitter @shawnhagedorn
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Articles By This Author

The basics of fixing SA’s economy
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . May 26, 2025
Exceptional problem solvers, like Musk, or Einstein, who frame issues by focusing on first principles, would fix our economy by focusing on jobs, not GDP

Implications of a weakened ANC
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . May 12, 2025
The decline of the ANC is so central to the evolution of SA’s political economy that we need to freshly assess what has changed and

Unburden this!
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Apr 28, 2025
The slogan “Unburdened by what has been” that epitomised Kamala Harris’s US presidential campaign is also relevant here. While politicians exploit what has been, few

How SA’s economy resembles China’s
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Apr 14, 2025
The US-China trade war spotlights China’s need for exports to offset structurally weak domestic consumption − neither their economy nor ours prioritises middle-class growth. SA’s

SA and US isolationism
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Mar 31, 2025
Few Americans have passports, overseas trading is a small portion of their economy, and US culture is inward facing. Perhaps such isolation encourages Americans to

Can the ANC keep benefiting at SA’s expense?
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Mar 17, 2025
Current budgeting difficulties evidence how ANC and SA interests are tightly linked, whereas US-SA relations reflect ANC indulgences which are as reckless as they are

Contemplating the ANC’s worldview
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Mar 3, 2025
ANC leaders expect to be internationally respected for their ideals despite their indifference toward SA’s massive poverty and a global pivot toward pragmatism. Of all

If not 2025, when?
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Feb 17, 2025
Will this be the year when we finally acknowledge that youth unemployment is on course to devastate SA? Most of our young black adults aren’t

SA’s troubling immunity to Trump tariffs
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Feb 3, 2025
Donald Trump’s capacity to threaten SA with tariffs has been greatly undermined by BEE and localisation policies. Trump’s tariff threats are similar to OPEC restricting

Is SA too out of step to step up?
- By Shawn Hagedorn
- . Jan 20, 2025
ANC leaders who routinely reference historical injustices to criticise Western nations are to welcome leaders of the world’s largest economies, the G20, to SA −