THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS COVER STORY: The big property cleanout. Investors hover, while developers and owners are distressed. Uranium heading for recovery How tax breaks could life the savings rate Government still far from cracking the housing problem Local auto components industry in crisis SA wins first 'biopirate' patent case Behind team SA's Davos show

Cover Story PAINFUL PURGE The property market slump is over. Developers and owners are distressed, banks are worried and impatient, and investors are sitting on the sidelines. Now comes the property cleanout, before the slow, fragile recovery. Ian Fife tracks the winners, losers and opportunities in this new upswing ...more FM Fox BIOPIRATES BEWARE Shiver me timbers. If it's not Somalian pirates raiding ships off the Gulf of Aden, it's German pirates pillaging your flora. Last week, SA lawyer Mariam Mayet won a case in Munich, Germany, voiding a patent on two varietie...more Gadget Garmin Nuvi 1410 SEE IT ALL, KNOW IT ALL Garmin's new top-of-the-range automotive GPS, the Nuvi 1410, is a sleek and smooth upgrade on previous offerings. The first thing you'll notice when you crack the 1410 out of its box is its huge screen. Measuring 11 cm (excluding ca...more Front of the Book Editorials Falling back on ceremony Sending the right signals Another Week Letters REDRESS UNDER THE BED Quote: Had the SA Defence Force been defeated or government toppled, SA would have become a puppet state of the Soviet Union It is difficult for those of us who, (un)fortunately, do not have a legal mind and have to rely upon...more Special Reports Black Fund Managers (PDF file) SA in 2010 is available with the print edition Click here for full list of past special reports Economic Viewpoint Clear the confusion by Nazmeera Moola Much of the dessert at a lunchtime presentation I hosted at a Cape Town hotel last week was untouched and I asked if I could take away some of it. I was told the hotel did not allow food to be removed from the premises . . . more On My Mind CPI shock treatment by Annabel Bishop There is the distinct possibility that inflation targeting will see some change to its present format this year, even if it is only to the measure targeted . . . more

FM Features ROOM FOR A NEW VIEW Government's flagship housing project - the N2 Gateway in Cape Town, which piloted government-owned rental housing - has been a disaster. "Social housing", as it is known, was supposed to be a "ground-breaking" approach, introdu...more Money & Investing HEADING FOR RECOVERY Much was said about uranium's atomic price rise to US$135/lb in June 2007, after having dwindled in the $20/lb range for decades. Sure, that was only the spot price, which makes up a minute part of the market, but the frenzy it created...more Editor's Note AN UNLIKELY HERO Two decades later, we're still in awe as to how we pulled it off. The world had thought, and we had come to believe, that we weren't equal to the task. It is a story that gets tastier by its retelling. For the events triggered by FW de ...more People MAN IN CHARGE Mpho Makwana has had to bring all his marketing skills to bear in his latest role as acting chairman and CEO of Eskom. Throughout January, he has had to sell a bitter pill : Eskom's application to increase the electricity price 35%/year for three...more Tech & You Really new news by Duncan McLeod Ahead of last week's launch of Apple's iPad tablet computer, some commentators had suggested that the device could save journalism. It won't do anything of the sort, but the way the event was covered provides insights into the future of journalism . . . more The world in numbers FM's various topics in numbers Movie Reviews Movies reviewed by FM Art Reviews Art reviews in FM Results Click here for Company Results prior to 2009

		Travel CRUISING IN A BIG WAY Aside from a brief phase of folly in my unfettered youth, I have not been a cruising kind of woman. That is not only due to my predisposition to claustrophobia and seasickness. It is also because the thought of being closeted in a ma...more Books SHAKING A FIST AT SPOILERS The British are always at their most amusing when running each other down or bellyaching about the state of their nation. This highly entertaining exercise in vituperation singles out the 50 people (55 in the updated paperback edition)...more Cinema Up in the Air - Directed by Jason Reitman UPS AND DOWNS Up in the air is exactly where we encounter Jason Reitman's smooth, charming, yet profoundly compromised moral antihero: Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a "termination consultant" as he is described once. Ryan's job - which in the past ...more		Rugby - Bill McLaren TAKING ON HUMAN NATURE Most rugby men agree that the biggest problem in the game at the moment is the way referees interpret what happens after a player is tackled. This is not a new problem, but it has become much worse as the pace of the game has increa...more Jazz CD Review RANDALL ABRAHAMS' PICKS TAMMY WYNETTE: The Essential (Sony) A number of labels, including Ace Records from the UK and Rhino Records, have done a superb job of compiling genres such as soul, beat, ska and all sorts of odds and ends . For the music geek these...more Food for Thought LET THEM EAT MEAT What a day Friday the 29th of January was! The sun was out, traffic flowed smoothly in Johannesburg and I felt safe as houses. Well, as safe as houses in a walled, secure estate with gun-toting guards, anyway. The police were nowhere in ...more