Here's how you do it: round up the bankers who sank your country into bankruptcy and lock them away. Ireland is seeking extradition from the US of the former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank for his part in Ireland's 2009 banking crisis. But Iceland is way ahead of the pack, jailing 26 bankers for a total of 74 years.

FNB valued Mike Russwurm's house in Johannesburg at R1,4m just a few years before he fell into arrears. It then went and sold his house at auction for R10,000. Yes, you read that right. That's less than 1% of its original value. Here's what happened.

Jack Darier of Parkhurst in Joburg asked his bank whether his loan had been securitised. No way, said the bank. It was the answer Darier was expecting. Meantime he had the proof that the opposite was true. It was a truth test, and the bank failed.

The already demonised tobacco industry now faces further interference from the nanny state in the form of new regulations requiring plain cigarette packets and a ban on smoking in public places. Whether you smoke or not, this encroachment on freedom of choice and private property is disturbing.

There is brisk debate in this internet age as to whether copyrights stifle the spread of knowledge. Copyright became a legal phenomenon in 1886 when writer Victor Hugo and others helped draft the Berne Convention. It seems the SA government has joined the anti-copyright movement and wants to assume ownership of your creative works on your death.

The main lesson to be learned from the damage caused by SA's stricter visa rules for visitors - now relaxed - is that the government needs to pay closer attention to the unintended consequences of policy decisions.

The visa debacle that drove an estimated 150,000 tourists away so far this year at a reported cost of R2,6 billion to the economy has finally been relaxed. Visitors applying to travel to SA will no longer have to submit biometric information in person at our embassies. 

SA's press is becoming more lapdog than bulldog. The SABC wants 70% "happy, patriotic" news and the government is using its financial clout to muscle in on other areas of the media, as this article from The Economist makes clear.

While some newspapers refuse to publish anything positive about Orania on the grounds that it might offend some, Leon Louw of the Free Market Foundation went there and found it clean, hospitable and tolerant.

Is there a better tax system than the current monstrosity? Stephen Meintjies and Michael Jacobs put forward a bold alternative in their newly published book Our Land Our Rent Our Jobs: look at the high growth economies such as Singapore and Hong Kong and follow their lead by imposing a "resource rental" on land.

The days of debt collectors going "forum shopping" by searching out friendly magistrates courts are coming to an end. A recent decision in the Western Cape High Court made it illegal for debt collectors to obtain garnishee orders outside the province. This will almost certainly be adopted by other provinces. 

A study by Grant Thornton suggests the government's new visa regulations will cost the economy R2,6bn and 5,800 tourism sector jobs this year. Home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba reckons the drop in tourist arrivals to SA is the result of a slowing world economy. In any event, relief is on its way in the form of softer visa requirements.

Etolls are nearing the end of the highway. As predicted, monthly revenue is down to R60 million while bond repayment obligations are R260 million a monthy. This is a situation which cannot survive.

Consumers are being hounded by debt collectors who have bought debts from the banks - a practice which will become virtually impossible under the amended National Credit Act. Consumer Watch advises on how to avoid having to pay debts older than three years - do not admit the debt, and instead raise prescription as a defence.

A recent case in the Cape High Court highlighted some of the more questionable practices going on in the debt industry. Such cases appear to be proliferating, prompting the courts to refer to it as a "fledgling cottage industry" as voluntary liquidations are apparently the new way to go.

Competition never sat easy with SAA, which used R30 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts over the last decade to shut down a string of competitors, from Sun Air to Trek and tiny Flitestar. No competitor was too small to overlook. Now its demons have come to haunt it in the form of two court challenges that could cost the airline over R6 billion in damages.

The SA Communist Party has come out swinging against profiteering financial institutions over recent news that 11m out of 19m South Africans with access to credit are over-indebted.

State-owned enterprises can never succeed no matter who runs them, argues Leon Louw of the Free Market Foundation, because the normal disciplines of the market are absent. Managers will serve their political masters, knowing they will be fired if they don't. 

The ANC seems to be softening its stance on criminal defamation. The ANC and its partners stood firmly behind the criminalisation of defamation to protect the reputation of President Jacob Zuma, but perhaps realises this is a lost cause and antipathetic to free speech.

The US Justice Department, stung by criticism that it let Wall Street executives off the hook by allowing their employers to pay fines, has now taken off the gloves. New rules issued to prosecutors require them to focus on individual employees in their investigations, which means more executives could spend time in jail.

South Africans' confidence in the state is melting away, as shown by rising service protests, lower voter turnout and surveys which show the majority of people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

SA is becoming more authoritarian by the day as shown by recent amendments to the Copyright Act. These amendments will override writers' and artists' copyright on their death and vest their rights with the state. The rot started with mining and has now jumped the fence to copyright.

President Jacob Zuma is unschooled in economics and could care less. This shows in his selection of ministers who send wildly conflicting messages about how to grow the economy - from nuclear power stations to banning cigarette branding and mining. It's all a horrible mess.

My Vote Counts questions whether a recent tender won by a company controlled by the Gupta family to supply coal to Eskom is payback for political favours rendered to the ANC. The Gupta family is well known as a major source of funding for the ANC.  

Reports that the ANC was considering a blanket ban on dual citizenship were put to rest this week by home affairs mininster Malusi Gigaba. Despite concerns that some South Africans were fighting in the Israeli Defence Force, the banning of dual citizenship would not target certain people or countries.