"They Don't Have The Brains to Run It"

One of the few places on earth where the dollar actually goes further than it did at the start of the year: South Africa, where the rand is down 12% against the US currency. The mines, the country's main export earner, had to shut for five days last month because the state electricity company hasn't been investing in new generators, explains Bloomberg News. To the white technocrats who used to run the country, this is evidence of course that an incompetent black-led government has ruined South Africa. That couldn't be what Bloomberg's famously insensitive editor-in-chief, Matthew Winkler, meant, could it? According to the wire service grapevine, Winkler briefed his reporters: "South Africa is a great place, but the people who are running it don't have the brains to run it." Which is pretty much what one could say about Bloomberg, a fabulously profitable company with management so dysfunctional that employees refer to their workplace not-altogether-jokingly to Doomberg. (Related: one of Winkler's acolytes asks after the catastrophic Asian tsunami: Why do we care? And here's the now-notorious audio clip of Winkler ranting at his staff after a reporter made an error.) After the jump, Winkler, aka the deranged bowtie after his trademark dorkwear, shows how to tie one in a classic Youtube clip.