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Morningstar determined that Janus and Putnam were the two largest "wealth destroyers" during the decade, losing $58 billion and $46 billion, respectively. "Janus and Putnam rode the growth wave more than anyone else," Kinnel says. "They had some very aggressive funds that put up big numbers that got huge inflows." After the tech bubble burst, the funds that were most heavily invested in these types of holdings experienced huge sell-offs, which made it difficult for these funds to attract inflows through the remainder of the decade. According to Morningstar, American Funds created about $191 million in wealth for investors during the decade, followed by Vanguard and Fidelity. Since American Funds generally employs a more value-oriented strategy, the firm was largely able to avert the first bear market of the decade. "The 2000 to 2002 bear market was all growth and tech, and American barely touched that, whereas they had lots of value, dividend payers, and bonds, which did very well," Kinnel says. Recently, the tables have turned for American. In 2009, it lost the most of any fund family (more than $25 billion). No fund family, including American, was able to avoid the bear market of 2008. The same strategy that allowed American to bypass most of the first bear market failed because many well-known dividend-paying companies, like big financial firms, experienced huge losses.

This is the case precisely because the kind of politics that has now taken a firm grip on South Africa and most other societies around our globe is embedded in a system of neoliberal capitalist social and productive relations whose prime vehicle has been business. The very essence of this system is to construct and run societies based on individualised and privatised material benefit, the ‘ethics’ of accumulative greed and self-aggrandisement as well as institutionalised injustice and inequality. 


Thus, when we take a critical look at the contemporary polipreneurship that has been borne out of this systemic frame, we cannot just focus on the politicians, political parties and private business sectors; we have to also look at ourselves.

In this reality the lines between business and politics have effectively disappeared. There is no foundational difference between: Premier Foods colluding to fix the bread price (and then using their corporate and monetary power to make sure that they mostly get away with it); and, the ANC and its leaders colluding to ensure their self-constructed ‘investment’ vehicle - Chancellor House - directly benefits from government mining policies (and then using their political and institutional power to arrogantly dismiss any wrongdoing and also get away with it).