National Day 2011

It's been an interesting year both personally and for the country.  From where I am now, I can see even more interesting times ahead for our small, vulnerable country.  My hope is that we will be prepared for whatever comes.

In the past week, we have Dr. Tony Tan warning about a 'perfect storm' hitting the global economy, and so far he appears to be right.  We also have DPM Tharman warning about slow growth for Singapore for the next 4 years.

On the other hand, based on my observations on the ground, I see that

• Shopping malls and restaurants are still doing very brisk business.
• Property owners are still demanding very high prices despite a slowdown in the volume of transactions.
• Commercial property flipping is all the range now.
• People are paying as much for a piece of COE as gold.
• Retail investors are still seeing the latest market sell-offs as buying opportunities.

So, who has a better sense of reality?  I think I'd place my bets with the government officials this time round.  I hope my readers will be prepared for a more sombre year ahead.  Opportunities will avail themselves to those who are prepared.

In any case, here are my wishes for the country this year:

• That we will recognise and prepare for the reality of peak oil.
• That we will massively increase our gold reserves to protect against the collapse of the current global financial system, which is, in my view, a certainty.
• That we will realign our economy to prepare for zero growth, and find a niche for ourselves in the new world of resource scarcity and nationalism, and a roll-back of globalisation.

Majulah Singapura!