Something Wrong with Our Economic Strategy?

Based on the standard model of economic development that is taught in economics courses, we know that as a country develops, it moves away from labour-intensive industries and tend to rely on increasing capital intensity and productivity improvements to boost economic growth.

While the government has been exhorting us the lumpen proletariat to improve our productivity, it has nonetheless in the last 15-20 years been preaching the need to import foreign labour in order to maintain our economic growth.  As a result, productivity growth has been anemic while Singaporeans wonder about the nature of our collective identity and have to cope with stresses to our social and physical infrastructure.

Many of us feel that after this period of so-called growth, we are now worse off than before.  This brings to mind a passage from written by Bill Gross, the PIMCO bond king:

Almost a century ago, Keynes alerted the economic community to a “new disease,” what he called “technological unemployment” where jobs couldn’t be replaced as fast as they were being destroyed by automation. Recently, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee at MIT have affirmed that workers are losing the race against the machine. Accountants, machinists, medical technicians, even software writers that write the software for “machines” are being displaced without upscaled replacement jobs. Retrain, rehire into higher paying and value‐added jobs? That may be the political myth of the modern era. There aren’t enough of those jobs. A structurally higher unemployment rate of 7% or more is the feared “whisper” number in Fed circles. Technology may be leading to slower, not faster economic growth despite its productive benefits.

We can see that a properly developed economy should have a structural reduction in the need for manpower.  On the other hand, given our recent experience, the government is telling us that Singapore needs to keep importing people to sustain our economy.  What these 2 things tell me is that we are probably pursuing an incorrect strategy for economic development.  Instead of moving up the technological and productivity scale, we are relying on a low-tech, labour-intensive service sector to continue to power our economic growth.

What this means is that we are moving in the wrong direction as far as economic development is concerned, i.e. towards a more 3rd world structure.  Is it then any surprise that we see an increase in income and wealth inequality, stagnant wages and asset bubbles?

SMRT Strike - Populist Politics

Long before the SMRT strike, I started noticing Singapore-based PRC citizens on Sina Weibo commenting and mocking our political scene as moving increasingly towards populism (民粹主义), especially when the government introduced measures that they believed harmed their ability to exploit Singapore's liberal immigration policies.

Now that all the major opposition parties have stated their positions on the strike, we can see that the PRC immigrants and migrant workers have correctly read our political situation and that the strike instigators have managed to manipulate Singaporean public opinion to side with them to a large extent.

The fact that the WP, NSP and SDP leaderships have all failed to distinguish between the need to uphold the rule of law and the perceived unequal treatment of the PRC drivers but have conflated the two to undermine regard for our laws shows this trend towards greater populism.

Can we trust any of the major political parties to support unpopular policies if they prove necessary, especially in the next decade of disturbances and crisis?

SMRT strike - NSP's shameless political opportunism

The National Solidarity Party issued a statement on Nov 28 regarding the illegal strike.  While paying lip service to the rule of law, much of the statement appeared to be an attempt to throw stones at SMRT management and to try to justify the actions taken by the errant bus drivers.

Painting the issue as a 'breakdown in our labour relations' shows the narrowness of the thinking of the NSP leadership in trying to blame the PAP establishment for the problem (a usual opposition tactic, I might add). As I was advised by a Singaporean who is an experienced China hand, the issue was in large part due to cultural differences between Singapore's style of running things and the mindset of the PRC workers.  Would that really qualify as a 'breakdown in our labour relations'?  While I can understand the need for Singapore companies to adapt to foreign practices when operating overseas, the case of the Singapore management bending backwards on a core principle like the freedom to set wages locally is much weaker.  Why should a local company operating within Singapore adopt the standard PRC practice of '同工同酬‘, especially since there are valid HR reasons for paying Malaysian workers more?

Besides this, there is also evidence to suggest that the PRC drivers did not attempt to engage SMRT management regarding their issues, as can be see from a news report carried by Yahoo! Singapore:

One Malaysian bus driver who spoke to Yahoo! Singapore was visibly annoyed at Monday's strike, saying the move to do so was "irresponsible and uncalled for".

"First of all, they should have approached the management first to discuss things," he said. "Going on strike is illegal and we all understand that."

So, was there really a 'breakdown in our labour relations'?

The more disturbing thing about the NSP statement is that by citing allegations by poor pay and living conditions, the party appears to be trying to use 'moral' arguments to justify the breaking of the law.  Aside from the fact that this is factually incorrect, since the unhappiness was about alleged unequal treatment relative to Malaysian drivers, the NSP has failed to realise that such arguments open up a can of worms, since 'moral' grounds are ill-defined and everyone can then argue that they have valid reasons for breaking the law.  Where do we then draw the line so that we can unequivocally condemn those who break the law?

Of course, I'd expect that the NSP cite the first paragraph of its statement to show that it respects the rule of law. But as far as I am concerned, its statement on the matter shows the typical politician's 'gift' of talking out of both sides of one's mouth.

And if I may add, the NSP seems to be a shadow of its old self since the departure of Goh Meng Seng.

Double Standards Regarding Religious Sensitivities

Google has decided to block Singapore IPs from using Youtube to view a film that Muslims deem to be offensive to their religion.  This is well and good, since it is arguably consistent with Singapore laws on religious harmony.

At the same time, I noticed that no liberal Singaporeans has complained of Google's move as being a fetter on the freedom of speech.  In stark contrast, when Christians complained to the government about The Da Vinci Code being blasphemous and offensive to them, the same liberals were quick to condemn the complaints as attempts to restrict freedom of speech.  So, prima facie, it would appear that these people think that the religious sensitivities of Christians do not deserve to be respected.

A standard argument put forth was that The Da Vinci Code was not really offensive, and that Christians who complained were too sensitive and ought not feel offended.  But that's a silly argument, since sensitivities are subjective, and depends on the feelings of those who are at the receiving end of the 'treatment'.  Those not at the receiving end have no valid grounds to judge whether anything is offensive or otherwise.  After all, it can easily be argued that white European skin-heads would not consider the film about Islam to be offensive and that Muslims have been too sensitive and ought not feel offended as well.

I hope you see my point, which is that if we want to promote free speech, the same standards should apply to all, or if we are in favour of curtailing free speech with an eye towards respecting religious sensitivities, such curtailment should also be applied consistently.

On that National Conversation

Since the PM's National Day Rally speech, the country has been abuzz with talk about the national conversation. We got all sorts of voices clamouring for attention, and as expected, complaints from certain opposition parties about being excluded.

While I expect many issues to be discussed, I suspect that what I consider the really important issues facing the country will be left undisturbed.  Based on the noises so far, all the talk about an inclusive society and so forth centres around the issue of social welfare, with many Singaporeans asking for assistance and handouts of one form or another from the government.  While these issues are important, they are secondary, in my view.

What I think ought to be discussed, but won't will include things like the fundamental vulnerabilities facing the country, like the lack of food and energy security, as well as geopolitical issues like the South China Sea disputes.  To me, given the current and expected future global environment of the next 10-20 years, there will be a lot of external forces that will serious rock Singapore's 'boat', whether we like it or not.  The best thing to do is to have everyone understand these issues and prepare for them.  Unfortunately, the exercise will likely turn out to be like a squabble over who gets to eat more of the buffet while the ship is heading into stormy seas.

I am of the view that we need desperately to address the fundamental issues, as they will affect how Singaporeans see our own future prospects, and in turn, our willingness not to commit collective suicide by refusing to reproduce ourselves.

More on these in a future post.

Urban Farming in SG?

It looks like the idea of urban farming could be going mainstream here in Singapore, if the above story from the Friday edition of TODAY is anything to go by.

Somewhat Disconnected

In recent months, I have been telling some friends that Singaporeans appear to be oblivious to the ongoing financial and economic crisis that is raging across the globe.  I base my claim on the following:

• Record COE prices


• Property prices that continue to rise despite a decade of inflation at roughly double the rate of wage increases


• New graduates asking for higher pay and quick promotions.

While I'm not sure when reality will reassert itself in the Singaporean consciousness, I'm waiting patiently and collecting data points in the mean time.  And one such data point is the following comment by that consummate financial insider, George Soros, made recently to Newsweek:

“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.”

And to put money where his mouth is, Mr. Soros has reportedly been selling his financial stocks (the growth story) and buying more gold (the-sky-is-falling story).

In the meantime, the bubble continues to expand in Singapore.  We live in interesting times indeed!

Romney's tax returns

The left-wing bias in the social media is quite apparent, judging from the endless stream of posts attacking Mitt Romney for his wealth and his alleged failure to disclose more of his tax returns.

These people conveniently ignore the fact that Geithner is a tax evader who has not been prosecuted.

I don't give two hoots about Romney, but the double standard is somewhat jarring.

Our Instant Noodle Culture

In the online chatter about Feng Tian Wei's Olympic medal, the usual argument that Singapore does not have a culture conducive to sports has again surfaced.  The usual suspects have again been trotted out to be 'shot': our education system which only cares for academic success, MINDEF/National Service, parents who value monetary success etc.

To me, this country's lack of success in sports is a symptom of a more deeply-entrenched problem: the desire to achieve success in the shortest possible time.

This not only explains the sports issue, but also why we have failed to achieve anything significant internationally in areas such as science and technology.  Look at how many Singaporeans are in graduate programmes in these areas in our local universities?

And is it any wonder that the preferred careers these days all involve finance and banking? Or that we have become a service-based economy, since making things at the international level is too difficult? Or that our students finish school barely literate in their Mother Tongues and can barely string a proper sentence together in standard English?

This culture is also shown in our governmental policies, which often seek to take the easy path to economic growth, avoiding painful choices that will harm powerful vested interests.  And it is likely to get worse, as increasing political competition from opposition parties will force the PAP government to adopt populist measures to appease an electorate that is generally ignorant and adolescent in its demands.

This kind of mentality will surely be harmful to the country's development in the long-run.  And I think the long-run has arrived.

Our Fundamental Vulnerabilities

I had a conversation recently with an old friend over Whatsapp, wherein we discussed issues pertaining to the challenges that Singapore faces.  I was surprised when he commented that the country was in general decline.  The reason for my surprise was not that I didn't know that the country was in decline, but that I didn't expect it to come from him, given, as it were, that he was knee-deep into the property market, having only recently bought a second property in what I consider a topping market.

Be that as it may, the idea of a coming crisis as a conversational topic is not particularly attractive to most Singaporean at this time, a point which I re-validated last week when a friend of mine who shares many of my views introduced me to another person.  After trying for 15 minutes to discuss the fundamental problems facing the country, I found that he was not at all interested, thinking that it was something too remote.

In fact, given that episode last week, I am quite close to giving up altogether trying to get the people I know to think about some of the challenges that I believe will come our way within the next few years.  I had also thought about closing down this blog permanently.

So while I ponder about my next steps in this area, let me list down some of the very basic vulnerabilities that we face, as an antidote to the maddeningly irrelevant issue of whether Feng Tian Wei deserves our praise or otherwise.

The list would include:

• Energy


• Food


• Dependence on foreigners in key areas of the economy


• Dependence on government to take initiative


• Loss of expertise in key technological area, which results in


• Key pieces of national infrastructure being increasingly vulnerable to systemic failure


• Excessive household debt due to overpriced COEs and property

The above is a short list, but it includes factors upon which the entire edifice of Singaporean life is built.

More on these issues in future, perhaps.

Rising Food Prices

In recent days, corn and wheat prices have hit record levels, based on futures trading data.  This is due in large part to drought in the US and heavy rains in the Black Sea region of Russia, which has affected output.  Furthermore, while soy beans have not risen as much, it could do so given similar fundamentals.

As such, it would not be surprising if food prices start to rise in the coming months in Singapore, leading to more hardship for us.  Riots in the poorer parts of the world may also happen, like 2 years ago.  Food security will likely come into public focus once again.

In that regard, the latest government initiative is a plan to import more vegetables from Indonesia.  This would not be the first attempt by the Singapore government to diversify our sources of vegetable imports (away from China and Malaysia) by seeking the help of Indonesia.  Previous attempts have ended in rather spectacular failure, based on information from some of my contacts.  I wonder why MND is leading us down the same wrong path again, given the serious lack of reliability of suppliers from that country.

In my view, time and money would be far better spent investing in the hydroponics ideas of Professor Lee Sing Kong of NIE, who has a feasible plan to make Singapore self-sufficient in leafy vegetables.  As much as I am for free-market solutions, the problem is that when it comes to natural resources, countries are becoming increasingly nationalistic.  As such, free-market solutions are not the way to go in the foreseeable future.  Food security requires non-market solutions.  And surely, if it is obvious to me, it ought to be obvious to our very highly-paid, American-educated elite Administrative Service officers.

Global Slowdown

This week we hear quite a bit of news of global economic weakness. We have various central banks around the world cutting interest rates and taking other easing policy measures in the face of a rapidly weakening global environment.

China's GDP numbers came in weaken than expected while the US earnings season has been kicked off with more warnings of forward weakness.

Back at home, the Singapore economy shrank in the 2nd quarter at an annualized rate of 1.1%, although things appear not to be weak enough given the government's position that emergency measures are not needed as of now.

Despite this, though not unexpectedly, news of. Cut in COE quota has people all agitated about higher prices in the coming months. In fact, there appears to be signs of buyer capitulation, as reported in the news this evening on TV, wherein those who have been holding off buying new cars have decided to go ahead in fear of higher COR prices.

As I have maintained for a long time, that which is unsustainable will break eventually. Thus while the supply of COEs may be falling, I am expecting that demand would also be falling in view of the global economic situation. It is possible that we get a repeat of 2008 in late summer that will lead to a crisis of a more serious nature than the liquidity crisis back then.

Let's see what happens.

Singapore's Debt Problem

I came across the following passage from an article written by Doug Casey in the May 2012 edition of the Casey Report:

There’s nothing wrong with debt in itself; lending is one way for the owner of capital to deploy it. But if a society is going to advance, debt should be largely for productive purposes, so that it’s self-liquidating; and most of it would necessarily be short term.

But most of the scores of trillions of debt in the world today are for consumption, not production. And the debt is not only not self-liquidating, it’s compounding. And most of it is long term, with no relation to any specific asset. A lender can reasonably predict the value of a short-term loan, but debt payable in 30 years is impossible to value realistically. All government debt, mortgage debt and consumer debt and almost all student loan debt does nothing but allow borrowers to live off the capital others have accumulated. It turns the debtors into indentured servants for the indefinite future. The entire world has basically overlooked this, along with most other tenets of sound economics.

This was written in the context of asserting that the Western world had sustained an artificially high standard of living since World War II through the device of accumulating excessive debt.

When I read this, Singapore's situation come to mind.

Looking around us, one could easily see that Singaporeans have also accumulated a lot of consumption-based debt.  In our case, we don't even realise this, because we think that taking on a lot of debt to fund our HDB flats is an investment, when it is actually a durable goods consumption.

An HDB flat has a 99-year lease, which means that it will eventually run out.  The reason why we think it is an investment is because we believe that we can sell the lease to someone at a higher price, which is akin to a Ponzi scheme, or assumes that the government will continually pursue a policy of asset inflation, both of which are harmful to society.  Unfortunately for our future financial security, we bought into the mistaken notion that our HDB lease is an asset, when most of us don't generate rental income from our flat.  I blame this on the Goh Chok Tong government, who propagated this myth under the so-called 'asset enhancement' strategy.

This over-consumption of housing is further encouraged by the distorted investment policies attached to CPF funds, as the poor alternative choices drive many Singaporeans to rationally conclude that putting CPF funds into real estate is the best use of those funds.

Mis-allocated Capital

For decades now, there has been a general lament about a lack of capital in Singapore to fund entrepreneurs, which is obviously true.  Imagine what could have happened if the government had stuck to the original goals of the HDB, to provide low-cost housing.to Singapore, for that would have freed up a lot of capital for other more productive uses.

Given the fact that real estate has become increasing unaffordable, it is time to look at the basic paradigm underlying the CPF system, and reform it to support better capital formation and usage.  After all, the government has been lamenting the fact that we face increasing challenges to economic growth.  Surely having more productive usage of capital would help, and then we can obviate the need to adopt morally questionable policies like encouraging gambling via casinos.

Greek Elections

Markets were quite on Friday as many traders were wary of committing to positions before the Greek elections today, given the risks involve either way.

From a longer term perspective, the results of the election are irrelevant, since it will change nothing as far as the economic fundamentals are concerned.  Greece will continue to have too much debt that they can never pay back, and the only difference will be whether the newly-elected politicians can negotiate with the rest of the Eurozone to agree to measures that will merely postpone the underlying problems for a while more.

This looks to me to be an interesting period in European history, as friction between nations increase and there is a threat to the global financial system.

Ignorance and Irrationality

I saw some comments online on a local newspaper's website regarding the Sticker Lady saga that I thought typified the attitude and thinking of younger Singapore, by which I mean those below 35.

The first comment was that prosecuting the alleged offender under existing vandalism law reminded the person of the Cultural Revolution in China. My view is that this person either is prone to hyperbole or is woefully ignorant of history, or perhaps both. I believe many Singaporeans don't appreciate the gravity and tragedy of that episode in modern Chinese history, and I feel that comparing this rather straightforward case of applying a lawful criminal provision to the Cultural Revolutuon is rather facetious. If we had an environment that were anywhere near that of the Cultural Revolutuon, I would have been able to report to the authorities about his comments and he would have been put away without charge.

The second comment was that he felt that the acts of the Sticker Lady were acts of creative expression and therefore cannot amount to vandalism. This is surely arrogant and irrational, since it ignored the reality that public property was damaged and that he was not in a position to pass legal judgment on the matter. Sadly,this attitude typifies that of many younger Singaporeans given the kind of subjectivist cultural pollution that we have allowed them to be exposed to.

Now what has this got to do with preparedness? Well, in times of crisis, the ability to get a grip on reality is the first step toward finding effective solutions. If we have people who cannot accept reality,and worse, feel that their limited education and experience entitles them to have a voice in all matters, we will be stuck and worse, design wrong solutions.

I believe we will eventually reap the consequences of blindly accepting postmodernist values. So this is just a small warning of what's coming up.

Resource Nationalism in Indonesia

Given what some believe to be the peaking of production of various natural resources as well the fact that agricultural and water resources are increasingly valuable, it would come as no surprise that commodity producing countries are gaining more bargaining power.

In relation to this topic, Asia Sentinel recently published an article entitled Indonesia's Growing Economic Nationalism, which is well worth a read.  I don't agree with the author's view that Indonesia will be hurt by being more protectionist.  In fact, I think that the country is moving from a position of strength, and will be able to use the bull market in commodities to its advantage.

From Singapore's perspective, the most immediate impact would be that DBS Bank would probably not be allowed to acquire Bank Danamon, which I feel is not a big loss to Singapore, given the fact that DBS has had a poor track record in overseas acquisitions.  From a longer term perspective, we need to watch out for Indonesia exerting its economic might on Singapore for both economic and political ends.  We may be moving into another era where the neighbourhood gets less friendly.

Press Freedom

I know a person who often blogs about freedom of speech issues in Singapore. A very thoughtful and kind gentleman, he recently wrote a blog piece suggesting that the lack of press freedom has resulted in Singaporeans blindly accepting the narrative spun by the government-controlled media that serves the PAP.

While I am not inclined to disagree with this claim, I think a further refinement in the argument is needed.  It is important to distinguish between freedom of the press and the ability to think independently.  While a lack of press freedom is very obviously detrimental to independent thought, the existence of such a freedom may only contribute marginally to the latter.  At least that's the view that I had derived from a Swiss wealth management professional that I often read.

Notice that despite living in the West, where there is far more press freedom than in Singapore, he had this to say:

In a world permeated by mass media and misinformation, independence in some ways has become more difficult. In order to keep up with what is going on in the world, you have to read and digest a lot of “stuff”. Most of what you will be reading will be mainstream news. Most of it will be nonsense: skewed myths, half-truths laced with contradictions, making it completely useless conceptually.

Mainstream information is “mainstream” because it is what sells; it's what the masses want to hear, not what they should hear. It seldom challenges the system or status quo and certainly never second-guesses the official data or the wisdom of those in office.

My own position is that if we take all the current journalists in Singapore, redistribute them into different privately-owned companies that are independent of the PAP government, what will emerge within a few short years will be a dominant paradigm that will still be considered oppressive by some Singaporeans, including myself.  The reason for this is that mainstream journalists, especially those who have attended journalism schools, are often of a certain ideological bent that we can call 'progressive socialist'.

When Western-style press freedom arrives in Singapore, we will see discrimination and persecution that will surprise many Singaporeans.

Am I supporting the PAP government or against press freedom? No, not at all.  I'm just warning that we will likely exchange the overt form of tyranny still practised by the PAP government for a more pervasive, subtler but more destructive kind.

Many anti-PAP Singaporeans will obviously disagree with me.  That's to be expected if we are to build a country with better freedom of speech. But I'll say this - we will let the facts in future decide who is right on this call.

Debt and Derivatives Crisis

The current financial crisis that we are in has 2 causes:

• Excessive debt, especially in the developed world; and


• Excessive speculation, especially in financial derivatives

Given the size of the problem, a worsening of the global economic and financial situation is, in my view, inevitable.  To only question is timing, and that is dependent on how much longer governments around the world can delay the collapse due by using various policy measures, including monetary easing.

Enclosed below is a short presentation on the financial crisis situation from someone who appears to me to be very well-informed.  Be warned, and be prepared!

[scribd id=95493792 key=key-2bukmjiiyjtzns9qcorz mode=list]

Higher CPF Minimum Sum

The CPF Minimum Sum has been raised again, this time to $139,000. The reasons given by the government were rising life expectancy and inflation.

I am of the view that the CPF Board needs to find additional ways of dealing with the inflation problem. Minimally, there should be changes to the CPFIS rules to allow members more freedom to pursue investment goals that are consistent with higher rates of inflation.

For example, since inflation is a problem and since we have a negative real interest rate environment, why is the maximum gold allocation only 10%? How is that going to protect the other 90% effectively?

I would contend that the current rules effectively drive people into real estate, and serves to prop up prices in that market. Such policies which encourages a misallocation of capital should be stopped. Otherwise we will see a retirement crisis in the not-too-distant future, as I had previously warned of.

Euro Crisis - Greek Children Abandoned

I heard a podcast yesterday wherein a member of the EU Parliament mentioned that some Greek parents are now leaving children at the doorsteps of Greek Orthodox churches, with notes around the children's necks, saying that they could no longer afford to feed them on account of the severe economic depression that is now happening there.  Is it any wonder that the Greeks are now rioting and demanding an end to austerity?

From the looks of things, the Greeks are on their way out of the Eurozone, unless Germany agrees to the issuance of Eurobonds.  But that would be very unfair to the German populace.

So it looks like we have a crisis on our hands.  I really wonder to what extent the ECB and the US Federal Reserve can postpone the problem by more quantitative easing.  Besides this, the stock market appears to be egging the central banks to move in the direction of more QE. But if we look at things from the Austrian School perspective, given how little impact the previous 2 rounds had on the real economy, and the fact that QE is subject to the law of diminishing returns, I wonder how much of a boost to the stock market another round of QE will achieve, unless it is in the multiples of trillions.  But imagine what that would do to oil and commodity prices?

In any case, given that the Singapore government was not particularly prepared during the initial part of this crisis in 2008, we need to brace ourselves for a rough ride in case they read things wrongly again, and/or are too preoccupied with domestic issues.

Asia Decoupling

We are getting more and more news about China slowing down. India is also slowing down as we can tell from the easing monetary policy actions. Japan is in full QE mode as far as I can tell. While I have not followed the news about the rest of Asia, it is likely that the story is the same.

Many have blamed this slowdown on the problems Olin Europe. There is some truth in that claim. Be that as it may, it does mean that the much hoped for decoupling of Asia from the developed world has yet to happen.

Here in Singapore, there is still talk of pay hikes. It seems like there is still complacency about how things can turn bad.

For me, I prefer to be safe than sorry. On full defensive mode now.

EUR crisis - Impact on Singapore

Read a story on zerohedge.com claiming that Singapore is rightly worried about the fallout from the European sovereign debt crisis because European banks have claims in our financial system that amounts to around 60% of our GDP.

I asked a banker friend about this and he said that his guess regarding this would be that a lot of European banks have bought Singapore government bonds.  In any case, he felt that MAS would be able to handle any suddenly repatriation of funds back to Europe.

I personally am not sure what impact any fund repatriation will have on our financial system. Could it lead to a drop in the value of the SGD against other major currencies? How will it affect the stock market and property market, if at all?

Bank Run In Europe

If you still have money parked inside the EU financial system, including the UK, it's time to bring the funds out. There is still time before the crisis gets worse.

PRC Nationalism Hitting Singapore

News reports about the tragic Bugis traffic accident has started to surface on many online PRC news sites since yesterday.  All of them emphasised a patently false point: That anti-PRC sentiments were running high amongst Singaporeans.  Even Hong Kong's Apple Daily got into the act.  Of course, I shall not belabour the point that those from a country that takes almost 0% immigrants have no right to lecture us on xenophobia.

To me, this is part of the current social mood in the PRC today, and in no small part is due to its rulers trying to distract its people from internal issues.  The altercations with the Philippines is another sign of this.  And I expect that the PRC will start a war in the region within the next few years, despite its protests of being a peaceful nation.

Singaporeans need to be aware of this mood, and should start looking at the PRC in a more nuanced manner, rather than just a 'rising power'.  We need to be aware that there will be people amongst us who only read such rubbish PRC online news media and are influenced by them.

Be prepared.

Bugis Tragedy and SPH Chinese Tabloids

Dear Shit Stirrers at The Temasek Times,

While reading the post you carried about a Singaporean who was disturbed by the alleged glorifying of the late Mr. Ma Chi by the Chinese tabloid papers owned by SPH, I was disturbed by the writer's apparent poor command of the Chinese language, as evidence by his ability to misconstrue the dirt-digging reports of the said newspapers as being a positive portrayal of Mr. Ma.

Far be it for me to judge a fellow Singaporean's command of the Chinese language, I note that PRC netizens in various online sites like Sina Weibo have roundly condemned SPH's Chinese papers as unjustifiably portraying Mr. Ma and PRC citizens in very negative light.

Perhaps your editorial team might consider improving your ability to comprehend simple Chinese before your credibility is eroded further.  Of course, that assumes that you have an interest in attracting readers that can think for themselves rather than be manipulated by your constant fact twisting. And since you are just as culpable as the government-controlled mainstream media in this regard, perhaps some humility and getting off the moral high horse is in order.

Europe = Big Mess

So we have the French electing a man who has never had a real job in his life, and who has promised to spend much more public funds which does not exist to create government jobs.

We also have Greeks voting for parties that some have characterised as being extreme.

The Italian military is now being deployed to protect economic assets due to increased attacks from disgruntled citizens.

How long more will Spain's young people tolerate 50%+ unemployment?

Here in Singapore, people are still bidding up COE and property prices as if nothing's happening out there in the world.

How I wish there were derivatives for me to short the 2 aforementioned set of prices!

Moving to Wordpress

I'm moving over to the Wordpress platform to try out the supposedly better mobile support for Android and iOS, which I will need as I intend to post my thoughts during my commuting time on the MRT.

Please go to the following page:

http://sgpreparedness.wordpress.com/