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/