12/15/2005

we are doing well. all is well.

hsien loong said we are doing well and can look forward to better things. all the restructuring is a big success. with so many good news, how can we be not doing well? we have a big reserve to cushion us for many years, short of an unimaginable crisis. as a nation we are rich. we have gone pass the days of trying to make ends meet, i mean the nation, not the inidividuals. it is time to relook at our policies and how to make the people live better. we have invested our reserves and should be reaping the rewards of our investment. this is expected. if not then we are failing very badly. and with a constant stream of profits, the govt should think of how to return this profit to the people. before anyone shout that we are squandering our reserves, let me emphasise here that i am talking about distributing profits. how much to distribute can be worked out by the fund managers and the govt. if we do not use the profits from our investment, then there is no point wasting all the effort for bigger returns. and we are not doing justice to the people. the profit is a big plus for the govt to use to make the life of people easier. the days when a pound of flesh must be paid before the govt gives out a dollar should be revised. there is no need to extract back a dollar for every cent being given to the people. i saw this big banner at the wto protest, 'no privatisation of basic services.' i hope our hurried privatisation of public services is not a requirement for our joining the wto. it will be good if we can redo some of these privatisations and revisit the objectives and goals of basic essential services and the goals of the govt towards its people. money can do wonders. lets hope public money, especially profits from our investment, is put to good use to make the people feel that their money is invested for their benefits. but there is one area that is waiting to implode. despite the facade of furious trading activities and a rising stock market index, the stock market can collapse anytime, if it has not collapsed already.

2 comments:

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I can't understand why some people are so afraid of the market.

The market is a natural phenomenon - it arises from the spontaneous order of people pursuing their own self interest, in order to satisfy their (infinite) needs.

Privatise everything, be done with it, and get on with the No. 1 reason for living: to enjoy one's life and make the most of it.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

matilah,

you are talking about a perfect market. we are afraid, very fearful, of a little market that is controlled or manipulated by a very small group of players.

and that is what we called market here. if you know the characteristics of our market then you will understand. the number of players are so limited. we have great pretension to have the world investing here. we invested heavily in online trading. but ended with only 2 or 3 cheapskate computer savvy young executives who sneak in to buy 1 or 2 lots when their bosses turn their backs.

we don't have the critical mass to make the market works the way it should be. we have this artificialty of an animal called remisiers, which incidently helped to multiply the number of investors by assuming a bigger credit risk. but they even try to do away with this.

imagine a market without remisisers, a market that is 10 or 20 times smaller than what we are now? kapish, here today, gone tomorrow. and we are nearly there, one foot in the grave.