Compressed time - the new Ethos

Unwittingly many have been submerged under a new lifestyle which often is called the rat race. Everyone is trying to get rich quick, at all costs. Life is no longer a casual stroll in the park. Graduating from university at 25, one only has another 20 or 25 years to accumulate the wealth to live for a life time, or to prove that one has the talent to collect handsome doles for the rest of one's life. By 50 or 55, one either has it or did not. By then it is over. The compressed time that an individual has to cope with is also translated to the behaviour of institutions. Institutions too need to get rich quick, or at least the CEOs must, to prove his worth and collect his bonuses. And his short term goals will transcend throughout the organisations, affecting everyone. Targets were set to measure performance yearly or quarterly. Non performers were shown the exit as quickly as they come in. Only the very privileged few have the luxury of long term, that they are judged or measured over a long period of time. By then nobody will remember what actually happened or be around to tell the story. Is the get rich quick ethos the cause of the recent financial crisis? Fingers are being pointed at the fat cats in Wall Streets and the new whipping boys, the Relationship Managers of local banks. These are now seen as unscrupulous, unprofessional, untrained, unethical, unreliable crooks, lurking in the corners waiting for some unwary ah peks and ah mahs to walk into the banks, and to pounce on them for their life savings. Are they the one solely to be blamed? Banks are an old institution that grows strong and steady overtime, collecting deposits to lend to customers and making the difference. A small profit but a safe and tested operating principle. The banks of today are financial giants that deal in everything that can make money, the quicker the better. Some banks even chased their small savers away or charged them a fee for putting too little money with them. This is the early face of this new ethos, greed. And greed knows no bounds. Money must be made at all costs. Jackson Tai of DBS once lamented in a dinner speech that the industry is tainted with many unethical and unscrupulous practices by its members. No one stood up to challenge him. I think many are just too guilty to look up at him. Yes, banks even stooped to poaching and stealing clients from each other, even from within banks or their subsidiaries. High net worth clients are the prize catch of every banking officer. They will steal from their best friends sitting next door, by hook or by crook. And the management encouraged it or were accomplice to such unethical practices. Why should people be so shocking about the collapse of the American financial institutions and the damage it is causing to the ah peks and ah mahs? When greed is the principle of survival, when getting rich quick is the moral of this new ethos, who is to be blamed? Spare the Relationship Managers. The rot is at the core.

Is it good news or bad news?

Only 1 out of 6 planned ERP gantries will be built in Nov. And ERP charges in Shenton Way/Chinatown area will be reduced by $1. Some called it good news because they will be hit by a stick instead of a sledgehammer. Still got whacked. Some said it is good news because the authorities are listening and willing to change. Looking at it from another angle, it is really bad news. Bad news because the thinking and planning processes were not in gear. Bad news because something like this should have been carefully thought through in the first place. A similar approach is what the SGX had done this week. Whack with a hefty $50k fine first, talk later. The regulations will be reviewed in one month's time. Can decision making be so casual and callous? This is Singapore, not some newly independent third world country. Why has the traffic condition improved so drastically against what was planned? Why was there an overkilled or a plan to over kill? Just do it is good for the entrepreneurs or risk takers. Decisions of such nature should be carefully considered by the best brains and when implemented, must work. Not try try lah.

The Americans are angry

NEW YORK, (AFP) - - An angry US public and Congress demanded to snip the rip cord on golden parachutes used by fat cat CEOs to escape Wall Street's mayhem.... Their push caught the mood of a nation sickened at watching the titans of finance walk away from Wall Street disasters not only unscathed, but enriched.... Those gigantic pay checks, bonuses, and Midas-like farewells encapsulate what the public sees as Wall Street's greed-is-good philosophy.... Public anger at such figures underlies skepticism about the entire government rescue. "We'll never see that money again," said Mathew May, a 24-year-old economics student who skipped lectures to attend a small demonstration at the iconic bronze bull statue near the New York Stock Exchange. "They deregulated the markets and ran wild. Now we're bailing them out." Arun Gupta, an editor of alternative New York newspaper The Indypendent, said there was "socialism for the rich and dog-eat-dog capitalism for the rest of us." "Think about it," he wrote in an email that quickly circulated to thousands of activists and appeared on several websites. "They said providing healthcare for nine million children, perhaps costing six billion dollars a year, was too expensive, but there's evidently no sum of money large enough that will sate the Wall Street pigs." But left-wingers are not the only ones speaking out. Newt Gingrich, the fiercely conservative former speaker in the House of Representatives, wrote in the National Review that the bailouts, likely to top a trillion dollars, smack of "crony capitalism." "Doesn't that mean that we're using the taxpayers' money to hire people to save their friends with even more taxpayer money?" he asked. Forbes, the magazine for and about the rich, also says enough is enough.... " One worker in the New York finance sector, who asked not to be named, told AFP that his colleagues are as angry as the general public. "A lot of people are very upset that managers in their own companies and captains of industry in other areas made some really, really bad decisions," he said. "The most insulting thing is the golden parachutes where these jackals from Fannie and Freddie, having destroyed the company, walked away with millions ... It all comes down to greed." The above are just samples of angry comments by Americans at the greedy fat pigs that threw the American financial sector into disarray.

Unique visitors

Just for information, for the month of Aug we have recorded the highest number of unique visitors for the blog at 8,478. Unique visitors only counts different bloggers visiting and does not include the number of repeat visits or multiple hits per visitors. For Sep to date we have 7,638 unique visitors and given another 4 and a half days to go, we could hit a new high. Cheers.

Leave it to the supertalents

If you really want to find the best supertalents, go to the US, and New York in particular. There you will have the best legal minds and the best financial minds working hand in hand to make the most money for each other. They were the experts that literally control the financial systems of the US and the world. The US and the world are at their mercy. And they pay themselves in the billions annually. That is how good they are. They are all in big deals and mega deals. S$600k is really peanuts to these supertalents. And look at what they have done? Yes, the world's most serious financial crisis can only be made by the supertalents. We are talking about trillions of dollars in jeopardy, maybe the collapse of the world financial system. The US govt's rescue package of US$700 bn could just scratch the surface of this problem. We have not seen anything yet. This is the consequence of leaving your future in the hands of the supertalents. Locally, we have our ah peks and ah mahs seeing their money disappeard in the hands of our talents. Money invested in sophisticated bonds and notes recommended by the experts. What is the moral of the story?

Above the Law

I have been posting about the dictation culture here. This is a mindset that people assume that they can do anything they like, introduce foolish laws and regulations, no matter how obnoxious or atrocious, and think they can get away with it. And they did, so far so good. This attitude and culture is not new and is very prevalent in communist, dictatorship and authoritarian states. And we are one, according to a prominent ST editor. Even in democracies, such things happened. But they have checks and balances to make sure that abuses of power and positions can be checked. The people who made laws and regulations think that they are the law or better still, above the law. They made laws and others obey laws. No one is there to judge them or above them to kick their arses if they floundered. To prevent such nonsense, no one must be allowed to be above the law. There must be institutions that can play the checks and balance role.

Make a mistake, $50,000 fine!

This is another explosive issue. I heard that the remisiers are extremely unhappy about this new ruling that they can be fined up to $50,000 if they make a mistake and sell shares which they did not have in the Buy In market. Many were just shaking their heads in despair. The value of the mistake could be less than a hundred bucks. And for such a ruling to get through, it must have gone through many rounds of discussions among many supertalents. And it is passed. Great piece of regulation.

Changed Singapore Dream: Fleeing The City of Possibilities

This is the heading of an article posted at TOC today. I read the 17 comments following this article and form the impression that we are losing the people. The comments were expressed by 17 vocal forumers. And their sentiments are probably felt by many Singaporeans. Why are we losing the people in the midst of such great material wealth? Why is this losing touch with the people, being felt by so many, but totally ignored by those at the top who still think that everything is ok? Which is the real illusion? At the rate that it is going, our NSmen may not do what they are expected when called to do. The heart is sore and no longing there. Who says only rulers got no heart? The people at the bottom are also losing hearts. And we are plodding along happily in delirium.

caveat emptor - minibonds

Ultimately, it's buyer beware (caveat emptor) I REFER to Tuesday's report, 'MAS tells banks to give priority to worried investors'. It may be presumptuous of Mr Tan Kin Lian to assume that the banks erred in selling structured products to retail customers. These products are regulated under the Financial Advisers Act and the Securities and Futures Act. Only qualified advisers can market and give advice on such products. They must have a reasonable basis for any recommendation that is made on structured products and must provide investors with a fair description of all material information.... Structured products are not suitable for all investors. Each product can exhibit very different characteristics as well as associated risks and rewards. They may appear to be fixed-income instruments, but may contain embedded options which do not necessarily reflect the risk of the issuing credit. These options may be 'plain vanilla' or highly leveraged exotic options. As each is unique, the risks inherent in any one structured note may not be obvious. Hence, read carefully the prospectus or pricing statement, which explains the risks, tax treatment and other important information in detail. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to protect your own interests. If you do not understand how the product works, seek clarification with your adviser. Don't buy anything that you do not understand. Jag Kuo Soon Yong The above was posted by sgnews in Singapore kopitiam. I can agree with Jag Kuo's argument about caveat emptor and buyers should not buy unless they know what they are buying. In reality, how many people know what they are buying. But that is beside the point. What if the seller peddle these sophisticated products to the ah pek and ah sohs which could barely understand what financial instruments are? Targettting them in first principle is already wrong. Now, how many of those affected belong to such a category?

The people are angry

Online and offline petitions by angry people to claim back money lost or to be lost in financial derivatives arising from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other American institutions have started. And MAS is looking into it. In America, the FBI is also looking into it for fraud by those organisations selling such bonds and notes. At best I think we can look from the angle of not enough due diligence and misrepresentation. This is the first time such an action is being pushed to the frontpage news by aggrieved investors. It may be time for MAS to look at failed IPOs that went down after a few years on listing. Some even reporting losses within 2 years from listing when the prospectuses were full of praises and recommendations on how well the companies were doing. There must be lack of due diligence or even misrepresentation or even fraud in some cases. The investors must be compensated. The organisations involved in the listing of such failed companies must be held accountable and to compensate the investors. So far they have been getting away scot free.

Life is party in Paradise

If only I were the director of 10 companies or chairman of a few companies, and collecting millions and doing practically nothing, life will be so wonderful. Not only playing golf in free time or travelling under company expenses, it is party all year round. Now the world's biggest bash, a $100 million party is in town. The F1 promises to bring in the world's rich and famous here, the well heeled and well connected, to party. And for these somebodies, you got to be somebody, they are going to party for free. All expenses paid by the banks, big organisations and sponsors of the events. To live in the best hotels and hospitality suites, the best seats to watch the race, the best food and companies, wine and dance the night away, all for free. As for the nobodies, please dig into your pockets and find that $300 or $3000 to buy the tickets. And they will have to buy their own drinks too. Life is great in paradise, if you have made it.

4th least corrupt country in the world!

Singapore is the 4th least corrupt country in the world. Only 3 countries, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were better than us. In Asia, we are the least corrupt. Hongkong and Japan lie quite far away from us. Not a bad achievement. To take stock, countries that are more corrupt than us are Finland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Austria, Germany, Norway UK, US and many many more, in fact the rest of the world. The Americans, the Brits and the Europeans should stop criticising us about corruption. We are less corrupt than them. But it is all relative. It would be better if the survey by the Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index said that we are not corrupt. The survey just says that we are not as corrupt as others.

No need more regulations for cyberspace

Why is there such an obsession to want to regulate the internet? Who wants to regulate the internet and for whose interests? I don't see bloggers being too keen to want people to regulate their activities. In communist countries, dictatorships, authoritarian states, regulations and laws are the tools to keep the people in check and the rulers in power. Laws and regulations are aplenty, all for the sake of the rulers and not for the people. That is the reason why they are so obsessed with more rules and regulations. In our case, thank god, we have elected honourable people with high principles, morals and selflessness as our rulers. So the danger for abuse of rules and laws is not there. Our rulers are righteous people and will not interpret the laws to their benefit or to the disadvantage of the people. For such reasons, we are an exception. Actually I would support more rules and regulations as they will be made for the good of the people. Let's talk about govt and rulers in general, excluding our govt as we are different from the rest of the world. It is very common and easy for rogues to be elected as rulers or assumed power. Some will wear the mask of absolute righteousness. But when in power, the only thing they care is to keep themselves in power forever. And they will want to keep the people in control with more rules and regulations. All done for their own interests. Even without more regulations and laws, many tricks are available to them to intimidate the people. Calling up people to harass them, invite them to the police station for tea. Or worst, if all things failed, they can use the ISA and arrest innocent people on fictitious charges. If the people remains quiet, those arrested will be arrested for good. If the people make noise, they may release them and claim that the arrest was for the safety of the person. Do people really want to have more rules and laws governing internet? I feel that common law, the law of human decency, the law of respecting other people etc should be adequate. There are enough laws to regulate human behaviour and crimes. No need to have more. What for, for who?

Why no Tamil signages at the airport?

Red card was shown and a speaker was not allowed to talk on the above topic at Hong Lim Park. This is a sensitive issue on race. A K.Sabesan wrote to the ST and said, 'I wish to express my strong displeasure over the decision of the police to cancel a planned talk at the Speaker's Corner over the absence of Tamil signages at the airport and other tourist attractions...I strongly supported the initiative not out of hatred towards other races, but felt that the issue had to be addressed.' I have full sympathy with such feelings. We have so many Tamils and Bangladeshis here who don't read English or Chinese. We also have so many Thais, Myanmese, Filipinos and Indonesians and people from other countries. And we also have tourists from around the world coming here, including Arabs, Russians, East Europeans, Japanese, Mongolians, Vietnamese etc etc. As a global city welcoming the world to our home, we must show our hospitality towards our guests and our guest workers. We need to make our facilities friendly to all of them. And this is especially so to the valuable foreign workers and foreign talents sacrificing to build our countries and provide employments to Singaporeans. We should have signages for all the languages of the world in our airports and tourist spots. That is not only natural justice, we can also claim another first to do so. Soon big cities like New York, London and Paris will follow our example as truly international cities and put up language signages in their airports. If we are not going to do so, then we should do the next niciest thing, to cut down on the number of foreign workers and foreigners in our country. Then no one can be angry with us or complain that we are being unfair to them. We can't really blame them when there are so many of them here. We must treat them fairly, at least let them know how to go from A to B, in their own languages. Where on earth can you find foreigners demanding rights to have their languages in signages in our airports and tourist spots? Only in Sillypore!

Local fund managers grotesquely underpaid

Below is an article showing how well off American and European fund managers are being paid in year 2007 alone. Top on the list is John Paulson at US$3.7bn, second was George Soros at US$2.9bn and third was James Simon at US$2.8bn. We should quickly raise the pay for our local fund managers before they all ran to America and Europe. American hedge fund billionaire John Paulson 'American hedge fund billionaire John Paulson was his industry's biggest earner in 2007 thanks to a bet against sub-prime mortgages that netted him $3.7bn (£1.9bn) in personal profit. As the world's biggest banks reeled in the face of the credit crunch last year, the top five hedge fund earners took home at least $1.5bn apiece after their funds gambled the right way in exceptionally volatile markets. Hedgie Paulson's made it, now he must spend it. A survey by US hedge fund magazine Alpha, published yesterday, said the five - Mr Paulson, George Soros, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital and Kenneth Griffin of Citadel - all individually earned more than the $1.2bn that JPMorgan will spend to buy Bear Stearns, the most high profile victim of the crunch. Mr Paulson, himself a former managing director at Bear Stearns, stole the crown after setting up the $150m Paulson Credit Opportunities Fund in June 2006 to short sub-prime mortgage-backed assets. Where other investors bet against the entire sub-prime index, Mr Paulson's team drilled down to the individual CDOs, delivering net returns of 590pc for investors in the fund by the end of the year. Number two on the list - 77-year-old Mr Soros, who called the dotcom bust - also owes his $2.9bn payday to his bets against sub-prime, as does ex-Barclays Capital man and Harbinger founder Mr Falcone, who pocketed $1.7bn. Hedge fund traders needed to earn at least $210m to reach the top 50, a feat achieved by eight London-based traders. Top of the UK's hedge fund performers, at number 13 with $450m, was the head of Atticus Capital's fund, David Slager. Others include GLG Partners' co-founders Noam Gottesman and Pierre Lagrange, who made $350m apiece, while star trader Greg Coffey made $300m. This was on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars the trio made when they listed GLG on the New York Stock Exchange last year. But GLG has entered more treacherous waters. News emerged yesterday that Mr Coffey - a specialist in emerging markets - unexpectedly handed in his resignation at GLG earlier this week, sending the fund's shares plunging by 12.5pc to $8.75. The GLG partner rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, but is locked in talks with Mr Gottesman and Mr Lagrange about his future, with no guarantee he will stay on.' I would like to give credit to the source of this article. Unfortunately the source was not disclosed.

A tale from NTU

I did something naughty last week by Terrence Lee What a week it has been. I'd expect my four years in university to be extremely peaceful, free from trouble and fuss. My idea of university life used to be that of dating, studying, and having fun generally. How things have changed in the space of seven days. Things are certainly getting interesting, right here at NTU. In one night, at the click of a mouse, I became an activist, and I did not even realise it then. So, what is activism, you wonder? It is standing up for certain beliefs, and fighting to get it recognised by the authorities and the wider public.... So, what exactly happened? Here's a brief: 1) Chee Soon Juan came down to NTU to gave out flyers and talk to students. They were generally apathetic, but student reporters were on hand to report the event. 2) However, the campus administration did the unthinkable -- they censored all coverage of Dr Chee's visit, wanting to "protect students." 3) Many of us at the Nanyang Chronicle, the school's campus newspaper, were infuriated. It showed two things: that the school has no regard for the opinions of students and that the school treats us like children, thinking that we will be easily influenced by whatever we read. That was when a thought came to me: Get it out! Get it out! Singaporeans need to hear about this!.... Above is an extract of a post by Terrence Lee and crossed posted in the TOC. It is a lamentation by a university student on how NTU, an institution of higher learning, dealt with the visit of Chee Soon Juan to the university. According to Terrence Lee, the students were treated like children and the university was trying to protect them. Where is papa and mama? If university undergraduates are so naive, so fragile, so innocent, that they need to be protected by the university from a politician, how could our children be exposed to the vagaries of life and to make informed opinions of the world? It looks like the undergrads are a cohort of kindergarten children. What happens to the old belief that the university is a fertile ground to nurture the young minds, to liberate them from ignorance, to acquire an inquiring mind, to deliberate and expound and exchange ideas, of youthful idealism? Looks like it is better to feed them with Vitamin C daily to protect them from the common flu. These are poor and helpless students and can be easily exploited and manipulated as they are quite mindless. I just make up my mind to send my children overseas to get a real education.

Wrong perception on power station sale

Jenny Teo, Director, Energy Market Authority, wrote a letter to Today to explain the rationale for the sale of power stations to private companies. The story that the govt was selling the stations for 'good profit' and to avoid 'having to explain to the public high (electricity) tariffs' were wrong. These were not the reasons why the power stations were divested. It was all a govt's strategy to open up the market for more competition, restructure the industry, which ultimately will benefit the consumers. And this is already bearing fruits. Otherwise the consumers will now be paying much higher tariffs when oil prices rose. The efficiency and productivity gains were passed on to the consumers. With the opening up, with participation of more players, with liberalisation, 'there will be more scope for innovation, better service and competitive pricing' which means consumers will benefit more. The main logic is still privatisation. Organisations that are not privatised will be inefficient and unproductive. This logic is quickly loosing its meaning and becoming stale. The civil servants of today are no longer the dumb and dull civil servants of yesteryears. They are the best of the crop, the best talents of the country. And they have all the resources to improve and better the system. They can do all their studies, go on study trips, all information and technology are open secret and available to them. The civil servants can do much better, given their talents, to run more efficient and productive organisations. There is no need to privatise, to commercialise, to be efficient. In the present context, a govt monopoly is an advantage and can be very productive given the scale of operations. Unless our civil servants are not as talented as they are make out to be. Then that will be a different story. And we should actually sack all of them. Why pay them market salary if they are unable to compete with the best in the market?

The housing bubble

Other than the genius of the best financial minds in printing worthless papers to be sold in the trillions of dollars, the basic ingredient in the American financial crisis is non other than the housing bubble. Property prices were allowed to run unchecked in parallel with more loans to those who cannot afford them. And when the bubble bursts, when the people no longer be able to afford the properties they could not afford in the first place, the house of cards crumbles. We are also creating the housing bubble here. Asset enhancement to make properties more expensive by the days. Great wealth creation. Great illusions will soon become great delusion. When the income is not rising, or shrinking, the runaway prices of properties are unsustainable. It is extremely hazardous to give loans in the hundreds of thousands and millions, at 80% or 90% of the property value. Even at 60% or 70% is risky when servicing such huge loans is dependent on the economy and the monthly salary. When the economy falters, when the income stops coming in, the dream house will vanish in the dream. The fundamentals of economics, of thrift and living within your means is an evergreen truth that one can ignore at your own risk. The American dream of living on future income, on borrowing, has come to an end. It is a miracle that it can go on for so long. The bubble has burst. The dream is shattered. The Americans will find it increasingly dependent on cheap Chinese products, not matter if the quality is not up to their expectation. That's what they can afford now.

The wrong vibration

The mantra of foreign talents is still being sung in high places. We need a new vibration. We need more concerts, arts festivals, F1s, bohemian corners, pot parties, gay parties, yatch racing etc etc. We need to fill up the Esplanade and the museums. These are the kinds of vibrations we are expecting to befit a first world city. Black tie parties, wine drinking and beautiful women in their expensive fineries. What kind of vibrations are we getting? The Geylang kind, the vibrations of litter, noise and stench. And we have little Geylangs aroung the islands. We are a first world city within a city of sleaze. We have kept the foreign workers in dormitories in graveyards and secondary jungles or industrial parks. But when these run out, or when the number can no longer be contained, we are going to see them swimming in the plummest corners of paradise. Serangoon Garden is only the beginning. They will move nearer to us as a matter of time. Nice vibration.

When the end is nigh

The dramatic change of fate of UMNO is a set piece of how things will be when the end is nigh. All the facade of confidence, of things looking right, of support from every corner, of supporters swearing and willing to fight for the cause, of the silence majority remaining as acquiescence as before, will take an about turn. First the brave will start to take sides. The Malaysian bloggers were the suicide squads that took the challenge of the media through the internet. And gradually the ground was won when the other side of the story got an opportunity to be aired and heard. The truth becomes tooth while the bigger truth emerges from the wilderness. The continued abuses of the people and the trampling of their rights were given a bigger airing and more were willing to stand up as in the Hindraf case. The Chinese community were the pathetic lot that continues to swallow all the discriminations and obstacles placed in their path, education, economic opportunity, religious freedom etc were accepted by the Chinese component parties in the BN. They totally discredited themselves remaining in the company of their abusers. They were abandoned. Then the Malay ground was worked up to face the truth. That they too were the neglected lot. And they too abandoned UMNO. UMNO was left with a bunch of politicians that were showering themselves with the wealth of the country but projecting the image of fighting for the interests of the bumiputras. The deception was unveiled and the conclusion was foregone. The royalties stood up to claim higher moral ground that they could not do so before. And now the judiciary and the legal profession are standing up to say no to the abuses of the judiciary and the police. They are saying no to ISA! Where would all these lead to for UMNO? More will stand up. All the injustices and unfair policies and practices will be challenged. And the last bastion of UMNO's supporters will revolt and tear down UMNO themselves. These are the eventualities of events when the end is near. It can happen in paradise too. The wrongs cannot be kept under the lid forever. When the time comes, people will stand up and speak up from the most unexpected corners. In the meantime, the incredulous and nonsensical will keep on piling up till that day, to be removed and sent to the dustbin of history.