Are Singaporeans really that crazy?

We used to pay $30k for a 1,300 sq ft HDB flat. Today, people are queuing up to pay half a million or more for a 1000 sq ft little pigeon hole in the air. And everyone is so happy about it. Don't they know that it will take them a whole life to pay to be cooped up in that little space when a big sprawling house could be had in other places for much less? What is so great about a little space dressed up like a hotel room, a place to sleep, a place to pee and eat, and a TV to watch. And that is about all for $500k to a million. And the best part, everyone is expecting to make a handsome profit when they sell that little space to the next sucker. What kind of quality of living are we getting into? Work like shit for life to pay for a little place to sleep and shit and getting so excited over it? Do Singaporean ever ask whether life could be better, less stressful, less work, more leisure and fun and space to run around? Or this is what good quality living is all about?

Bravo, Great Eastern

If we want to know what is being responsible and trustworthy, look no further. The name is Great Eastern. As a follow up to the Lehman minibonds and Pinnacle notes debacle, Great Eastern has voluntary taken the step to payback every cent its clients paid for a similar product. This is quite embarrassing to the other renowned and reputable organisations that were involved in the fiasco and refused to compensate fully or compensating a pittance. The whole episode and the pathetic handling of the cases with consumers having to fight tooth and nail to claim back their losses said that there is an urgent need for a truly independent body to protect consumer interest. Unfortunately, with the overlapping of roles and interests, and personalities involved, such an organisation is practically impossible to find, not that it cannot be formed, but there is no political interest to have one. The web of being connected is amazing in this little dot. The minibond saga is like all the organisations are banded together on one side and the consumers, the little people, on one little miserable corner with a gungho maverick in the form of Tan Kin Lian as their defender. it is an ugly sight like in the Miserables.

New chief at SGX/Building castle on shifting sands

Magnus Bocker has been recruited from New York, the finest financial centre of the new world. He was the President of Nasdaq OMX. I am not going to belabour the foreign talent or lack of local talent debate. I am looking at this appointment and what direction is the SGX heading? Having a foreign head with a wealth of experience in M & A of stock exchanges, like Chip Goodyears experience in commodities, can we expect that SGX will be heading in this direction, more mergers with other exchanges? The concept is brilliant, as brilliant as the acquisition of huge international banks. The disastrous failure of the latter was due primarily to bad timing as well as buying rotten apples without knowing it. We do not know what we are in for. In the case of growing SGX into an international financial centre in the league of NY, London or Tokyo, my fear is that we are taking too big a bite that we could not swallow. The way the current stock market is running is a case in point. Without a critical mass, a big and sustainable local fund, and relying on an over representation of foreign funds, we are completely at the mercy of these funds. When they are in, we all laugh to the banks. When they decide to pull out, we will be caught high and dry. There is no escape, and many local investors, no matter how big, will be hanged by the cleaners. Their investments can be totally wiped out. This has been our experience. Are we blind to it and still think that this is the way to go? Think big but not too big. Or should we take a step back and ask ourselves whether we should know our strength and weaknesses and play at a level that we can manage and control with lesser risk? Look at our football league. This is what we are and where we will be. Don't deceive ourselves to think otherwise unless we are prepared to throw our money away. The international funds are rich and have plenty of money, but they are very mobile and not only that they will move their funds at will to where the opportunities are, they will exploit the weaknesses of the local market and investors and clean everyone out if they can. Do not play with danger that we cannot control. The minibond saga, the failed investments in foreign banks and in anything foreign, the Scam chips, Malaysian chips, are painful lessons that we must learn from. We are not smarter than them. If we go this way, the biggest disaster that will come our way will be the collapse of the stock market.

Fat bonuses even when incurring losses

The robbing of the minority shareholders continues in Wall Street. Washington Post and Associated Press reported that 9 of the biggest banks in the US paid out US$32.6b in bonuses despite the banks running into huge losses. The following are the stats: 1. BOA $4b profit $3.3b bonus 2. B of New York Mellon $1.4b profit $945m bonus 3. Citigroup $27.7b loss $5.3b bonus 4. Goldman Sachs $2.3b profit $4.8b bonus 5. JP Morgan Chase $5.6b profit $8.7b bonus 6. Merrill Lynch $27.7b loss $3.6b bonus 7.Morgan Stanley $1.7b profit $4.5b bonus 8. State Street $1.8b profit $470m bonus 9. Wells Fargo $42.9b loss $977.5m bonus The above stats show how sick the is the world of top paying employees. Regardless of how they performed, regardless of whether the company is making of losing money, they pay themselves first. This state of affair is made possible when the minority shareholders lost control of the organisation. And the top management is practically at will to rob them of whatever they want. There is no law against this kind of daylight robbery. And the money robbed or paid to the top management is legal, above board, transparent, cannot be challenged in court, as they are duly approved by the board or within the organisation's approving procedures. This is stealing legally. No corruption. And the top management will strut around with heads held high, no need to feel any sense of guilt or shame. It is the fault of the minority shareholders for surrendering their rights to their money. Raiding corporate treasury is now a legal and acceptable practice in most western model organisations. I quote this from the report, 'When the banks did well, their employees were paid well,...when the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well. And when the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well.' Very familiar story. The question is, shall we learn from the Americans and continue to pay top management this way? Or shall we learn from the Americans who are trying to table a bill to put a stop to this daylight robbery?

The fallacious compensation formula for top management

Goldman Sach is going to reward its top management with bountiful bonuses again as its profit soars. Technically it appears a reasonable thing to do given that the top management were the people that helped to generate the profit and should be duly rewarded. But, but the formula is loaded on one side. Big profit means big bonuses. No profit no bonus and big losses, it is the organisation that pays, or the shareholders that pay. Nothing to do with the top management. They only miss out on the big payout. Look at yesterday when all the big organisations were bleeding in the billions. Would the top management put back those billions that were lost? What if the last losses were $200b, as an example, and they started to make back $20b this year, big bonuses again? By right, they should work for the organisation for free or at a fixed pay until all the losses were recovered. Would that be fairer to the organisation and the shareholders? For such organisations that have suffered huge losses, the compensation formula should and must take that into consideration. That was why older compensation schemes were not foolish enough to pay everything with the sky's the limit computed on a spot year. You can't do that! The American govt should pass a law to make those top management to work for life, without bonuses or pay increases, until the losses are made good. Then only can they talk about more bonuses.

A frightening letter in ST forum

'Begrateful, Spore' was sent in by a Canadian Eric J Brooks telling Singaporeans how lucky they were in such a well managed country. He compared our efficiency and our caring govt with what he used to live with in Toronto where rubbish were cleared only once a week. And Singaporeans only need to pay a pittance, $40 a month for conservancy fee. That is a steal. Now, what is so frightening about the letter. The praises are in the right places. We have a good govt and a well managed country. So, what's wrong? The problem is in the $40 conservancy fee that Singaporeans are paying for a clean environment. Some clever little kid is going to crack his head and say, 'Hey, this is too cheap man. Let's do a comparison on the cost of providing such a great service with all the big cities. This is a great opportunity to raise the conservancy fee since an ang moh is so overawed by it.' And raises his pay or bonuses too. This is the same kind of logic that sees the prices of our properties, taxi fares, public transport fares going the heavenly way. And so were the other goods and services. Our star attraction as a value for money tourist attraction where quality goods can be had at cheaper prices than other places is losing its glitter. Soon we will be just another expensive destination. Tighten your seat belt and wait for the next hike in all the service fees. We are living in the best city and we need to pay for it. Nothing comes free and good things don't come cheap.

Sophisticated investors welcome, family jewels not for sale

By Shamim Adam July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte, reeling from the aborted appointment of Charles "Chip" Goodyear, said it lost more than S$40 billion ($27.7 billion) in asset value and that the sovereign fund may allow public investment for the first time. The Singapore investment company will seek "sophisticated investors" and won't sell the "family jewels" for short-term gains, Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in a speech today in Singapore. ... All sophisticated Singaporeans are invited to invest in Temasek to take advantage of the expertise it has accummulated over the years. Temasek has a scintillating record of, if I remember correctly, registering 8% or 15% growth over the last couple of decades. And Singaporeans should feel comforted that family jewels will not be sold. DBS, SIA, NOL, Singapore Land etc are safe for now. Unfortunately the power stations were not managed by Temasek. Or else they would not be sold. Was Raffles owned by Temasek before, and was it a family jewel, or was it a national heritage? Let's make an effort to keep some of our inheritance and not to sell everything for a little short term monetary profit. Let's not sell Alaska!

Shedding crocodile tears

Why is property speculation bad? The buyers are happy, the sellers are happy, the land owners are happy, the developers are happy, and so are property agents and conveyance lawyers. And everyone is laughing to the bank. Let's churn the property market higher, limiting supplies, increasing demands, and get the media to write more frightening stories about the prices going higher and better rush in to grab one before it is too late. Or write about how a $200k property is now selling at $400k to move the herd for the slaughter. In property market, we only hear of the money people are making. We never hear who is paying for the enormous sums and how many years they must slog to pay back. But these are the normal things in a free market when prices are determined by supply and demand. Go for it, let the prices surge higher. It is good. There will be money everywhere. I forget, the banks too will be very happy to loan out more money. And all the property owners will be beaming, seeing how much their properties are worth now. The same 4 walls, and many with dwindling lease life. Still the herd will rush in to buy, fearing that they will miss the boat. Anyone remember the dizzy demands for country and golf clubs a few years back? 30 year lease and most of them with less than 15 years left. And the value for the less prestigeous clubs is probably 20% left from their highs. And this will keep going down, and may become negative value when the lease expires and a new top up is demanded from every member for a new lease.

We are still waiting?

I thought I remember that people are looking into the motor insurance and workshop repair scam. Now, how many days have passed? Is the issue dead, resolved, or is it water under the bridge? Or is it that since no one is talking about it, the scam is now acceptable and nothing needs to be done? Motorists better make more noises before you start to pay another hefty insurance premium to fatten the crooks in the scam. You need to complain louder to be heard and to be taken seriously for things to happen.

Of Mavericks and supertalents

Either our education is a fake, a failure, or our selection process for govt scholars and top talents is missing something. We talked openly about identifying and selecting mavericks for the civil service but did we see any? Philip Yeo and then who else? Oh, one who ran his ministry so well that he could go on leave to pursue his passion, knowing that without him, the ministry will do just as well. Where are the mavericks? Then we look at Temasek, presumably with so many local talents, they could not find one to fit the shoe and went around looking for something cheap and good. I think Liew Mun Leong should comfortably fit in with the wealth of experience that he has been exposed to, if none internally is good enough. We should not keep on telling the world that we have no local talents and dismiss our local talents as furnitures. Look at all the actors and actresses in MediaCorp! If we don't give them a chance, would they be what they are today? Would Hongkong and Taiwan entertainment industries give them the same chance? Lim Goh Tong was never a supertalent. But he built an empire that stretches through several continents. So were some of our not so talented entrepreneurs like Wee Cho Yaw and the Queks. So, what is the truth, system failure, no talent, or what?

No shame, no guilt, no remorse

Did anyone notice any sense of shame, any feeling of guilt or any hint of remorse? Any sensible person faced with such blatant and outrageous acts of impropriety would have long said, enough, can’t take it anymore, run away to hide, and not to face the world again. But no, there is nothing wrong. Everything is justifiable, can be explained and is reasonable or normal. I am above the law, above all human norms and behaviour, nothing can stain me. I have done so much good, so much merit, whatever things that I have done were mere little indiscretions. No, not indiscretions, they are normal acts of a human bean and I am a normal human bean, with all my greed, lust, and extravagance. The above probably explain why all the shit were allowed to be aired in public over so many days, for all to see. Is there any decent man kind enough to advise the tart that the whole thing is so ridiculous it is better to call it off immediately, not even to have it started in the first place? Anyone with an ounce of intelligence could see the senseless nature of the whole proceedings. But no, it must go on public record that I have done no wrong. I am beyond reproach, and if I have done anything stupid, they are excusable as I have done big things and done great things. All the great things that I have done must be enough to mitigate the little silly things that I have done. Oops, whatever I done were not silly or wrong. I have done no wrong. That is why I am standing here facing the music. For no dirt or shit can stain me. Oh come on, spare the people and the teacher and the truth from being tarnished by your stupidity. Or have we reached a stage when all the rich and powerful believes that with money and fame, there is no fear of shame, there is no shame as long as your bank account is full of money.

Peeking into stock orders 'an unfair advantage'.

'The hallmarks of our markets are that they are open and above board, and the little guy has as much of a chance as the big guy.' - Senator Charles Schumer, Chairman of the Senate rules and administration committee. What is happening in Wall Street and many stock exchanges across the world where the hedge funds are operating is that they tapped into the main exchange operating system to peek into stock orders from other investors. This gives them a 0.03 sec lead time to compute and place their orders to take advantage of other investors with their powerful computers. According to the Tabb Group, it reported that these high frequency traders accounted for more than half of all the trades and pocketed 'about US$21 billion in profits last year. Who lost? Schumer wants a stop to such advantage against the small investors and wants to prohibit trading by high frequency traders. Well, the Americans have some decent man to call a thief a thief. There is conscience to do right and justice. Do we have such high frequency traders trading here and taking advantage of the small guys? If there are, what are we going to do about it? Or why did we allow this go on for so long? Fair game? Caveat emptor? This is worst than minibonds! Are we fair to the small investors? If billions have been lost by the small investors because of such malpractice, who is going to pay for it? No one is responsible for sure. Does anyone know what is happening?

An old story rehashed

He was a botak, with short crew cuts, not the stylish marine type. A typical Chinaman style, nothing fashionable. He wore a short sleeve white shirt, and probably a pair of China brand leather shoes. His office was just as spartan. Outside his office there would be a queue of well dressed western gentlemen in fine business suits and expensive briefcases, waiting eagerly to meet him. Once in his office they put on their best manner to present what they want, to sell to this Chinaman. The boorish, apparently ill mannered Chinaman would stroke his botak head, dug his nose or popped up his denture occasionally, while listening to the elaborate presentations. He controlled a war chest in the multi millions, to buy expensive equipment. The polished and well dressed gentlemen were there, eager to please him, all for his nod to get to his money. Yes, they came for his money. The moral of the story is that when they want your money, they will queue up and be nice to you, no matter who you are. You can be a little dictator, a military junta or a cruel monarch, they will come to please you to part with your money. We have plenty of money in our sovereign funds, and in our stock markets. We need not go around the world begging the thieves to take it. They should be the one begging for the money. We need not live by their rules and dictation. Why should we employed an Angmo to front our SWF or other set ups that we paid for? Because the thieves said so? Because the thieves demanded that it be so or else they would not want to take our money? Just like the stockmarkets around the world, the thieves and robbers will come if there is money to make. There is no need to bend backwards to accommodate them, to play by their rules, or rules designed and determined by them to their advantage. We have the money. We have money flowing out of our pockets. We need not be beggars, to plead with the thieves to come and take it. They will come. When they said no, they do not want your money, they are bluffing.

Can students assume that all is ok?

With the closing of Brookes Business School and its subsidiary school, can students attending classes in all the existing private schools feel secure that they will not get into the same problem as those from these two schools? Case's Executive Director Seah Seng Choon has explained that CaseTrust is just about protecting the fees students paid and welfare practices. The role of ensuring academic excellence is the responsibility of Spring Singapore. In 2004, EDB's press statement said that an accreditation council was supposed to be set up. This somehow did not materialise. Can we assume that all the private schools thus did not go through a screening process to ensure that what they claimed were genuine and that all of them are sound and proper? A new regime will be set up under EduTrust to regulate private schools and the quality of the services they are providing. Until then, Case is stepping up to check on private schools to see that all is in order. There is a lapse of 5 years of free enterprise when everything goes. 5 years of caveat emptor while the foul smell was floating around and with several other incidents and several schools closed down. What a pathetic state of affair that was allowed go on for so long without any body stepping in to protect the students and the image of a reliable and world class education hub that we are building. Can students assume that everything is ok now?

What the govt is looking for in a govt scholar

What the govt is looking for in a govt scholar Below is a quote by Eddie Teo, PSC Chairman, on what the interviewers will be looking for when interviewing potential scholars. He advised the young interviewees to be themselves, to be critical and sceptical. And this is what he meant by that. ‘Being critical means you care about our nation and want to improve things and correct what you think is wrong. Being sceptical means you are not naïve and do not accept everything you read or hear.’ He also added that the PSC ‘is not looking for conformists or yes men …but people who dared to think and question existing policies’. With so many people calling me naïve, I sure fail miserably if I were a young man applying for a scholarship. But the motherhood statement is a very nice ideal to live up to. It would be nice if the people recruiting scholars really believe and practise what they preached. I think they do. The problems come only when these highly idealistic young people graduated and started their civil service careers. Would they continue to believe in such ideals and practise them? Look around, look at some (some only) of the farcical reasonings given to justify some of the absurb policies and decisions made, I think many would believe that such ideals are at best a myth. Or the recruitment process failed miserably in its ability to select the critical and sceptical into the service, the ‘few mavericks – people with unconventional viewpoints who are willing to challenge assumptions…(to) add vitality and diversity to the service’. What do we have and what do we see in public service? The minibond fiasco and the mess in the finance and private education industries are examples that say nobody cares nothing about our nation and about improving things. It is just a job with a clearly defined job description that comes with it. Where is the ownership, the passion and conviction in nation building? If it is not my job then it is not my problem. Running a country is not a job. Running a country is not simply about making more profits. It is about improving the quality of life of a people. What kind of life we want our people to live, cost of living and cost of not living. Are the people living when they have to spend a whole life working just to keep themselves alive instead of living life?

What integrity to protect the small investors?

We want fairness, fair odds to trade in the stock markets, to win and lose fairly. We demand a fair trading system and fair treatment from the regulators. No loaded dice in the stockmarkets. These are the minimum conditions that small investors should expect from the stockmarket trading system. Allowing a trading system to be loaded against the small investors is not only unfair, but CRIMINAL. It is a crime amounting to cheating or collaborating with the cheats to rip off the small investors. There is a very revealing article in the ST today, of course it must come from the gods in America, in Wall Street, from the New York Times. Our demigods and immortals are blind or ignorant to such revelations. Even if they do, they won’t make a whimper of it. The best they could do is to copy an article, like this article, and innocently push it out to the public. For what? To educate who? High frequency trading moves in blink of an eye ‘Critics say it offers unfair advantage over traditional trading.’ The big boys, hedge funds, are making millions and billions by the use of sophisticated trading systems and computer programmes to trade against the small investors. And the verdict is simple. They win and the small investors lose. Programme trading has been put in practice for many years with the consent of the regulators who knowing very well that it is unfair to the small traders. They are accomplices to the crime of robbing and cheating the small guys. Period. Not only that the big funds have technology on their side, the trading rules are also on their side, and aided by a big war chest, the unfair advantage they have over the small investors is unimaginable. Why were they allowed to participate in an unfair game where integrity, honesty, transparency and fair play are fundamental principles of the whole trading system? They provide volumes, they churn up volumes, giving the fictitious impression that the market is active and trading with high volumes. It was all a big farce. It was all programme trading that contributes to the high volume, buying and selling at the same time. Syndicates manipulating the stockmarkets are frown upon and apprehended for cornering the market, for market manipulation. Is programme trading in the same league? Where is the integrity to ensure a level playing field for all? Where is the integrity to protect the small guys? Or is it another case of immoral morality, exploiting the innocent small guys with a loaded dice?

Brookes duped? Not so, say ex students

This is the heading of an article in the ST about the case against Brookes Business School for issuing fake degrees from RMIT. The heading is appropriate. It is the school, Brookes, that was duped and in turn duped the students. It is the school that issued fake degrees. No human bean is involved or guilty of it. Brookes should be hanged. Would this be the natural finding at the end of the case?

New Singapore city waterfront

The financial district waterfront at dusk. 2nd pic shows the three towers of Sands Casino nearing their completion. They stand on the left of the waterfront pic and facing the Fullerton Hotel. The tower block with blue lights behind the Fullerton is the new MayBank building.

Stage for the National Day Parade

This is the floating platform in the sea next to the Esplanade. The NDP shows will be staged on this platform. The 2nd pic were performers on stage during a rehearsal.

Goodbye Mr Chip

I read a copy of Wall Street Journal's article on the departure of Chip Goodyear and the reason given by Temasek is "differences regarding certain strategic issues." Could this bungling be avoided from day one and not happen at all? The assets managed by Temasek and the interests and objectives are bound to straddle across strategic and highly sensitive area. How could these be screened away from a foreigner who is the CEO of the organisation? Could Goodyear be asking too much and wanting to know too much that the strain becomes unbearable? It is quite ridiculous to engage a foreigner to manage the strategic assets of a nation and believe that nothing sensitive will be divulged. Now, can we expect a kiss and tell autobiography or movie in the near future? The royalty fees is going to be quite substantial and irresistible.