Money to bail out sick banks.

Below is an extract from an email that came to me. It shows how much money we have to invest in sick banks which I agree is a great opportunity given to us and a risk worth taking. But I also share the author's sentiment about why we were so desperate to need to raise GST by another 2% to help the poor when we actually have so much money to bail out sick banks. (I have omitted copying the cynical and naughty parts of the arguments as I am not sure of the source of this article.) In the past year alone, the Singapore government ¡V through its investment arms of Temasek and GIC - invested a whopping $34, 560, 000, 000.00 in various investments worldwide. That's $34.56 billion. GIC: UBS - $14 billion British Land - $388 million Citigroup - $9.8 billion US Hedge Fund - $429 million Temasek: British Bank Barclays - $4.3 billion Merrill Lynch - $5 billion Standard Chartered - $643 million And if you think the government is stretching itself too thin, no worries. GIC deputy chairman and executive director Tony Tan says the GIC has capacity to bail out another bank. (AFP) Now, government investments are not a bad thing, to be sure. Of course there are questions of transparency and accountability which some people have brought up. Be that as it may, what is even more troubling is another issue. This is the constant lament of the government about not having enough money or financial resources to deal with Singapore 's ageing population, helping the poor, providing subsidized healthcare and so on. Thus, the government has introduced the GST hike to 7% ("to help the poor"), and is introducing the Compulsory Longevity Insurance (for our ageing population), and Means Testing (for healthcare). All of these are paid for by Singaporeans, in some way or another. In raising the GST to 7%, Channel NewsAsia reported PM Lee as saying: "Mr Lee explained that the hike was necessary to finance the enhanced social safety nets, needed to help the lower income group.." (CNA) The extra 2% will give the government a further $1.5 billion to finance "the enhanced social safety nets, needed to help the lower income group". Now, if the GIC and Temasek Holdings have $34 billion to bail out ailing foreign banks, why does the government not have the money ( a mere $1.5b) to help poorer Singaporeans, which it says it needs? Why does the government not have enough money to spend more on the aged and healthcare? Contrast the obscene spending by the GIC and Temasek with the pathetic excuse given by MCYS minister Vivian Balakrishnan about giving those on public assistance a further $23 increase, which some MPs have asked for: "The government is reviewing the S$290 monthly public assistance (PA) allowance for needy Singaporeans to see if it should be increased. It is also conducting a separate review on the qualifying income limit for assistance, which currently stands at S$1,500 a month. The review is expected to be completed later this year." (CNA) (TOC) Why does the government need to have months of "review" to ascertain whether giving another $23 to those most in need is justified? If this is not the height of hilarity, then I don't know what is. It would be funny if it weren't so sad ¡V that our government would not blink an eye in spending billions bailing out foreign banks in risky undertakings while being so hardfisted about giving a mere $23 to its most vulnerable and needy citizens. Something is just not right. How did the government suddenly make $34.5 billion appear out of thin air when they were just lamenting, not too long ago, that they didn't even have $1.5 billion to help the poor? Now, the next time I hear the government says it does not have enough money and need to raise this and raise that to fund certain "programmes" to "help the poor", I will tell them: "Please stop....."

Bee tang ah! Huat ah!

Gabriel Chen wrote in the ST about this guy whose net worth is about $6m and after some computation found that he has an angpow of $200k! Wow, what about those with $20m or $200m net worth? Huat ah, huat ah : ) Thanks to the Good Year Ang Pow Budget. And Singaporeans still complaining not enough?

Oil price hitting US$100 a barrel

Looks like the future of oil prices is only up and will be above US$100, maybe US$200 or more. We need to prepare our people for high oil prices and get use to paying for them at high prices. More importantly we must educate our people to cut down and save on wasting power and electricity, like going green. The situation of oil prices is like water. Oil is precious like water. We must do what we did for water. We have taken many measures to save water and educate the people from wasting water. I find all those measures very effective and should be adopted in the same way. To prevent people from wasting electricity unnecessarily, to teach them to switch off lights when not needed, we need to double the price of electricity. And we can include an electricity surcharge tax of 30% just like we tax for over usage of water. These measures will guarantee to be effective as it hurts the people where it hurts most, the pocket. People will then be more careful in the use of electricity and will not anyhow waste them. The other go green measures can come in. Don't get me wrong, raising electricity rates is only one of many measures to save on fuel cost. Now I am getting green conscious. I am going to save the world. I might even be awarded with a Save Mother Earth Medal like Al Gore.

Frightening but good for the people

A new bill is being tabled to protect 'patients who are detained or forced to be admitted to psychiatric institutions' in Parliament. To even think of people being detained or forced to be admitted into psychiatric institutions in paradise is really frightening. There is no such thing in paradise, cannot be. Such things only happened in communist regimes of the past or in some dictatorships. But of course it is good to have such a law just in case such things did happened and there is some protection for the people being wrong. Under the current procedure, according to Tan Hui Leng, 'a person can be admitted or detained for treatment if he is suffering from a mental disorder that warrants such an action, and if it is in the interests of the person or to protect others.' Hmmm, what do you think? Can bloggers be deemed to be suffering from some disorder and needs to be detained in the interests of the blogger or to protect others? My imagination is getting wild. But in the future, if paradise is taken over by a dictator, a bad dictator, this is a frightening possibility. So this new bill is good for the people and the victims. It is a proactive bill.

Same floor flat different price

Brother wanted to buy a 4 rm flat next to another brother but found price increased by $84k. It was $280k a year ago when his brother bought it from HDB. It is now $364k from HDB. This is reported in the New Paper. The price has gone up as it is marked according to market resale value of flats in the area. And this brother is unhappy. He found it unreasonable as the costs of building the two flats were the same. But he forgot. When his brother bought the flat at $280k, it was already subsidised. Now if he is going to pay at the same price, the subsidy will be whatever plus $84k! Now that is a very huge market subsidy. Further, the $364k is also cheaper than market price. I think he is expecting too much. Too unreasonable. $364k, good price, fair price. Cheaper than market price, and subsidised some more. What more does he want?