How I wish....

With so many frauds being disclosed, with so many people losing their fortunes, it is sad that the only person they could point the finger at is Madoff. What about all the thieves that have enriched themselves all these years in the financial industry? The auditors, the regulators, the CEOs, etc etc? Are they all innocent? How I wish America is a communist state today. You know what the communists did to the thieves that plundered and stole the people's money? They either decapitated them or shot them in a firing squad. But with a justice system that pays big money to the lawyers to find someone guilty or to defend the thieves and make them innocent, there will be no natural justice but the justice of money and power.

National pride versus national honour

Watching the football match between Vietnam and Thailand was like watching two nations battling for honour and national pride, and not just for money or for personal glory. These are the simple things in countries that are still 'backward' and not ruled by money. The people will do anything to defend the honour of their countries without asking how much is in it for them. There are money involved for sure. But they will not trade national honour for money in such a game. Sometimes for sophisticated and modern countries like ours, we tend to sneer at their simplicity. We may even find it amusing for them to be sweating their guts out just for some national glory but not for the millions which they could demand in view of their talents. These talented players should join the commercial leagues where all the monies are and their talents be duly rewarded. The rich countries will be most willing to pay for their talents to play, to win or lose depending the the bets on the table.

Time to cash out

HDB is building more 2 rm flats for the baby boomers who are hitting the 60s. Nice thought and nice planning. Since the late 60s till the 80s, HDB probably have built flats for a whole generation baby boomers and see them grow, settle down, raised families and now time to retire comfortably into their golden years. The baby boomers were the most successful generation of self starters, stepping out from a time when poverty was the norm. Many are living in bigger HDB flats and private properties. With children having their own families and leaving the roosts, some may want to cash out and live on the gains from their inflated assets. Typically they would have bought their HDB flats for between $20k to $40k and could now sell them for $400k or more. Neat profit. If a 2 rm flat costs $150k, there is still plenty of money to live by, provided they qualify for the purchase if they have not used up their two bites of the cherry. The good news is that there will be many of these bigger flats available for the young to pick up. The bad news is that these young couples did not have the same opportunities as the baby boomers, where the prices of flats were relatively low to their income. The cost of flats to the baby boomers was about 20 or 30 times their monthly salary, on one pay packet. A $400k flat today will be about 400 times that of a $4k monthly income or 200 times that of a $8k combined income. It looks like HDB lives on one cycle, taking care and planning for the baby boomers. The subsequent cycles or new generations will have to take care of themselves. Or maybe they are being taken care off by having better quality flats to suit their sophisticated lifestyles.

2008 is and will be a great year

In 2008 I am pleasantly surprised that I could create more than 200 myths. When I first started on this thread I was doubting myself that I could even write 20 myths. Then 100 went pass and then 200. Now I am even toying with the idea of the 1000 myths of Lion City. The best part of it all is that the most mystifying myths are being debunked as tooths or, now what am I saying, is it the most indestructible truths becoming myths? Anyway, it was mystifying. Everyday we are challenging the conventional wisdom and the great tooths of the day and seeing one by one falling by the way side. But don't be despair, more tooths will be proclaimed and more myths will come or way. It was also a year of great education. The Singaporeans were being educated everyday with each crisis getting more serious and nearer to home. But I bet with you, the Singaporeans have yet to learn a thing. They are still as complacent as before, as silly as before. They would not want to think and would live their thinking to other people. And they have great faith that all will be well if they just see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing. God will be there to watch over us. And god will be kind and bless us to eternity with good fortunes.

Wishful thinking or wicked intent?

In March this year the official figure given was that Temasek was managing $185b of assets. If these were in equity or equity related assets and stocks, my guesstimate is that it would have lost 50% of its value at least. But the figure will be much better if kept in fixed deposits or less risky assets that are saved from the financial crisis. If the loss is in the 50% region, I said if, the loss must be made up from somewhere. I fear the money in CPF. Would the minimum sum and Medisave be further increased? Would the withdrawal age be further delayed? Would there be new measures to shift the goal posts? There are now more reasons to wish that our investments are intact, that the talented fund managers are doing well to keep them growing or at least not losing. There are more reasons not to change the govt so that the talents and the continuity will help to safeguard our assets and investments, and our future. The CPF is like a sacred cow. It is the people's hard earned money and must rightfully return to the people for their own benefit at the earliest possible time. Definitely not till they are dead or near death. This is simply bad. I have all the time this bad feeling, and I can be totally wrong on this, that there are people with designs on our CPF money. To keep the CPF for as long as possible to enable them a cheap source of fund for their own investment schemes. I hope I am wrong. I hope the real reasons to keep the money for as long as they can is really for the good of the people, in the interests of the owners. But should anyone really have wrongful designs, they must know that the designs are wicked and will do them no good. The first is the intent to 'sapu' money. No one should ever think of it as the CPF money rightly belongs to the people and depriving the people from getting it back is already sinful, if not criminal. Decent and honourable people who believe in not doing evil should never harbour such thoughts. The second intent to use the money for whatever schemes or things, may include thoughts of returning the gains to the people, if there are gains, may have some mitigating factors to lower the ill effects of the first intent. But if it is just to exploit this cheap source of fund with no regards to rewarding the owner of the money, it is unforgiveable. Seeing it in any other way is still a dirty thing to do. Do I sound like preaching or delivering a sermon? The rights and wrongs of such acts and intents are difficult to dispute or wish away. Do not have designs on the people's hard earned money for private interests. If there are, it is better to let the owners know and seek their permission and forgiveness. Do not temper with money that is not yours.