Good that NOL shares were hammered down

Yesterday there was this market rumour that NOL may be making cash calls and its shares were duly sold down. This is what investors should do when companies take the convenient way to demand cash from cash strap shareholders, in a very difficult time like this. I hope investors will continue to sell off companies making cash calls. And it is highly irresponsible for such companies to do so when some don't even need the money or have other sources of fund. What is happening? Are these companies so broke or they have lost their pants somewhere and needing the small shareholders to pay for their folly? Robbing poor Peter to pay Paul?

Growth for what and for who?

Eminnent professor of strategy at the Stephen M Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in the USA is questioning the growth fetishism in Singapore. She is calling for a reexamination of what all the fuzz is about. And it takes someone from the distance, not our world class academia, to discuss such an important matter. Perhaps our brilliant people are all busy making money the best they could for themselves. Dr Linda Lim is a Singaporean based in Ann Arbor. She could see from the distance of things that we cannot see from inside the fish tank. The wide income gap and the high cost of living, and the way we bet big with our national savings are all things that demands a serious relook before they get bad. Where is the debate or concern in this little paradise of super talents, demigods and immortals? Maybe they have more important preoccupations like licensing bicycles or chasing pieces of gold medals in sports, or chasing foreign talents. Should we be pondering over the distribution of wealth and how to spread it around more instead of asking the hardlanders to ever keep on tightening their belts, or to make them pay more as every increase is carefully calculated to be affordable but leaving them with nothing for tomorrow? The ST devoted one page of its paper to Dr Linda Lim Today with 3 separate articles on her and what she had said about our economic growth and strategy.

Just for the record

Monday, 09 March 2009 Se Young LeeDow Jones Newswires Singapore's foreign reserves fell to US$163.55 billion at the end of February from US$167.09 billion a month earlier and was lower than US$171.74 billion a year earlier, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said Monday. In Singapore dollar terms, the reserves were S$252.78 billion in February compared with S$252.57 billion in January and S$239.36 billion a year earlier, the central bank said on its Web site. I copy this from Singabloodypore.

Preparing for Change

Is it time for change? Obama took almost one year to prepare the Americans for change. If it is time for change, the people must be mentally prepared for it. Who can do the preparation? The political parties or the media? Which media and who wants change? When people are talking about change, I presume they are talking about political change, a change of govt and a change of policies. There cannot be any major changes or change of policies without a change of govt, or at least a big swing in votes with more opposition candidates in Parliament. And for such a momentous event to happen, a lot of preparation and effort must be put into it. It cannot happen overnight. Neither can it happen spontaneously unless there is a crisis of earth shaking proportion. Then there will be the supporters and forces that will resist change, who would want the status quo. These forces will be working equally hard to avoid change. For the moment the forces against change are having the upper hand. What can be done to keep the call for change and its momentum going? The forces for change will have to start thinking and working now. And I think cyberspace can play a major role towards change by harping about it day and night to create the awareness. The people must be prepared for the change to come if it is to come.

In a state of shock!

Have we been so stunned to inactivity by the financial crisis? After the Reliance Package there were some talks of upturn the downturn and belt tightening. Subsequently there were more calls for trainining. Then what else? With the economy grinding down, with some industries limping, where are the supertalents and their super solutions to the problems facing us? Could more be done to alleviate the situation? Or are we just sitting there waiting for the storm to blow over and then pick up the pieces? Or really there is nothing else that can be done? The people have no talents and they can't do anything. Those with great talents and are paid for their talents should be showing their talents at times like this. We really need them now, badly. Where are they?