The Beggar’s Sect was a very big social gang in the fables and legends of the Chinese pugilistic literature. It was a big gang of beggars that boasted of great martial arts exponents to protect their turfs and areas of operation. They set up their own rules, collect protection fees from their members and would beat up challengers to their territories and their controlled businesses.
The thing is that the Beggar’s Sect was mainly for beggars, and the rich would keep themselves away from the Sect. The Sect continued their existence with members from the begging community.
There seems to be a revival of the Beggar’s Sect in the Pacific region, led by the Americans, the country that is deep in debt. It is roping in more indebted countries as members in a pact called the TPP, standing for the Trans Pacific Partnership, or is it The Poverty Pact? And it is beating all the drums to make it attractive and teasing China to join the pact. The thing is whether China, with all the money in its treasury, and being the biggest creditor of the US, would want to join the poor countries that could only shout but with nothing left in its treasury?
Would China be deceived into joining the TPP or The Poverty Pact? Anyway, with Asean as an established regional grouping of countries and linking up with the big economic countries of the world, is there a need for a new pact to be led by a poor country from the eastern Pacific coast that is many thousands of miles away? Why should these Asian and Southeast Asian countries be led by a country in America? Are they that helpless, and lack of leaders to need to be led by someone else who simply walked in and say I am your leader?
And there is also an APEC. So why dance to a new pact because the Americans say so? APEC and Asean are all redundant and there is a need for another new animal to get things done?
11/23/2011
Apple polishing in the corporate world
The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges are in the final stages of a merger to reemerge as a bigger stock exchange. Merger and acquisition is the magic formula of advanced corporate and business management principals. Corporation seeks quick growth and profits by simply merging and acquiring other corporations. It is swift and instant growth.
When the time frame to show results by top management is reduced to a couple of years, M&A is the quick solution. And short term gain is matched by short term policies and management practices. Corporation intending to do M&A only needs to put its house in order, or appears to be in order. Patch up the leaking holes temporary with stop gap measures, giving it a new coat of paint and hope that the ship will reach the next port intact. The whole ship could be rotting, but as long as it looks good from the outside, and can sail for a while, that is good enough.
The next most important thing to do is to go out quickly to merge or acquire another healthy ship to boost its bottom line before it sinks. What the top honchos forget is that other corporations could also be indulging in the same apple polishing to look good on the outside and waiting for an unsuspecting suitor. The merger could be between two rotten apples hoping to turn into a shiny apple through the copulation.
The old concept of organic growth, which is slow, tedious and a lot of hard work, is shelved permanently by all the MBAs from the top business schools. There is no need to work so hard, the way to real growth. They have no time for such crappy business idea. Too slow and too difficult. Take the short cut, M&A and lo and behold, a bigger corporation with bigger net worth overnight. Everything becomes bigger, bigger risk, bigger problem, bigger cost, and bigger hole. Uh no, economies of scale man!
Do not be awed by the M&As that are going on in the corporate world. It may be the in thing today. It is not necessarily the right thing to do or a good thing. A rotten apple is a rotten apple. It is the equivalent of banks indulging in big time gambling for quick and easy profit. When the fundamentals are unsound, M&A is a short cut for destruction as the resources were assigned to do apple polishing instead of running and building a sound organization. Quickies are in favour just to look good on paper and in the eyes of the unsuspecting and gullible spectators.
Many young people are also looking for such M&As, to marry the scions of a rich family and lo behold, the merger will bring instant wealth, and recognition, to sit in big companies, to run big corporations.
When the time frame to show results by top management is reduced to a couple of years, M&A is the quick solution. And short term gain is matched by short term policies and management practices. Corporation intending to do M&A only needs to put its house in order, or appears to be in order. Patch up the leaking holes temporary with stop gap measures, giving it a new coat of paint and hope that the ship will reach the next port intact. The whole ship could be rotting, but as long as it looks good from the outside, and can sail for a while, that is good enough.
The next most important thing to do is to go out quickly to merge or acquire another healthy ship to boost its bottom line before it sinks. What the top honchos forget is that other corporations could also be indulging in the same apple polishing to look good on the outside and waiting for an unsuspecting suitor. The merger could be between two rotten apples hoping to turn into a shiny apple through the copulation.
The old concept of organic growth, which is slow, tedious and a lot of hard work, is shelved permanently by all the MBAs from the top business schools. There is no need to work so hard, the way to real growth. They have no time for such crappy business idea. Too slow and too difficult. Take the short cut, M&A and lo and behold, a bigger corporation with bigger net worth overnight. Everything becomes bigger, bigger risk, bigger problem, bigger cost, and bigger hole. Uh no, economies of scale man!
Do not be awed by the M&As that are going on in the corporate world. It may be the in thing today. It is not necessarily the right thing to do or a good thing. A rotten apple is a rotten apple. It is the equivalent of banks indulging in big time gambling for quick and easy profit. When the fundamentals are unsound, M&A is a short cut for destruction as the resources were assigned to do apple polishing instead of running and building a sound organization. Quickies are in favour just to look good on paper and in the eyes of the unsuspecting and gullible spectators.
Many young people are also looking for such M&As, to marry the scions of a rich family and lo behold, the merger will bring instant wealth, and recognition, to sit in big companies, to run big corporations.
11/22/2011
The cost of returning home
Two young Singaporeans having settled down in America for a few years could have bought a decent landed property for $300k or $400k, driving around in a fairly big car for $30k, and have a decent savings of perhaps two or three hundred thousand bucks.
If they were to return to paradise, selling their home for about the same amount and with a net cash of three quarter of a million, they could at best buy a private condo and still having to take a few hundred thousand bucks in loan. Eventually the private flat is going to cost them perhaps $2m in total. And they need to buy a small car that is going to cost at least $100k.
Their net financial position is negative, with a big mortgage and hardly anything left in their savings. This is the price of returning home. And there is job hunting to do. It is like being robbed of a couple of million bucks on returning home to stay. Yes, they can go and rent a flat and live like FTs.
In the case of a foreign talent from the neighbouring countries, most of them would not have much of a property anyway. They came, got a job, rented a place and started savings. Few years down the road, placed all their savings for a public flat and service them with their CPF. The value of the flat can only go up, like a savings account with guaranteed 5% to 10% interest rate equivalent, maybe more. Then they start to count the days when they could cash out and return home to be a rich man, or in the US or Australia to start life with a reasonable good cash holding from the sale of their public flat.
The two tales tell of the comparative advantage of Singaporeans returning home to pay a huge ransom for something less and a foreigner who came with nothing much but leaving with a pretty nice cash hoard. And this is not far from the truth. The cost of living is a heavy price to pay. The only good option is to cash out and move out. But his option is not so attractive to Singaporeans who called this island home.
If they were to return to paradise, selling their home for about the same amount and with a net cash of three quarter of a million, they could at best buy a private condo and still having to take a few hundred thousand bucks in loan. Eventually the private flat is going to cost them perhaps $2m in total. And they need to buy a small car that is going to cost at least $100k.
Their net financial position is negative, with a big mortgage and hardly anything left in their savings. This is the price of returning home. And there is job hunting to do. It is like being robbed of a couple of million bucks on returning home to stay. Yes, they can go and rent a flat and live like FTs.
In the case of a foreign talent from the neighbouring countries, most of them would not have much of a property anyway. They came, got a job, rented a place and started savings. Few years down the road, placed all their savings for a public flat and service them with their CPF. The value of the flat can only go up, like a savings account with guaranteed 5% to 10% interest rate equivalent, maybe more. Then they start to count the days when they could cash out and return home to be a rich man, or in the US or Australia to start life with a reasonable good cash holding from the sale of their public flat.
The two tales tell of the comparative advantage of Singaporeans returning home to pay a huge ransom for something less and a foreigner who came with nothing much but leaving with a pretty nice cash hoard. And this is not far from the truth. The cost of living is a heavy price to pay. The only good option is to cash out and move out. But his option is not so attractive to Singaporeans who called this island home.
New trade war in the Pacific
The US is starting to relocate its military equipment and soldiers into the Pacific Rim countries, primarily Japan, S Korea and now Australia, with potential to locate in Vietnam and the Philippines as well. The stage is being set up for an arms confrontation with China. It is a move for war, not for peace.
American warships are sailing more frequently around the eastern Pacific as a show of force, that the number One marine super power is there and will be unchallenged. They sure look very formidable and impressive.
The question is whether these warships could sail so freely in the eastern Pacific Ocean when hostility is declared. The Chinese DF21D, its ASBM or anti ship ballistic missile, has a range of 3000 km from its coast, covering practically the whole of the eastern Pacific Ocean. This means that all big ships within the 3000 km radius could be hit. This would then become the No Sail Zone for American ships if war is declared.
The current show of force will no longer be possible and it is unlikely that the Americans would dare to risk their aircraft carriers, battleships, frigates or any big floating vessels within the DF21D strike range. The eastern Pacific Ocean will be a cemetery for China’s enemy ships.
Should China have full control of the seas around its coast, what can the Americans do? It will be a war whereby China will trade its ASBMs for aircraft carriers and battleships. The Americans will again suffer a huge trade deficit as the cost of each ASBM is negligible compares to the American ships.
The eastern Pacific Ocean will be the equivalent of a maritime Dien Bien Phu with the reach of the ASBMs. It is enter at your own risk. The missiles will come raining.
If the Americans are thinking of their bases in South Korea and Japan, forget it. They will be the first to be taken out of the equation. This is not the 1840s when the Chinese cannons could not hit the British and American ships while the latter could hit the Chinese mainland.
This new trading game is going to be very costly to the Americans and its allies for sure. It is so economical and efficient to keep the American carrier groups away from the eastern Pacific coast with just the deployment of ASBM batteries along the Chinese coast. This is the strangest development since the British and American wooden boats could attack China at will in the 1840s.
American warships are sailing more frequently around the eastern Pacific as a show of force, that the number One marine super power is there and will be unchallenged. They sure look very formidable and impressive.
The question is whether these warships could sail so freely in the eastern Pacific Ocean when hostility is declared. The Chinese DF21D, its ASBM or anti ship ballistic missile, has a range of 3000 km from its coast, covering practically the whole of the eastern Pacific Ocean. This means that all big ships within the 3000 km radius could be hit. This would then become the No Sail Zone for American ships if war is declared.
The current show of force will no longer be possible and it is unlikely that the Americans would dare to risk their aircraft carriers, battleships, frigates or any big floating vessels within the DF21D strike range. The eastern Pacific Ocean will be a cemetery for China’s enemy ships.
Should China have full control of the seas around its coast, what can the Americans do? It will be a war whereby China will trade its ASBMs for aircraft carriers and battleships. The Americans will again suffer a huge trade deficit as the cost of each ASBM is negligible compares to the American ships.
The eastern Pacific Ocean will be the equivalent of a maritime Dien Bien Phu with the reach of the ASBMs. It is enter at your own risk. The missiles will come raining.
If the Americans are thinking of their bases in South Korea and Japan, forget it. They will be the first to be taken out of the equation. This is not the 1840s when the Chinese cannons could not hit the British and American ships while the latter could hit the Chinese mainland.
This new trading game is going to be very costly to the Americans and its allies for sure. It is so economical and efficient to keep the American carrier groups away from the eastern Pacific coast with just the deployment of ASBM batteries along the Chinese coast. This is the strangest development since the British and American wooden boats could attack China at will in the 1840s.
11/21/2011
Obama restores US influence in 8 days
The New York Times is gloating how successful Obama and his team was in becoming the leader of the eastern Pacific region. I quote, ‘The meeting, at the end of the summit, capped a week during which the US President moved quickly, and on several fronts, to restore the influence of the US in the Asia Pacific region after a decade of preoccupation in the Middle East…Obama announced that 2,500 Marines would be stationed in Australia, opened the door to restored ties with Myanmar, a Chinese ally, and gained support for a regional free trade bloc that so far omits Beijing.’
What did Asean achieve if any? Oh yes, they have accepted the leadership of the US and invited the US to back them up in their territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. It is a great achievement for the small Asean states to install the world’s most powerful country as their leader. They can now start to pressurize China and even go to war with China with no fear.
What did Asean achieve if any? Oh yes, they have accepted the leadership of the US and invited the US to back them up in their territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. It is a great achievement for the small Asean states to install the world’s most powerful country as their leader. They can now start to pressurize China and even go to war with China with no fear.
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