My grandfather’s company

My grandfather’s company is the place for happy people. All the employees are absolutely happy, at least in their pay and bonuses. There are so many MDs that I have lost count. And there are more presidents than the country has. We have no problem creating good and high value jobs and every talented employee will be promoted to MDs and presidents in double quick time. Money is never an issue. My grandfather pays for it. Just don’t ask where my grandfather finds the money.

I know that many eager beavers are waiting in a long queue to join my grandfather’s company. But sorry to say, employment is by invitations only. And being my grandfather’s company, a little purple blood will make entry and promotion that much faster. My grandfather loves that kind of things.

And there is never short of cash. So promotion is always a happy and easy thing to do. And if any MD or president is not too happy with his or her pay, my grandfather will just add a few more appointments in the name cards, and the unhappy employee will walk away merrily.

Nobody wants to leave my grandfather’s company once they have joined. And we have a policy of not firing anyone. How could that be when everyone is so talented, so devoted and so self sacrificing? My grandfather’s company is the best company in the Top 100 companies of the world. It is a dream company.

Integration, an exercise in futility

What or who are Sinkies supposed to integrate with, the foreign workers, maids, the EP talents, definitely not the real super foreign talents? The latter no need to integrate. Or are the Sinkies supposed to integrate only with the new citizens and PRs or with all of them?

Not only this is a problem, there are many conditions and developments that made integration just that unrealistic. Those who remembered, we used to have Integrated Schools in the 60s and 70s, to integrate our young as people of a nation. That was the right place to start with, the impressionable young. And from schools to working life, there will be plenty of time to get to know each other even as acquaintance. We have achieved some degree of social cohesion over the years, over many years, not days. And we have a people, though of various races, but already here for generations and quite adapted to the culture and social norms.

Life then was quite different too. There was no rat race and people generally have a lot of free time to socialize, to visit one another. Life style today is so hectic. The working adults would be working their guts out to make a living and to pay high mortgages. After work, they would be so exhausted that there would be no time for anything. They even have problems to spend quality time with their child or children. Still got time to integrate with foreigners? The rich have a lot of time, but with a lot of amusements to keep them busy and occupied. Integrating with the foreigners would be the last thing on their mind.

The young would be busy studying and trying to get good grades. Any time available would be spent integrating with their little machine, Iphone, Ipod, Ipad and computers. They don’t have time for anything else.

The only group left with all the time in the world to integrate with the foreigners would be the retirees, the uncles and aunties. Then again, would the young foreign workers and maids want to integrate with them? I know for sure, the maids and foreign workers would be busily integrating among themselves. The remainder of the foreign adults would be in Little India or Geylang trying to socialize and be happy.

Who else is there with all the time in the world to want to integrate? The middle executives, both locals and foreign would not have the time nor the interest to want to socialize. What ever little precious time left would be for sleeping and catching up with their little hobbies or preoccupations.

By the way, you don’t say integrate and lo behold, the people are dancing and hugging each other all over. Integration is a long term process that would not happen overnight like instant trees. The foreign workers and maids, even the middle executives are transient workers and residents and many would not be here for long. And who is going to pay for the time and effort to integrate? Time is money and integration also cost money.

Integration seems like a magic word to some, like go forth and multiply.

GIC and Temasek’s annualised returns revised?

In the media today, GIC has confirmed that its 20 year annualized rate of return was only 3.9% and Temasek’s was 15%. Who is spreading the misinformation that their returns were 17% annualized? How did people got such a fantastic figure that no fund managers would dare to claim? 17% annualized! Unbelieveable, incredible, insanity!

Oh, I remember that Professor Balding was using this number to compute the missing $160b in the national reserves of the island. At 17%, where have the $160b gone, he asked? There is a big dark hole somewhere that is concealing this fat chunk of money.

Now the mystery is solved. With the declared official numbers of GIC at a meagre 3.9%, less than the payout for CPF’s Retirement Account, GIC may be incurring a loss if the money is borrowed from CPF. And CPF’s annualized returns over 20 years must be much more as the earlier returns were much higher. I think if any funds were to park their money with me, I could guarantee 4% return over 20 years too. And I am not a super talent and need no super talented salaries.

Temasek’s 15% is still a stunting number for 20 years. So the mysterious $160 b could be lowered to perhaps $60b to $80b unaccounted. This is just a wild guesstimate if there was really a $160b missing in the books.

Prof Balding will now have to justify how he got the 17% number and what would now be the new missing cash hoard. It would definitely be less than the $160b that he came out with after scouring over the two funds past financial statements.

What else is new?

M&A will not help selling snake oil

Many financial freaks and fraudsters tried to pass themselves as financial genius by scrambling for more M&A to grow their sick companies. They tried to acquire or merge with other presumingly better managed and viable companies by using their cash hoards. In the short term it looks good on paper that the company is so much bigger and with more products or services available, and more sources of income.

The problem is that what is real is real and what is snake oil is still snake oil. Companies selling snake oil will see their customer base dwindle and their revenue falling daily. The customers either got fed up with the snake oil and refuse to buy anymore, or may have been poisoned and are dying or dead. Without a broad base of customers to support a company, to buy and consume its products and services, no amount of gimmicks in M&A will work or will last. What is the point of a mammoth company through M&As, offering more snake oil when there is no customer?

A rotten company selling snake oil is still a rotten company selling snake oil and will lose its customers in no time. Customers can be cheated once, twice but not thrice. Those who continue to be cheated will also ended up in the critically ill list.

Companies have to be real and sell the real stuff, the good stuff, the stuff that are of real values to their customers. Cheating customers with snake oil is like cheating themselves. The company will be run to the ground. The only survival, unfortunately, will be the snake oil sellers that come and go, peddling their snake oil as the panacea to all company ills. How long can snake oil sellers hold their bluff? It depends on the real owners of the company, the employers. If the employers are dafter than the snake oil sellers and willingly be deceived by the snake oil sellers, the bluff could be sustained for a long time as the daft owners would not know that they are being duped. By the time they worked up it would be too late.

Think Barclay, JP Morgan, think New York Stock Exchange, and many more. And when nothing is done to flush out a rotten system and getting rid of the snake oil, no amount of feedback and window dressing can help.

When tolerance becomes unbearable

Are the people angry with the govt? The govt will conveniently say, ‘What do you think?’ And they will say no problem when they did not hear any complaints, deliberately, by choice or being shielded by their feedback organs from hearing the complaints.

The Sinkies have been very tolerant of the abuses against them, their CPF being treated like tax and taken from them without their consent, the ridiculous high prices of public housing, the outrageous COE prices that put many average Sinkies out of reach to own a car when a car is an essential item to make life easier to get by. The influx of millions of foreigners that was shafted down their throats as good for them when everyone knows who they are good to and who really benefitted from this excesses. The high cost of living, the penalties and discriminations of being citizens while foreigners are given all the advantages to live better, get better jobs than the locals. Some given citizenship and appointed to high positions just to show that they are Sinkies and not foreigners. Despite all the flaws in obviously stupid and nonsensical policies, the citizens swallowed them like bitter pills as long as they could bear with them.

The tolerance of the citizens is breaking. A point is reached like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everything, every nonsense, every ridiculous policies and their flaws will no longer be tolerated. The people used to be very polite by acting dumb and ignorant and allowed jokers to blare how clever they were. Now the Sinkies are so angry that they are calling a spade a spade, a donkey a donkey. Flawed policies and idiots are being paraded boldly.

Take the example of a letter by Tan Kin Lian, I think this is the same Tan Kin Lian who stood as a presidential candidate, in Today’s Voices. He not only made suggestions about what needs to be done to make the COE more equitable and fairer to all citizens, he pointedly spoke about the flaws of lesser intelligent and responsible people making those policies and regulations. How this flawed system could go on for so long is a manifestation of how tolerant Sinkies are.

Many have written to the media with very good and practical recommendations but all ignored by the gods. The gods only think that they are capable of making good decisions and policies. Whatever written by the people in the media, or spoken up to be heard were ignored. Then they would come out and shout from the podium, please tell us, please give us feedback, please help us to solve the problems. All the comments and recommendations in the main media and social media were not comments, recommendations or feedback. It is as if the people have all been so quiet and did not tell the govt of their pains and complaints.

Feedback is only feedback when they asked for it, and must be channeled to the little hole they put up. Only then would they regard them as feedback. But what happens to this feedback, only god knows.

The issue of housing and car ownership are hurting the people very badly and personally. The people are saying enough is enough to the rubbish regulations and policies which they all know are stupid and flawed but were willing to bear with them as long as they are within a certain threshold of pain. Now the tolerable is no longer bearable and the anger is showing.

The normally quite, unassuming, unthinking and apparently daft Sinkies are standing up and saying, ‘We are not stupid’. The policies are daft, flawed and like what Tan Kin Lian said, ‘Let us have responsible people to make the judgement of appropriate COE prices, rather than leave this to market vagaries and speculations. He fell short of saying people who made the flawed policies are irresponsible.