Blurring the lines between foreigners and citizens

People living in Singapore should relate to one another as human beings first instead of trying to “pigeonhole” one another according to nationality, said Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing.

“When we look at an issue, let's try not to pigeonhole each other as a Singaporean or a foreigner, which can complicate the problem,” said the Minister, who was speaking to an audience of about 600 community leaders at the annual National Community Engagement Programme Dialogue on Saturday, reported the Straits Times.

I totally disagree with this approach to blur the lines between foreigners and citizens. The issue of citizens first and foreigners second has been thrashed many times and we are just beginning to see some difference with priorities and benefits skewing back to favour citizens. We must not allow anyone to blur the line again and let foreigners think they should be treated better than Sinkies or that both are equal.

This is our country and foreigners are foreigners. Foreigners are fair weather immigrants here to make money and to disappear when things are not to their liking. We can treat them fairly and decently but must always remember that foreigners are not citizens. The Govt is voted to be the govt by the citizens to look after the citizens. The interest of foreigners must be incidental and not be given priority or preference over citizens.

We even have 4 ethnic groups in our identity cards to define the differences. Why should we ignore the difference between foreigners and citizens especially when they crossed the line?

Algorithm trading is anathema to a healthy stock exchange

The fundamentals of a healthy stock exchange trading system are all about fair trading, equal opportunities, level playing field and transparency. All relevant and price sensitive information must be disclosed at an appropriate time to ensure fair play. Otherwise it will be insider trading and a violation of the exchange by laws. Buyers and sellers are to submit their bids into the trading system in a transparent manner for all parties to know what is going on. Hiding bids, placing fictitious bids or acts to confuse or deceive other traders and investors are also forbidden and can be punished by the stock exchanges. In short, no one is supposed to have an advantage over other parties by virtue of financial power or technology. No even unfair access to sensitive information.

In algorithm trading, many of the fundamentals of stock trading and stock exchange by laws have been violated and breached. The practice of allowing funds or brokerages to plug their super computers into the exchange system is itself a violation of fair trading and level playing field. How could these funds and brokerages be allowed to have such an advantage over other traders that did not have such expensive facility/equipment and access to time sensitive information to their advantage? Many exchanges even facilitate the big funds to hide and conceal their intent and bids to buy or sell, creating a false market. Innocent traders could thus be deceived of the market depth and spread with such computer assisted trading process.

Algorithm trading also takes advantage of size and speed. It is incredulous for an exchange to allow algo traders with such an advantage of time, making profits in micro seconds, and think nothing about it. It is criminal for exchanges to allow algo traders to trade in big volumes to bulldoze and to corner stocks, to distort the real value of shares and the market.

Computer technology must be harnessed to facilitate and ease trading without creating an unfair and unlevel playing field. Algo trading cannot be allowed into any stock exchange trading system if it violates the by laws and trading rules and regulations. For a fair and equitable system, as the traditional stock market used to be, it is best that such a system is closed and no external computer system is allowed to tap into it to take advantage of other investors and traders. The justification of algo trading to facilitate huge trading volumes cannot be the reason to give it an unfair advantage to profit from the system. Big traders and volumes should be entered into the system in a transparent way, by human operators, with the same advantage and disadvantage of manual input.

The regulators and authorities of stock exchanges shall bear the responsibility to ensure a fair and equitable trading system for all parties, big and small. Failing to do so is to be an accomplice to a crime against the victims for unfair practices. It could also be seen as an approval to allow foul practices in the stock market.

Computer technology like algorithm has reached a point when it can be very dangerous and unfair to other traders, and also the ability to create havoc and serious glitches to a trading system. The official position of the New York Stock Exchange on the May 2010 freak crash of Dow Jones is that it was totally an act of the computers, a computer ran amok. The truth is more than meets the eyes, and there is likely to be a culprit that profited from the 5 min crash and making a pile for himself. Algo trading has no place in the proper operations of a stock market. It is there to cheat, to take advantage of innocent traders, it is unfair trading. Algos were not developed at a very high cost, with very expensive equipment and technology, for nothing. They are designed to make huge profits by relying on the power of hi speed computers. Someone must pay for it. The more expensive is the system, the more treacherous it is and the more it demands for payback.

Do not be deceived by algo or computer trading. Like big foreign funds and hot money, they are not here to do charity. They have one common mission, to make as much money as they could, from the unwary and innocent lay people and traders. Algo trading is a Frankenstein in the stock market. For stock markets to survive and tradings to be healthy and fair, it must return to a close system where every human trader enters his bids the same way, in a transparent manner be it big or small amount. Allowing computers and algos to do the trading is a sure way to the demise of a stock market, a matter of when.

2013, a world in real trouble, fabricated trouble or insisted trouble

The whole world is in trouble. The American and European economies are in deep and real trouble. There is no denying that the USA is already a bankrupt nation, living in debt and printing money to keep the façade of prosperity for another few years. How long would it be able to sustain its high spending and high consumption economy in the absence of real economic growth and productivity is everyone’s guess. The enormous money printed by the Fed and churned up in the stock market and financial system is fictitious money. The American debt will keep growing and the greenback will keep depreciating.

In Europe several countries are in bankruptcy or near bankruptcy. The old wealth from conquest and colonialism is disappearing. The productive capacity of Europe cannot sustain the high standard of living and welfare that the Europeans are enjoying today and into the future. European economies are no longer competitive and productive.

The Middle East and several African nations in the peripheral are in dire straits. Their countries at war or devastated by wars, and their economies in ruin and would take years to recover. Thanks to the do gooders and their saviours that came to save them by destroying them first.

And there are countries that are perceived or told to be in trouble. The North Korea, Myanmar, now saved by opening up with the blessing and support of Asean, Iran and a few others on the list called the Axis of Evil. These countries are told to be in trouble, forever in trouble. Their people and leaders are all neurotics, mad and insane. They are perpetually messing up their own economies and wanting to burn down the whole world. Someone must have poisoned their food or water supply to drug them to be in a constant state of insanity and hostility to the people of the world. Their population are equality mad or ignorant of their own well being. In other words, their population are all idiots who cannot think or act for their own good, all in a state of delusion.

There is a third kind of countries in trouble, countries that the West insisted and prayed and hoped to be in trouble. These are countries that are told to be facing enormous troubles within that they are at the verge of imploding. They have no system, daft leaders, they did not know how to run their countries, the leadership is corrupt and facing ills of every kind. And the civilised and rich free world are eagerly waiting for their immediate collapse.

China is one such country. Despite the unbelieveable and record breaking speed it made to change a poverty stricken country of 1.3b people into one of the richest and most powerful country in the world, the western world, media and analysts are all saying that China is going to collapse. They are saying that the Chinese leaderships are made up of inepts, did not know what they are doing and will crash their economy very soon.

None of them would want to see the more than 10% growth rate of its economies sustained over the last 30 years. No, the numbers are faked, doctored and untruth. The truth, 1.3b people are being fed very well, quality of life improving, getting richer, becoming the factory of the world and all the luxury goods salesmen are in China peddling their overpriced goods to the country with the most millionaires and billionaires. No, this is not true. China is making up all these stories. The trillions of dollars of trade surplus are also fiction!

How could a country of 1.3b people turned themselves into an economic, political and military powerhouse when they are all fools, did not know what they are doing, mired with corruptions and all kinds of problems, and when the world economies were crashing, the big bankers and richest countries in the world were forming a beeline to China asking for charity and donations?

The Chinese leadership did not know what they are doing. They cannot think. Their policies are uncoordinated. The leadership is facing internal strife and infighting. They are in a mess. They do not know how to conduct diplomacy. They are belligerent. They are in trouble. Really?

2013, a year of reflection and introspection

As we greeted the new year 2013, we leave behind a year of notoriety, a year of great revelation, a year of shocking realities, a year that is best summed up by George Yeo’s famous comment, ‘Everything looks so perfect from the outside, but it is not real’. I can’t remember his exact words, but this is the gist of what he said during an interview in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen with the highsight of being in the govt in the year 2012.

Many things have been unveiled, more skeletons are coming out of the cupboards, many red faces for sure. Do not be misled by perfection. When everything looks so fine, so perfect, that is only a veneer of deception.

2013 is going to be more explosive than 2012 for sure. Sit back and relax and watch the events unfold. The truth is greater than fiction.

Should happiness be a national goal?

It’s the beginning of another year. Let me wish everyone a happy new year. Happiness is always intrinsic in new year greetings of all races and cultures. Wealth is the other main item in new year greetings. Health is also creeping in as a major concern as it is no longer a case of living healthily but a fear of falling sick and being robbed by the health providers and be emptied of one’s savings.

I was intrigued by the topic of happiness in a CNA programme that greeted me in the new year. The topic was whether happiness should be a national goal. The participants and panels were equally enlightened to know that this elusive subject is something that is best not to trifle with. They understood that happiness is a vague concept that meant so many things to so many people that one could hardly put a handle on it. Eventually the discussion tried to narrow down to equate happiness with material well being of the individuals and economic growth at the national level.

The nation’s economic growth as a convenient tool to measure happiness was also disparagingly dismissed as pure nonsense, a tool that could easily be abused by the perpetrators of the notion that economic growth is happiness. There is no doubt that economic well being or materialism could make life very comfortable, and living very convenient. But that’s where it ends.

The role of making people happy must not be passed to the hands of the govt. It is dangerous and can be exploited for all the wrong reasons. It is not that the govt does not know what happiness is, it is a very subjective thing and no one is wiser. What is sad is for a govt to assume this role that it knows better, it knows how to make people happy, and channel resources towards this goal like asset enhancement. One of the panellists said, it is ridiculous and bad for the govt to take money from the people through taxes and to pass back the money to the people and tell them it will make them happy. It is best the people keep their own money and decide what they want to do with their money to make themselves happy. Immediately the national ponzi scheme came to mind.

The concept of happiness is not directly related to material well being. Nevertheless, economic well being is something that the people want. This is about raising the quality of life of the people in material comfort. Many could be contented to be living well. Whether they are happy or unhappy is a totally different issue that only an individual will know. Only an individual could satisfy his own curiosity and idiosyncrasy of what he can be happy or what can make him happy. Basically the panellist disagreed with a role for the govt in making the people happy. But when the voting was called, 70% of the votes wanted happiness to be a national goal. Do they mean that they want the govt, who probably has as vague an idea as them on what is happiness, to mess around with their happiness or to tell them how to be happy or what makes them happy?

It is a strange conclusion to an interesting discussion. May 2013 be a happy new year for all of you, if you know what can make you happy. Maybe it is easier to know what will make you unhappy and you can start from that premise to stay happy.