The young bailing out the old

With the inflation game to stimulate growth and provide liquidity, the housing Ponzi Scheme will get an added boost and prices will spiral even higher over time. The fact that a $20k HDB flat can fetch $400k or more is already a norm, even when the remaining lease is getting shorter and shorter. And when new buyers got to pay for higher and higher prices, any fall in housing prices is going to hurt the these buyers. And in order to protect the buyers, the late buyers and later buyers would have to bail them out.

The young of today will have to bail out the buyers of yesterday. And the buyers of tomorrow will have to bail out the buyers of today. The ultimate buyers will have to pay the ultimate price for their purchases.

In between, those who are able to jump out of the scheme will benefit from this Ponzi when the prices are artificially kept to go one way, up up and away. And the people benefitting from this will be the foreigners who come and go, buy and cash out. A guaranteed investment promising guaranteed great returns! It cannot go wrong. The FTs know the game plan and they have the options. They can game the Ponzi and laugh all the way to the bank.

And who are the suckers left to buy the ever higher priced flats but those that have no where to go, ie the Singaporeans. Like it or not, they will have to buy the flats no matter how expensive they are. They cannot pitch tent at the beaches or in the parks.

These captive buyers in a market that is carefully crafted to move up, will end up the biggest suckers. The current prices of HDB flats are cheap, really. If no serious effort is taken to prick the bubble, which would hurt mort people, the prices can only go higher and higher. Don’t ask me who created this problem. Don’t tell me they did not know.

Who is going to save the young from this enforced ransom of their lives, to bail out the early buyers, speculators and property developers? It is highly irresponsible to make the young to be the victims of the Ponzi Scheme. It is outrageous!

New banking laws to rein in playing with dirty money in the banking industry

Jul 1 when the new banking rules kick in, banks handling dubious money will have to face hefty fines, criminal charges and licence gantong. And this is what one European banker said, ‘The good old times in Singapore are over…We don’t need dirty money anymore.’

What this banker knows and is not telling is that the banks are playing with dirty money all the while. Unbelieveable. Isn’t it legal, criminal? With so many stringent controls and all the laws against money laundering and fraudulent practices, dirty money seems to be the main driver of the banking industry. How many banks and bankers are in it with eyes wide open? No wonder there are so many banks here and so many bankers. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. The recent report on the arbitrary fixing of the rupiah rate by bank traders, the continuation of selling toxic products in various forms, derivatives that are no different from betting chips, what else is new?

The clamp down, if real, may see the moving out of some dubious banks to Virgin Island or some new havens for money laundering and illegal banking activities. What is intolerable is to know that this is common knowledge and common practice in the banking industry, and quite prevalent here.

I am seeing a lot of halos hovering around innocent bankers’ heads.

So what is happening?

Malaysia – What it could have been

If Anwar was not ousted and thrown into jail by Mahathir, this GE would be Anwar’s third term in office as the PM of Malaysia. Or Anwar could step down and this would be Najib’s first term. Badawi would not have been the PM and Khairy would have been Anwar’s son in law.

The next ‘what it could have been’ is akan datang. Najib could be forced to step down. And things would get a bit messy if the future next PM is meant to be Mukhriz. If Mahathir wants to slate him in as the PM, it would be one after whoever is to succeed Najib after he steps down. The whole game plan would be built around Mukhriz. If he is to be the PM, he must be the next Dep PM. This would mean either he is deputy to Muhyiddin, thus bypassing Hishammuddin and Khairy, a very tough act to do. Hishammuddin is not going to make way and he has strong grassroot support to back him for the post.

The possibility of PM Muhyiddin and Dep PM Hishammuddin would mean Mukhriz would have to mark time as the Education Minister. Khairy can be forgotten with Badawi not in the PM seat and when Mahathir is calling the shot. But this scenario is still not good enough for Mukhriz as it could be another 20 years if both Muhyiddin and Hishammuddin would to remain for two terms.

A more likely outcome would be to engineer the removal of either Muhyiddin or Hishammuddin to go with Najib. That would put the Dep PM slot open for Mukhriz and he could be nicely placed to take over after whoever replaces Najib.

What would have been if Najib is removed, the possibility is getting clearer by the day and now it is up to Najib and Mrs Najib to hold on to the fort and defend the Mahathir onslaught to replace him. This would demand the skill of the greatest political strategist or genius to walk this tightrope and stay on course.

What could have been or would have been, who would be the PM this time next year, is being shaped today.

NUS ranked Number 8!

The Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking system has ranked NUS as the 8th top best university in the world. NUS, according to this system, is ranked higher than Princeton and Imperial College of London. And since Yale is not in the top 10, Yale must now rank lower than NUS. This is a great honour, said NUS Provost Tan Eng Chye, a recognition of how good NUS is today.

What are the implications? When NUS was ranked much lower and like unknowns, there was a need to boost its credential by cooperating with other higher ranked universities like Yale and Imperial College. NUS is now ranked higher than these two great universities. Would it thus not really necessary to be linked to them, not that it is not good, but in terms of rubbing off some of the glitters? With such a high ranking, there is really no longer any necessity to be have joint campuses with other top universities as only a few are better ranked than NUS, like Cambridge or Harvard.

Looking at it from another angle, all the lesser rank universities will be forming a beeline to be linked to NUS. And this is a great money making opportunity to lend our good repute, the name of NUS, to other lesser known universities, the same formula as Yale NUS. A slight problem is that there may be a need to hire more American and western professors to make it desirable.

Another good repercussion to this high ranking is that employers must also be forming a beeline to hire NUS graduates. True or not? No need to hire foreign graduates from western universities and Third World universities. This high ranking must be added in the testimonials of NUS graduates to prove how good and the type of pedigree they are.

And our students need not have to go overseas to study in lower ranked universities like Yale and Imperial College. NUS is better. Can save a lot of money too. The Govt too can save a lot of money by sending their scholars to NUS now.

This ranking has many good economic implications and savings for the Govt and parents whose children wanted to go overseas. No need to do that anymore. NUS is the place to go, the place to be.

When education and medicine become so expensive…

Your health and physical well being is your responsibility, an individual responsibility. If one gets sick by not taking care of himself, it is a personal problem, maybe a little personal tragedy.

Education, getting a good education, is a personal aspiration. Anyone who wants to move up the social ladder, a better quality of life, at least materially, one has to acquire a good education, by working hard and paying for it.

Both are personal matters. True. What if education is so expensive that many cannot afford to go for higher education, or because the returns from higher education are just not rewarding and may be a losing concern? Why would people want to pursue higher education to become taxi drivers or become jobless or become part time workers? It becomes a losing proposition, a losing investment.

And when medicine is so expensive that people just cannot afford to pay for medicine or visit the doctors? What happens if people choose to remain sick, and worst, with transmittable diseases like Sars that could spread, could cause an epidemic? And they refused to seek treatment or be admitted because of affordability! Or because they do not want to be robbed of all their savings?

When the people are not going for higher education, when the sick are not going to pay for their medicine or see the doctor? What would become of the society and the workforce? More foreign talents to be imported? Driving taxis not really need a degree or diploma. And would there be people dying everywhere, diseases spreading every where?

Our population saturation has reached a point that any breakdown in MRT could stifle social and economic activities. Our housing prices have reached a point that it is going to become a social problem. When would the cost of education and medicine become a socio economic and health problem?

When people are voluntarily dropping out of schools, though very unlikely, and when sick people are staying at home waiting to die but infectious and spreading the diseases, what happen? Force people to pay up or else? No money no talk?