When the housing bubble bursts

All the signs are there that we are having a housing bubble, and a very big one. It is only a matter of when it will burst. There is no such thing as a bubble will not burst. We are not so exceptional that it will not happen. And given the high percentage of speculators and foreigners in the market, all it needs is for someone to decide to take profit and run. This will lead to more and more trying to get out before the next person and a trickle will lead to a stampede.

The point is that who will pay or suffer the most? No tears or sympathy for the speculators and the foreigners. What is undesirable is the number of young Singaporeans that will be hurt, the genuine buyers who have been pushed to grab that property fearing that they will not be able to buy it if the prices keep going up.

The fear of not being able to buy made them plunged down a few hundred thousands for a public flat or more than a million for private properties. How many will end up with negative assets and a big debt to service? But as long as they are able to service the loan, maybe in the long term things could still work out. What is troubling is that if they are unable to service the debt and are forced to sell their over priced properties at a big loss.

The high cost of living and prices of big ticket items are supported by a high income. Many of the yuppies or high living professionals are living on their salaries and the moment the salaries go, the balloon will go poop and all the nice things will become unaffordable. The house and the fine cars will have to be returned as they are still under mortgage or loans. The debt, as we all know, is just too big to stomach without a big income to service.

Things will not be pleasant. Pray the clock keeps on ticking and will not stop.

Boon Heng the right person for Chairman of Temasek

Why are there so many complains and criticisms on Boon Heng’s promotion to Chairman of Temasek Holdings? The barrage of attacks were quite uncalled for and getting a bit rowdy and rude sometimes. I want to suggest that everyone should look at the positive side of this appointment. Put it this way, Boon Heng has the breath of experience that is incomparable and unmatched by anyone or any standard. No Singaporean has the kind of experience that Boon Heng has.

From all his portfolios, I think the two most relevant appointments to his new appointment must be the NTUC Secretary General and his special assignment to find ways to look after the welfare of the oldies. He was even sent to Japan with a team of high caliber officials to learn how to improve the welfare of old Singaporeans. These two appointments are related in one area, welfare of workers and the oldies.

Let’s see what Boon Heng can do for these groups of people with the huge funds under his charge in Temasek. This is a good opportunity for him to show that he cares for the common people, the workers and the oldies. Maybe they can look forward to more and bigger hongpaos. Maybe Temasek can fund more projects or schemes to benefit the oldies. Maybe this is exactly the intent of the Govt, put him through the training, send him to Japan to learn what can be done to better the lives of the oldies and workers. And now the Govt says, ‘Here is the money, go and do what is good for the people’. Everything seems to fit in nicely.

This is called planning and development for top level management.

A snippet on the toothpick craze

Din Tai Fung is now famous for good quality service and good toothpicks on top of good food. It is instant fame and getting the best advertisement it can ever think of for free. Not bad, and thanks to Swee Say.

I received an email from a Jenny narrating her interesting experience with toothpicks in DTF. She is a regular customer at the Jurong Point and Paragon branches. She happened to be at the JEM branch one evening and strangely no toothpicks were offered. When she asked for them she was given a few pieces. On opening she found them to be wooden ones and not the famous good quality plastic ones.

On enquiry she was told that only Sentosa and Marina Bay offered the plastic ones. She knew it was not true as she had her good quality toothpicks from Jurong Point and Paragon. So she wondered why the change.

My thoughts, service outlets always take good care of their VVIPs. So they go all out to serve them. Maybe, I say maybe, in JEM and other branches they normally offer wooden ones but would still produce the good quality plastic toothpicks when VVIPs are around. There was this story that if one is important enough, one always get special treatment out of deference or respect or goodwill. When someone gets one egg in a plate of char kway teow, a VVIP may get two or three eggs. This is a truism and a very natural thing. Nothing mischievous about this.

So in the case of a normal customer, one may get wooden toothpicks or maybe a few pieces, while the VVIP like Swee Say could be served a box of good quality toothpicks out of respect and deference, and because he is a minister after all. There is nothing wrong with such treatments. Life is never fair.

There could be another reason for the wooden toothpicks. Now every customer are so impressed with the good quality toothpicks, many would be tempted to take half a box after dinner. That would not only add to the cost, the toothpicks would run out of stock very fast.

Now other than fancy toys, Sinkies have another fad, collecting good quality toothpicks for free. Don’t be surprise there will be overnight queues outside DTF soon.

Ministers and their ministries and their pay

A title like that will simply make what I want to talk about quite obvious. Our ministers are the highest paid in the world. Our ministers are even paid many times more than Obama. I don’t think anyone will want to dispute this with me. Please don’t tell me about Obama’s Air Force One and all his other perks like he can collect millions going on a lecture circuit. I am just taking a simple comparison of pay, basic or gross.

Why we pay our ministers such a big salary? We have been told that they are super talents. If the govt does not pay them well, the private sector will grab them and pay them more. Good point. We are also told that they should be paid market rate pay. We are also told that they should not be underpaid and be tempted to risk corruption. The pay is to help them not to corrupt.

So all our ministers are paid very well, with portfolio or without portfolio, with ministry or without ministry, with big ministry and with small ministry.

The question is, should the ministers be paid the same just because they are ministers? Maybe it is a bit complex to break down their jobs and responsibilities. So I think it is fair that every minister running a ministry should be paid the same salary. We are here talking about a ministry of people and responsibilities and big money at stake.

What about ministers without portfolio? I think this is an exception in the case of the Secretary General of the Trade Union. It is a big portfolio and a lot of things to take care of and the breath of responsibilities are pretty big.

What about ministers in the Prime Minister’s office? Should they also be paid the same salary as a minister running a ministry and has a big and complex portfolio to look after? A minister in the PMO does not run a ministry. How big is his or her portfolio and area of responsibility that the salary should be the same as a normal minister?

You ask me?

Makan dalam toilet Chapter 2

I have been attacked by some bloggers accusing me of rumour mongering and to create racial religious hatred despite the fact that I just mentioned an incident without making any reference to names or schools or country. It was a bad act of faith and not a pleasant thing to make children eat inside a toilet that some called a dressing room. There were 3 cubicles in the photograph. And the full news was carried in the main media. So shouldn’t the main media be accused of flaming racial and religious hatred as well?

Apparently some investigations have been conducted by the Malaysian Education Ministry and found that the practice was unacceptable and the principal, in all decency, has apologized. Who are the racists that are flaming this issue as a racial and religious provocation? I mentioned the word religion as the media reported that this incident happened because of Ramadan and the muslims were fasting. Not I say one ok.

The official explanation is that this thing happened since March. And the school was being helpful and considerate to provide the students with a safer place to eat while the canteen is under renovation. The school has an over capacity of 1,300 students instead of 600. So the students were allowed to eat in the toilet, or is it changing room? Just a question, how big is this toilet/changing room that can replace a canteen for 600/1,300 children?

It was also stated that the Parent Teacher Association was aware of this arrangement. The parents are disputing this and said that if it was done in March, why would they raise it only now?

As the Ministry has stressed that ‘this is not about religion or race’ and has seen it as inappropriate and presumably a more decent place will be provided, the parents should move on. There is no need to blow this out of proportion, said Mr Kamalanathan, a Deputy Education Minister.

The positive thing about this episode is that the parties involved have accepted that it should not be condoned and have apologized without letting it developing into another racial and religious ruckus. And I hope they are moving on from here.