Shanghai and Hongkong stock exchanges, a time to learn the hard way

The recent run up in the Shanghai and Hongkong stock markets and the tumbles they took in the last few days are exactly the kind of things they should be wary of and to avoid at all cost.  It is elementary, set pieces that do not need much intelligence to know that it will crash.  When PEs are too high, when there is irrational exuberance and a big bubble, what would you expect?

The high manipulation of stock markets, when the big boys are able to use their war chests, working in cahoot as a gang, to drive up and down markets, are dangerous to stock market operators and small investors. The big sharks are there to gobble up everything, including the bones if they are left free to do as they liked.

The Shanghai and Hongkong exchanges have been under tremendous pressure by the western manipulators using the excuse of liberalization and non interference as the new international norms of exchanges, to allow them to do as they pleased. Both exchanges should not be seduced and conned into allowing these international financial bandits to run wild in their exchanges. They should not forget the basics of a stock exchange and proper supervision to stop wild manipulations of the market.

The most dangerous things to come, and they are knocking at the doors, are derivatives and computer assisted tradings like algo and HFT. The former is anything but rigged gambling and the latter is simply unfair trading. Both are crimes against the innocent investors.

Take heed, learn from the current upheavals and steer a path that is fair and sustainable for the growth and proper functioning of stock markets. Do no allow the stock market to be turned into free wheeling casinos under the full control of these financial bandits. They are very destructive and will drive stock markets to their early demise. Never allow the bandits a free hand to do as they pleased.

A good example is the Singapore stock market. It still does not know what is going on or in a state of denial.

NTUC to help PMEs to be competitive? MOM also in the picture

‘Speaking at the launch of a Master Class series by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) last Friday (3 Jul), NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing told the audience that NTUC is keen to help Singapore professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) improve their skills and widen their networks so that they can compete better on the international stage.

“As our economy transforms, more and more of our people will be in the PME sectors, and (it) is also NTUC’s job to make sure that we help our PMEs remain competitive and stay ahead of the competition,” he said.

I copy this paragraph from an article in the TRE titled, ‘Chan: NTUC to help PMEs compete internationally. And my immediate reactions were, what was he smoking, where did he come from? Does he know what is happening on the ground? Does he know what he is saying?

Our PMEs are losing out to fakes and cheats and foreigners with dubious qualifications from funny universities. Do they stand a chance competing internationally? It is like unable to compete in a pond and wanting to compete in the ocean?  What is this e2i magic? Is it recognisable by the world, better than degrees from top universities?

I am dumbfounded.

The comments following the article said it all. And all I can say is ‘笑话’, he can’t be serious? Or is he trying to say competing with international talents here?

Swee Say appears to have a better grasp of the problems. He is going after companies with a poor Singaporean core. The MOM is going to scrutinize the employment pass applications and the qualifications of the applicants. Fakes and forged degrees will not be tolerated. IDA please take note. There are several other measures Swee Say is doing that may work, some temporary like stop gap measures, but generally he is looking in the right direction.

It is discrimination and fakes, stupid. Unless these two devils are pulled out with their roots, every measure will be superficial and will be seen as a gimmick to appease the people in lieu of the GE.

What I would like to see is a 3 month amnesty for all the fakes and forged degree holders to resign and go home. After this grace period, the MOM would go down hard on fake degrees, degree mill degrees and forged degrees. Anyone caught will be subject to heavy fines and imprisonment. The heavy fines are needed to crawl back the amount of dubious salary earned from their crimes. And they could pay directly from their pockets or sell their properties. Many fakes and cheats have already sunk roots by buying into properties here thinking that the MOM would not be looking into history as they have been here for a long time and their trails have been well covered. Fakes and forged degrees are just that and have to be combed and removed no matter how long they have been here and hiding under a thick layer of new legitimacy.

And to mean business, all organizations with 200 staff and above must employed Singaporeans as their HR managers to ensure that govt policies are not swept under the carpet or just paying lip service and mugging around with the numbers and distortions.

Is Swee Say up to it to implement serious and real measures to rid this scourge once and for all? If these two evils are removed, there is no need for the NTUC e2i training to compete internationally. There will be plenty of jobs awaiting our very own PMEs. PME unemployment rate only 2.7%? Who’s kidding? What about giving up searching or underemployment?

The foreign cheats and fakes are watching. So are the Singaporeans. Any half baked measures, half hearted measures, and wayang for the sake of the GE would stand up sorely like a sore thumb. The govt, the MOM and Swee Say need to regain the trust of the people and not be a joke to the foreigners, thinking they can continue to cheat them like before, silly buggers didn’t know what is happening and so easy to con..

Let’s see what Swee Say and his MOM will do to up the stake.

Notable quotes :Lee Kuan Yew 1984 National Day Rally

'Every thing works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn't work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.'

Changing times and changing ethos, work ethics and expectations.

Amos Yee – A few pertinent questions

'The psychiatrist who conducted the court-ordered evaluation of the youth at the Institute of Mental Health, Dr Cai Yimin, is also Emeritus Consultant, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health.’ This is extracted from a post by Andrew Loh in TOC.

The first question many have been asking is the need for someone to be remanded in IMH for a suspected case of Autism Spectrum Disease which is not a mental illness. Is this the case for all patients suspected of ASD to be locked up in IMH and in Ward 7? Or is Amos Yee the first such suspect to be held in IMH?

The second question is the time needed to make a thorough test on Amos Yee to determine his condition? Does it need 2 weeks to do so? As the final finding has shown that the psychiatrist had found Amos to be normal, no mental illness, was this conclusion made at the end of 2 weeks or the result was known earlier?

If Amos Yee was found to be normal earlier, would it not be the duty of the examining psychiatrist to remove him from IMH at the soonest possible? Isn’t it right not to keep a normal person a day or an hour or a minute more in Ward 7, a place used to hold serious mental patients?

When was Amos Yee diagnosed to be clean and normal and when was he removed from IMH Ward 7? Is there anything wrong to keep him a minute longer in Ward 7 when he should be moved out as quickly as possible?

Don’t leave home without it

The senior citizens may be thinking of their pioneer generation cards as the most precious item to be carried along wherever they go. The young may be thinking of their credit cards or their latest mobile phones. This phrase of ‘don’t leave home without it’ has taken on a new meaning.

Last night we witnessed the most serious MRT breakdown when the two main lines, North South and East West went down at the same time at evening peak hours. The frustration and anger and the increasing perception of an unreliable public transport system are getting to the nerves of the commuters. Despite so many assurance and compliments of how well the SMRT has done, how much money has been invested to improve the system, the breakdowns are not going to stop and are getting more serious. The image that comes to many people’s mind is the 6.9m or 10m population that the people have been daily prepared for.

Now with this crippling failure of a public transport system that commuters had taken for granted for the last 3 decades and now seeing breakdowns as a new normal, would there be a rethink about our ability to live with a population more than the present 5.4m? Are we up to it or just trying to psyche ourselves that we can do it when the incidents of breakdown are saying otherwise?

Lui Tuck Yew must have run out of expletives to apologise to the people on every breakdown. He might as well have a pre recorded speech to broadcast inside the train whenever a breakdown occurs. And he should also set up a permanent Committee of Inquiry to investigate on train breakdowns with such frequencies.

As for the commuters, they must be prepared for it as well. Forget about the free bus services when a break down occurs. They are not prepared for it, badly organized and too little to cope with the huge numbers of commuters needing to be dispersed as quickly as they could. How many buses would be needed to move the commuters? And how many commuters know how the free bus service system works? The MRT staff is just as good as blur about the bus service and they have great problems handling the crowd.

What is the best solution? It may be a good idea for every commuter to carry a folding bike with them. This is going to be the most effective and reliable tool to cope with the train breakdowns. They can simply unfold the bikes and zip away quickly.  And with the Singapore Made Aleoca bikes at very affordable prices, it should not be too much of a strain on the pockets.  For the richer Singaporeans, they can flaunt their Brompton bikes in the train to show that they are of a different commuter class, carrying the Rolls Royce of folding bikes in the train.

Yes, don’t leave home without it. You will need it more frequently than you think. And it will help the MRT to manage the crowding problems in the stations. And no need to be so blur and lost on which free bus to take. We need to help ourselves and help the MRT. It is our responsibility and our problem to take care of ourselves than to add to the mess and jams at the stations.

But before you go and grab that folding bike, check with MRT which models are acceptable. I know the Brompton model is definitely ok, but not all folding bikes can be lugged into the train. You will be stopped by the MRT staff if the bike does not meet their criteria. Maybe Lui Tuck Yew may want to offer some vouchers to the commuters to buy the folding bikes. Or maybe some kind of subsidies as the commuters are trying to help MRT with the breakdown and crowding problems. Or MRT may want to go into selling folding bikes business as this is an important tool needed by commuters now.

What do you think?