The Rape of the Stock Market

There use to be a saying, the stock market is always there. No matter how quiet or depressing is the state of market activities, the stock market will not die or go away. This use to be the unspoken truth but I am increasingly seeing the stock market dying or shrinking to a point that it is no longer meaningful.
 
The whole rational for the existence of a stock market has been eroded by the proliferation of derivatives and computer tradings. Derivatives are instruments that piggyback on stocks and diverting interests from trading stocks directly, thus undermining the real value of stocks. The more funds are diverted to trade in derivatives, the lesser will be the interests in stocks. Algo and computer trading are more dangerous to the values of stocks as they have no interest or respect for the real value and prices of stocks. They trade either way to profit and could drive the prices of stocks against their real values, against their fundamentals. As a result, stock prices are in their doldrums and many are undervalued and defeat the purpose for listing. When listed companies could not raise funds from the market due to unacceptably low PEs against high listing fees and costs, many good companies would choose to delist instead.
 
Yes, there will be IPOs. But these are desperadoes wanting to raise some funds from the public. Unfortunately such fund raisings are likely to be a one time affair. After listing, through lack of investor support and a stock market in coma, many stocks would end up as penny stocks, worthless, left to die prematurely and ended up being suspended from trading.
 
The short sighted fund managers and exchange administrators could not see further than their eyes as to where the stock market is heading. Without the stock market, there would not be any derivatives to talk about. Without the stock market, the REITs too would disappear. Without the stock market, the computer traders would have no where to trade and exploit the small investors.
 
The whole stock gambling industry is based on the existence of a stock market, real or fictitious. Neglect and allowing the stock market to die a natural death would drag the whole industry into the grave.
 
New gambling chits could be devised as variation of derivatives without the stock market. Some may think this is a viable option, trading in fictitious paper instruments in place of real stocks and shares. If the administrators continue to choose to let the stock market peters away as an irrelevant or obsolete beast, can there still be computer trading, derivatives, fund investments, online trading etc etc that are parts and parcels of a thriving finance industry? The stock market is the corner stone on which a whole industry is built on.
 
The stock market depends not only on the derivative writers, the algo and computer traders, but also on the listed companies and the investors. A stock market that only protects the derivative writers and algo/computer traders and failed to protect the interests of listed companies and investors would lose its raison d’tre to exist. When companies see it futile to list in a stock exchange there will be no need or interest in the exchange.
 
Whither the stock market? Why is the stock market dying? When would the abuse and rape of the stock market be put to an end?

The white truth - New Zealand a safe and peaceful country

In a Facebook post on Friday, Mr Shanmugam condemned the attack as a "horrific massacre".
"New Zealand is a peaceful country. Seen as a model of race relations," he said. "Today it suffered a horrific massacre of 49 innocent persons."

"Hours later, an Australian senator issued an Islamophobic statement, describing Islam as a violent, fascist religion, and said it promoted savage beliefs," said the minister. "He also attacked the Prophet, and blamed Muslim immigration for the massacre."

Added the minister: "The senator’s statement is sickening. It is completely unacceptable. And he issued it when people are grieving."

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/christchurch-shootings-fraser-anning-shanmugam-comments-11350736

The above CNA article shows the divergence of views between the whites and the coloured people, or between an Australian white politician and a Singaporean minister. One condemned the massacre of the innocents and another blamed the religion and its beliefs. Trump even said that the hatred against the Muslims and Islam is a minority view. Sure, enough minorities to kill so many people in broad daylight. 

Another glaring difference is that white supremacist and racist groups are not monitored the way the others are monitored and often left alone, unmonitored and free to spread their extremist views.

Another interesting white view of truth is this comment about how safe New Zealand is against this shooting, and also parroted by Shanmugam above, that New Zealand is a peaceful country. 

'The attack has shocked New Zealanders, who are used to seeing around 50 murders a year in the entire country of 4.8 million and pride themselves on living in a secure and welcoming place.'

This is reported in another article in CNA. Notice the glaring discrepancy? New Zealand is a peaceful country, a secure and welcoming place with 4.8m people and an annual statistics of 50 murders. Singapore has nearly 6m people, how many murders are there annually here? Can you imagine we have 50 murders in a year? If that is the case, no one would dare to come to Singapore. But in New Zealand, 50 murders is an accepted normal and good enough to call the country a secure and welcoming place.

Now another 50 dead will be added to make it at least 100 for year 2019, and by the year end could be more.

How many of you would accept a country with a population of 4.8m and 50 murders a year as a peaceful and secure place? Thanks for this report, or else we would not know that there are so many murders in New Zealand. We always have this impression that New Zealand is a safe and welcoming place. I have changed my mind about this peaceful picture of New Zealand.

50 murders a year or at least 4 murders every month.

PS. New Zealand is a peaceful country because they have planted that in your mind. Even Shanmugam parroted that notion above. Now with this statistics, do you still want to believe that New Zealand is a peaceful country? Of course the academics would say it depends on your definition or formula for peaceful. If 50 murders a year for a 4.8m pop is the yardstick for a peaceful country then it is peaceful. This is called technically peaceful according to a formula or yardstick.

Siti Nurhayati - Keep running girl

'I need to represent Singapore even though my father couldn’t': The para-athlete who chases her dreams and the dreams of others. By Matthew Mohan 

SINGAPORE: When the crack of the starter's pistol reverberates, it is just Siti Nurhayati Ali Askar Khan and the track. Arms pumping, legs churning, heart pounding, the 16-year-old blitzes down the lane. No distractions, no worries, no stress. ...Siti runs fast and she has to - she's part of Team Singapore's contingent of 30 athletes who will participate at the Special Olympics World Games 2019 from Mar 14 – 21. Held in Abu Dhabi, the event is for athletes with intellectual disabilities, and this year marks Singapore’s tenth year participating.

Singapore's athletics team has eight members and Siti is arguably the most experienced of the lot.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/para-athlete-special-olympics-team-singapore-11322330

Sports can bring life to people in different circumstances and the para Olympics and other para Meets are occasions that give the para athletes a chance to show their prowess in their sports.  I wish Siti and her team mates all the best and bring back more medals to do Singapore proud.

3-5 May 19, Singapore would be holding the first South East Asia cum Singapore Masters Athletics Meet here. The importance of this inaugural Meet can be seen by where it is being held. It was initially to be held at Toa Payoh Stadium, then Gombak Stadium, and finally Bishan Stadium.  At one stage it was supposed to be held at the open practice track next the National Stadium. This is how important this Meet is, and how important the masters athletes are to the people in charge of sports.

I bet they would not even report about it when the event is being held, right here in Singapore.

And there is a bigger Meet in December, the Asian Masters in Kuching, Malaysia. Singapore or is it the Singapore Masters Athletics Association, will be sending a contingent of seniors to compete in this Meet. Would the sports officials be interested in them? Would the media be bothered to cover the events and the athletes like they covered the para athletes?  The seniors, the masters athletes, not important, no point covering or reporting about them?

When would they gain recognition and support from the govt and be treated at least as important as the para athletes?

So how CPF?

In December, Mr Toh checked the total amount in his CPF account and found that he had $67,562.78 in the account.

The retiree revealed that he received a letter from CPF Board recently, informing him that the balance in his Retirement Account (RA) balance is S$646.86. The letter said that his last estimated payout will be in May 2019, since he receives a $250 payout monthly.

Mr Toh shared: “On 31/12/2018 my total amount across my CPF was S$67,562.78, which means CPF is keeping S$66,665.92 of my savings in my CPF money away from me for Ordinary Account (OA), Special Account (SA) and Medisave Account(MA).

“Why keep so much of life saving money saved in my CPF account away from a 70-year-old healthy senior citizen? Is my lifetime money reserved for OA, SA and MA account more important than my money for retirement expenses?”...


“In the event that Ian commits suicide, kills someone or is killed, I will hold all relevant persons and ministries accountable for failing to release my funds for his alternative medical treatments…”


This was the warning an unemployed mother of a mentally-ill son issued to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board recently, after the authority rejected her request to withdraw her CPF savings.
The mother, 55-year-old Carena Tan, had asked to withdraw S$70,000 from her Retirement Account to fund her family’s living expenses and treatment for her son, who apparently suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Noting that Ms Tan would not be able to set aside the full retirement sum of S$171,000 in her Retirement Account if she withdrew the S$70,000 she applied to withdraw, CPF Board rejected her request. It instead asked her to “re-consider approaching the Social Service Office @ Bukit Panjang for financial assistance.”

Both cases were reported in theindependent.  These are the painful stories that are being kept from seeing the light in the main media. There are so many grouses and pains inflicted on the people when they are not allowed, by legislation, to enjoy their life savings that are supposed to be for their retirement. These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Many are suffering in silence and living in despair, hapless when the govt decided what to do with their money against their will.

The people affected are starting to curse the people that made them suffered for the want of their own money under all kinds of ridiculous excuses and changing the goal posts. To be daily and repeatedly curse by the people is not a good thing to live with. The evil doers would not believe that the curses would hurt them in any way and would continue to scheme against the people and their CPF savings.

Let them be, let them live with the curses of people adversely affected by their bad decisions. Let them live happily with their millions in their savings and assets.

Planting white lies, western narratives and agenda into the heads of the unthinking and unwary

Many innocent readers, especially the English educated whose main source of news is from western media, would unwittingly be victims of western propaganda and white lies without knowing it unless they are conscious and critical of what they read. It is so easy to plant ideas, lies and narratives to the readers and over time these would become the talking points of the readers. They would talk about these narratives and assume the same thought process, with the agenda and phrases planted into their heads.
 
Many bananas, some highly trained and educated, even the supposedly critical community of journalists and academics, are passive victims to the western agenda and narratives. If one does not look at the world with one’s own eyes and look at them critically from one’s own interest and perspective, it is very easy to go with the trend, discuss or think about things that the western media want them to think and talk about, using their terminologies and their versions of the truth or their alternate truths.
 
Some of the common trends of thoughts and phrases are debt traps, an assertive China that is bad, China bashing, the Axis of Evil etc etc. The West is repeating the trap idea for China bashing while China is offering aids and knowhow to help the poorer countries. Aids and cheap loans are needed by the poorer countries to drive their economies to better the lives of their people. They need money and knowhow from somewhere and the givers are their benefactors.
 
Today, the benefactors like China are not colonialists or imperialists that came with guns to conquer and rob the countries at gun points. The aids, loans etc etc are negotiated and accepted on a willing buyer willing seller basis. There is no coercion or force or threats applied in these deals unlike colonial times when the victims had no choice, could not bargain or negotiate. The white masters, the invaders dictated the terms.
 
The idea of debt trap is created by the West to smear China while refusing to look at the benefits China brought to the rest of the world. There would be some that fell into debt traps, some due to corruption, some self inflicted, some due to mistakes or mismanagement, not intended in the agreements. These countries would not have signed on the dotted lines if they did not agree or if the terms were unfair to them. For every country that fell into a debt trap, there are tens of countries that are very happy with the aids and loans from China. If the Chinese assistance is so bad, they would have turned to the IMF or World Bank or their ex colonial masters for help. The Chinese aids and loans must be very much more attractive to these poorer nations for them to go to Beijing instead of the West.
 
Another example is that China is an expansionist power, an aggressive or militant power, Communist regime therefore bad. The latter need no explanation if one is willing to open one’s eyes to see the wars the Americans are conducting and engaged in. As for expansionist China, just ask what expansionist means. The US is all over the world, from the eastern Pacific Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean, from the western Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and into central Asia.
 
Look at a chess board for easy analogy. The whole chess board is occupied by the USA with China in a corner with 2 or 3 squares. This is the current status quo or balance of power in the world. The Americans have expanded and occupied all the squares in a chess board except for a few in a corner left for China. Why is it that no one is talking about American expansion? And why is China called an expansionist power when it is trying to push back to take back a few squares from the Americans when the Americans have taken practically everything?
 
No, the western media would only look at China trying to move out of its little corner as expansionist. The occupation of the rest of the chess board is their normal. China cannot move out of its corner, it is expansionist. This is their narrative, their world, the American Empire. China cannot share the rest of the world except to confine to its little corner, within its land borders.
 
For the unthinking, they would accept this as the reality and status quo. Changing the status quo is bad. Therefore China is bad. This is the result of reading the western media unthinkingly and accepting the western truth and western lies and seeing the world from the perspective of the West as the Empire that rules the world.
 
Should this be the status quo, the accepted state of things? Why is it so wrong and so expansionist for China to want a few more squares to move more freely and breathe a bit more fresh air? Why is China’s financial and economic aid to the rest of the world be just about debt traps and not about helping these countries that needed the aid and the assistance from China? The ex colonies of the West have been exploited, robbed, looted and kept in various stages of underdevelopment by the West. China is giving them an opportunity to move out of their poverty trap caused by the West. Is this bad?
 
It is very dangerous not to think and see the world in one’s own perspective. It is even more dangerous to see the world in other people’s perspective without knowing that one is also a victim in the bigger scheme of things. It is silly not to know that one’s thinking and view of the world are being planted and dictated by others and against one’s interests in the long run.
 
Do not become unwitting accomplices of the West in China bashing. Do not allow the West to tell you what to think, what to say, and how to think.
 
PS. The country that is suffering from the biggest debt trap is the USA. And they are very happy about it, growing their debt bubble. Of course they could get away with it by printing more money out of nothing.