3 bubbles to destroy China

William Pesek wrote another article in the Today paper, one of those that prayed that China will collapse tomorrow. Nothing worth reading as the doomsayer's mindsets are predictable. I would like to write an article about the 6 bubbles that will destroy America. 1. The huge trade deficit that they cannot afford to repay. The greenback will soon become green banana money. 2. The huge expenditure on war and the defence budget. 3. The high consumption of Americans. They drink more petrol and eat beef that is 5 times bigger than the Asians. Mother earth just cannot afford to keep feeding them without going bust. 4. The high wage expectation. They think they are the chosen people that can always command a higher pay than other aliens. This privilege is only reserved for citizens of Paradise Island. All their industries will move out in a matter of time. They are simply uncompetitive. 5. They have made themselves the enemy of the Arab/Muslim world. 6. They think they can continue to fight wars everywhere with impunity. I could have added more. But these 6 bubbles, each alone, could cripple the American economy.

Nobel laureate out of sync in Paradise Island

Professor Muhammed Yunus was invited to Paradise Island to share his idea of a poor man's bank with Singaporeans. There were also talks of setting up an equivalent bank to help poor Singaporeans. I almost got choked when hearing this. This is probably the biggest contradiction to start with. In the first place there are no poor in Paradise Island. Or at least the poor are given more monetary aid than what the poor man's bank is giving out as loans, a miserable $50. Our govt is giving $300 a month to the poor as handouts! That must be a princely sum to go by. It is thus a non starter as a concept. The talks of Singaporean banks starting a poor man's bank is also another non starter. We used to have a poor man's bank. But since it started to charge a fee for the poor men to keep their miserable few dollars in our world class banks, I don't think any of our banks will bite at the possibility of giving out petty loans of $50 in the first place. It does not justify the high administrative cost. And how could we expect our banks to give loans without collaterals? Unthinkable. The talk by the Nobel laureate is as good as an academic exercise in futility to honour a great man.

Myth 158

The New Chosen People Singapore is so blessed, and so are Singaporeans. Singaporeans are the New Chosen People of God. We are blessed with all the supertalents that the world can have. Our people, including the workers, should all be paid salaries more than any other people in the world. This is to enable them to pay for all the world class goods and services at world class prices. Our properties will soon be the most expensive in the world, like our cars. Our office rentals deserve to be the most expensive as we are the paradise on earth. And our shopping paradise will price all their goods at a price where the rich and famous can afford, including Singaporeans. It is our right to price ourselves, including our salaries of workers, to be among the highest in the world. Because we are so good, we need not fear competition. For we are the chosen people. People of the world must come to this paradise to support our high standard of living. And we will continue to prosper and pay our way for all the good things in life. It is our never ending story to prosperity.

IDR and tinted glass

When the two govts are trying so hard to get things going in the IDR, two agencies from opposite side are doing or not doing things to facilitate the movement of vehicles through the causeway. Both sides have different specifications for tinted car windscreens which technically makes travelling by cars a pain to the travellers. What is acceptable and not acceptable is going to irritate all the drivers. Can't the two agencies sit down and talk over kopi and decide on a common specs for the benefits of travellers/drivers? Or should such a minor issue become another sore point to the two agencies and to travellers?

5 man SAF team returned from Afghanistan

It was reported in the media that a 5 man SAF dental team has returned from a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. And another engineering team is still there till Oct 31. It only reminds me of the 23 Korean hostages incident. What if? Hope we don't have to plead and bargain for their lives.

Umno Youth threatening bloggers

Hishamuddin had spoken again, threatening bloggers with sedition. "Umno Youth warns that freedom has its limits and we will not tolerate those who touch on issues of national stability, harmony, cultural values and the personality of national leaders," he said. Actually who are the greatest culprits in raising sensitive issues and threatening violence in the country? Luckily he did not draw his kris this time round.

Sin of Waste

Singapore will pay for its sin of waste one day. We are getting more like the Americans, wasting precious resources without a care as to how resources could be used more efficiently. We discard our cars after 10 years, some even less. Now we are tearing down buildings that are in good conditions, millions to build and millions added on by their owners. Tearing down some low rise houses for highrise is a necessity. But tearing down highrise to add on a few more floors and to charge the buyers more, all for more profits, well, it is a different ballgame. It is greed and waste with total disregard to the destruction of mother earth. More bricks and mortars, iron and steel, aluminium and plastics and mother earth will be used in the process. The immediate impact is to drive property prices up. And more people will end up having to pay more. The people who benefitted from en bloc sales will use the new cash to pay more by downgrading. This will in turn push up prices in the sector that they downgraded to. When property prices keep going up and income does not keep pace, many will end up chasing a fleeting dream. And when the bubble bursts, often it does, many will end up with valueless properties either people do not want or cannot afford to buy. The American subprime loan crisis is a good reminder of what could happened or had happened here before. When property prices were driven to ridiculous levels and the developers and all their cheer leaders and pom pom girls keep cheering that it is a good thing, prices will go higher. Now a HDB flat cost more than half a million, back to the pre crash prices of $600k and $700k. These are ridiculous prices, excessive for their real values. It will come tumbling down again. There will be no buyers to pay for them except the few who made easy gains from en bloc sales. The normal buyers, people who earned their money the proper ways, the hard ways, cannot afford to waste on such extravagant prices. Keep cheering and be irresponsible. The crash will come again. We will have our own subprime loan in over lending to the property market one more time. Non performing loan crisis. Our economy and income level cannot sustain an ever rising property prices.