Private banking clients beware

JPMorgan Chase Said to Be in Talks With S.E.C. Over Product Steering JPMorgan Chase is in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle an investigation into whether the bank inappropriately guided private banking clients to its own investment products, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

NYT Dealbook

Actually isn’t the name of the game steering clients towards expensive inhouse products. As Milked once said, “If you can’t make money from yr friends, who can you you make it from?” Z(Or shumething likr that)

Muslim radicialisation fault of FT policy? Minster seems to say so

In his latest remarks urging our Muslims to be alert to radicals, the Second Minister for Home Affairs, Masagos Zulkifli, warned of the growing presence of and threats posed by “absolutists” in the community.

He advised that Muslims should not easily “succumb” to the views and opinions of “absolutists”.

“They may look attractive, they may look correct,” he said, “but do not be gullible.”

Mr Masagos warned that these “absolutists” interpret the teachings of Islam in a rigid way, and that those who disagreed with their views were seen as “un-Islamic”, for example.

The emergence of these “absolutists” could be a result of religious teachers coming here from “all over” the world.

“The variations of Islam they embrace are ‘very cultural’, and some of the conflicts experienced in other countries are brought to Singapore”, he told CNA on Sunday.

An Indian Muslim friend tells me that the FT religious leader for his community can only come from a paerticular village and can only speak the dialect of the area he comes from. His Koranic knowledge comes from memorising the Koran. How does this amount to a talent policy?

Btw, the NUS Law School should seriously look at stopping the import of foreign trash. I mean a law professor who has regular sex a student and claims he has academic integrity? And claims he was fixed because he criticised our judges? Academics are not supposed to have sex with their students, ever. https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/reputations-be-mean-laugh/

And now another FT faculty member beats up a taxi uncle.

S’pore not part of Apple’s ecosystem

Neither is M’sia or SE Asia. It’s Northern Asia. I blogged yonks ago that we are part of the Microsoft ecosystem.

Mother Mary: Why “fantastic” is in Block 7

A regular commenter responded to Mary’s Toh self-centred, victimhood lament (analysed here) on waz happening to her “fantastic” boy wonder (Emphasis mine. Btw, this guy knows his way round the healthcare system here and he hates the PAP. But he’s no frus cybernut like Ng Kok Lim).

He’s in block 7 because … Those who are arrested and remanded by judges for psychiatric review are all done at IMH block 7. This block is the only psychiatric block purposely built for prison-like control, with secured doors & checkpoints / guardposts at all levels & at the entrance manned by cisco personnel / prisons officers.

Btw, all other blocks also contain “truly mentally ill” patients. There are also plenty of patients with violent symptoms in these other blocks.

Becoz he has been found guilty & under remand, he no longer has civilian privileges. No going to KK Hospital as outpatient in posh air-con office to be assessed by their specialist. Now anything to do with brain, go to prison block at IMH for assessment.

Even if authorities allow Amos to be assessed as outpatient at IMH i.e. everyday bring him to IMH block 7, Amos will still be incarcerated at Changi prison. It’s not like he can go home and take his own sweet time to report to IMH, if ever.

Btw, commenting on the rants against the warding of Amos in Woodbrudge for two weeks: Cybernut Investor pointed out that his fellow cybernuts cybernuts missed an impt IMH connection:

@Ng COCK Lim* and other fellow cybernuts, why no balls meh.

The logical and reasonable conclusion of Cock Lim’s cooments is that the head of Woodbridge is responsible for everything. Esp as she is daughter of person who Amos insulted? Or Cock Lim and you all that STUPID?

———

*Cock Lim, cybernut in resident in TRE’s rat nest who describes himself thus Ng Kok Lim is a regular TRE contributor who specialises in rebuttal. Err more like lying.

He accused me of lying about my prediction that Amos would be sent to Woodbridge citing that TRE reported it befire my piece appeared in TRE.

I posted this on TRE and got no response from him:

Ng Kok Lim, You are either very stupid or a bigger liar than Roy or Amos or Amos’s mum.

My prediction piece preceded TRE’s piece (It came out on my blog on Tuesday morning before the sun rose)  I can’t help it if TRE republished my piece a few days later.

TRE trying to fix me idit?

Whatever it is, it shows the quality of yr research: more Roy Ngerng and Balding than Chris K. ))))

 

SG50: “Freedom” Harry’s way

One of Napoleon’s Marshalls, Lefebvre said on entering a town in Germany, “We have come to bring you Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. But don’t let it go to your heads. The first person to step out of line will be shot”.

Our Harry could have said this in 1959 when the PAP won power, or during Coldstore, or in 1965 when S’pore was kicked out of M’sia or during Spectrum.

Err most PAP Ministers MPs are elected, unlike s/o JBJ, Roy, H3 and Meng Seng

It was reported on TRE (and on MSM sites) that M’sia’sTourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said that he was elected by his constituents to serve them, which sets him apart from the Crown Prince of Johor who had criticised him for not behaving like the people’s “servant”.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of this report appearing on TRE.

While I respect TeamTRE’s efforts to provide alternative angles to the BS of the PAP administration and the constructive, nation-building media in an attempt to show S’poreans that there are credible alternative narratives, analysis , sadly there is a group using TRE tp alienate the swing voters from the Oppo.

These are a group of posters there who think that they represent all the S’poreans that voted for the oppo and whose heroes are Roy Ngerng and his fellow hooligan New Citizen Han Hui Hui, Goh Meng Seng (he regained his popularity with the cybernuts by dancing on the graves of the children who died in Sabah), Amos Yee (now inside Woodbridge for observation) and s/o JBJ.

With the exception of the MPs and ministers from Tanjong Pagar GRC, all the rest of the PAP ministers and MPs won their seats by comfortable majorities bar those in two SMCs where they got in by a nose.

And the failure to contest Tanjong Pagar is the fault of one man who screwed up big time by waiting until almost the close of nomination to file incorrect documents. If he had bothered to come in half-an-hour earlier, the PAP would have had a fight on their hands.

So while ,most of the PAP MPs were elected, who chose the freeloading cybernuts (TRE is always short of funds despite the team paying to serve)  infesting TRE like the rats and bugs infested Bukit Batok.

Only in America/ Personal KPI for ministers?

JPMorgan C.E.O. Reaches Billionaire Status With JPMorgan Chase’s shares near a record high, Jamie Dimon’s net worth is about $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

• BLOOMBERG NEWS

(NYT Dealbook)

Will the PAP be aiming to create billionaire ministers? Actually the rumour is that Mah Bow Tan is worth a few hundred million dollars: he allegedly made serious money in Oz property.

————————-

After the mass murders jn Charleston, Walmart moved quickly against Confederate merchandise (murderer was photoed with the Confederate flag before murders), it continues to sell guns (he killed with a gun).

PRCs spend more here than in HK

Casinos

Laments of Amos’s mum & why she should get real

TOC published a moving lament by Mary Toh on her feelings (“It has been a very exhausting journey these last few months for everyone in the family …” and I wish he could be home with me so I can care for him”) on her son’s plight.

She has right on her side when she asks

I understand that block 7 is where they also keep the truly mentally ill patients, and those who have committed crimes or offences and who are also mentally unsound.

It is also where my son is being held.

…

I wondered why my son, who is here to be assessed if he has autism, is kept here in the same block as those who are mentally ill.

The authorities should explain to her and the public why  if he has autism, is kept here in the same block as those who are mentally ill.

But methinks she refuses to see Amos and herself as anything more than victims when they are actually major players, their decisions impacting on what is happening to them.

“Amos made a video and ended up in a mental institute.”: What a misrepresentation of the facts.

She left out the following: Amos,had spat on the offer of probation that the state had preferred and which his lawyer and his mother had advised him to accept. He has reposted the offending material, and posted nasty comments about the judge. And he had earlier broken his bail conditions. All these and the false allegation that his bailor had molested him and his flip floppng on an apology to the bailor make him a victim of a vengeful state? Come on.

In a peaceful place like S’pore, this is tantamount to the Joker’s or Penguin’s misdeeds in Gotham City.

And

He wishes that he could sleep at home and go for daily assessment, but that is not what the court ordered.

Given his track record can he be trusted to go for the daily assessments? Remember he refused to meet his probation officer and was bitching about having to go to the police station and 9.00am because he wanted to sleep when he was on bail awaiting trial?

He juz wants the world to revolve round his wishes. And who is largely responsible for this sense of entitlement? Who calls him “fantasttic” and laughs off his bad behaviour? Not his dad, it’s mummy.

Given that

Amos is now exhausted, and yes, frightened. And I can understand why.

He has been remanded in prison for so long* (40 days now) – even before he is sentenced – that he probably feels things no longer make sense.,

why not advise him to

— say sorry to Vincent Law (his bailor) and the judge (remember he abused her), and

— give the passwords to his lawyer to privatise all his posts and not repost the offending posts. According to his lawyer Alfred Dodwell he had agreed to privatisingthe posts  and removing the offending posts.

These actions will show that he’s willing to play ball.

Finally, someone should lend her a video of “One flew over a cuckoo’s nest” so that she can see that rebelling can have awful consequences for the rebel https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/amos-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/.

Hopefully she can pass the message on to Amos.

Oh and btw, the original offences are no longer relevant. Amos and his mum have put in motion a juggernaut, nothing can stop it now. The judge, if Amos cooperates, can mitigate the consequences, but it takes two hands to clap.

——-

*Hello, why didn’t she offer bail pending trial? She wanted other people’s money for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Value for money/ Thrifty royals

Wallpaper that has lasted at least 79 yrs, possibly 100 over yrs

A US study suggests the average “life expectancy” of wallpaper is just seven years. That on display in the Blue Drawing Room was hung at the direction of Queen Mary, whose husband George V was on the throne from 1910 to 1936.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33252499

Amos: Judge going the extra mile

Almost no credit is given in cyberspace that the judge iseems to be trying her best to uphold the law while looking after the long term welfare of Amos.

Below are two posts from Facebook that explain what the judge seems to be doing.

But let’s be very clear:  the reformative training suitability report says that he is physically and mentally suitable for reformative training, even if he is autistic. Juz being autistic doesn’t give anyone the right to break the law and evade responsibility.

Actually I see a judge desperately trying not to give Amos a record. When he flaunted bail conditions he tied her hands. She’s in a really difficult place. To let him go free is setting a precedence for others to disregard rules as well. That’s why I wished ay could have just taken a step back lose the battle for now and wait it out. Then again he’s a recalcitrant teenager! Not sure whether he may also have some psychological issues. A good test is not harmful especially if it can save him some unnecessary trauma. The first step of charging him was wrong. It just spiralled downwards and AY certainly did not help himself. A real tragedy!

And here’s what someone who I personally know and who works with autistic kids says in the same thread. In addition to talking about the judge, he also gives an explanation of the mandatory treatment order (MTO) that the judge is exploring.

The MTO is a relatively new sentencing option iwhich requires an offender suffering from psychiatric conditions to undergo treatment in lieu of imprisonment.

If offender completes treatment successfully, he/she will be cleared of conviction.

Prior to this sentencing option being made available to judges, people with mental disorders were imprisoned. We can just do a google search for people with very low IQ who were sentenced to time in prison for offences such as outrage of modesty before this sentencing option was made available. Some people with mental conditions like intellectual disability, may not understand what offence they may have caused.

In that sense, I appreciate the new sentencing option.

[Err let’s give the Pet minister who also happens to be the law minister credit for this. And the PAP administration too.]

Just like intellectual disability, ASD is also on the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual IV.

Only a qualified person can diagnose where in the Spectrum a person diagnosed with ASD is (Asperger’s or whatever). I am not qualified, so I will not speculate.

IMO, the judge may be bending over backwards not to leave him with a criminal record – which is good as Amos is only a young boy.

I am not sure if MTO mandates institutional care once the diagnosis has been made, or if the ‘offender’ can commit to a term of outpatient care.

I personally feel that Amos should not be institutionalised.

On the last sentence, it takes two to tango and two hands to clap.

The “yaya papapaya”, that is Amos, had spat on the offer of probation that the state had preferred and which his lawyer and his doting mother Mary advised him to accept. And he has reposted the offending material, and posted nasty comments about the judge. And he had earlier broken his bail conditions. All these and the false allegation that his bailor had molested him and his flip floppng on an apology to the bailor make him a one-boy clear and present danger  to other S’poreans, who is unlikely to be prepared to undergo outpatient treatment.

Best if he’s locked up until he responds to treatment if he can be treated.

If not bring on the Reformative Training Centre, a heavily structured programme for young offenders involving military-style training as well as counselling, which can last up to 30 months. 

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21655044-feisty-bloggers-face-trouble-zip-it

And do remember, the reformative training suitability report says that he is physically and mentally suitable for reformative training, even if he is autistic. Juz being autistic doesn’t give anyone the right to break the law and evade responsibility.

 

Investing, the Chinese way

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is widely read as a manual of how to win victories without fighting*.

There is no equivalent of a Chinese “The Art of Investing”.

But here are two precepts that the FT has gleaned from throwing fortune sticks:

— The motto of mainland investors has long been that he who does not believe in the greater fool theory is the greatest fool.

— High valuations will make it easier and cheaper to recapitalise state-owned groups, hence a reason why the Chinese authorities seem pretty relaxed about stroking an equity bubble.

“We think it would be premature to call an end to this rally, given the importance of the stock market to helping China’s state-owned enterprises and key industries obtain much-needed financing, and the likelihood of more monetary easing,” HSBC also says.

—–

*Edward Luttwak (he would have been a strategist during the period of the Three Kingdoms or the Warring States) wrote a book on Chinese strategy, and pointed out waz wrong with Sun Tzu’s precepts.

Coming in for criticism by name is Sun Tzu, whose writings of 2,500 years ago, including “The Art of War“, are the main source of what Mr Luttwak calls “the flawed principles of ancient unwisdom”. He grants that the cunning statecraft, stratagems for deception and diplomatic finesse advocated by Sun Tzu may have worked when used by one warring Chinese state against another. But he argues that these doctrines have served China poorly in fending off other adversaries.

With a quick pass through the history of China’s engagement with Jurchens, Khitans, Mongols, Manchus and other Asiatic nomads, he notes that China has been ruled by Hans, its ethnic majority, for only about a third of the past millennium. “While Han generals in charge of large armies were busy quoting Sun Tzu to each other, relatively small numbers of mounted warriors schooled in the rudely effective strategy and tactics of the steppe outmanoeuvred and defeated their forces,” he writes.

The bit about being thrashed regularly by the nomads is a fact, not a Hard Truth.

Sun Tzu & the PAP’s non-use of new media, & the PM

Psychiatrist behind Amos report/ Waz ASD?

Before the State Courts on Tuesday (Jun 23), District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that a report by Dr Munidasa Winslow said that Yee may suffer from autism-spectrum disorder. This emerged from the reformative training suitability report, which found the accused physically and mentally suitable for reformative training. (CNA)

He’ll be sent to Woodbridge for two weeks’ of observation and may then undergo mandatory treatment. (Trumpets pls, I predicted this early yesterday morning before the sun rose https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/arkham-awaits-amos-autism-isnt-mental-illness-but/) While the UK’s Nation Health Service website says says that “autism is not a learning disability or a mental health problem”, it goes on to say that “some people with autism have an accompanying learning disability, learning difficulty or mental health problem”. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Autis

Already the cybernuts are saying that Amos is being “fixed”. As does his mother, Mary: “They always want to paint him as mentally unsound,” she commented with a frown. (TOC report)

The problem with this view is that M Ravi (Remember him? The kickass, take-no-prisoners constitutional lawyer who is the hero of the cybernut mob and the ang moh tua kees) personally chose to consult Dr Munidasa Winslow, after Ravi fell out with his previous psychiatrist in 2012 .  M Ravi has also not disowned Dr Winslow’s diagnosis in February 2015 that he was in a “hypomaniac” phase of his bipolar disorder (A mental illness causing elevated moods and periods of depression that he was diagnosed with in 2006.)

Furthermore M Ravi has not challenged his suspension from practicising law. He is resting.

So if M Ravi is being treated by Dr Munidasa Winslow, how can one reasonably argue that Amos Yee is being fixed? The doctor trusted by M Ravi is the one saying Amos may be autistic. Unless of course, one asserts that M Ravi has been conned into consulting Dr Winslow?

Finally, here’s what the Novena Medical Centre website says about the good doctor

A/Prof. Muni Winslow MBBS, M.Med.(Psych), CMAC, CCS, FAMS

Munidasa Winslow has worked in general psychiatry and addiction medicine at the Institute of Mental Health since 1988. He was one of the pioneers responsible for the setting up and development of addiction services both in the hospital and in the community. His last appointment was as chief of the Addiction Medicine Department, IMH. He is recognised as an expert in addiction and impulse control disorders (alcohol, substance dependence, gambling, gaming, sexual compulsivity etc) in the Asia-Pacific region frequently speaking at conferences around the region. Despite being a fully qualified psychiatrist, he has taken the time and effort to maintain and develop his therapy/counselling skills as seen by his being accredited as a certified master addiction counsellor and a certified clinical supervisor. He has published and presented widely on both general psychological and addiction issues. He continues his academic and research interests through his academic appointments with Duke GMS and NUS and teaching in many medical and counselling courses. His passion is to help therapists develop and hone their skills to effect real change in those they seek to help.

Dr Winslow Rasaiah Munidasa

Update at 5.00am: Waz ASD?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by:

• Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts;
• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities;
• Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (typically recognized in the first two years of life); and,
• Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.

Even children with ASD who have relatively good language skills often have difficulties with the back and forth of conversations. For example, because they find it difficult to understand and react to social cues, some highly verbal children with ASD often talk at length about a favorite subject, but they won’t allow anyone else a chance to respond or notice when others react indifferently.

Children with ASD who have not yet developed meaningful gestures or language may simply scream or grab or otherwise act out until they are taught better ways to express their needs. As these children grow up, they can become aware of their difficulty in understanding others and in being understood. This awareness may cause them to become anxious or depressed.

More at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml?utm_source=rss_readersutm_medium=rssutm_campaign=rss_full

Arkham awaits Amos?/ Autism isn’t mental illness BUT …

(Update at 1.30pm:

Amos has been remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for two weeks pending a psychiatric report.

Before the State Courts on Tuesday (Jun 23), District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that a report by Dr Munidasa Winslow said that Yee may suffer from autism-spectrum disorder. This emerged from the reformative training suitability report, which found the accused physically and mentally suitable for reformative training.

CNA)

Later today, Amos may find out whether he’ll go to  to a Reformative Training Centre (RTC) for 18 months. In my NS days, former inmates of RTC had no fear of being sent to detention barracks: they had seen worse.

So RTC does seem rough for juz sliming Harry and Jesus?

But pls remember before sympathising with the “yaya papapaya” that is Amos, he had spat on the offer of probation that the state had preferred and which his lawyer and his doting mother Mary advised him to accept. And he has reposted the offending material, and posted nasty comments about the judge. And had earlier broken his bail conditions. He’s a one-man crime wave.

All these and the false allegation that his bailor had molested him and his flip floppng on an apology to the bailor, does make a tough sentence appropriate. He has sown the wind, and he shall reap the whirlwind.

Given that he has spent it seems 39 days in remand, only a long prison sentence will mean that he goes in and stays in for a while.

All in all 18 months in a RTC seems about right: keeps him out of mischief.

But people with political, anti-PAP agendas are refusing to see this and getting noisy, saying that he should not suffer the consequences of his misdeeds:

— s/o JBJ is KPKBing about Amo being a young political prisoner*.

— And the ang moh tua kees who poured out their anguish publicly but didn’t offer to stand bail are wailing in public again** despite Amos telling them what he tot of them forsaking him. He tot they were “horrible” (my word not his).

He is a special one because he slimed the Ninth Immottal and the 501dt Arhat?

But don’t be too surprised if he gets sent to the Institute of Mental Health (our very own Arkham***) for observation and possible treatment.

Remember that mother Mary says he has Asperger, a form of autism****, and SDP member and former ISD detainee Teo Soh Lung has said she has heard from Amos’s sympathisers that he is autistic.

While the UK’s Nation Health Service website says says that “autism is not a learning disability or a mental health problem”, it goes on to say that “some people with autism have an accompanying learning disability, learning difficulty or mental health problem”. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Autism/Pages/Autismoverview.aspx

So if he gets sent to Woodbridge, remember you heard it here first.

———

*Wonder if there’ll be faeces on s/o JBJ’s face again? A few yrs ago when M Ravi was “maniac” and the Law Society was trying to get him to get treated, s/0 JBJ came out with a piece comparing M Ravi to Soviet dissidents who were classified by the state as “nuts”. When it turned out that M Ravi was really as sick as a parrot, s’o JBJ had to sit down and shut up.

**We note with alarm, a letter from Amos Yee’s lawyer stating that his client was recently placed on suicide watch while in remand. According to the letter, Amos was strapped down for one-and-a-half days, and kept in a room along with two other persons of unsound mind. He was also denied access to toilet facilities and had to relieve himself in a bottle next to his bed. It is unclear if Amos was given any counseling for harbouring suicidal thoughts.

CAN: Shelley Thio, Lynn Lee, Joshua Chiang, Jolovan Wham, Jennifer Teo, Woon Tien Wei, Rachel Zeng, Roy Ngerng and Martyn See.

Btw, they seem to think being in remand should be like in a Club Med holiday facility. He’s in prison, and is being treated like other inmates. Why should mother Mary’s child be treated better than other inmates? Because he slimed Harry?

Fool them once, shame on Amos; fool them twice, shame on them

***For those who are wondering, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, called Arkham Asylum or juz Arkham is where many of Batman’s opponents are locked up for treatment.

When he is released, wil he come out changed like McMurphy in “One flew over a cuckoo’s best”? https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/amos-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/

****But then she says a lot of things: he’s ” fantastic”, “a liar” that always “tells the truth”. Maybe she too needs a visit to Arkham?

TRE poster blames parents for children’s deaths

It had to happen: a very regular TRE poster and friends joining New Citizen Han Hui Hui in dancing and singing over the graves of the children who died in the Sabah tragedy. He blames the parents for signing the indemnity forms without asking questions. And he sneers and insults them, screaming very joyfully: TOO NAIVE, TOO GULLIBLE AND TRUSTING of those in authorities.

And he got the “thumbs up” from other TRE readers.

How low can these people stoop?

————————————————————————————————–

[T]he word scunnered. It’s an adjective from Scotland. If one is scunnered, one is irritated, frustrated, weary – and one is also, somehow, revolted. The person, or thing to which you have “taken a scunner” is not just a pain in your neck, but also operating at or beneath the level of your contempt.

AL Kennedy, writer and broadcaster

——————————————————————————————————–

They should remember that the parents’ children died. Let them grieve in peace. Do not happily, sneer and insult them.

Hate PAP until like that meh? Frus at their impotence to do anything about the fact that 60% of S’poreans voted for the PAP in the last GE. Whatever, don’t take the frustrations out on the grieving parents of the dead children.

Never mind, there is such a thing as karma. As the bible says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Pastor Larence Khong, the polo playing magician, learnt this the hard way. He is judgmental about gays, fornicators etc. His daughter had a child out of wedlock. Hoz that for divine retribution? Or being kicked real hard in the balls. 

oxygen:

June 18, 2015 at 11:08 am (Quote)
DO ANYONE SIGN INDEMNITY FORM also known as liability exclusion form to any organizer when they go on travel vacations?

Climbing Stairs: Everybody involved in the deaths of the kids at Mt Kinabalu lied. And lied and lied.

If not, IT MEANS the parents too are TOO NAIVE, TOO GULLIBLE AND TRUSTING of those in authorities – the indemnity form sheltering MOE is WARNING CAUTION of ‘KEEP CLEAR – DANGERS AHEAD”.

THEY SHOULD HAVE ASK TO DETAILED CLARITY THE EXTENT DANGERS AND NATURE OF DANGERS ahead if that contingency arise.

REMEMBER – PINOCHIO TOLD MRT COMMUTERS in the Orchard Road MRT debacle to “follow the rules” when crisis erupted WITHOUT THINKING FOR A MOMENT THAT IT IS THE RULES THAT FAILED IS PRECISELY THE REASON/S WHY THE TRAIN BROKE DOWN IN THE DARK TUNNEL TRAPPING THOUSANDS OF COMMUTERS left in the lurch of no rescue.

In the end, they found shoes in the train worn out and posed considerable danger of crash.

HOW CAN SINKIE TRUST POLITICAL GOVERNANCE DIGGING UP UNDERGROUND FOR HUMAN HABITATION AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY when they will tell us to “follow the rules” in the event of a island-wide cave-in?

WHAT DO YOU THINK, VOTERS???

Rating: +11 (from 11 votes)
oxygen:
June 18, 2015 at 11:16 am (Quote)
PARENTS SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS of how PAPpys work in Fernvale – they screwed up the land development award AND TELL PEASANTS THAT YOU DIDN’T READ THE FINE PRINT on the brochure.

Of course, they are CAREFULLY SILENT that nobody in the world sign the fine print IN A BROCHURE when you buy your housing accommodation or a box of CONDOM in a supermarket.

How CUNNING is this?

Rating: +12 (from 12 votes)

“Oxygen” claims to be a S’porean who emigrated to Oz a long time ago. He predicts that the PAP will lose the coming GE, big time. And he is predicting that he property markey collapses because he wants to then sneer those who bot homes.

I’ve been told that he is a grad of Nantah who couldn’t get a job here and ended teaching political science in a second or third class uni in Oz. (These unis were nothing more than glorified technical colleges and were extremely left wing in their polotical science departments. In the mid 80s, I worked in Sydney and got to know a second hand book shop owner who was a mature student in one of these unis. He was telling me he was always failed by one lecturer because he refused to accept the leftist line. But because he studied for the fun of it and the social life, he was driving the lecturer who failed him “nuts”.)

I’m glad he migrated. Sneering and mocking the parents of the dead children may be acceptable in his community in Oz, but not here. And here we respect the dead, even one Harry*, as Amos Yee and his doting mum are learning the hard way.

Someone posted on TRE if on;y one quarter of those voting for the PAP could be persuaded to vote against the PAP, the PAP would be defeated.

Fat chance with people like “oxygen” and friends sneering at grieving parents.

With enemies like “oxygen”, Hui Hui and friends, the PAP doesn’t need friends. Maybe “oxygen”, Hui Hui and friends know this, and this fact drives them “nuts” in frustration.

Whatever, no matter how much they hate S’poreans who they think support the PAP, grieving parents should not be mocked or sneered at or blamed.

—————————-

*It’s interesting that even TRE devoted several articles in its “editorials” to the respectful comments of its readers when Harry moved on. Most of the comments of posters (like “oxygen”) were not respectful but were not highlighted. I tot of ST and its selection of letters for publication: they often don’t represent the letters it receives, only letters with the “right” view were highlighted.

TeamTRE ashamed of the dancing, singing urinating and worse by “oxygen” etc over Harry’s grave?

 

Tot of mother Mary’s Amos

Overcoming depression: think pleasant tots. It works for lab mice.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33169548

Children who were good liars performed better in tests of verbal memory – the number of words they could remember.

This means they are good at juggling lots of information, even if they do tell the odd fib.

[T]he good liars showed they had a better working memory for words – but they didn’t show any evidence of being better at remembering pictures (visuo-spatial memory).

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33204165

Related post

Amos: Too much homework?

 

 

PM must be doing shumething right, right?

Keep on banging yr balls in frustration Goh Meng Seng and his felow cybernuts, some of whom are so frus with the PAP that they blame the parents of the dead children for the deaths, sneering at their stupidity, as these cybernuts see it, for allowing the children to go to Sabah. More on this tom.

Singapore is sitting atop the world as the best city for FDI, ranking first globally in 2014 for the amount of greenfield inward investment it attracted. The city-state received two-and-a-half times more investment than its main rival, Hong Kong.

Also the top-ranked destination city in 2013, Singapore has strengthened its lead over London and Shanghai since then. According to figures from fDi Markets, an FT data service, 390 companies announced or launched 409 greenfield projects in Singapore last year, totalling an estimated $11bn in capital expenditure. London attracted 334 projects at $7bn, and Shanghai, 245 projects at $8bn. Hong Kong, the sixth-ranked city based on number of projects, received 162 projects at $5bn.

… Beijing, Bangalore, Dubai, São Paulo, Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City join S’pore , HK and Shanghai on the list.

FT

Amos: Too much homework?

Made him go whacko?

Taz what I tot when I read this BBC extract

The head of the prestigious Cheltenham Ladies’ College suggests in an interview with the Times that homework could be banned to save pupils from depression.

The paper says the school will set its pupils’ wellbeing on a par with their academic grades and give them more of a say in the day-to-day running of lessons and extracurricular activities.

From September, pupils will attend weekly meditation classes and be given twice as long to walk between lessons. Teachers are also being trained to spot the signs of depression and anxiety.

A total of 92% of GCSE grades were A* or A last year at the 162-year-old school.

Principal Eve Jardine-Young tells the Times: “We will have to look at how we are doing things. Will we even be doing prep?

“What we’ve been reflecting on a lot in the last few years are the big national trends and international trends in the worsening states of adolescent mental health.

“We’ve created this epidemic of anxiety for ourselves as a society, and if our obligation as educators is to try to the best of our ability to set young people up as best we can for whatever the future may hold, then to ignore this whole area or to trivialise it is really irresponsible.”

Although heads of other leading independent schools are quoted as disagreeing with Ms Jardine-Young, the Times praises her for her approach.

“Fresh thinking is needed and is what Ms Jardine-Young seems to have in mind: less formal homework but not less learning, which might be accomplished in clubs or online instead of hunched over text books,” it says.

“Her young ladies should not celebrate yet, but they may become guinea pigs in a win-win experiment. It is certainly an important one.”

Btw1, here’s one teacher that our kids will like: different kind of holshomework: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33061929

Opposite of a tiger mom: mom wants ban on homework: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33052040

Another week, another Noble Bahru?

Debt of 11.5 billion ringgit ($3.1 billion) is already uncomfortably high for an outfit expected to make 1.9 billion ringgit in EBITDA this year. AirAsia’s part-owned sister airlines, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines, owe it increasing sums: amounts due from associates were nearly 2.5 billion ringgit at the end of 2014.

The gloomy case, as made by Hong Kong’s GMT Research, is that this cannot last. AirAsia is booking profits from affiliates that it cannot collect. While restrictions on foreign ownership mean it is only a minority shareholder, it effectively controls these airlines and should consolidate their accounts. Facing up to reality would force a big equity issue.

AirAsia counters that its accounts are transparent, debt is coming down, and cheap fuel and reduced competition should make for a “very good year”. Selling and leasing back planes will help cut debt. It’s also planning to publish pro-forma consolidated accounts.

Fernandes says local partners in Indonesia and the Philippines will each inject over $80 million of fresh equity, and both units will sell $100 million-plus of convertible bonds, before floating in 2017. Some of this will be used to pay back sums owed to the parent.

Well, perhaps. But new investors in the affiliates will need to be comfortable with much of their cash going to repay debts, while also believing in a bright future for these units. As HSBC analysts note, both are sub-scale and face powerful local rivals in Lion Air and Cebu Air.

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/06/18/airasia-takes-multi-stop-route-to-capital-raising/

The real moral of the stories of Noble and AirAsia is that when one makes money or is in fashion, no-one cares about accounting details, But when the fashion changes, or one loses money, the daggers come out and the hyenas and vultures circle.

And don’t like a lost co, set up a website and slime away

Warren Buffett touch for Oz?

Mr Buffett’s A$500m ($386m, £247m) investment in one of this country’s biggest insurers, Insurance Australia Group (IAG), has spurred speculation about other companies he might invest in.

Mr Buffett does not like taking risks, a senior analyst at investment research firm Morningstar, David Ellis, told the BBC.

“He wants a reliable return, and that’s what the Australian market gives him. It is very mature and well run,” explains Mr Ellis about why the American investor from Omaha has invested in IAG.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33160690

Spending more on poor & middle class: Not juz ’cause GE coming

The PAP administration continues to throw our money at ourselves

— Poineer Generation benefits

— smaller SingHealth bills for younger oldies

— extra $ for civil servants

— improving public transport

— “savings” etc etc bonds

Must make Goh Meng Seng, Roy Ngerng, Han Hui Hui and their fellow cybernuts infesting TRE despair, and TOC despair. PAP really spending money on citizens, albeit their own money.

Doubtless post GE, they expect the goodies to stop. And S’poreans will be squeezed again. These will make the cybernuts and TOC happy again, pAP screwing the stupid voters who vote for them.

Well think again. There is a new fashion in economic thinking as this extract shows

[O]n June 15th economists at the IMF released a study assessing the causes and consequences of rising inequality. The authors reckon that while inequality could cause all sorts of problems, governments should be especially concerned about its effects on growth. They estimate that a one percentage point increase in the income share of the top 20% will drag down growth by 0.08 percentage points over five years, while a rise in the income share of the bottom 20% actually boosts growth. But how does inequality affect economic growth rates?

[T]he recent rise in inequality has prompted a new look at its economic costs. Inequality could impair growth if those with low incomes suffer poor health and low productivity as a result, or if, as evidence suggests, the poor struggle to finance investments in education. Inequality could also threaten public confidence in growth-boosting policies like free trade, says Dani Rodrik of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

More recent work suggests that inequality could lead to economic or financial instability. In a 2010 book Raghuram Rajan, now governor of the Reserve Bank of India, argued that governments often respond to inequality by easing the flow of credit to poorer households. Other recent research suggests American households borrowed heavily prior to the crisis to prop up their consumption. But for this rise in household debt, consumption would have stagnated as a result of poor wage growth. Economic eminences such as Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers argue that inequality may also contribute to the world’s “savings glut”, since the rich are less likely to spend an additional dollar than the poor. As savings pile up, interest rates fall, boosting asset prices, encouraging borrowing and making it more difficult for central banks to manage the economy.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/06/economist-explains-11

The Hard Truths ‘ version is

Economists say that some inequality is needed to propel growth. Without the carrot of large financial rewards, risky entrepreneurship and innovation would grind to a halt. In 1975 Arthur Okun, an American economist, argued that societies cannot have both perfect equality and perfect efficiency, but must choose how much of one to sacrifice for the other. While most economists continue to hold that view …

And we know the author, enforcer of Hard Truths has gone to the hall where Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Churchill and Hitler are dining at the high table.

And we got plenty of $ without resorting to a GST increase (https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/after-the-goodies-gst-hikes-acoming-soon/). It’ll come from our NIR

Plenty of money there:

SingFirst is proposing to spend an additional S$6 billion a year – over and above what the government is spending – to tackle what it described as “rising inequality”, funded from the net investment returns (NIR). The NIR allows the government to spend up to 50 per cent of expected long-term real returns on its net assets managed by the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and more recently Temasek Holdings.

SingFirst said the money will be spent to provide free education, higher subsidised child care and higher transport subsidies, among other things. The biggest ticket item is an old-age pension of S$300 a month for 600,000 senior citizens. The party also wants to phase out the Goods and Services Taxes (GST) by increasing taxes on higher income individuals.

(CNA)

Doubtless Meng Seng* and friends will be quoting Philip Ang**, their financial expert,  on why there is no NER.

Funny that Tan Jee Say wants to abolish GST. It’s regressive but that can be overcome by real cash rebates to the poor and middle class, not the PAP’s pseudo rebate to the CPF accounts. In general, economists like GST because of its simplicity and because it taxes consumption, not investment or savings.

—-

*After last GE, Meng Seng said he would monitor and report on Bishan GRC’s spending plans, ’cause he said the projects they promised were more than Bishan could afford. Err not heard anything from him.

**When analaysing London commercial property (when trying to slime GIC), he leaves out the rental yield, saying yield is irrelevant. Well the reason why the Arab SWFs and big property investors love London is that it offers good rental yields.

Ho buys into sleep monitor start-up

Temasek has led a $40 million round of funding for Hello, a sleep monitor start-up based in San Francisco, which comes at an unusually early stage for Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund

Yellow peril horde avoided

These charts from FT tell in charts what the NYT Dealbook describes in words below:

 

 

CHINA MOVES CLOSER TO INCLUSION IN MSCI INDEX Though MSCI decided on Tuesday that it would hold off on adding Chinese domestic shares to its emerging market index, China is moving closer to joining the global benchmark, Neil Gough writes in DealBook. In its decision, the index company cited concerns over China’s cumbersome investment quotas, restrictions on money flows, and questions over the legal status of foreign shareholders. But MSCI said that in the coming months it would work with China’s main securities regulator to address the company’s concerns and that it may make a special decision to include Chinese stocks, also known as A-shares, in its benchmarks before the next scheduled annual review, which takes place a year from now. “It is clear from MSCI’s announcement today that it is only a matter of time before A-shares are added to global indexes,” Louis Lu, a portfolio manager at CSOP Asset Management, which invests in mainland shares, said in an email.

“The decision – and the waiting period – reflects the changing face of China’s financial system,” Mr. Gough writes. Over the last two years, the country has embarked on a series of overhauls to the financial system, but foreigners remain wary because they continue to face challenges in gaining access to the Chinese markets. Mr. Lu said that the delay by MSCI is likely to motivate the Chinese government to “accelerate the opening of its capital markets and provide greater accessibility to international investors in the near term to increase the chance of inclusion as soon as possible.” If China can assuage MSCI’s concerns, analysts estimate that the country is likely to see several billion dollars of new investment pour in initially, with that figure rising to more than $200 billion over time.

Cover-up in action?

(Update on 19th June 6.30 am

The Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) has apologised for the confusion that led to many spectators being locked out of the 28th SEA Games closing ceremony at the National Stadium …

While SINGSOC acknowledged it could have done better in managing the situation, it rejected suggestions that tickets to the closing ceremony were oversold ,,,”we would like to confirm that there were still sufficient seats in the stadium for all those who came for the event/”

While it is unclear exactly how many spectators, most of whom had purchased tickets — which cost up to S$40 each — were locked out of the closing ceremony, it is believed to be in the hundreds.

They were prevented from entering the stadium as many of those already inside had waited around the inner concourse area after they failed to locate their seats due to the stadium lights having gone dark for the ceremony.

But safety concerns meant the gates had to be closed to prevent the congestion from worsening if more were allowed in …

Today

What do you think?

Let’s see if the refunds are to hundreds or thousands of people)

===================

TOC and the constructive nation-building media yesterday reported that ticket-holders were turned away from the closing ceremony of SEA Games.

The local media played down the incident. Example CNA said:

Scores of ticket holders shut out of SEA Games closing ceremony

Several people told Channel NewsAsia they had SEA Games closing ceremony tickets, but were turned away because they were told the National Stadium was “full”.

TOC screamed:

Chaos at Sports Hub: Thousands with tickets left stranded outside for Closing Ceremony

CNA also reported this which shows that SINGSOC downplayed the incident:

In a statement posted on the SEA Games 2015 Facebook page, the Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) said entry points needed to be adjusted on Tuesday evening as a “significant proportion of the spectators were at the gates just before the start of the ceremony”.

It added that this was so spectators could be seated as quickly as possible. “Consequently, some gates had to be closed for safety reasons.” 

“The organising committee apologises for the inconvenience caused and disappointment of those affected. We will offer a full refund to anyone who had purchased a ticket and was unable to be seated. In addition, you will receive the supporters’ medallion,” SINGSOC said.

If this follow-up report by TOC is even half-right, there seems to be a cover-up at work:

TOC has reason to believe that the crowding at the SEA Games closing ceremony was caused by SINGSOC over-issuing tickets, for fear of not having a max-out crowd, like what happened at the opening ceremony. Queries have been sent to SINGSOC.

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/06/story-behind-stadium-gate-jams-singsoc-over-catered-on-seats/

Cynical over-selling without concern for safety?

All this brings me to the importance of social media and new media outlets like TOC

During the Parliament debate on Tuesday (10 Mar), Mr Khaw also took the opportunity in his speech to hit out at social media.

He said, “In 2011, many Singaporeans were swayed by the social media commentaries, and worried that the Singapore Dream would not be available to future generations. We have proved through action that the worry was unnecessary.”

“After four years of hard work, we have cleared the backlog and placed our home-ownership policy on even firmer foundation. Every generation will be able to afford their own HDB homes. This is our promise,” he added.

But perhaps it is social media and its cousin new media which is keeping the government on their toes and prodding Mr Khaw and his team to do better for Singaporeans?

Reits: Investing primarily for income?

Even my dogs know that when interest rates rise, the yields from Reits should fall, and so will the unit prices.

Here’s shumething from FT that I didn’t think about

but for those investing primarily for income, the yield you obtain at the beginning when you buy your investment is a big protection. If you are happy to keep receiving your income, there is no need to sell the Reit for a loss as interest rates move up.

Of course you will be aware that rising interest rates could lead to problems for Reits’ biz model. But taz another issue.

And I suspect that soon Reits, Biz trusts  (or in the US master limited partnerships, MLPs)will be an alternative asset class to those who at present invest in junk bonds for their yield.

If MoM is really serious about jobs for S’poreans

Employers and jobless  S’porean PMEs KPKB about the difficulty to fill available vacancies because the unemployed have difficulties knowing waz available, while employers don’t know what experience is outb there.. Even NTUC says, echoing the public, that merely requiring employers to post an advert on the MOM Jobs Bank for 2 weeks does not necessarily do anything to ensure S’poreans are employed before foreigners partly because of the way the system works in matching jobs to those looking for jobs.

Matching those looking for jobs with the vacancies is a world-wide problem, not unique to S’pore.

Here’s a solution that suggests using online dating software (modified of course).

Economists believe that much of this difficulty lies in matching the supply of graduates to the available jobs. In 2010 Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides won the economics Nobel prize by demonstrating that unemployment can stay high in times of vacancies. It is not possible to assume that buyers and sellers of labour immediately find each other; in many markets this only happens after a costly and lengthy search process. To understand this problem, economists have started to look in a surprising direction for inspiration: online dating.

With its complex matching processes, costs of looking around, and emotional highs-and-lows, a job search shares many characteristics with the world of virtual love (or virtual world of love). In both, there are search costs. It takes time and effort to create an online dating profile, just as it takes time and effort to create a curriculum vitae. And then there is the problem of so-called “mutual choosing options”. Those looking for love and careers cannot simply make their choice and be done with it; they need the person or employer they like to also pick them as well.

But if digital dating suffers from many of the same afflictions as the graduate job market, it may also offer solutions. In 2012 Sean Rad, a college dropout, created Tinder, which shows users photos of potential suitors nearby and matches those who mutually “like” each other’s pictures. Now it has accumulated over 50m users.

As a result, graduate recruiters are falling over themselves to copy the idea. Among the new crop is Switch, which allows candidates to thumb through job listings: flick left if uninterested and right to register for a potential work match. A competitor, Jobr, which also employs the swipe-if-you-like model, uses information from LinkedIn to recommend jobs that candidates might find interesting. Since its launch last year, Jobr has submitted more than 100,000 job applications for its members each month. Large firms are joining in, too. Last year, Zappos, an online retailer based in Nevada, scrapped formal job postings and replaced them with a new site encouraging candidates to engage with each other and the firm in a way not dissimilar to existing online-dating forums.

For the anxious 21-year-old leaving campus for the last time, the worlds of economics and online dating have a few lessons. First, pick a thick market. Just as the most successful lonely hearts go to the apps with the highest-number of potential suitors, so should graduates also head to where the most job opportunities are. Second, just as online daters “signal” their qualities by posting photos, job applicants should also try to communicate their strengths to employers effectively. And finally, settle. Expend the costs of searching for a partner or job only if those costs are outweighed by the expected benefits of a new opportunity or lover. Who said economics wasn’t romantic?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/06/graduates-and-employment

MoM if it really prefers locals to FTs can fund some software development. Or maybe NTUC?

Maybe Richard Wan (MD of of software developer) of TRE could also do something along these lines, sourcing funds from the cybernuts who infest TRE . Juz joking, pigs will fly first before the cybernuts fund anything*.

Meanwhile TeamTRE has to fund itself while also working for free to give Goh Meng Seng (founder member of the Cynernut Movement) and his fellow nutters the opportunity to help the PAP win votes from the swing voters.

Related post

Smartphone way of short-listing 300 from 33,000 job applicants

—

*Reminds me of Amos’s ang moh tua kee friends? Where Amos Yee was absolutely right was when he F***ed the ang moh tua kees that were posturing on social media about how concerned they were about him, while he rotted in remand: none offered bail.

Amos: Talk is cheap, very cheap/ Harry really needs no monument

The ang moh tua kees and the cybernuts are related? Talk cock, sing song.

 

US Marshalls make Christ’s vicar bow down

Vatican to Comply With U.S. Tax Evasion Law. The Vatican has agreed to comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which means banks operating there will have to transmit information on accounts held by American taxpayers to American authorities,

NYT Dealbook

How did Roy make Ravi go bananas? Two versions

I’ve alluded that I’ve been told by a usual reliable source that Roy Ngerng’s behaviour contributed to M Ravi’s bi-polar relapse. (Reminder during the time M Ravi went “nuts”, he had made unprofessional remarks about Roy, his clent. He had also wanted to make Tamil compulsory when he became PM, after defeating PM in AMK GRC using his many relations in AMK to vote for him and his $1m fighting fund. Roy would not be part of the GRC ream because he was “too impulsive”All this Ravi had videoed.)

Recently, I came across a post on Facebook, that came close to one version that I heard.

Roy had agreed to M Ravi’s strategy of apologising and fighting the issue of damages. But somewhere along the line Roy, while not withdraeing the apology, again repeated the libel.

Ravi had to go to court and argue that “the apology” (never withdrawn) wasn’t an “admission” of defamation.

If it’s me who was sued, the 1st thing I would do is try to minimise damages. Ok the PM wants an apology – give it to him. Then say hey look I’m earning peanuts – I’m prepared to forgo a month’s salary maybe 2 but please can I pay instalments? The moment he got the money, he heck care everything. He still wont disclose what his instructions from Ravi were at the outset. My information is that Ravi never advised him to take such a path. The whole point was to deflect the damage. And he could walk away with a moral victory. If the PM pursued in asking for an exhorbitant amount, Roy can turn back and say – look, he knows I’m not rich and yet wants so much money. He could have still come away from this far better off and without the need to get people to donate their hard earned money. The CPF issue was never raised in court – his whole premise that he was taking it to court was to fight for the CPF issue. An issue his lawyer would have told him was not relevant and the Court would not be interested. So who’s fooling who. Public money must be spent wisely. And he’s even taught Amos to do it, money he didn’t at all need. Come let’s clap for Roy.

The other version which I heard (and sounds more likely) is that Ravi wanted to fight on constitutional” grounds: “Derbyshire principle” and UK defamation law doesn’t apply here. The apology appeared to M Ravi’s surprise. Roy had cut Ravi’s balls even before he went to court, it’s a;;eged Ravi told friends.

He could never answer satisfactorily the question posed by the court and the PM’s lawyer, “Err what about the apology, M Ravi?”.

Oh and I learnt something interesting afre reading M Ravi’s book (Yup i bot a copy unlike his cybernut fans: if they had bot the book, it would be a best seller which it isn’t). Although he admits he’s bi-polar (Uncle RedBean doesn’t think Ravi”s mentally ill despite Ravi’s admission), he claims that he doesn’t take the medicine* prescribed. He says meditation works in controlling his bi-polar condition. Like in 2012 and this year?

So maybe, Roy isn’t to blame?

——-

*I’ve been told that sufferers hate taking the medicine because the side-effects of taking the medicine are sickening.. They often feel that taking the medicine is worse than being bi-polar.

Ho got this one right

It was reported earlet that one of the funders of the US delisting was Temasek.

CARLYLE-BACKED COMPANY REACHES $7.4 BILLION DEAL FOR CHINA LISTING Focus Media, a Shanghai advertising company that was delisted from the Nasdaq two years ago after being targeted by the short seller Muddy Waters, on Wednesday reached a $7.4 billion deal to list on the Shenzhen stock exchange, Neil Gough writes in DealBook. Focus is returning to the market through a so-called backdoor listing, in which its main assets are sold to a company already listed in Shenzhen in exchange for shares that represent a controlling stake in the listed company. On Wednesday, Jiangsu Hongda New Material, a Shenzhen-listed manufacturer of silicone rubber products, said it would pay 45.7 billion renminbi, or $7.4 billion, mostly by issuing new stock, to acquire control of Focus.

In 2011, Focus Media was still listed on the Nasdaq when Muddy Waters accused it of overstating the number of screens in its LCD advertising network by about 50 percent, allegations that Focus Media denied. In 2013, the company was acquired and taken private by its chairman and a group of Chinese and foreign private firms that included the Carlyle Group, at a valuation of $3.7 billion.

NYT Dealbook

Fool them once, shame on Amos; fool them twice, shame on them

On Saturday TOC reported that his lawyer had written to the judge hearing his case saying that Amos claimed

the treatment that Yee was subject to that left him in “a state of depression and having severe suicidal thoughts” which was aggravated by his time spent in remand. He then told the prison officer that he was feeling suicidal.

“Regrettably, as a result of what Amos shared, Amos was taken to the prison medical facility and strapped to a bed in a medical facility for approximately one and a half days. This episode aggravated Amos’s suicidal thoughts. He was restrained with one of his hands and one of his legs strapped to the bed. Amos informed us that he could only sit up or lie down. He found it extremely difficult to urinate and defecate. He was expected to urinate into a jar at the side of the bed, which would be left there after he does so notwithstanding the pungent odors which would emanate. He had to bend down painfully against his straps in order to do so. In the said medical ward, Amos was surrounded by patients who were mentally unsound. One patient was constantly jerking against his chains and another one would talk to himself and be unresponsive to other people. Furthermore, the lights were never switched off throughout the day and was glaring into our client’s eyes such that he could hardly have any restful sleep.”*

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/06/inappropriate-to-even-consider-rtc-for-amos-yee-teens-lawyer/

Almost immediately a group of the people who whined about his earlier treatment (but as Amos pointed did bugger all to help him) came out with

We note with alarm, a letter from Amos Yee’s lawyer stating that his client was recently placed on suicide watch while in remand. According to the letter, Amos was strapped down for one-and-a-half days, and kept in a room along with two other persons of unsound mind. He was also denied access to toilet facilities and had to relieve himself in a bottle next to his bed. It is unclear if Amos was given any counseling for harbouring suicidal thoughts.

CAN: Shelley Thio, Lynn Lee, Joshua Chiang, Jolovan Wham, Jennifer Teo, Woon Tien Wei, Rachel Zeng, Roy Ngerng and Martyn See. (Note that TOC’s Andrew Loh and Terry Xu, And Vincent Law didn’t sign this time round. Amos slimed TOC.)

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/06/can-excessive-to-send-amos-to-a-reformative-training-centre/

And this on Facebook from one Nicole Ling

Some weeks ago, I told myself I’d refrain from making political posts and comments and I think I had pretty much adhered to that self-made agreement…well….until I received news about Amos Yee’s torture in prison. If the state wanna jail him, jail him. Be a man and accord a prisoner his own rights. If a prisoner reports he is unwell, feels depressed or suicidal, it is the prison’s responsibility and duty to provide the prisoner psychological support and counselling. You do not use brute force and physical torture on a someone without explanation. How does strapping Amos down, shining bright lights into his eyes all day, preventing him from movement, urination and defecation and humiliating him in every possible way remain helpful in rehabilitating a 16-year old boy?

You wanna charge the boy, go ahead but treat the prisoner fairly. Debate with him with logic and analysis. Challenge him intellectually with wit and reasons, but what you don’t do is resorting to physical torture because only cowards and bullies do that. So what’s all these torture and humiliation? What is the purpose of the torture? To break him down? To tear his spirits? To drive him to deeper suicidal thoughts? What do they really want? If a parent did the same thing to a child like what the prison did to Amos, would the parent be excused for merely “rehabilitating” the kid?

Err what if what he allges are still more lies?

Given that he lied about the allegation that his bailor, Vincent Law,molested him and flip floped on an apology to Vincent Law, I’m surprised that these good hearted, ang mog tua kee kay pohs dare trust him to tell the truth? Feeling guilty they talked cock, sing song while refusing to bail him. leaving him to rot in remand?

I mean even his doting mum says he’s a liar.

They had independent confirmation that he was “tortued”? I doubt it.

They’ll all look like a bigger bunch of fools than they already are if it turns out the allegations are untrue. Actually, no-one outside the remand system will know the truth. But given his track record of lying, the burden of proof is on him, not the system. All the authorities need to do is to deny the allegations and the majority of S’poreans will believe that he’s lying.

But their agenda, like that of the cybernuts who infest TRE, is to always slime the PAP in the hope that some mud will stick. They know, unlike the cybernuts, that 60-70% of S’poreans think they are irresponsible nuts.

Note that his lawyer did the right thing by his client and the legal profession in reporting Amos’s allegations to the judge. And I’m sure he didn’t leak the letter to TOC. Was it Mummy? She is so dotingly dumb that she can say her son a liar while in the next sentence says he tells the truth. I kid you not. She told that to Terry Xu. He posted the text conversation on his Facebook wall.

——-

*Mummy and Amos thinking that remand should be a restful place? Hey it’s Harry’s Law that rules, not Mary Toh’s indulgences.

An uplifting tale about a tenacious person

In 1938, as Germany became an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, Ingeborg fled to the US where she went back to university, finally to qualify as a doctor.

Within a few years she met her husband, the biochemist Samuel Mitja Rapoport, who was himself a Jewish refugee from Vienna.
Infant mortality

But, by the 1950s, Ingeborg suddenly found herself once again on the wrong side of the authorities.

The McCarthy anti-communist trials meant that Ingeborg and her husband were at risk because of their left-wing views. So they fled again – back to Germany.

This time Ingeborg Rapoport went to communist East Berlin, where she worked as a paediatrician.

Eventually she became a paediatrics professor, holding Europe’s first chair in neonatal medicine, at the renowned Charite hospital in East Berlin.

She was given a national prize for her work in dramatically reducing infant mortality in East Germany.

But for all her achievements, winning back at the age of 102 the doctorate stolen from her by the Nazis must rank among her most impressive.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33048927

Think Indonesia is still the next big thing?

Rothschild Exits Investment in Indonesian Coal The British financier Nathaniel Rothschild’s five-year foray into Indonesia’s coal sector has come to an end after his investment vehicle, NRH Holdings, agreed to sell its 17.2 percent stake in Asia Resource Minerals, the London-listed company formerly known as Bumi, for 23.2 million pounds, or $35.3 million.

NYT Dealbook

It would be “the first and last time” he would get involved in Indonesia. He described the Asian country as “ungovernable”.

As the FT reported, he ended his quest to regain control of the miner, which he founded along with Indonesia’s Bakrie family in 2010, when the company was known as Bumi. He is estimated to have lost about £80m through the investment.

Instead he has agreed to sell his shares to an investor group backed by another Indonesian family, the Widjajas. Their £135m bid is now being backed by Asia Resource’s board. The company was once worth £3bn.

Widjajas 1 Jewish boy 0

Bakries 0 Jewish boy 0

Even M’sian successful tycoons have serious problems navigating Indonesian corporate jungles: think AirAsia.

 

Pink Dot Day: Why gays and lesbians love today

Today is the only day of the year in S’pore that sexually active gays and lesbians can go up to anyone in Hong Lim and make “dirty” proposition and there’s no chance of being abused or beaten-up. This is because everyone there who is not LGBT there, is a friend of the movement. Of course, I’nm excluding those who are there to protest against LGBTs.

Smartphone way of short-listing 300 from 33,000 job applicants

An ang moh company wanted to recruit people from the less elite unis in China. This is what it did

This year, the 33,000 applicants for the 70 places on the company’s Chinese graduate recruitment scheme have been asked to save themselves the paper, the printer ink and the pain.

Instead, they were asked to answer three simple questions via their smartphones.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-31617597

Where were FIFA’s auditors?

As FIFA Scandal Grows, Focus Turns to Its Auditors. Despite longstanding suspicion of corruption, FIFA has received a clean bill of financial health for 16 consecutive years from KPMG, one of the world’s top auditing, accounting and consulting firms.

“It’s legitimate to raise questions about the effectiveness of the audits, given that the risks were already widely rumored.”
Barry Jay Epstein, a financial-reporting expert, on KPMG giving FIFA a spotless record of financial health.

NYT Dealbook

Sabah tragedy: The real truth

Have you guys ever climbed mt k to be a judge of things?
All these comments are only made after a natural disaster prompted tragedy took place.

If this earthquake did not take place and hence no one died, would this topic ever be visited?

Someone responded

You’re right sir. Many are hindsight commenters.

Seismologists comment on foresight prior to a quake.

Simisaimologists (Singlish) comment on hindsight after the quake.

These comments appeared on Goh Meng Seng’s Facepook wall where he had posted

For those who put up very strange logic against my voicing out against MOE stupidity, let me put it this way, do you expect opposition politicians to point out and raise voice against ruling party when they made grave mistakes which will endanger lives, Especially young innocent lives? If so, just let me do my job. If not, then go and help PAP.

All I can say is that Goh Meng Seng’s attempts to play up to the cybernut gallery is par for the course. What he’s saying is that because the children have died, the govt is at fault.

I’m glad that the SDP’s RI doctors are making sure thar Dr Chee doesn’t resort to his “mad dog” persona like he did when deciding to challenge WP in Punnol East and in defending the three young hooligans Roy, New Citizen Habn Hui Hui and Amos Yee. There is a GE coming and the SDP cannot appear looney. It needs the middle ground to win a GRC. Goh Meng seng still seems to think like the cybernuts, that the core anti_PAP vote (Any monkey, so long as he’s not a PAP monkey) will bring him victoty

The evidence that the cybernuts are using to blame the govt is

— that earthquakes are frequent there, and

— the climb is very dangerous, not suitable for untrained primary school children.

Here’s what the BBC said about the frequency of earthquakes:

 Major earthquakes are rare in Malaysia. The country lies outside the so-called Pacific “ring of fire,” where a lot of seismic activity occurs.

As to allegations that it’s dangerous, not suitable for primary school kids:

Malaysian tourism officials describe Mount Kinabalu as one of the “safest and most conquerable” peaks in the world, which helps explain its enormous appeal.

The mountain is in the news after climbers became stranded there after an earthquake, but school groups and 80-year-olds are among the estimated tens of thousands who safely climb its summit each year.

It is a road well-travelled. Climbers must pay for a guide. A rest house more than 3,000 metres up serves porridge, coke and tom yam soup.

It’s only a trek, not serious mountain climbing. Now this is fair comment:

But some say Kinabalu should be approached with caution.

“Despite its popularity, it’s a very tough trek and not to be undertaken lightly”, advises Rough Guide.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33020356

As to the lack of training, there is ample evidence except in Cybernut Universe that the children were trained.

There’ll be at least one inquiry, so let’s wait to see if there is any b;ame to apportion.

HSBC: Desperately seeking home-grown John Cryan

As a long suffering Hongkong Bank shareholder (But to be fair, I was there when John Bond called a bonus issue and the share price post bonus issue almost reached the pre bonus share price and I was there when the bank called for a massive deeply discounted during the crisis rights issue), who is the inhouse John Cryan*?

John Cryan the incoming UBS boss is rational, cold, deep thinker and no show-off – (NYT Dealbook).

Hongkong Bank needs a rational, cold, deep thinker who is not accident-prone.

Gulliver sucks, like Anshu Jain and has to go. Capital markets investment bankers are not usually rational, cold and deep thinkers

As Lex rightly points out, Hongkong Bank is trying to cut fat and grow muscle. Us sporty fatties know that this is real hard work and often fails. Taz why we are still fatties. Gulliver failed to trim fat and is lousy at PR (When Blatter said he couldn’t be expected to know everything at FIFA, I tot of Gulliver’s remarks on managing HSBC.). And now he wants to cut fat and grow muscle?

Failed in cutting costs and now wants to do something EVEN hardER? Pigs are likely to fly first.

He’d likely cut muscle and grow fat. Maybe expansion into the industrial heartland that is the Pearl Delta estuary isn’t the greatest idea? “Poll shows 25% of foreign businesses plan China job cuts,” is the top FT headline on my PC screen.

—-

*And if there’s no-one homegrown do what the Germans did, go find someone and put the chap in charge of the board’s audit committee. Great hands-on experience and sreep learning curve.

I always believe that in most cases there is always someone inhouse in a company with a strong corporate culture who can do the CEO’s job: the problem is finding the guy and the board having the balls to appoint the “unknown”.

Gays versus Taliban Christians etc

About foxhunting: The unspeakable chasing the uneatable. Oscar Wilde

Could descrobe the row between aggressive LGBTs and militant straights who have “traditional” values (whatever this means.

Where the LGBTs have reason on their side:

Discrimination against LGBTs still exists

WHILE Ms Ho Lay Ping’s argument that one’s personal belief of not approving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) lifestyle may not necessarily lead to the discrimination and stigmatisation of LGBTs in society can be a valid point, the rest of her letter confuses and puzzles me (“Not approving of gay lifestyle isn’t stigmatisation”; Forum Online, Wednesday).

She used the example of how LGBTs who are engaged in high-risk sexual activities and lifestyles are not being denied medical treatment, as well as the presence of LGBT interest groups and Pink Dot, as examples of how LGBTs are not stigmatised and discriminated in Singapore*.

The provision of medical treatment for LGBTs is clearly not an adequate marker to determine whether LGBTs are being discriminated.

Moreover, it is precisely that these interest groups exist that clearly shows LGBTs do face discrimination in their lives, because the main goal of these groups is to provide support for LGBTs who face stigmatisation.

Cases where families have disowned their children because they are homosexual still continue to exist.

Homophobic statements and rants by Singaporeans, both offline and online, such as on the Facebook group, “We are against Pinkdot in Singapore”, still occur on a daily basis.

But we have Pink Dot and friends who are calling for boycott of IKEA here https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/pink-dot-lgbt-militants-score-own-goal/ for being gay “unfriendly”. And the u/m shows gay overreach in the UK where gay marriages are legal:

“Gay prejudicing,” is the Sun’s headline to the story about a Christian-run bakery being found guilty of discrimination after refusing to decorate a cake with the slogan “support gay marriage”.

For the Express, it’s “hardly a victory for common sense or for live-and-let-live… Since when is it a crime for a private company to turn down work?”

The Mail says that Belfast Judge Isobel Brownlie might have been applying the letter of the law but argues it raises questions about the balance between gay and religious rights. “Indeed, it highlights the argument for a conscience clause, protecting believers from being forced to go against the teachings of their faith,” it says.

Given that the bakers had not refused to serve the customer because he was gay but because its owners disagreed with the slogan, the Daily Telegraph asks whether the bakery’s stance was “discrimination against gays or an assertion of the right to free speech?”

It adds: “Imagine if a Muslim printer was forced to produce a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.”

——————————–

*Moreover, Section 377A of our penal code does not legally allow consenting males to engage in sexual intercourse. While the Government has stated that it does not really enforce the law, the law nonetheless still exists.

Therefore, for Ms Ho to say that LGBTs do not face discrimination in Singapore is really shocking to me. Clearly, they still are.

In addition, Ms Ho, in her letter, has insinuated that LGBTs are deviants in society and that for the common good of society, more rights should not be given to them.

To label LGBTs as deviant – is that not an attempt to stigmatise them, given the negative connotation of the term “deviant”?

More importantly, credible research by academics has shown that societies that are more accepting of LGBTs have a lower suicide rate among their LGBT populations and this acceptance actually helps in reducing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Are these not situations that can be considered as beneficial for our society?

Lastly, while one may have his own set of personal beliefs and opinions that disapprove of LGBTs, once these are part of public discourse and attempt to shape public policies – as Ms Ho has done – they are open for public scrutiny and should be called out if these beliefs do, indeed, stigmatise and discriminate against LGBTs.

Han Ming Guang

 – See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/discrimination-against-lgbts-still-exists-20150522#sthash.UvHdIzj5.dpuf

Run on the Noble House?

Sometime back I wrote

Noble said it had secured US$2.25bn of commitments for a new credit facility.

It retains the confidence of its lenders, giving them enough info to keep them lending. The problem for investors is that we small investors will be the last to know when banks cut credit lines.

Noble: What matters

From FT

The $2.3bn revolving credit facility has also come under scrutiny from analysts and traders after at least three tranches of the three-year loan were offered to other banks in the secondary market.

“”It could indicate the banks may be losing some confidence in the company,” said Wei Bin, analyst at Maybank Kim Eng in Singapore.

A hedge fund manager said the latest sell-off was notable because it was accompanied by large daily trading volumes.

“It is now trading in such volume it appears some of the major shareholders are changing their view on the stock,” said Robert Medd at GMT Research, an independent research firm. GMT has published several reports critical of Noble.

Phew glad I wasn’t tempted: https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/noble-why-im-not-tempted/

 

UK election results makes PAP look democratic

At least here, the choice of the majority of voters gets to govern.

Anti-PAP cybernuts (like OXYGEN, Dosh), their heroes (Mad Dog Chee, s/o JBJ), rational activists opposed to the PAP (Yes, there are many like SDP’s Dr Paul Thamby and Dr Wong Wee Nam, Dr Ang Yong Guan, P Ravi, TeamTRE etc), and most neutral political analysts bemoan the system here: with only 60% of the votes the PAP won 81 seats (93%) of the seats at the last GE. The WP with 12% of the vote won 6 seats. And although the Oppo had 40% of the vote, these 6 seats were all they won. This pattern is consistent in all the elections since 1959.

Well the UK, is supposed to be a bastion of democracy but in the last election

— In Scotland, the SNP had only 50% of the votes but won 56 out of 59 seats (Labour lost 40 seats). 50% of the voters ended up with only 3 seats.

— In the country as a whole, the Tories had only 37% of the vote, yet have a 12 seat majority over the combined opposition share of the seats. 63% voted against them, yet the Tories formed the govt.

Makes PAP’s 60% of popular vote and 93% of the seats look more “democratic”, a lot more. At least 60% of adult S’poreans voted for the PAP. And don’t you forget that OXYGEN and the other cybernuts infesting TRE, sctounging off and undermining TeamTRE’s efforts to make S’pore a less PAP friendly place.

In the UK, even if they all formed a coalition, the Oppo had less seats than the Tories. But that’s not all. If Labour had gotten 37% of the votes instead of 30%, and had not lost 40 seats in Scotland, it would have likely won the election. In that case the 63% who did not vote Labour would have to accept a Labour govt.

HSBC should return to its roots

No not as a narco-bank for the modern day equvalent of the Jardines, Mathesons and Sassons who were the drug barons of the early 19th century smuggling opium into China

HSBC: Doing God’s Work?

HSBC: great customer & shareholder service

It should remember that the HS stands for Hongkong and Shanghai and that it was once known as Hongkong Bank (when it was kicked out of China) https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/hsbc-london-greater-china-bank/#comments

HSBC should focus on its jewel in the East

Here’s a good idea that (almost certainly) will not be announced by HSBC at its big strategy day on Tuesday: split the bank in two, and let only the Asian business base itself in Hong Kong.

UBS analyst John-Paul Crutchley is the author of the inspired demerger idea, which starts by arguing that “taking the accumulated baggage of the last three decades home may not be the best course of action”.

Baggage may seem a harsh description of the non-Asian parts of HSBC, including its UK retail banking operation, but Crutchley reckons the Hong Kong Asia-Pacific bank accounts for 80% of HSBC’s market valuation while deploying less than half the equity. It is the jewel. Indeed, the analyst reckons HSBC’s share price could be twice the current 619p if the group had decided in the 1980s to stick with its Asian franchise and not pursue all the deals and acquisitions elsewhere.

That observation illustrates the fact that HSBC management’s head-scratching over where to base the bank is something of a sideshow. Dodging the full impact of the UK bank levy by redomiciling the whole shebang to Hong Kong might save $1bn a year. But, even if one assumes such a saving is worth $12bn in today’s money, that’s only the equivalent of 44p on the share price. The bigger question is: what’s the best way to manage this vast sprawling group?

A demerger is not a cure-all but it would deliver a few advantages. The Hong Kong end could concentrate on combating increased competition from Chinese banks. Rump HSBC could be more vigorous in allocating capital to the parts of the business generating better returns. And, since regulators are piling heavier capital and compliance costs on very big global banks, both bits might benefit from being part of smaller organisations.

It’s an idea HSBC is highly unlikely to adopt. But a dose of bold thinking is arguably exactly what it needs to awaken a slumbering share price. Flogging the Brazilian and Turkish operations – Tuesday’s likely highlights – probably won’t be enough to excite shareholders.

From Guardian

PAP’s idea of being a “badass”?/ S’pore’s Big Boss

Couldn’t stop laughing when I read the following

George Yeo turned down an offer he couldn’t refuse from Lee Kuan Yew

June 6, 2015

6 quotes that reveal that George Yeo is a badass at heart.

http://mothership.sg/2015/06/george-yeo-turned-down-an-offer-he-couldnt-refuse-from-lee-kuan-yew/

Double confirms my perception that the well-funded mothership.sg is really nothing more than pary of the PAP’s spin machine juz like ST, MediaCorp or Fabrications about the PAP*.

I mean only a PAP dog, (sorry,  my dogs growled) hackette would say turning down an offer made by Harry shows that BG Yeo’s a “badass”.

Seriously if you go thru the list, it shows more how straight laced is this lady writer. Or how hard she is straining to make BG Yeo look like a “badass” i.e. look normal.

On BG Yeo’s spurning LKY’s offer, two tots:

— How come he can offer BG Yeo a job in Temasek when he has no formal authority in or over Temasek? Double confirms my view that he was the Big Boss, bigger than PM or the cabinet.

— Actually if he is as dedicated to serving S’pore as he claims he is, he’d have taken up LKY’s offer of a job at GIC or Temasek. A former Foreign Affairs minister is really useful in a SWF. Can open doors, smooth ruffle feathers etc.

———————

*There is a story making the rounds that BG Yeo pitched the idea of mothership to one Philip Yeo (the now retired civil servant with whom Harry daughter had a bone to pick). Philip Yeo wrote a cheque for $1m. Other people’s money, despite both of them being wealthy. Most probably taxpayers’ money.

US marshalls target Harry’s and Ho’s banks

Citi and UBS get fined big time by US. GIC has stakes in both and both are Harry’s 30-yr banks.

Ho Ho Ho. Lucky Temasek sold out of BoA as BoA is really big time criminal.

And then there is StanChart that rolled over when a “rogue” regulator fined it once, and then another time for good measure

StanChart: Troubles never come singly

StanChart’s looking dysfunctional/ Problem for ang moh banks

Disgusting post on TRE/ Cybernut mob at work (Update)

I received a lot of personal attacks on TRE for posting this

This is my response I posted earlier this morning on TRE

Andrew Teo*, I’m a S’porean who did NS. Better still I’ve paid more in taxes between the mid 80s and mid 90s, than you could ever paid in yr life time. People like me pay income tax to support irrational people like you.

If you had KPKBed if there was an accident when circumstances were normal, I’d not say anything. Likely to even join in attacking the govt. But there was an earthquake, so you come across as one of those that die die must curse PAP for everything.

Andrew Teo and the other cybernuts, this practice has been going on for years, yet this is first time you guys KPKBed. Could it be that no-one has died or seriously injured before this event.

GE is coming and the middle ground of voters that can be persuaded to vote against the PAP (those who voted for Dr Tan in PE)will not be impressed by yr antics of hate and blame.

I as voter of WP since I could vote (even voted for ex-Woodbridge patient), am not impressed by this outburst of hate and blame.

—————

*This is how he responded to my post

Andrew Teo:

June 7, 2015 at 3:45 pm  (Quote)

Dear Cynical Investor,

I am a parent and a patriotic Singaporean. I have the right to speak up against anything I feel is wrong.

You think my letter and the forum is disgusting? Then get the FXXX OUT OF MY COUNTRY!!!! We don’t need you and your dirty money.

So what now? I can’t speak up? Try getting the police to arrest me. I DARE YOU!!!!

Even the police officers arresting me have young kids.
Even the investigating officers interrogating me have young kids.
Even the judges prosecuting me have young kids.
Even all the readers here have young kids.
Even YOU have young kids!!!

SO STOP FXXXING TELLING ME WHAT TO DO IN MY OWN COUNTRY!!!
I SERVED MY NS AND I COMPLETED MY RESERVIST!!!
I HAVE TWO SONS WHO WILL EVENTUALLY SERVE NS!!!
I HAVE THE BIRTH RIGHT TO SAY WHAT I FEEL IS RIGHT TO SAY!!!
SHUT UP AND GO HOME!!!

Rating: +133 (from 535 votes)

Given his incivility and intolerance of contrary views (reminds one of the PAP doesn’t it?), he is a true son of S’pore that one Harry would be proud of

Disgusting post on TRE/ Cybernut mob at work

Someone by the name of Andrew Teo was allowed by TRE to post this nauseating piece of rubbish (Why it’s rubbish is explained at the end and somewhere in the middle):

Dear TRE,

I wrote the following comment on the MOE facebook but I am quite certain that it will not be posted hence I am writing to TRE hoping that your organization will start a new thread on the topic of Sabah Quake.

Here is the message I wrote on MOE facebook:

My heart goes out to the unnamed 12-year-old girl from Tanjong Katong Primary School who died in the Sabah quake during the school’s trip there.

I am saddened and at the same time furious that the school organized such a dangerous trip and MOE is allowing this kind of expedition.

How can little children at this age be allowed to climb such a peak? Will the school management and MOE please explain?

The public deserves the right to know what is going on and assurance that this sort of things will not happen again.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew Teo

I look forward to reading this new thread on the above topic at TRE soon.

Thank you,

He got a lot of support, and cursing of the PAP administration. Those who disagreed with him were jeered by TRE posters. Even a poster who explained that this climb was not dangerous in normal circumstances was jeered.

Emboldened Andrew Teo went on

Andrew Teo:
June 7, 2015 at 11:35 am (Quote)
Dear fellow Singaporeans,

Thank you one and all for agreeing with me. Except for a few who are foreigners I suspect.

I was almost tearing when I saw the following news. A moment ago there was an update from CNA. Bodies are found pinned under the boulders and rescuers are finding it difficult to remove these bodies. Imagine these small 12 year old bodies crashed by huge rocks. This is not the way to die. They have a long life ahead of them.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/video

I would like someone to help me propose that the MOE Minister, the school principal and those teachers or administrators who coined the idea of the trip be removed from their positions. Furthermore, I am proposing the MOE compensate the dead child’s parents a sum of no less than 1 million dollars because this child would easily earn at least a million dollars in her life time and part of it would go out to support her aging parents.

We are already so short of babies and these precious lives are subjected to such tough mountain-climbing trip? I think the MOE and the school has gone mad. They do all these because of some lame excuse: “Leadership training”?

If MSK can escape the prison and no one was harmed, and Mr Wong Kan Seng has to step down, why can’t we demand that Heng Swee Kiat step down?

Please, we all need to stand up for the poor child who died and her parents. If nothing is done, then MOE will continue their ways. We are not talking about voting the PAP out, we are merely saying any civil servants, MPs or Ministers who make such grave mistakes SHOULD STEP DOWN!

Sincerely yours,
Andrew Teo

Rating: +13 (from 15 votes)

And

Andrew Teo:
June 7, 2015 at 11:39 am (Quote)
Trust only myself:

All these expeditions are for commercial purposes and some stalk holders are making money……wonder if any staff from school or MOE benefitted from these.

I hope all parents of the children who attended this trip make a CPIB report. You may be right, someone may be benefiting from all these. Let the police investigate.

Rating: +7 (from 9 votes)

Really with Andrew Teo and the cybernuts, the PAP doesn’t need clowns like mothership, Jason Chua and FAPAP.

I posted this

I find this post disgusting. And I’m disgusted TeamTRe put this up.

Here’s what a prominent blogger and now Oppo politican says:

Ravi Philemon
21 mins ·
‪#‎SabahQuake‬ It is unnecessary for anyone to point fingers at the Tanjong Katong Primary School or Ministry of Education. It is a natural disaster – an accident.
Of course, MOE should assuage the public’s concerns about how our schools gauge that the learning trips and/or character-building trips that are organised for its students overseas are safe. But now’s not the time for that.
Now is the time to mourn those that have passed away in this tragedy. And also a time to hope – hope that those that are missing can be found.
It is highly irresponsible for anyone to declare those that are still missing as ‘dead’. The families of those that are missing must still hope – and we too must hope with them.
Meanwhile, I must commend MOE for being timely in information dissemination to those that are affected and to the general public. The Minister himself is on the ground – what else can we ask for.
MOE’s updates are here: http://www.moe.gov.sg/…/media-statements-on-students-in-mt-….

 

 

Security: Kampong spirit or software better?

DPM Teo called for what I consider the “kampong spirit” to combat radicalisation after it became known

A Singaporean youth has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for terrorism-related activities since April this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Wednesday (May 27).

…another youth was arrested in May under the ISA for further investigations into the extent of his radicalisation.

–  –  –

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Teo Chee Hean said Singapore faces real threats from radicalisation, similar to other countries. He noted that attacks can still happen, even if a country is already on high security alert.

“Our community leaders have worked hard to counter radical ideology. And we should all, from all communities in Singapore, support one another … All of us must play our part. If you know or suspect anyone who is becoming radicalised, please notify the authorities early,” Mr Teo said.

“You may be helping to save that person from harming himself and others. And our security agencies will do their utmost to detect and prevent any terrorist attacks.”

“We must strengthen our community resilience so that if an incident were to occur here, we can recover and emerge even stronger, and more united,” he added.

(CNA)

Err what about more high tech stuff?

In the UK, schools are being offered new software that helps teachers spy on pupils’ potentially extremist online activity.

It alerts teachers if pupils use specific terrorism-related terms or phrases or visit extremist websites on school computers, laptops or tablets.

Teachers are encouraged to look for a pattern of behaviour rather than raise the alarm after a single warning.

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-32996327

Seems we don’t have similar software because “Fortunately, another person who knew Arifil [the detainee] noticed the changes in him, and had brought him to the attention of the authorities, who were then able to investigate the matter and take action before he could carry out his violent attack plans in Singapore,” said MHA.

HK ahead of us, Switzerland, M’sia behind us

Success: One great definition

Disposal free time

What do you think? (Emphasis mine). Better than 5 Cs?

[W]e believe that the real measure of modern success is nothing to do with your bank balance or the size of your house, but instead, the amount of free time you have at your disposal. We think disposable time, as a resource to strive for and spend, counts for much more than disposable income.

You see, time is much more valuable than anything else, be it natural resources such as gold or diamonds, or a man-made commodity such as money. Time is the currency of life itself.

Time is also a great leveller that, unlike other commodities, brings a certain equality. Because regardless of who you are, time and tide stand still for no man, woman, or child.

No matter how pseudo-important someone is in terms of their career or place in society, no matter what their salary or how much wealth they have accumulated, everyone ultimately has only a limited amount of time to cash in at the Bank of Life, a finite budget to use. Or abuse, waste or fritter away. Or to spend wisely and with meaning and value, with which to make a difference or to do something amazing.

And to us, at this stage in our lives with two young children to raise through their formative years, what matters more than anything – more than working to buy a big house or fancy car – is spending time together as a family.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32974131

Plenty of gas around us

Govt’s plan to be a lNG trading hub is a no-brainer.

 

Relooking at 2 of Temasek’s Fab 5/ Whither oil prices

I’ve advised since 2013 that investing in Temasek’s Fab 5 is a no-brainer for conservative, KS types. https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/temaseks-fab-5-spore-blue-chips/

Here’s looking  at major problems at two of them.

Problems in the Brazilian and Mexican oil industries caused by the fall in oil prices are not good for Keppel and SembCorp Marine. They have received massive orders for rigs from Latin America in recent years.

But new orders will be weak and existing contracts will renegotiated.

Both have also been forced to deny allegations of corruption in winning Brazilian biz. There is a big  political and financial corruption scandal in Brazil, centred around Petrobas, its national oil champion. Petrobas has been a big player in the rig market.

But recorded order books are huge (billions of USD) and both have weathered storms. Both have experienced, internally promoted CEOs

Time to cut and run is when scholar, ex-SAF general is parachuted in as  CEO (like in SMRT, NOL).

On oil prices: views are very mixed

Big Oil is too confident about crude prices. After a 40 percent rally from January’s six-year low, the momentum has been on the upside. But the current prices – $65 a barrel for Brent and $60 for WTI – look more like a ceiling than a floor.

That is not what many insiders seem to think. Some oil service companies expect mid-$70s Brent by the end of this year. Anglo-Dutch Shell assumed oil will rebound to $90 by 2018 in its $70 billion takeover of the UK’s BG Group. Some believe that the steep cut in capex costs will affect supply, including shale, and boost prices again.

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/06/01/why-the-oil-price-will-fall-again/

Just this week, the head of BP said he doesn’t expect the glut to clear until at least 2016. The Shell view would be a good excuse to hold onto these two Fab5 shares.

What Father didn’t teach son and Goh

When I read the u/m I tot of Harry, Son and Goh, and the Chinese legends of the kung fu masters who never passed on all their secrets to their chosen heirs: there was always one secret that they would take to their graves, to ensure that their heirs were never better than them.

Podemos’ [new Spanish party on the left] approach is based on the assumption that, outside politicised bubbles, most do not think in terms of “left” and “right”. Outside the political world, most think in terms of issues to be addressed in a way that is convincing, coherent, and communicated in a language that people understand. Statistics and facts won’t win the support of millions; we’re human beings, we think in terms of empathy. Stories are more persuasive, because they speak to us emotionally. Why else do rightwing tabloids focus on extreme examples of benefit “scroungers”? They know such stories make their readers’ blood boil; they are human stories that connect emotionally, and powerfully

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/27/labour-spain-podemos-winning-streak-inspiring-people

(Emphasis mine)

Remove the word Podemos’ and replace it with “LKY’s, Dr Goh’s and others of the PAP’s Pioneer Generation” and you have the secret of the success of the PAP in the 60s, 70s before the inflow of new blood:  They knew the issues to be addressed in a way that is convincing, coherent, and communicated in a language that people understand.

Because of this, they were able to adopt a strategy that today would lose elections, even in S’pore. Here’s how the Economist describes this sure way to lose elections:

We can blame ourselves as voters for believing unfunded promises. In practice, however, a lot of people don’t swallow the propaganda. So perhaps an honest politician might have success by saying “Look, I don’t control the global economy. If the Middle East blows up, or China crashes, or the Federal Reserve tightens policy too far, then the economy will slump no matter what I do. So I’ll try not to be corrupt, make the trains run on time and not drive employment-creating businesses away, and maybe we’ll be lucky.” But no one has the chutzpah to adopt such a strategy.*

http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2015/04/markets-and-left-wing-governments-0

Actually LKY and the old guard did adopt such a strategy. I remember watching LKY on tv telling us all the problems in the global economy, then saying we will affected because we are a tiny, open economy dependent on global factors, and then saying he’ll fix the corrupt, make the buses run on time, not drive employment-creating businesses away and attract employment-creating MNCs to Singapore. All we have to do is to work hard, don’t strike, vote PAP, and don’t listen to JBJ, the ang moh tua kee wind-bag.

But then it was a simpler world then, economicallyand financially, and access to information was limited.

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*Here’s the preceding bit: HERE is how politics is “supposed” to work. Party leaders make a whole bunch of promises (tax cuts/spending increases) before an election, only to discover, when in office, that a closer inspection of the books/global crisis/natural disaster (select the most plausible) prevents them from following through on their plans. Repeat the process often enough and you get voter cynicism.

Whose fault is this?

StanChart has Middle Eastern personnel problems

Standard Chartered Said to See Exodus in Mideast Operations The high-profile departures at Standard Chartered include the global head of Islamic banking, the chief executive for the United Arab Emirates and the chief executive for Bahrain, Bloomberg News reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

• BLOOMBERG NEWS

(From over a week ago)

BG Yeo: Bakes cake and eats it too

You’d need three millennia on a British PM’s salary to match the $690 million that Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman received last year. Any ex-politician without a fortune of his or her own will feel impoverished in the familiar halls of Davos. Typically, elected leaders leave office with small nest eggs, by those standards, and a few decades left to earn serious money.

Since the opportunity and the desire are often there, there will almost certainly be more Politicians Incorporated. That’s worrying. Democracy will suffer if public office becomes little more than an audition for a second truly lucrative career.

By making ministers rich filthy rich, like Mah Bow Tan, at tax payers’ expense is the PAP’s answer to this Western  dilemma.

BG Yeo mocks the PAP by getting a good pension and a well paying private sector job.

Readers might be interested to know that pro PAP publiccation mothership is alleged to have got funding with the help of BG Yeo. Not his own money of course. He asked Philip Yeo (Remember him? He rowed with Harry’s daughter and lost it seems. I was rooting for the gal,) for funding. Philip Yeo, allegedly, obliged using S$1m from some fund he controlled.

Other people’s money.

Ho, Ho, Ho, StanChart should do this too

Up to 20,000 people (8% of current work force) could be sacked at HSBC as the chief executive attempts to pacify investors by reducing costs to improve profits (see below): Us shareholders getting shirty.

Temasek, Aberdeen and other major shareholders should tell StanChart to cut its headcount. Although an ang moh bank, many of its senior and middle managers are “countrymen”, especially here in S’pore (Brits and Hongkies don’t love FTs that much). Ask presedential candidate Tan Jee Say and PAP FT MP Ms Foo: They had Indian FTs ahead, behind and beside them. Rumour has it that Indian FTs sacked both for non-performance, replacing them with less experienced and qualified “countrymen”.

The chief executive of HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, is expected to signal next week that thousands of jobs are to be cut when he outlines his latest strategy for the global banking business, according to reports.

After he took the helm in 2011, Gulliver outlined the need for 25,000 job cuts from a global workforce that then stood at 296,000. The annual report for 2014 puts the current number of employees at 266,000, or 257,600 full-time equivalents.

Another 10,000-20,000 cuts are reported to be on the cards as Gulliver attempts to pacify investors by reducing costs in an effort to bolster profitability. He is also expected to use the strategy day on 9 June to provide an update on plans to further retrench internationally, including from Brazil and Turkey.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/01/hsbc-boss-stuart-gulliver-expected-announce-thousands-job-cuts

Shouldn’t this mum get serious money?/ Don’t let kids suffer for mum’s sins

In S’pore, money talks, BS walks as Amos Yee pointed out when castigating the good-hearted kay pohs, anti-PAP ang moh tua kees like Roy Ngerng, Shelly Thio, Lynn Lee and Kirsten Han who did everything to help him except stand bail. Since then, they have become very quiet about him. When asked about “Amos Yee, freedom fighter, Harry slimer”, they mumble that he went beyond the pale ’cause of the false accusation he made that his bailor molested him, and his flip flops about an apology.

Why do you think, they treat him like a leper? Because that the slimer of Harry turns out to be foul-mouth brat who speaks the truth about the hypocrisy of the ang moh tua kees, and not a knight in shining armour out to defeat the evil dragon Harry?

Seriously given the exhort ions to S’poreans to breed more, and the incentives given to couples breed, it’s surprising that this lady with six kids is in such dire straits. She should be paid prize money for having six kids, not made to suffer, for having six of them.

She is a 29-year-old unemployed single mother with six children from five to 13 years old. She lives in a tiny flat, just 30 square metres, with little furnishing.

There is no dining table, so the children eat their otah-otah with rice and chillies crouched on the floor.

The children share the single bedroom – their only bedding is mattresses and thick blankets. Nurhaida sleeps on the sofa in the living room.

She receives weekly groceries from charities, as well as about S$600 ($474, £262) a month in government aid and money from a boyfriend. But she admits that it is difficult to make ends meet. She has not been able to afford asthma medicine for her second daughter for months.

“No one can afford to get sick in this house because our finances are too tight. It’s quite tough and a struggle for me to be raising them up,” she said.

“I have to look after this house 24/7… so for me if I were to find a job, it would have to be a night job, so that once they are in bed, I can go out and the older kids can watch the young ones.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26349689

Sad for the kids too.

We don’t know whether she had some or all of the kids out of wedlock. But if the govt can on pragmatic grounds decide not to prosecute under 377A (despite saying that the majority of S’poreans have public morality problems with gays), why can’t it ignore any issues of public morality in her case and provide her with more funding. And if she had the kids in wedlock, then the govt’s behaviour is disgusting.

Whatever the circumstances of the case, the govt  should give her a free four room flat. After all she is doing something that the govt wants S’poreans to do: breed more. If more were like her, we’d not need FTs. But then maybe taz the real reason for not funding her: the PAP administration wants FTs.

And she can’t be a bad mom because if she was one I’m sure my RI PreU class-mate, Ang Bee Lian, would have made orders to remove the children from her care.

 

S’pore: Home of the very rich? S’pore Turf Club, PRC club real cheapskates?

Asia’s sailing enthusiasts rubbed shoulders with billionaires in Singapore several weekends ago weekend at the region’s biggest yacht show on Sentosa.

A U$100m dollar super yacht was among the exhibits on display, and visitors will also be able to clamber on submarines and speed boats.

The industry has been weathering rough seas in Europe, and there are hopes Asia’s rich will help offset the slowing sales.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32441332

Err thinking of JosTeo, GraceFu and other millionaire ministers with serious $ to spare?

China Horse Club, S’pore Turf Club got no class: cheapskates

Singapore hopes to create a horse race that can that can match globally recognised events like the Melbourne Cup or Ascot.

The China Horse Club is organising the race and wants to attract an international audience as well as racing enthusiasts from mainland China.

It is offering $2m in prize money, but as Sharanjit Leyl reports from Singapore, that does not match the prize money on offer by big races elsewhere.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31579020

The S’pore Turf Club is a de facto govt agency.

 

Amos “flew over the cuckoo’s nest”

(Update at 11.45 am:  Amos Yee Pang was remanded for three weeks as a report is made to assess whether he is suitable to serve reformative training. He rejected the option of probation and a term in the Reformative Training Centre (RTC) as a sentence, sticking to his original plea for a jail term. Yaya papaya: Think law is Mummy’s law. It’s Harry’s Law. Hehehe

Defence lawyer Alfred Dodwell cautioned against the RTC sentencing, noting that it was out of proportion to the offence Yee is charged for. The DPP said the Amos’s actions in re-uploading an image and video, and the various postings he made on his Facebook page after he was found guilty of his charges, should be taken in consideration as an indication of his conduct and character. Yup couldn’t agree more.)

If the judge makes a decision to send him to a Reformatory Training Centre (as demanded by the persecutors prosecution) later today, Amos Yee will be remanded for up to four weeks for a report to be conducted on his suitability for an RTC sentence. The irony is that “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”  did not feature in a recent blog post of his on the various films he liked. Hi should have given his situation. If he has not seen it, too bad for him as it is very relevant*. Maybe if he had seen it, he’d realise what he’s up against though I suspect he’d still have done what he did. But he’d have done so knowing what will happen to him. In the film an ex-army nurse Rached dominates a group of patients in a mental health institute. When new arrival McMurphy (played by Jack Nicholson in an Oscar winning performance) arrives he takes on Rached in a battle of wills and leads a rebellion of the inmates. Btw, he wasn’t nuts, he pretended to be nuts to escape going to prison. In the end, he is made into an imbecile by having part of his brain removed. Today drugs can control a person’s peronality: no need for surgery.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090421181641AAcVWNo

But then the tot crossed my mind that maybe Amos (if he saw the film) sees himself as McMurphy instigating a rebellion in the reform centre when he gets in, thinking that mummy wouldn’t let what happened to McMurphy happen to him.

Seriously, the state is demanding that Yee be send to a Reformatory Training Centre: “Reformative Training Centre is not jail,” the AGC insisted, saying that young offenders sentenced to such a programme have no contact with adult prison inmates. They may not have contact with adult prisioners, but I’ve heard that ex-RTC inmates are not afraid of being put into detention barracks when they do NS: they’ve experienced worse.

Yet another irony is that those sentenced to undergo the programme are detained for a minimum 18 months. The guy that slapped Amos should be out soon, if he’s not already out.

A further irony is that the four week detention for a report to be conducted on his suitability for an RTC sentence, if the judge makes a decision in favour of RTC, does not count against the 18 months. Mummy’s “fantastic” darling really stitched himself real good. Well he did compare himself to Nelson Mandela https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/amos-intelligence-is-an-over-rated-trait-2/. Btw, Mandela was no mummy’s darling.

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 *Maybe Shelly Thio should share it with him. According to Roy, she gave him books to read when he was about to go into remand. Didn’t offer bail though. A friend in need is a friend in deed. She’s real a good hearted kay poh that believes ang mohs are tua kees.

Minimum wages, Productivity: Ministers talk rubbish

Minimum wages

Ministers like to point out to the German industrial system (world class SMEs, R&D, apprentice system, productivity, employer union co-operation) as a model that S’pore is folllowing or trying to. After all we are the Prussians of Asia: dour, prickly, and efficent (es SMRT).

Err so why not minimum wages here? The Germans introduced a minimum wage this year, and the economy’s still powering ahead.

Germany’s labour market is defying orthodox economic wisdom. For years, most mainstream economists warned that a proposed minimum wage of 8.50 euros per hour would price up to a million workers out of their jobs. But so far the wage floor, which came into force in January, has not stopped Europe’s largest economy from churning out additional jobs.

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/05/29/german-job-miracle-keeps-defying-gloom-mongers/

Related post

Higher minimum wage, lower unemployment

Productivity

Following up on https://atans1.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/improving-productivity-try-this-pm-tharman-possible-reasons-for-peanuts-real-wages-growth/, the latest findings by experts like Stephen Cecchetti, an economist at the Brandeis International Business School, have found that a very large financial sector tends to precede weaker growth in productivity. “When pay on Wall Street is so high relative to the rest of the economy, you’re creating incentives for people to go into that industry that may not be the best for society over all,” Mr. Cecchetti said.

Or as  recent paper by him says high-growth financial industries hurt the broader economy by dragging down overall growth and curbing productivity.

But you can have too much of a good thing. The 2012 paper suggests that when private sector debt passes 100% of GDP, that point is reached. Another way of looking at the same topic is the proportion of workers employed by the finance sector. Once that proportion passes 3.9%, the effect on productivity growth turns negative. Ireland and Spain are cases in point. During the five years beginning 2005, Irish and Spanish financial sector employment grew at an average annual rate of 4.1% and 1.4% respectively; output per worker fell by 2.7% and 1.4% a year over the same period.

Note

— Domestic credit to private sector (% of GDP) in Singapore was last measured at 112.57 in 2011, according to the World Bank. Domestic credit to private sector refers to financial resources provided to the private sector, such as through loans, purchases of nonequity securities, and trade credits and other accounts receivable, that establish a claim for repayment.

— The financial sector employs about 5% of the total workforce.

No wonder the PAP administration has always wanted to link pay rises to productivity? They know that in an economy where finance is so important, productivity increases are not possible?

More details below*

The u/m is typical of what the PAP admin says about productivity:

Even as the Singapore economy grew moderately well at a “new normal” for 2014, Singapore is falling behind in productivity, said Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang … Singapore is “not achieving the two to three percent (labour productivity) growth rate that we’re aiming for”.

The 10-year annual target set by the Economic Strategies Committee for 2010 to 2020, however, has remained unchanged.

Data released on Tuesday (17th Feb) showed that Singapore’s labour productivity fell by 0.8 percent in 2014 – marking the third consecutive year of decline for productivity. Mr Lim said it reflects a mixed picture, with the externally-oriented sectors doing well, and the domestic sectors faring poorly.

“In some some sectors, the performance is very decent; for example in the financial services and insurance sector, productivity growth is above 2 per cent per year. Because they are facing international competition, they have to restructure quickly”

However, he pointed out that the domestic sector is still not showing “very good results”. This was particularly in the manpower-dependent areas of construction, retail, as well as food and beverage.

… voiced concern about the transport engineering sector ,,,”this is a very cyclical business and now with oil prices coming down, their order book is still good for the next three years. But there will be a down cycle soon, and that will affect their productivity if they don’t restructure fast enough.”

And to help businesses, the Minister said the government has rolled out programmes on a broad scale, such as the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme, as well as more targeted approachs like SPRING Singapore’s Capability Development Programme where individual companies get advice on their business growth.**

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*Really chim stuff. The new paper examines why this might be. One part of the thesis is a familiar complaint, neatly summarised in the 2012 paper

people who might have become scientists, who in another age dreamt of curing cancer or flying to Mars, today dream of becoming hedge fund managers

In short, the finance sector lures away high-skilled workers from other industries. The finance sector then lends the money to businesses, but tends to favour those firms that have collateral they can pledge against the loan. This usually means builders and property developers. Businessmen are lured into this sector rather than into riskier projects that require high R&D spending and have less collateral to pledge. On a related note, see our recent Free Exchange on how bank lending has become more focused on residential property.

A property boom then develops. But property is not a sector marked by high productivity growth; it can lead to the misallocation of capital in the form of empty Miami condos or Spanish apartments. In a sense, this echoes the research of Charles Kindleberger who showed that bubbles are formed in the wake of rapid credit expansion or Hyman Minskywho argued that economic stability can lead to financial instability as financiers take more risk. And it reinforces the recent McKinsey report which shows that too much total debt (not just government debt) can be bad.

In specific terms, the authors suggest that

R&D-intensive industries – aircraft, computing and the like – will be disproportionately harmed when the financial sector grows quickly. By contrast, industries such as textiles or iron and steel, which have low R&D intensity, should not be adversely affected

The paper looks at two indicators for finance sector growth – the ratio of bank assets to GDP and that of total private credit to GDP. For industries, they examined financial dependence (the need for outside capital to finance growth rather than retained cashflows) and the R&D intensity. They find quite a large effect.

The productivity of a financially dependent industry located in a country experiencing a financial boom tends to grow 2.5% a year slower than a financially independent industry not experiencing such a boom.

This is highly significant, given that most developed economies would love to gain 2.5 points of productivity especially in a world where demography may be constraining growth.

As the authors conclude

there is a pressing need to reassess the relationship of finance and real growth in modern economic systems

This seems right given the whole focus since 2008 has been about reviving and stabilising the banking sector so it can lend to small businesses. Instead (or at least as well) it should have been about channelling finance to those industries that can expand and employ more workers. On this point, it is encouraging that the European Commission has issued a green paper on capital markets union today, hoping to diversify the financing of small businesses away from banks. But perhaps the last word should be left to Winston Churchill, who spotted this problem nearly 90 years ago when he said that

I would rather see finance less proud and industry more content

 http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2015/02/finance-sector-and-growth

**Heck I might as well include what he said about the economy

The usual BS (Since then: On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy expanded at a slower pace of 1.1 per cent compared to the 4.9 per cent in the preceding quarter, according to advanced estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.)

Based on advanced estimates, the Republic’s economy grew by 2.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2015, announced the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in a press release on Tuesday (Apr 14). This is the same rate of growth as achieved in the previous quarter, it added.)

But in February, the MTI minister said:

Forecast realistic? 

When asked if the official forecast of 2 to 4 per cent economic growth in 2015 is realistic, Mr Lim said: “This is our typical range going forward, around 2 to 4 per cent … so this is the kind of new normal that we are aiming at and this year we expect growth at about the same rate as last year, because the global environment is still challenging.”

He noted that the US was the main driver of growth for last year, and is likely to remain so this year. “Essentially it’s only the US economy that’s doing well. Europe and Japan are having a big challenge and China is managing to have a soft landing at best. So the external environment is at best slightly better than last year, but not that much better.”

“HIGHER QUALITY GROWTH”

Looking ahead to the Economic Strategies Committee’s target of 3 to 5 per cent annual growth for Singapore between 2010 and 2020, Minister Lim said that “if you look at our performance in the 10 years between 2000 and 2010, the economy grow around 6 per cent per year. But if you look at the last 4 years we are averaging around 3 per cent.”

He added that the government had worked towards slower, but higher quality growth. This included reducing the flow of foreign workers, and growing at half the rate that the country did 10 years ago.

One bright spot for the economy this year could be in oil prices. Mr Lim said the recent monetary easing by the Monetary Authority of Singapore was in response to the drop in commodity prices, and a low inflation environment. As a result, exports should benefit from a lower Singapore dollar.

“Lower oil prices, we think its net plus for the economy, because we are an oil importing country, it’s a net plus for the businesses because electricity prices will come down, transport prices will come down. So businesses will do much better their input costs will come down”

But Mr Lim also cautioned that the low interest rate environment would end soon, “it’s likely that in the US the interest rate will be raised sometime this year…at some point in time, we must adjust to a more normal situation where interest rates have to reflect the cost of people lending you money.” He added that this is the reason why MAS has taken steps in the last few years to ensure personal debt remains healthy.

Amid the uncertainties in the global economy, Mr Lim said the focus for Singapore’s economy as she celebrates her golden jubilee is to perhaps emulate the US economy.

“We are having a more developed economy structure, our demographics are very similar to Japan and Europe – we are ageing very rapidly. So how do we try to have an economy that is more innovative, more dynamic, more like the US economy and less like the European and Japanese economy. That’s our big challenge.”

– 938LIVE/ly in February