While India was fighting Covid-19, China invaded

Hmm maybe Trump and his War Minister (Sorry Secretary for Defence) are right that Covid-19 was made and propagated by China.

Officials quoted by the Indian media say thousands of Chinese troops have forced their way into the Galwan valley in Ladakh, in the disputed Kashmir region.

The reports say that in early May when India was in deep lockdown , Chinese forces set-up tents, dug trenches and moved heavy equipment several kilometres inside territory controlled and claimed by India. India had just completed building a road several hundred kilometres long connecting to a high-altitude forward air base which it reactivated in 2008.

Indian intelligence seems to have been caught sleeping. According to Indian media accounts, Indian soldiers were outnumbered and surrounded when China swiftly diverted men and machines from a military exercise to the border region.

This Chinese incursion triggered alarm in New Delhi. India has limited room for manoeuvre. It can either seek to persuade Beijing to withdraw its troops through dialogue or try to remove them by force. Neither is an easy option.

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Covid-19 shows Western universities had been ripping-off India and China

After China, India sends more students abroad to study than any other country – more than one million Indians were pursuing higher education programs overseas as of July 2019, according to India’s foreign ministry.

Until the pandemic, they kept Western universities happy, really happy.

Earlier this year, I was congratulating a friend about his daughter’s decision not to study in Australia. She had had set her heart to study in the UK or Oz and if she had, she’d be back in S’pore and studying via Zoom.

Her dad said it was her decision after comparing the fees.

When he told me the amount involved studying in Oz nowadays, I was shocked. He said the unis knew that they could charge Chinese and Indians these amounts and get away with it. He said the UK fees were juz as bad.

We agreed they were ripping-off overseas students.

As for US universities, I know a kid who could only study there because she was awarded a govt scholarship, and we are not talking about an Ivy League University, but a uni one rank below. But she’s back here because of the pandemic. Everything via Zoom and laptop.

God’s will.

America is Great Again

Japs are on Americans’ tail.

Covid-19 and Indian cricket

 Cricket Australia was scared when the pandemic hit that India would not tour this year. Cricket Australia is now hoping India will be able to tour Australia in December. If India doesn’t this will wipe out A$300m (US$200m) in revenues for Cricket Australia.

Time for Indian cricket to demand more $.

Why Pay And Pay govt wants elections earlier than later

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat says better for S’pore to call for general elections as soon as possible Our next election must take place by April 14, 2021 and some leading Oppo leaders (Think Mad Dog) are more than happy for the PAP govt to continue ruling until the pandemic is tamed: Xia suay! SDP wants PAP to remain in power until after virus threat ends

But Heng said elections ought to happen soon as “the earlier we can rally everybody together to deal with these very significant challenges ahead, and also to deal with these very significant uncertainties in the months and years ahead”, the better to prepare S’pore for the future. He said the economy faces significant long-term challenges that need to be dealt with over the next five to 10 years, he said.

Heng, in response to a question if S’poreans will have to wait until Phase 3 of resuming economic activity before the election: “The sooner that we can deal with the longer term challenges, the better S’poreans will emerge out of this, and S’pore will emerge stronger. So I would say that, yes, elections are coming nearer by the day, and you have to be prepared for it.”

Here’s the point to note

“Our financial position will be a lot weaker in the coming years. And I’m thinking hard about this, about what we need to do, and how we need to continue to find ways that we can manage this difficult financial situation.”

DPM Heng

In simple English, “We got to find the money to pay for all the goodies”: Cheat sheet for Fortitude Budget/ Hali tied of signing?/ Peanuts?. Remember that Mah Bow Tan (Remember him?) once said that that raiding the reserves is not an option?. Well Heng and gang have been raiding drawing down the reserves,

Once election is won by 70%, and Lim Tean, S/o JBJ, Goh Meng Seng, Tan Kin Lian and Mad Dog really trying hard to ensure that the PAP gets 80% of the popular vote, the taxes and levies will up.

GST might go up even earlier than promised: “No money to pay millionaire Hali and ministers salsries”, PAP govt will say.

And tariffs on utilities will go up. Remember VivianB had said in parly in 2015 (juz before GE) that there was no need to change the price of water because of PUB’s improvements in membrane tech and productivity and that the water tariff and WCT reflected the scarcity of water, but prices went up after GE 2017.

---

Pay And Pay

Articles and analysis of various “price increase” written by Uncle Leong (Remember him?)

Water – “PUB: $1.1b profits last 7 years – how much last 53 years? (Feb 24, 2017)

Service & Conservancy Charges – “S & CC: A truly caring Govt?” (Feb 17, 2017)

Gas – “City Gas prices to rise by 4.5 per cent from Feb 1” (Jan 31, 2017)

Electricity – “Electricity: One of the highest in the world? (Jan 1, 2017)

Childcare fees – “Fee hikes at 200 childcare centres this year” (Jan 1, 2017)

Parking – “HDB car park rates increase 60%? (Dec 16, 2016)

Rubbish fees – “Rubbish fees up: NEA surplus up 32.9%? (Nov 8, 2016)

University hostel fees – “University hostel fees up 6.8% p.a. despite $1b surplus?” (Jun 28, 2016)

Taxis licensing – “Taxi drivers hit by triple whammy?” (Jun 24, 2016)

Hawkers’ misc fees – “Hawkers’ misc fees increased by ? %? (Jun 22, 2016)

————————————————————————

And income tax and corporate taxes.

Remember after GE, the PAP’s 4G has their mandate ( Why 65% of the popular vote is so impt to the PAP; Why even with 4G donkeys, PAP will retain power; and Is there really a better alternative to PAP 4G? ) and can give voters the finger.

What better way than by increasing taxes and levies?

Cheat sheet for Fortitude Budget/ Hali tied of signing?/ Peanuts?

Confused by the reporting of the constructive, nation-building media (“The PAP cares, they really do”) and anti-PAP alt media (“Kanna con” or “Give chicken’s head and take back the whole chicken”) on what the Fortitude Budget is all about? After all we got this yr

–‘Unity Budget’ (February 18): S$6.4 billion

— ‘Resilience Budget’ (March 26): S$48.4 billion. S$17 billion drawn from reserves

— ‘Solidarity Budget’ (April 6): S$5.1 billion. S$4 billion drawn from reserves

–S$3.8 billion economic stimulus (April 21), alongside extension of lockdown. Yes this had no name.

Now on May 26 got ‘Fortitude Budget’ worth S$33 billion, S$31 billion drawn from reserves. But S$13 billion is for “Contingencies Funds”: I suppose Hali doesn’t want to keep raiding the reserves?

So what’s in it?
— Jobs Support Scheme extended by one month until November, with firms that cannot reopen – such as shops, gyms and cinemas – to get 75 per cent wage support until August or when they are allowed to reopen
— S$2 billion for the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package to create 40,000 jobs, 25,000 traineeships and 30,000 skills training opportunities
— S$800 million for the Covid-19 Support Grant to give to those who lose their jobs because of the crisis
— S$18 million for social service agencies to maintain service continuity, retain staff, and adopt technology
— S$13 billion in the Contingencies Funds so the government can respond quickly to unforeseeable developments arising from the pandemic.

Whatever, all the budgets means the government’s total fiscal injection will be S$92.9 billion, almost one-fifth of the country’s S$500 billion economy. Only Germany and Japan spend more than us when it comes to pandemic stimulus packages as a percentage of GDP. Germany 31.6% and Japan 19.6%.

The government has so far drawn down S$52 billion from our reserves to fund the packages.

Impressive?

“Peanuts”: our reserves estimated to be worth over US$710 billion or S$1 trillion by ang mohs. Only 5% of our reserves drawn down and do remember that S$13 million is for “contingencies”. Exclude that S$13 million and only 4% of reserves will be spent.

Bah humbug, a reasonable man may say.

Lim Tean & Quitter living on welfare overseas can’t stop talking cock

Actually its worse, they spread fake news in their attempts to discredit the actions of the PAP govt.

Lim Tean took a swipe at the govt for wasting $ on the NDP packs.

At a time when We are facing the greatest crisis in modern times, why are many millions of dollars being spent on a meaningless fun pack for NDP?

There are many thousands of small and micro-businesses which are hurting and facing financial wipe-out because of this pandemic. There are many self-employed who are struggling to put food on the table. There are many desperately poor who cannot even afford the basic necessities in life.

It is inappropriate and tactless that at a perilous time such as now, this government is still allowing resources to be wasted on such frivolity!

These resources can be much better spent on helping small and micro-businesses, the self-employed and the poor!

Peoples Voice lends its whole-hearted support to the online campaign which has been started, and which has already gathered many supporters who have said they do not wish to receive the fun-pack. We salute these brave Singaporeans who are taking a principled stand.

This is another bad judgment call by an incompetent government made up of weak men and women!

Lim Tean
Peoples Voice Party

He doesn’t tell us that the govt does not spend any money on it, the stuff is sponsored by businesses.

The quitter living on welfare in Finland made the same point as Lim Tean a week ago. When it was pointed out the items were sponsored, he threw smoke by saying that govt spent $ packing it.

Bah, why didn’t he allege this in the first place instead instead of spreading fake news on social media about the govt wasting tax payers money, his original allegation?

With enemies like this, the PAP is fortunate that it doesn’t need ass licking clowns like Yap Kwong Weng (Principal Advisor & Joint Lab Director at KPMG) on its side.

Typography of our (and global) economic recovery

So the economy is expected to shrink between 4 and 7% this year as MTI again downgraded official growth projections for 2020. If the projections are correct (remember that astrologers and other fortune tellers have better track records) we are headed for the worst-ever recession since 1965.

The estimates for non-oil domestic exports (NODX) and total merchandise trade for the year have been cut drastically.

But factory output surged by 13 per cent in April, the second straight month of a year-on-year rise, largely down to gains made by the pharma manufacturing cluster. But excluding biomedical manufacturing, overall output in April fell 3.5% due to COVID-19 related measures both locally and overseas.

So how will the recovery pan out?

Related posts:

— Investing in the time of Covid-19: Watch this index

— What goes down quickly, must go up quickly

— Covid-19 investing: Beware of a double bottom

— Markets: Easy collapse, easy rebound

— Antidote to Covid-19 and market stress

Covid-19 in India: Modi the Magician?

India’s sudden shutdown threw an estimated 140m out of work. It has also blocked “coping mechanisms” for dealing with adversity (eg, help from relatives or remittances from overseas) which depend on calamity not striking everyone at once.

Recognising the pain, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, on May 12th pledged an almost mythical-sounding 20 lakh crore rupees of fresh government spending, equivalent to $265bn or 10% of gdp, to reignite growth. Over the next five days a bank of finance-ministry officials faced cameras, unveiling slice after slice of measures, carefully designed to add up to Mr Modi’s magic number.

Yet although analysts expect the extra spending to push the budget deficits of the central government and the states to about 12% of gdp, and raise the country’s overall debt-to-gdp ratio to a wobbly 80%, many doubt that the measures will work. “What we needed was large tranches of money to go into circulation without ado,” said an editorial in Mint, a financial daily. But instead of a demand-side boost, and in particular urgent cash support for the poorest, what Mr Modi delivered was a hotchpotch of supply-side inducements and prods such as credit guarantees, along with reforms whose impact will only be felt in the medium term, at the earliest. Most of the stimulus was made up either of previously announced measures, or central bank moves to spur lending. Estimates of the actual new fiscal commitment by Mr Modi’s government range from a puny 0.7% of gdp to 1.3%, a far cry from the touted 10%.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/05/23/indias-economy-has-suffered-even-more-than-most

Covid-19: Why India must end lockdown soon

If Modi doesn’t end the lockdown (one of the most severe in the world) people will die of starvation.

 “We put more effort into containing the people than containing the virus,” as one epidemiologist puts it.

…

In March alone no fewer than 140m workers are thought to have lost their jobs, catapulting the unemployment rate from 8% to an unprecedented 26% nationwide … Some 10m-80m migrants—the vagueness of the estimates speaks of the invisibility of the working underclass of street hawkers, labourers and factory hands—have despaired and tried to return to impoverished villages. Millions more Indians who work abroad have either sharply reduced their remittances or plan to return home.

Economist

Goldman Sachs, an American investment bank, expects the economy to contract by 45% this quarter at an annualised rate, and by 5% over the full year. It assumes a big bounce in the second half. If lockdown is not ended soon, the bounce will never happen.

The National Council of Applied Economic Research, a think-tank in Delhi, predicts a contraction of 12.5% this fiscal year unless there is a huge stimulus. And this is after taking into account the present measures being announced. Estimates of the actual new fiscal commitment by Mr Modi’s government range from a 0.7% of GDP to 1.3%, a far cry from the 10% of GDP boasted by Modi and other ministers.

Covid-19: India’s virus is the deadliest?

[The] Indian virus looks more lethal than Chinese and Italian now.

Nepal’s PM

He’s no friend of India, what with a border row. But going by the data, he has a point. Despite 61 days (and still counting of a very severe lockdown), India registered about  6,745 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours (as of yesterday evening), its third consecutive day of a rise in new infections

The country of 1.3 billion people reported a total of over 131,900 confirmed. Included in the total are 3,870 deaths.

Even the US figures are starting to trend down.

Local Marxist terrorists strike again

Xia suay. Our millionaire 4G ministers have done it again. They have not cracked down on the violent Marxist terrorists terrorising rich S’poreans: PAP govt ignoring home-grown violent Marxist terrorist threat.

I’m sure they’ll use the excuse of fighting the pandemic. Going by the millionaire ministers track record of missing by a country mile, the filthy, unhygienic and cramped FT dorms, these violent, Marxist terrorists will continue to terrorise rich S’poreans.

And maybe the rich deserve deserve it. I’m sure you read from that quitter living in Finland on welfare and TOC the PAP govt will be giving $ to the dorm operators to make the dorms fit for purpose?

But then sadly, TOC and the quitter who can’t afford quality education for his kids here (only neighbourhood “good” schools for them) are known to walk on the Dark Side by imitating the IB that fight for the men in white.

Indonesia has a problem

Fed’s schemes to lend other central banks US$ were of little help to countries such as Turkey, South Africa, Lebanon or Indonesia. They are all shut out of the system.

A problem for Indonesia, which has to repay US$16.7bn this yr.

Pinoys dying protecting ang mohs

In many other countries, people of Filipino origin disproportionately staff hospitals and care homes, places badly hit in the past two months by the covid-19 pandemic. The UK is one such country. By early May, around 25 Filipino health workers had reportedly died, out of an estimated 150 fatalities among NHS employees, a whooping 17%,

The Philippines’ ambassador to the UK has called for key workers to be “properly protected”.

Covid-19: What Indians coming to work in S’pore should never do

Avijit Das Patnaik angered Singaporeans in 2018. The former Vice-President of DBS Bank was flamed in 2018 for posting an image of the Singapore flag ripped to reveal an Indian one underneath.

Many said his post was disrespectful because to them, he was to be a Foreign Talent that should be grateful and thankful to S’porea for giving him a cushy job; not a Foreign Trash biting the hand that gave him a cushy job, and they and demanded that he be be punished.

The bank obliged the mob by sacking him. He then left S’pore.

Why do I mention him?

Facebooker Avijit Das Patnaik criticised Singapore for splitting COVID-19 statistics into locals and foreign workers. He alleged that it is racist and xenophobic to present it in this manner.

That’s another thing to avoid: calling local S’poreans and the govt racist or xenophobic.

Finally don’t insult elderly security guards doing their job by telling them that you live in better housing than they do. A JPMorgan manager did this and he was flamed. Rumour has it that he has since left the bank and S’pore.

Want to own a Chinese dog? Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Citi are the go-to experts

In Chinese listings on American exchanges since end of 2016, Morgan Stanley served as bookrunner on 28 deals, Credit Suisse on 26 and Citi on 22.

This schematic tells it all. Most of the IPOs the trio led are underwater.

Why Trump loves this Indian

“We’re the only network in the world that doesn’t have a single Chinese component,” India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani told Trump recently knowing that while Trump is doing his best to cripple Huawei, US allies like the UK are determined to use Huawei components in non-sensitive areas because they are cheap, reliable and cutting-edge.

Mukesh Ambani was talking about his Jio mobile network. He’s been rewarded what with Facebook and three other major US investors buying stakes in Hio.

Nehru must be spinning in his coffin. He was determined to build a socialist paradise, not an India that US investors want to invest in. He was a dreamy socialist from a rich family, not the son of a tea seller.

Meanwhile, Huawei said yesterday that the latest US export rules to limit its access to key technology are “arbitrary and pernicious”, warning investors the restrictions would “inevitably” hurt its business, and could damage the global technology industry.

Alcohol is to Southern Indians as water is to fish

A necessity. They need alcohol to live.

Thanks to the BBC’s reporting of the rush among Indians to buy alcohol when the alcohol shops reopened, I learnt

Five southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala – account for more than 45% of all liquor sold in India.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52640266

But that’s not all.

By volume, India is the world’s second-largest consumer of alcohol, behind China, according IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, a London-based research firm. India consumes more than 663 million litres of alcohol, up 11% from 2017. Per-capita consumption is still rising. So surprise here.

And they love whisky.

India consumes more whiskey than any other country in the world – about three times more than the US, which is the next biggest consumer. Nearly one in every two bottles of whiskey brought around the world is now sold in India. When worldwide alcohol consumption dipped in 2018, India partly drove a 7% uptick in the global whiskey market.

BBC report

Hin Leong: Must be DBS and OCBC again

Dabbling in oil-related lending yet again and losing money. (Previous fiasco: see end of article.)

Honourable exception is UOB where I got economic interest via Haw Par: Haw Par: Rediscovered yet again. Btw, during the recent market falls, the Wee family co was buying Haw Par shares.

Local banks’ exposure (ex UOB) not as tiny as what our constructive, nation-buildng media try to picture it by emphasising HSBC’s exposure.

Here’s the truth, thanks to Seedly

S$411 million (US$290 million) owed to DBS — 0.11% of DBS’ loan book

S$354 million (US$250 million) owed to OCBC — 0.12% of OCBC’s loan book

S$209.7 million (US$148 million) owed to UOB — 0.05% of UOB’s loan book

S$850.7 million (US$600 million) owed to HSBC — 0.0005% of of HSBC’s loan book

https://blog.seedly.sg/hin-leong-scandal/?fbclid=IwAR39LRL8OX_kZLbm1qj201_2GuDl9R2A4zgLF-etv4L-y2BhOyNii1FNnZE

Good work Seedly. Go to the above cited link for a great blow-to-blow account of what happened to Hin Leong.

Here’s another schematic showing OCBC’s and DBS’s in exposure in perspective to other banks. Interestingly, only one US bank has a tiny exposure, and its not Citi.

The last time oil prices tanked a few yrs ago, DBS and OCBC were caught swimming naked with big exposures to the offshore marine sector (Think Swiber).

Yet another Indian trying really hard to prove anti-Indian S’poreans are right to abuse Indians

In Indians: Why migrating to S’pore is not a good idea, I touched on two local Indian trolls who got non-Indian S’poreans upset because they were asserting their right to infect S’poreans.

Now, a 47-year-old Indian (born in India but now a citizen of the Dominican Republic) has been charged in court on Wednesday (May 13) about lying about his travel history at the Supreme Court.

Kiri Manish Pravinchandra was attending a court trial there on March 31 and April 1, and falsely declared each time that he had not been abroad in the two weeks prior, said the Singapore Police Force and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority in a statement on Tuesday. He was later allowed to enter the court twice.

He had flown in from the US of A.

With ethnic Indians like these three, one can only wonder why non-Indian S’poreans are not more biased against ethnic Indians.

It’s sad when potential victims help racists “prove” their point.

Xia suay: Must be SIA’s website not working again

(Update on 17 May at 6.00am: SIA’s rights issue application website still not working. WTF. Want shareholders to die of Covid-19 isit?)

What’s the point of setting up a website for shareholders to apply for the SIA rights issue (there’s a Covid-19 pandemic raging thru FT dorms many of whom flew here via its cattle class: It’s a Great Way to Fly), encouraging people to use it, and then making it non function-able?

I cannot even scroll the “consent” form or press “submit” to access the site: https://www.singaporeair.com/rights/intro

What a lot of BS. Juz like DBS: DBS: Some things never change, bad service is a given

DBS: Some things never change, bad service is a given

Earlier this week, I posted Weath mgt is not the treasure chest local banks think it is.

Well its over a week since the DBS call centre told me that someone would call me in response to a query that the person couldn’t answer. I have an existing POSB account and I was thinking of moving all of my mum’s interbank giro’s instructions (She’s in her 90s and I didn’t want to find that everything was cut off once she moves on and her banks find out) to this account. I had some queries that the DBC call centre couldn’t answer.

Later, I happened to call Starhub and the call centre gal told me what to do to change payment instructions. I had also by then realised that I would have to go down in person to a POSB branch to apply for a debit card. (Not DBS’s/ POSB’s fault, as I never had a POSB debit card. Given the pandemic, I didn’t feel like risking getting the virus juz to get a debit card so that I can then do e-banking.)

Anyway, I’m half way thru the process of converting all my mum’s standing instructions to my HSBC account.

Will DBS ever call me?

In the 1980s, I closed my DBS current account after really bad service. In recent yrs the ang moh media and our constructive, nation-building media have been lauding DBS’s growth into a “super regional” bank by using technology to propel its growth.

It’s share price must surely reflect its success in e-banking.

But for me, service still sucks.

Indians: Why migrating to S’pore is not a good idea

Thinking of migrating to S’pore, Indians?

Words of warning from a local Indian, super sensitive and Western educated:

Dear friends in Singapore, I am writing because there appears to be an uptick in anti-South Asian prejudice recently, and I hope the moderate and sane among you can do what you can to extinguish little fires if and when you see them.

Seemingly harmless statements like “Eh, why Indians again ah?”, if left unchecked, can lead to resentment, if even in the smallest, most subconscious of ways.

Of course I don’t support the actions of her highness the sovereign, or her imitator, but there is no need to make it racial. Have you heard about the Chinese and Malays and Others who have threatened safe distancing ambassadors, including one who tried to stab them? (Check out this YouTube video called “Compilation of Crazy Singaporeans during Circuit Breaker period”, bottom of this post)

https://sudhirtv.com/2020/05/12/rising-anti-indian-sentiment-in-singapore/

Actually, I also tot “Why must be Indians that demand to be Sovereigns while abusing innocent Chinese people?”< But then I wrote

— HSBC: Dividends/ StanChart is “Little India”

— Last Deepavali in Marina Bay’s Little India?

He goes on

Why do I say there is an uptick? Three things have alerted me:

a) Last week three or four separate Chinese friends were doxxing the wrong Indian lady. I had to respond to each individually, most didn’t even know it was a crime.

(Some said: “Nothing to do with race. Just curious.” My response: “When is the last time you doxxed a Chinese?”)

b) Individual Indians have written to me to share their experiences both in real life and online. Some of the commentary online is really vile.

Covid-19: Ang moh tua kees, cybernuts go bang yr balls

Ang mohs think we handling Covid-19 crisis pretty well.

Ang moh tua kees (and anti-PAP types) like Kirsten Han and that quitter in Finland (there because he can only afford a neighbourhood school education here for his kids) who KPKB about the PAP govt’s response to the pandemic should ask themselves why the ang mohs in Oz admire our response to Covid-19?

I won’t bother asking anti-PAP types to reflect as they are sotong.

Covid-19: How long can we be patient? In India people are already starving

“How long can we be patient? No not Kirsten Han, Lim Tean or Mad Dog asking when S’poreans will storm parliament, but will patience be enough when economic and financial realities hit the fan?

Patience is the call at the moment. It’s the call of governments and economists in countries as diverse as S’pore, the UK and India under lockdown.

They (Trump and Abe excepted) warn that this is one of those situations where one can’t force a return of economic activity.

 But the health emergency is evolving at wap speed into an economic crisis.

David Woo at Bank of America warned in a weekly note a few weeks ago that “unless the economy reopens soon, what is currently a liquidity crisis for many firms could become a solvency crisis”.

He is expressing what small businesses and many workers that have been laid-off fear. The rate of missed rents and mortgage payments are picking up in the developed work. This only reinforces the potential for more financial shockwaves and the prospect of a sluggish recovery.

And that’s for the US, a developed countries. This also applies to the EU countries, S’pore, HK and the UK. Already we see the problems that can arise when lockdown is relaxed: the LGBTs go party and the virus returns.

But in countries like India and Bangladesh, people are already starving because they can’t work to to feed themselves and their families. Modi’s juz announced US$266bn stimulus package to revive Indian economy is an acknowledgement of this reality. Let’s hope he is serious and not juz hyping.

Friends of India can only hope he is serious.

Weath mgt is not the treasure chest local banks think it is

Our local banks are trying to be big in weath mgt here and in their other regional markets. Of course given their dominant positions in S’pore, it’s a no brainer to do it here. Or so they think.

They should think of what happened in Oz to the dominant Oz banks who went into wealth mgt thinking they could screw or rip the faces off the sheep.

These Oz banks are now simplifying their product range and organisational structure with the main four groups — CBA, ANZ Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank — all retreating from wealth management, a sector where some of the most egregious misconduct cases occurred.

As to the regional aspirations. Nothing to add from what I wrote yrs ago.

OCBC paid such a high price for the Asian private banking business of ING and why DBS and UOB are trying harder to build up decent private banking businesses, despite repeatedly failing to do so in the past.

S’pore banks: Is private banking the future?

Related post:Banks can lose money on private banking business

And what applies to private banking, also applies to wealth mgt for us plebs. And remember the retreat of the Oz banks.

Schematic on how Covid-19 affects the body explains why infected Indian dorm workers are still alive

No wonder it kills us fatties with chronic diseases while fit and trim Indian and Bangladeshi workers living in cramped and often unhygienic conditions who catch Covid-19 don’t die of it: Covid-19: Reason why no Indian or Bangladeshi worker has died?

The body’s systems go into overdrive when fighting Covid-19. This causes real problems for us effete elderly fatties. The bodies of the Indian and Bangladeshi workers just shrug off the side-effects that do us effete elderly fatties serious damage.

Note:

In late April, It was reported that a dorm worker that had caught Covid-19 was found dead. Police are investigating.

A Bangladeshi, Case 17410, was confirmed to have COVID-19 after his death on May 1 but the Ministry of Health said the cause of his death was ischaemic heart disease.

Activists say that there are four or five other deaths and say that there’s a cover-up. But these activists (especially white skin lover Kirsten Han) are juz as credible as Queen Jos the manpower minister when she refuses to admit that she and her ministry made “an honest mistake”.

Double confirm: TRE cybernut is really xia suay

Not only cannot spell properly

What happened?:
called thefollowing hotlines:

1) CPF
2) GST voucher
3) Keppel Electric

All siad they are closed for the day – today thursday at 11am to 1 pm?

Anybody know what’s gooing on?

“What happened?” called on Vesak Day, a public holiday, expecting them to be operating. But maybe he’s a nut case? He didn’t realise that it was a public holiday because he’s unemployed.

Covid-19: Ethnic Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis got higher death rates in UK

Ethnic Chinese don’t die as much. Blacks die like flies, relatively speaking.

For British Bangladeshi and Pakistanis, the mortality rate is more than three times higher. For British Indians the mortality rate is more than two times higher.

Scientists are trying to figure out why ethnic minorities have higher death rates than the whites.

But then in S’pore, Indian and Bangladeshi workers catch the virus but don’t seem to die: Covid-19: Reason why no Indian or Bangladeshi worker has died?

Note:

In late April, It was reported that a dorm worker that had caught Covid-19 was found dead. Police are investigating.

A Bangladeshi, Case 17410, was confirmed to have COVID-19 after his death on May 1 but the Ministry of Health said the cause of his death was ischaemic heart disease.

Covid-19: No more beer

According to a BBC report on Wednesday, Mexico was days away from running out of beer, the country’s brewers’ association warned.

“There’s no production, there’s no distribution, we’re not producing a single beer,” said the president of Brewers of Mexico. She had already received reports of prices shooting up as speculators took advantage of shortages.

She reassured beer lovers that brewers were poised to restart production as soon as they were allowed to by the government – but cautioned that she had not been given any hint as to when that could be.

Brewing is not among the industries which the government declared essential and therefore had to halt production at the end of March.

French and Austrians love Big Macs/ Will Indians rush too to buy Big Macs?

McDonald’s is slowly reopening in Europe. Big Mac fans had to endure a three-hour wait in France and a two-mile queue in Austria.

And once upon a time, the French rioted when McDonalds opened its first French outlet in Paris.

When India emerges from lock-down will Indians rush to buy it, like they do alcohol?

Pinoys: Asean tua kees

That was my first tot when I looked at the u/m chart on a ranking of financially stronger/ weaker emerging economies .”M’sia tak boleh” was my second tot.

The Asean ranking: PinoyLand (6th), Thailand (7th), Vietnam (12th), Indonesia (16th) and M’sia (25th).

Btw, S’pore’s not ranked because it’s not an emerging economy (except in accountability: S’pore: Bottom of developed world), but South Korea and Taiwan are still emerging economies, even if Korea is a member of of the OECD.

Financial strength: China’s 10th, India’s 18th

But Bangladesh is 9th. Btw Pakistan is 43rd, Sri Lanka 61st.

What surprises is that Saudi Arabia is only 9th, UAE is 17th, Kuwait is 22nd and Qater is 35th. Meanwhile Nigeria is 14th.

Post Covid-19: Not good news for S’pore

In the brave new world post the Covid-19 pandemic, major MNC banks and corporations may no longer need or feel the need to base lots of people in a city like S’pore.

Reading the fortune sticks from CEOs’ comments.

Having thousands of bank workers in big, expensive city offices “may be a thing of the past”, Barclays boss Jes Staley has said.
About 70,000 of Barclays’ staff worldwide are working from home due to coronavirus lockdown measures.This had led to a rethink of the bank’s long term “location strategy”, Mr Staley said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52467965?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business&amp;link_location=live-reporting-story

 Sergio Ermotti (CEO) said UBS was already thinking about moving out of expensive city-centre offices.

CEO of snacks maker, Mondelez, Dirk van de Put says something similar.

Tata’s chairman talks of three quarters of its work force working from home.

Covid-19: Relaxation of lockdown not “exit” but “phase 2”

PM has said that our soft lockdown (He and his PAP govt call it “circuit breaker”) will be relaxed. About time too, I needed a haircut, when the announced the lockdown.

FT’s editor puts any relaxation of lockdown, in perspective:

All across Europe, governments are taking baby steps to ease lockdowns that have paralysed their economies for weeks, if not months. “Exit strategy” is probably the wrong phrase to capture what happens next. We are entering the second phase of the pandemic, which will be an uneasy halfway house between lockdown and any semblance of normality — overshadowed by the ever-present risk of a second wave of infections.

FT

She goes on

In the first wave, our lives and economies were put on pause while governments deployed massive fiscal and monetary stimulus.The next phase will not be easier. Governments will have to weigh the economic cost against the risk of further virus outbreaks. We could end up living in bubbles, with a limited number of people we can interact with. Many will continue to work from home, perhaps until a vaccine is found.

Markets may be shrugging off the new reality — that a V-shaped recovery is no longer on the cards. This week’s mass layoffs have made clear that in many sectors the pain is longer lasting. Whether it’s airlines, travel, hospitality or even retail, it will be months before a semblance of normality is restored. Don’t book your summer holidays yet.

Sadly she’s right.

CPF: Imitate Oz?

The Australian govt recently decided to allow people in financial distress to withdraw up to A$20,000 from their superannuation (pension) accounts. Australia has the world’s 4th largest pension fund system: A$3tn in assets.

The govt expects a withdrawal of A$30bn. Some industry experts think the final figure could be almost double that,

Difficult see the PAP govt imitating the Oz govt. Not so much on ideological grounds (Hard Truths), but because CPF funds are also used to make public housing “affordable”, and private housing more than just a dream. CPF is not juz saving for pensions.

Covid-19: Indians and Chinese are pragmatic

Choosing between livelihoods and lives, they choose livelihoods.

“Give me money before life”. Chinese and Indians seem to say. So do the Germans, Italians and Russians.

Many other Europeans, the British, Americans, Australians, Japanese, and South Americans prefer life .

Why the difference in trade-off choices?

Because Chinese, Indians, Germans, Italians and Russians know the importance of the economy and business in ensuring that they can live?

The Americans, Australians, Japanese and many Europeans because of their welfare nets don’t make the connection between the economy and business and their lives.

But why do the Germans and Italians think the way they do? Their countries have good welfare systems.

Don’t know how South Americans think. There are no good social nets for the poor. Maybe the survey was conducted among the well-off?

Is US equity market deluded?

Around half the S&P 500 Index constituents have reported first-quarter earnings, including the start of the sharp downturn triggered by the coronavirus. Profit for the group in the period is set to drop nearly 15%, according to Refinitiv data. A month ago, analysts thought the decline would be under 5%, and at the start of the year they were targeting a 6% increase.

For the second quarter of 2020, the picture is starting to look more realistic. Earnings are forecast to slump nearly 40% from last year. But with revenue projected to be down only 10% in the three months to June, Wall Street may still, unfortunately, be behind the Covid-19 curve. For every company with top-line growth, like Facebook, there are others like American Airlines, which sees industry revenue down perhaps 95% in April compared to last year. It will get worse before it gets better. (By Richard Beales)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-finance-breakingvi/breakingviews-corona-capital-tepid-earnings-red-hot-bonds-idUSKBN22C3OQ

Xia suay! Ho Ching should go kick ass at Temasek Foundation

Recently, I came across this Temasek Foundation video telling us to wash our hands: https://www.facebook.com/TemasekFoundationCares/videos/169555744295112/

This reminded me that my neighbour and I never got our free hand santisers from Temasek Foundation.

In my case, I never got the pamphlet that would authorise collection. My neighbour got theirs a few days before the cut-off date, but when they went to collect, they were told “No more stock”.

Btw, we have no complaints about the two mask collection exercises.

Maybe Ho Ching should spend less time posting on FB, and more time kicking ass at Temasek Foundation.