Robinhood: Steals from the poor to give to the rich

(Update on Friday 6 August 2021: Robinhood makes $ for those who believe. It’s now way above its IPO price. On Thurday it closed at US$50.97, having traded as high as above US$70 on Wednesday :”The stock climbed as much as 82% on Wednesday, with trading paused several times due to wild price swings.” https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58091533

Thaz what the IPO of Robinhood did last night in NY. The IPO for a windfall for its executives and investors. Whe, trading ended, the co-founders were billionaires, notwithstanding the fall from the IPO price. Too bad for those retail investors who got IPO shares at US$38.

Robinhood, a trading app used by small investors to buy and sell stocks, had a bumpy first day as a public company. Its shares, priced at the lower end of its target range, quickly fell by more than 10% before closing 8.4% down. Unusually, the company had allowed its users to buy up to a third of its shares before trading began.

Economist Expresso

Bit like our PAP govt: “Feared by the poor, Loved by the rich”. Not “Feared by the bad, Loved by the good,” as the Ballad of Robin Hood goes (see bslow). But then the millionaire ministers know that the “rich” are “good” and the “poor” are “bad”.

Related articles:

IMF is now into Robin Hood economics

Robin Hood banker

Robin Hoods? Our private bankers/Why ministers may need a pay rise after GE?

Covid-19: India robbing the poor to give to the rich

Achtung if you are on CPF Life

Ballad of Robin Hood

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, With his band of men
Feared by the bad, Loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood

He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green
They vowed to help the people of the king
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene
And still found plenty of time to sing

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, With his band of men
Feared by the bad, Loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood

Be thankful we got PAP govt

$4G leaders and PM are not worth their million dollar salaries (They let in the mama variant) but still …

Dragon’s breath singes Eagle’s feathers

I missed a bullet. Early this year I was thinking of buying into a HS Tech ETF. It then shot up like a rocket before I could buy. When it came back to my buying level, I decided to do nothing.

Best investment decision for in the last 12 months: https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/global-markets/china-crackdown-makes-hang-seng-tech-index-worlds-biggest-tech-loser

PRC fifth columnists self identify themselves

But first for the plebs

A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack.

Fifth column – Wikipedia

Well the subversives (think Goh Meng Seng who helped deprive us of President Tan Cheng Bok: Desperately seeking Cheng Bock) have made it easy for the ISD to monitor and if necessary round them up because

About 72,000 individuals in Singapore have received at least one dose of the Sinovac jab, with 17,000 people having received their second one, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Monday (26 July).

Constructive, nation-building media

India is the Covid-19 superpower

Indian variant KOs Pfizer vaccine

Israel says Pfizer Covid vaccine is just 39% effective as delta spreads, but still prevents severe illness

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39percent-effective-in-israel-prevents-severe-illness.html

Indian Indians must be proud that their made-in-India variant makes the US/ German vaccine ineffective. And India is not resting on it’s laurels: new strain being developed.

India is rising. It’s new national flag.

Good point on possible inflation

The Russian central bank recently raised interest rates by 1%. It had done so three times earlier this year.

Elvira Nabiullina, the central bank’s governor, fears that inflation, which reached 6.5% year-on-year in June, will prove persistent.

The pandemic has changed the pattern of spending in the world economy. Firms do not know if this new pattern will last. As a consequence, they may not make sufficient investments required to adapt supply to the changed contours of demand, Ms Nabiullina argues. The result is persistent price pressure. Ms Nabiullina’s worries are shared by a number of other emerging markets. Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Mexico have all recently raised rates. Russia’s foreign policy has antagonised many countries. But its approach to monetary policy is finally gaining a following.

Economist: Expresso

No alternative to equities

FT quoted the head of an investment advisory firm as sayings many of his clients were still buying equities “because the alternatives are poor”. Government bonds, he said, provided “a lot of volatility for not much of a return”.

Mkts: A note of caution

It is inching up this week.

Save the planet from warming? 1930s depression needed

Don’t believe me? Juz look at this chart?

Well as this investor is 66 and has no children or grandchildren, he’d rather the world heats up after his death.

Btw, if you got grandchildren, read the link below:

What would different levels of global warming look like?

A rise of a few tenths of a degree will have big consequences for the planet

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/03/30/what-would-different-levels-of-global-warming-look-like

Covid-19 in India: BS data on deaths

India has officially recorded more than 414,000 Covid-19 deaths so far.

But according to a BBC report,

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused excess deaths in India to cross more than four million, a new study has found.

Excess deaths are a measure of how many more people are dying than would be expected compared to the previous few years.

Although it is difficult to say how many of these deaths have been caused by Covid-19, they are a measure of the overall impact of the pandemic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57888460

Karma for infecting the world with Indian variant, a variant that is causing stock markets to fall?

“Investors are concerned that the rapid spread of the Delta variant will derail the trajectory of the global recovery, notably in Asia which still has relatively low vaccination rates and where some widely used vaccines do not appear overly effective against it,” Jeff Halley, senior market analyst, from Oanda told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57885183

Kirsten Han and friends are White Lefts

But first, on FB Kirsten Han reminded me why although an anti-PAP zealot, she’s an own goal scorer for the anti-PAP team:

Actually, can someone explain why it’s even relevant to discuss, at this point in time, how the Vietnamese woman entered the country?

If she came in February and is only sick now, she clearly *didn’t* import Covid-19 from abroad, but got infected *in Singapore* so why are we going all the way back to how she entered the country?! That’s not where the infection came from?!

It’s also not as if, if she hadn’t entered the country, there would be no sekkrit (or not so sekkrit) breaking of Covid regulations in KTV lounges? Or that none of this would have happened? She might be the first case *identified*, but that doesn’t mean she is the *source* of all the infections.

What worries me about the uproar about the “familial ties” lane thing is that, when there is a knee-jerk response, transnational families are going to be the first ones screwed. And yes, you can be a real family without actually being married. Not every boyfriend is a sham bringing in a woman to work illegally, not every girlfriend is a source of suspicion.

FB

With enemies like her, the PAP doesn’t need friends.

Coming back to “White Lefts”, the term was

coined in China a few years ago to describe Western liberals obsessed with identity politics. Now it is also used to insult Chinese who are deemed to sound like woke Westerners.

Economist

Sounds to me like the term describes ang moh tua kees like Kitsten Han and her like.

Covid 19: Jialat, more KTV patrons?

When I read

COVID-19 cases detected among fishmongers in at least 11 markets

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-cases-detected-among-fishmongers-11-markets-moh-15240462

I tot jialat. They also KTV patrons.

But then I was reassured because MOH said that the fishmongers were likely to have been infected through contact with stallholders at Jurong Fishery Port.

But then I tot: “Maybe the stallholders were KTV patrons?”.

What do you think?

Whatever, epic fail for the PAP govt in allowing at least one wannabe hostess on  short-term visitor pass. And for not checking that she was working illegally (not suppose to work). And for allowing her to remain beyond her 90 day pass.

Our $4G leaders are showing that they are not up to scratch. Bet you they’ll blame it on the foot soldiers.

Inflation not a threat?

Going by the US long bond price (yield is dropping i.e. investors are buying, not selling), the market seems to believe the US Fed that the inflation we are seeing in the US is transitory, nothing to worry about. Or that the Fed will choke inflation hard, if it’s not transitory.

What do u think?

S’pore bottom of the carbon pricing class

Not that I’m advocating raising the cost of co2 here. And I’m sure the pricing has something to do with keeping ExxonMobil, Shell and BP happy: they have big petrol chemical refineries here.

China is one reason interest rates are so low

QE (or printing money) by Western countries is the main reason why interest rates are so low or even negative, but the savings of the PRC Chinese is another reason. This reason precedes QE. Greenspan was muttering about it in the 90s.

Chinese lose out in India

The geopolitical tensions between India and China (India thinks that it is on par with China, something China thinks is BS) means that Chinese investors face restrictions investing in India.

The Americans are reaping the rewards

Asean blues but we are going great guns

Modified at 2.49 pm on day of publication to include data on S’pore.

Economists have slashed their GDP growth forecasts for Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, three of the region’s biggest economies.

But for S’pore, MAS has revised higher the economic growth forecast for 2021 and expects that GDP growth could go beyond the initial 4%-6% yoy range forecasted.
• MAS Chief Ravi Menon stated that the increase comes on the back of a smooth
vaccination scheme (36.7% fully vaccinated so far) and stronger global demand.
• Inflation numbers for 2021 were also revised higher, with the forecast for headline CPI
increased to 1.0%-2.0% yoy, up from 0.5%-1.5% yoy.

A bad outlook for tourism is the main reason for dimmer prospects in Thailand. Vaccinations are sluggish and hospital beds are running short. Tourists will stay away.

Pandemic restrictions are another drag on regional growth. With many shops shut, Malaysia’s and the Philippines’ prospects don’t look good.

Although growth forecasts have been revised upward for Indonesia, the region’s biggest economy, daily infections there have surged by 500% in recent weeks.

The greatest risk for South-East Asian economies may be America tightening its monetary policy sooner than expected, which would increase the value of the dollar and make corporate dollar-denominated debt more expensive. GDP forecasts may fall further yet.

Economist

Indian variant at work

Further to Covid-19: Three cheers for the PAP govt

Researchers in France found that one shot of the Astrazeneca or Pfizer vaccine “barely” worked against the fast-spreading Delta variant of covid-19; two doses gave strong protection. They also found that the antibodies produced by natural infection with the virus offered less protection against Delta than against an earlier strain, suggesting those who have recovered from covid-19 still need to be vaccinated.

Economist

Covid-19: Three cheers for the PAP govt

Despite the PAP govt failing to convince S’poreans, like me, in the recent parly debate that it doesn’t love Indians from India more than it loves S’poreans, let’s credit it for giving most of us the best vaccine (Pfizer) that is effective against the Indian variant.

If it really loves Indian Indians as much as some say they do, we’d not have been vaccinated with Pfizer.

Chinese rip off the faces of US investors

I’m sure u know about the Didi fiasco: https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3140272/didi-chuxing-sued-american-shareholders-over-stock-plunge

The big picture

Covid-19: Delta plus strain coming here?

The Indian (Delta) variant is thought to be perhaps two or three times more transmissible than the original Kung Flu. Whatever China can do, India can do better: except raising the living standards of the poor.

Now a Delta plus strain is circulating in parts of India. But scientists said there was no data suggesting that it posed any greater risk than the Delta variant.

Let’s hope so.

Better still, keep it out of S’pore. Remember the Indian FT who came here via Nepal said she felt safer in India? She said she contracted Covid-19 at Changi Int’l. MoH disagreed with her.

Gd ad for buying insurance

The organisers of Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, revealed they had been paying pandemic insurance since the 2003 Sars outbreak. Insurance had cost £26m over 17 years, but last year, paid out a £174m payout when the tournament had to be cancelled.

AELTC’s revenue totalled £295.7m in 2019 but fell to £4.9m last year. The insurance payout meant it only suffered a loss of a few million £.

SAD: No sense of civic responsibility

And is the reason why we’ll remain a de facto one-party state for the foreseeable future.