I took the rechargeable torchlight with me for my tour of China. I stayed in 5 hotels over the 8 days. I had to change a hotel almost every day.
The layout of every hotel room is different and the switches are complicated. It is difficult to find the correct switch to turn on at night. The torchlight came in very handy. The locator light help me to find the torchlight in the dark. I use the torchlight to see the labels on the swtiches or to find my watch or other items that I needed.
This torchlight is very useful when you travel.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Why big banks are bad for the economy
Read this article. Here are some key points:
a) The big banks want to pay back the bailout money to be free of the pay caps and other restraints.
b) Their profits still come mostly courtesy of taxpayers. Their trading earnings are financed by more than a trillion dollars’ worth of cheap loans from the Federal Reserve, for which some of their most noxious assets are collateral.
c) They benefit from immense federal loan guarantees, but they are not lending much. Lending to business is very tight.
d) The whole system has grown more concentrated, as many big banks have taken over other banks. The growth of the biggest banks ensures that the next bailout will have to be even bigger. These banks will be more likely to take on excessive risk because they have the implicit assurance of rescue.
a) The big banks want to pay back the bailout money to be free of the pay caps and other restraints.
b) Their profits still come mostly courtesy of taxpayers. Their trading earnings are financed by more than a trillion dollars’ worth of cheap loans from the Federal Reserve, for which some of their most noxious assets are collateral.
c) They benefit from immense federal loan guarantees, but they are not lending much. Lending to business is very tight.
d) The whole system has grown more concentrated, as many big banks have taken over other banks. The growth of the biggest banks ensures that the next bailout will have to be even bigger. These banks will be more likely to take on excessive risk because they have the implicit assurance of rescue.
Future jobs in America
This article explains the future jobs that will grow in America. The industries are:
full service restaurants
local government
employment services
nursing care services
office of physicians
general merchandise stores
computer system services
home health care services
services for elderly and disabled
consulting services.
Many of these trends will apply to Singapore.
full service restaurants
local government
employment services
nursing care services
office of physicians
general merchandise stores
computer system services
home health care services
services for elderly and disabled
consulting services.
Many of these trends will apply to Singapore.
Collapse of Pinnacle Notes Series 3
Hi Mr Tan,
Just when the public thought the toxic structured products saga has been settled, another one of the Morgan Stanley's Pinncale Notes Series has gone into mandatory redemption. Hong Leong Finance, one of 7 distributors of the Series 3 has informed me(see attached)that there is a mandatory redemption event and investors will lose all or substantially all their original principle invested. This happened not because of a reference entity like Lehman has collapsed but simply because the Notes have invested in a lot of unknown companies that have now defaulted.
Many S'pore investors are just being told of this shocking Christmas present and more bad news may come as Series 2 and 6 are also sinking.
Please post this in your blog as the creator and distributor of this product should not be allowed to get away with this. They used big corporate names as Reference entities to misled public into investing the product but actually invested something else!
Just when the public thought the toxic structured products saga has been settled, another one of the Morgan Stanley's Pinncale Notes Series has gone into mandatory redemption. Hong Leong Finance, one of 7 distributors of the Series 3 has informed me(see attached)that there is a mandatory redemption event and investors will lose all or substantially all their original principle invested. This happened not because of a reference entity like Lehman has collapsed but simply because the Notes have invested in a lot of unknown companies that have now defaulted.
Many S'pore investors are just being told of this shocking Christmas present and more bad news may come as Series 2 and 6 are also sinking.
Please post this in your blog as the creator and distributor of this product should not be allowed to get away with this. They used big corporate names as Reference entities to misled public into investing the product but actually invested something else!
Authority has to act to stop investment scams
Mr Tan
I note that in the Madoff case the prosecutors are considering prosecuting the programmers and perhaps the heads of the feeder funds. Presumably this is on the basis that they must have been aware that
something was not right but did nothing about it. They also took huge payments for supporting a scam..
It takes many parties to operate a scam. I am often amazed that when investment schemes fail that the sales people and agents blame the owners. The owners blame the agents and salepeople. All parties claim
complete innocence of any wrong doing. With some of the investment schemes such as land banking plots, various oil Investment schemes, sunshine investments etc it is obvious that many people involved know
that the investment scheme cannot work but choose to be involved anyway.
These people enable the scam and give it credibility by their involvement.
Singapore has a reputation for providing rigourous punishment to a few individuals to discouorage anti-social or criminal behaviour by the rest of the population. As an example:- jail sentences being applied
for using mobile phones while driving.
Perhaps applying very stiff penalties to one or two company directors, sale people and agents for their involvement in fraudulent investment schemes would encourage others to think more carefully about what they
allow themselves to be involved in and earn commission for.
REPLY
I agree with your views. I am unhappy with the passive response of the Authority in Singapore towards these investment scams. I will do my best to argue the case for the Authority to be more actively involved in stopping these scams.
Minimum wage and employment
Paul Krugman argued that cutting the minimum wage will not increase employment. Here are his reasons. I agree with his thinking.
Impact of Sichuan Earthquake in 2008
Sichuan suffered a big drop in tourism revenue for the past 12 months. Tourist visits to Sichuan dropped significantly after the earthquake. It is only starting to recover. My tour guide said that he looked after only three tour groups during the past 12 months.
My group was able to get the top class hotels as pack of the package for an affordable price. It is a good time to visit Sichuan as the cost is still low and the service is excellent. Sichuan has excellent natural landscapes, sceneries, mountains, waterfalls and rivers. Tourism is an important part of its economy.
My group was able to get the top class hotels as pack of the package for an affordable price. It is a good time to visit Sichuan as the cost is still low and the service is excellent. Sichuan has excellent natural landscapes, sceneries, mountains, waterfalls and rivers. Tourism is an important part of its economy.
Visit to Sichuan, China
I visited Sichuan China for the past 10 days from 9 to 16 December. I was not able to update my blog during this period as Blogspot is still blocked in China. I shall be writing about some interesting observations from my visit.
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