Thursday, March 25, 2010
Simulation game: Pro-Investor
This simulation game gives you a chance to practice on selecting the right stocks. Read this guide on how to play the simulation game.
ST Online: Premium questions for motor insurers
MR PAUL Chan's Forum Online letter on Wednesday ('More accountability needed from motor insurers')
raises two less known points about the motor insurance industry.
The first.. There is no mandatory insurance required for property damage, including damage to motor vehicles... So it may be timely for the Government to step in and provide the necessary regulation.
It is unfair to consumers who are required to take up third-party injury insurance by law, and are taken advantage of by insurers who build and bundle an expensive insurance product because they know consumers have no choice but to buy it.
Second....motor insurers should factor in and disclose the investment income derived from premiums collected
when justifying premium increases for a better understanding among consumers.
Peter Lo
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_506672.html
raises two less known points about the motor insurance industry.
The first.. There is no mandatory insurance required for property damage, including damage to motor vehicles... So it may be timely for the Government to step in and provide the necessary regulation.
It is unfair to consumers who are required to take up third-party injury insurance by law, and are taken advantage of by insurers who build and bundle an expensive insurance product because they know consumers have no choice but to buy it.
Second....motor insurers should factor in and disclose the investment income derived from premiums collected
when justifying premium increases for a better understanding among consumers.
Peter Lo
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_506672.html
Price of HDB flat
Dear Mr Tan,
Will HDB Minister Mah Bow Tan and all other PAP Ministers again defend that this is an exception rather than norm... That PRs are NOT driving public housing prices in Singapore? Today's Asiaone article:
---------
A TAIWANESE couple have paid $650,000 for a four-room flat in Bain Street - smashing Housing Board (HDB) records and reflecting the strength in the red-hot resale market.
The sale price works out to be $736 per sq ft for the 30-year-old flat on the 25th floor of a block at Bras Basah.
That is the highest psf price paid for an HDB property and is on a par with prices of private homes in suburban areas.
----------
Regards,
Concerned but feel hopeless Singapore Citizen
COMMENT BY TAN KIN LIAN
The problem is the use of the "market price" as the benchmark for deciding on the price of new flats. If the price of new flats is based on cost and there is adequate supply to meet demand (and the state has a lot of land and airspace that can be developed) the people will not need to fear and drive up the prices further. It is better to have property based on "cost plus" rather than "market".
Will HDB Minister Mah Bow Tan and all other PAP Ministers again defend that this is an exception rather than norm... That PRs are NOT driving public housing prices in Singapore? Today's Asiaone article:
---------
A TAIWANESE couple have paid $650,000 for a four-room flat in Bain Street - smashing Housing Board (HDB) records and reflecting the strength in the red-hot resale market.
The sale price works out to be $736 per sq ft for the 30-year-old flat on the 25th floor of a block at Bras Basah.
That is the highest psf price paid for an HDB property and is on a par with prices of private homes in suburban areas.
----------
Regards,
Concerned but feel hopeless Singapore Citizen
COMMENT BY TAN KIN LIAN
The problem is the use of the "market price" as the benchmark for deciding on the price of new flats. If the price of new flats is based on cost and there is adequate supply to meet demand (and the state has a lot of land and airspace that can be developed) the people will not need to fear and drive up the prices further. It is better to have property based on "cost plus" rather than "market".
Public administration
The UK Government spends about 50% of the GDP (a proportion higher than the other countries in Europe and the USA) to provide welfare benefits, such as free or highly subsidized health care, education, unemployment and old age pension. This spending is funded by a high rate of taxation. While a certain proportion of the spending is abused by the recipients, this system has been well received by the population who prefer the security that comes from the welfare state.
The USA is in the other extreme among the developed nations. It spends less on the social benefits and collect less tax. However, the public have to pay a large part of their income on health care and education. The total cost to the public may be higher, if the private spending is added to the tax.
Many people considers the welfare state to be wasteful, due to abuses and inefficiency. This is only one side of the situation. The private spending system used in the US also have negative points, as is seen in their health care system. There is high administrative and marketing costs and the abuse of profit-driven enterprises, such as denying coverage to the people in poor health or denying legitimate claims.
It is better for a country to rely less on private spending system. Even the US is making reforms to its system.
However, we do not need to go to the other extreme of the welfare state that is practiced in the UK.
We can implement a form of welfare that is not abused and not wasteful. This approach recognizes the benefit of collective purchase by the state for essential services on behalf of the people. It allows the state to find the most efficient supply, at a determined level of quality, for the majority of the people and still allow the higher income to spend their own money to get a higher quality of service. It requires a public administration that is run by honest and competent people, who have a feel for the public that is being served. Singapore used to have this type of approach in the past. We can go back to this approach.
Tan Kin Lian
The USA is in the other extreme among the developed nations. It spends less on the social benefits and collect less tax. However, the public have to pay a large part of their income on health care and education. The total cost to the public may be higher, if the private spending is added to the tax.
Many people considers the welfare state to be wasteful, due to abuses and inefficiency. This is only one side of the situation. The private spending system used in the US also have negative points, as is seen in their health care system. There is high administrative and marketing costs and the abuse of profit-driven enterprises, such as denying coverage to the people in poor health or denying legitimate claims.
It is better for a country to rely less on private spending system. Even the US is making reforms to its system.
However, we do not need to go to the other extreme of the welfare state that is practiced in the UK.
We can implement a form of welfare that is not abused and not wasteful. This approach recognizes the benefit of collective purchase by the state for essential services on behalf of the people. It allows the state to find the most efficient supply, at a determined level of quality, for the majority of the people and still allow the higher income to spend their own money to get a higher quality of service. It requires a public administration that is run by honest and competent people, who have a feel for the public that is being served. Singapore used to have this type of approach in the past. We can go back to this approach.
Tan Kin Lian
IHT settle defamation claims in Singapore
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/media/25times.html
Singaporean leaders have a history of taking the offensive against news organizations
for language that would be legally protected — or even considered relatively innocuous — in the United States, threatening legal action or restricting the sales of publications
“Nobody in most of the world would bat an eye about” such a piece, said Stuart D. Karle, a former general counsel of The Wall Street Journal, who has handled disputes with Singapore’s leadership but was not involved in this case.
But in that country, he said, there is often “the presumption that there’s a hidden message”
about nepotism or corruption in news coverage, and if that turns into a libel case, a news organization faces
“a near-certainty of losing.”
Singaporean leaders have a history of taking the offensive against news organizations
for language that would be legally protected — or even considered relatively innocuous — in the United States, threatening legal action or restricting the sales of publications
“Nobody in most of the world would bat an eye about” such a piece, said Stuart D. Karle, a former general counsel of The Wall Street Journal, who has handled disputes with Singapore’s leadership but was not involved in this case.
But in that country, he said, there is often “the presumption that there’s a hidden message”
about nepotism or corruption in news coverage, and if that turns into a libel case, a news organization faces
“a near-certainty of losing.”
Why labour mobility may be difficult
At a tripartite dialogue Lim Swee Say cautioned businesses against depressing wages.
He pointed out that workers could and would change employers if their wages fall below the market rate. In reality, however, labour mobility remains a luxury, not a given. For one thing, unskilled and low-skilled elderly workers do not have the bargaining power. Foreign workers constitute another group who can ill afford to walk out on their bosses. Also, the current work permit system allows foreign workers to work only for the employer stated on their work permits.
Labour mobility thus rings hollow in the absence of stronger enforcement measures and reforms to the work permit system.
Ong Yanchun (Ms)
He pointed out that workers could and would change employers if their wages fall below the market rate. In reality, however, labour mobility remains a luxury, not a given. For one thing, unskilled and low-skilled elderly workers do not have the bargaining power. Foreign workers constitute another group who can ill afford to walk out on their bosses. Also, the current work permit system allows foreign workers to work only for the employer stated on their work permits.
Labour mobility thus rings hollow in the absence of stronger enforcement measures and reforms to the work permit system.
Ong Yanchun (Ms)
SCMP:The crisis lesson that the HKMA still hasn't learned
http://www.lbv.org.hk/content/pages/posts/the-crisis-lesson-that-the-hkma-still-hasnt-learned7511.php
This is worrying, because if there is one lesson the HKMA boss really should have learned from the financial crisis, it is that while Hong Kong's supervision of banking system stability is relatively solid, our regulatory protection of bank customers is woefully inadequate, as the Lehman minibond scandal demonstrated.
In fact, the HKMA's over-emphasis on systemic stability proved actively harmful to ordinary bank customers. It was because of concerns over the financial strength of Hong Kong smaller banks' following the dismantling of the interest rate cartel in the late 1990s that the HKMA encouraged them to increase their fee income, for example by selling complex structured products to depositors
This is worrying, because if there is one lesson the HKMA boss really should have learned from the financial crisis, it is that while Hong Kong's supervision of banking system stability is relatively solid, our regulatory protection of bank customers is woefully inadequate, as the Lehman minibond scandal demonstrated.
In fact, the HKMA's over-emphasis on systemic stability proved actively harmful to ordinary bank customers. It was because of concerns over the financial strength of Hong Kong smaller banks' following the dismantling of the interest rate cartel in the late 1990s that the HKMA encouraged them to increase their fee income, for example by selling complex structured products to depositors
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