Organised by The Society of Financial Services Professionals
As the effects of the recent economic crisis begin to seep in, one of the biggest question looms over our heads: what are the social and economic rights of ours that should be protected? Healthcare, too, is a fundamental part of these rights that we deserve.
A qualified group of consultants will give a forum that will promote awareness on our social and economic rights. Join Tan Kin Lian, Leong Sze Hian and others* for this session on how your dollar is related to your rights. Following the talk is a financial consulting session for all participants hosted by the Society for Financial Services Professionals.
Venue: URA Auditorium
Date: 13th December
Time: 2 - 5pm
http://u60sg.org/2008/11/08/financial-counselling/
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Citigroup and UBS Agree to Buy Back Risky Securities
The regulator in USA look after the interest of consumers. I hope that the regulator in Singapore can follow the same example. Tan Kin Lian
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12auctions.html?ref=business
December 12, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two banking giants, Citigroup and UBS, agreed on Thursday to buy back nearly $30 billion in risky auction-rate securities that regulators said the banks had marketed to customers as safe.
The Securities and Exchange Commission formally approved the settlements with the two banks after preliminary deals that were reached in August.
Securities regulators in Texas and New York also announced details of final agreements with the banks.
Tens of thousands of the banks’ customers bought the auction-rate securities before the $330 billion market for them froze in mid-February, the S.E.C. said in announcing the final accords.
The new settlements were the largest return of customer money in the agency’s history and all the investors will be made whole, the chairman of the S.E.C., Christopher Cox, said in a statement.
Citigroup and UBS of Switzerland neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing under the settlements.
Citigroup agreed to buy back about $7 billion in the securities from affected customers, while UBS’s repurchase totaled $22.7 billion.
The settlements require federal court approval. The banks agreed to refrain from future violations of securities laws.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12auctions.html?ref=business
December 12, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two banking giants, Citigroup and UBS, agreed on Thursday to buy back nearly $30 billion in risky auction-rate securities that regulators said the banks had marketed to customers as safe.
The Securities and Exchange Commission formally approved the settlements with the two banks after preliminary deals that were reached in August.
Securities regulators in Texas and New York also announced details of final agreements with the banks.
Tens of thousands of the banks’ customers bought the auction-rate securities before the $330 billion market for them froze in mid-February, the S.E.C. said in announcing the final accords.
The new settlements were the largest return of customer money in the agency’s history and all the investors will be made whole, the chairman of the S.E.C., Christopher Cox, said in a statement.
Citigroup and UBS of Switzerland neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing under the settlements.
Citigroup agreed to buy back about $7 billion in the securities from affected customers, while UBS’s repurchase totaled $22.7 billion.
The settlements require federal court approval. The banks agreed to refrain from future violations of securities laws.
Who should be retrenched first?
Discussion in The Online Citizen
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/who-to-retrench-first-pm-vs-labour-chief/#comment-39428
Here are my views about who should be retrenched first - locals or foreign workers?
My answer is: retrenchment should be avoided. If demand drops by 20%, all workers should work 4 days (instead of 5 days) and take a 20% wage cut. The workers who are able to find alternative work elsewhere can resign. This allows the other workers to work more than 4 days and get additional income for the additional work.
How can the worker cope with a 20% cut in wages? They can draw down on past savings. I suggest a new scheme - to allow them to get a relief loan (for the drop in earnings) at a a modest rate (say 2.5% p.a.) for a period of 12 or 24 months. Such a scheme should be set up by the Governmetn as part of a social safety net. This is important in Singapore, in lieu of unemployment insurance.
We should treat our foriegn workers fairly. Many of them take big loans to come to work in Singpaore. We cannot send them back prematurely on an economic downturn.
In the future, we should plan the use of foreign workers carefully. It is better to have long term migrants into Singapore, if we need to increase our manpower and size of the economy.
Tan Kin Lian
Poll: How should a company cope with falling demand in a recession?
Number of replies: 95
Retrench local workers: 5%
Retrench foreign workers: 40%
Reduce the days worked and wages proportionately: 54%
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/who-to-retrench-first-pm-vs-labour-chief/#comment-39428
Here are my views about who should be retrenched first - locals or foreign workers?
My answer is: retrenchment should be avoided. If demand drops by 20%, all workers should work 4 days (instead of 5 days) and take a 20% wage cut. The workers who are able to find alternative work elsewhere can resign. This allows the other workers to work more than 4 days and get additional income for the additional work.
How can the worker cope with a 20% cut in wages? They can draw down on past savings. I suggest a new scheme - to allow them to get a relief loan (for the drop in earnings) at a a modest rate (say 2.5% p.a.) for a period of 12 or 24 months. Such a scheme should be set up by the Governmetn as part of a social safety net. This is important in Singapore, in lieu of unemployment insurance.
We should treat our foriegn workers fairly. Many of them take big loans to come to work in Singpaore. We cannot send them back prematurely on an economic downturn.
In the future, we should plan the use of foreign workers carefully. It is better to have long term migrants into Singapore, if we need to increase our manpower and size of the economy.
Tan Kin Lian
Poll: How should a company cope with falling demand in a recession?
Number of replies: 95
Retrench local workers: 5%
Retrench foreign workers: 40%
Reduce the days worked and wages proportionately: 54%
A broad based approach towards re-training
Some people argued that re-training should be matched against job opportunity. I am in favour of a more broad-based approach.
In a recession, companies are cutting down jobs. There are few job opportunities to match the re-training.
I suggest that the retrenched workers should be allowed to attend training courses that will upgrade their educational level, such as language, mathematics, customer service and IT skills. These skills will be useful in most jobs.
Many of the older workers have low education. It will be a good time to let them catch up on these shortcomings. They can receive a training attendance allowance. It will also create jobs for other people to be instructors.
In many advanced countries, the retrenched workers receive an unemployment benefit without having to attend training. If we do not wish to give this benefit so easily, we can require them to attend re-training, but a more flexible, broad based approach can be adopted. Let them be trained on the skills that are most useful, and not necessarily be tied to a specific job opporunity.
Poll: What type of training courses should a retrench worker attend, to receive a training allowance
Number of replies: 106
A training course tied to a specific job: 17%
Any useful training, including upgrading of education and general skills: 63%
They should receive an unemploymenet benefit that is not tied to training: 16%
No training allowance or unemployment benefit: 2%
In a recession, companies are cutting down jobs. There are few job opportunities to match the re-training.
I suggest that the retrenched workers should be allowed to attend training courses that will upgrade their educational level, such as language, mathematics, customer service and IT skills. These skills will be useful in most jobs.
Many of the older workers have low education. It will be a good time to let them catch up on these shortcomings. They can receive a training attendance allowance. It will also create jobs for other people to be instructors.
In many advanced countries, the retrenched workers receive an unemployment benefit without having to attend training. If we do not wish to give this benefit so easily, we can require them to attend re-training, but a more flexible, broad based approach can be adopted. Let them be trained on the skills that are most useful, and not necessarily be tied to a specific job opporunity.
Poll: What type of training courses should a retrench worker attend, to receive a training allowance
Number of replies: 106
A training course tied to a specific job: 17%
Any useful training, including upgrading of education and general skills: 63%
They should receive an unemploymenet benefit that is not tied to training: 16%
No training allowance or unemployment benefit: 2%
Hong Kong banks repay 30 million HK dollars in mini-bond scandal
HONG KONG (AFP) — Hong Kong banks have paid back 30 million Hong Kong dollars (3.9 million US) to investors who said they were missold financial products backed by failed US giant Lehman Brothers, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
About 60 people have so far received compensation from the banks, Democratic Party legislator and lawyer Albert Ho said, in the scandal that has led to protests across the Asian financial hub.
But Ho lamented that the settled cases represented fewer than one percent of the 7,000 cases the party has been handling.
"After more than two months' effort, we have successfully pressured the banks to settle about 60 cases through mediation, allowing the victims to get back the money they earned with their blood and sweat," Ho told AFP.
He added that the investors had managed to get a full refund in some of the cases, but refused to give a breakdown.
"However, this number is very small. Many times, we had to threaten them with lawyers' letters before the banks agreed to settle," he said.
More than 40,000 Hong Kong investors -- including many retirees -- had put a total of 15.7 billion Hong Kong dollars of their savings into mini-bonds and other complex products backed by the investment bank.
Former Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers collapsed in September under mountains of debt, making many of the investments completely worthless.
Ho said other cases may have to use the courts to find a settlement. He added a group of US lawyers will fly to Hong Kong later this month to discuss a proposal for a cross-country lawsuit against the US institutions involved in the handling of the Lehman-backed products.
Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents have become the first to launch a lawsuit in Hong Kong's High Court over the mini-bonds saga, The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday.
In a writ filed on Tuesday, Stephen Tou and Wong Fung-chun sought 9.83 million Hong Kong dollars in compensation from DBS Bank (Hong Kong).
They said they had put almost all their life savings into Lehman-backed structured notes after staff at the bank told them the investment was safe
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZPW-eovXWUnTM9-gEdt5Ex1vsIw
About 60 people have so far received compensation from the banks, Democratic Party legislator and lawyer Albert Ho said, in the scandal that has led to protests across the Asian financial hub.
But Ho lamented that the settled cases represented fewer than one percent of the 7,000 cases the party has been handling.
"After more than two months' effort, we have successfully pressured the banks to settle about 60 cases through mediation, allowing the victims to get back the money they earned with their blood and sweat," Ho told AFP.
He added that the investors had managed to get a full refund in some of the cases, but refused to give a breakdown.
"However, this number is very small. Many times, we had to threaten them with lawyers' letters before the banks agreed to settle," he said.
More than 40,000 Hong Kong investors -- including many retirees -- had put a total of 15.7 billion Hong Kong dollars of their savings into mini-bonds and other complex products backed by the investment bank.
Former Wall Street icon Lehman Brothers collapsed in September under mountains of debt, making many of the investments completely worthless.
Ho said other cases may have to use the courts to find a settlement. He added a group of US lawyers will fly to Hong Kong later this month to discuss a proposal for a cross-country lawsuit against the US institutions involved in the handling of the Lehman-backed products.
Meanwhile, two Singaporean residents have become the first to launch a lawsuit in Hong Kong's High Court over the mini-bonds saga, The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday.
In a writ filed on Tuesday, Stephen Tou and Wong Fung-chun sought 9.83 million Hong Kong dollars in compensation from DBS Bank (Hong Kong).
They said they had put almost all their life savings into Lehman-backed structured notes after staff at the bank told them the investment was safe
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZPW-eovXWUnTM9-gEdt5Ex1vsIw
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Why we need a minimum wage policy in Singapore
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/sporeans-and-foreigners-both-paying-the-price/#comments
Free competition in the labour market, without safeguards, will continue to push down wages. With outsourcing of many types of work, the wages of the contract workers have now fallen below the subsidence level. Many family now needs two or three jobs to earn enough to survive.
Many countries solve this problem by introducing a “minimum wage”. I suggest that the minimum wage in Singapore should be SGD 10 an hour. If this wage is applied to cleaners, shop attendants and other low income jobs, there will be sufficient Singaporeans who are keen to accept these jobs - rather than remain unemployed.
We should continue to control the number of foreign workers who are allowed to take these jobs. The employer should be required to provide acceptable standard of accommodation and medical benefits to these worker. This will increase the cost of these foreign workers, and reduce the attraction of their “lower cost”, as compared to local workers. The foreign worker’s levy can continue to be levied.
If we need foreign workers to increase the pool of manpower, let us welcome them as long term immigrants. If they bring their family here, they will have to face the same high cost of living and cannot depress the wages fo local workers. This will be the subject of a separate discussion.
A minimum wage policy may mean that the customers have to pay more for these services. But, the increase may not be as large as feared. The wages of the workers is only one component of total cost. The other components are rental, profit and management salaries. I expect that, in a competitive market, these other components will fall to more reasonable levels, before the charges to the customers are raised.
Some people argued that higher wages will fo force businesses to locate to other countires. This argument does not hold water for the domestic service sector, which will be an important source of employment for the local people.
Anyway, we do not need many businesses in Singapore to create employment for foriegn and local workers who earn below the minimum wage. The large number of foriegn workers working in Singpaore at the depressed wages will create social problems that are not fully realised at this time.
I like to ask for support for a minimum wage policy in Singapore. This is social justice and fairness. It is for the long term good of our society.
Tan Kin Lian
Minimum wage should be $8 per hour
Someone told me that $10 an hour may be too high. He suggested that a minimum wage of $8 per hour may be more acceptable for a start. This gives $1,280 a month for 8 hours X $8 X 20 days = $1280. I agree.
Results of Poll
Poll, "Should a minimum wage policy be implemented in Singapore?"
Number of replies: 173
Yes: 75%
No: 18%
Not sure: 7%
Free competition in the labour market, without safeguards, will continue to push down wages. With outsourcing of many types of work, the wages of the contract workers have now fallen below the subsidence level. Many family now needs two or three jobs to earn enough to survive.
Many countries solve this problem by introducing a “minimum wage”. I suggest that the minimum wage in Singapore should be SGD 10 an hour. If this wage is applied to cleaners, shop attendants and other low income jobs, there will be sufficient Singaporeans who are keen to accept these jobs - rather than remain unemployed.
We should continue to control the number of foreign workers who are allowed to take these jobs. The employer should be required to provide acceptable standard of accommodation and medical benefits to these worker. This will increase the cost of these foreign workers, and reduce the attraction of their “lower cost”, as compared to local workers. The foreign worker’s levy can continue to be levied.
If we need foreign workers to increase the pool of manpower, let us welcome them as long term immigrants. If they bring their family here, they will have to face the same high cost of living and cannot depress the wages fo local workers. This will be the subject of a separate discussion.
A minimum wage policy may mean that the customers have to pay more for these services. But, the increase may not be as large as feared. The wages of the workers is only one component of total cost. The other components are rental, profit and management salaries. I expect that, in a competitive market, these other components will fall to more reasonable levels, before the charges to the customers are raised.
Some people argued that higher wages will fo force businesses to locate to other countires. This argument does not hold water for the domestic service sector, which will be an important source of employment for the local people.
Anyway, we do not need many businesses in Singapore to create employment for foriegn and local workers who earn below the minimum wage. The large number of foriegn workers working in Singpaore at the depressed wages will create social problems that are not fully realised at this time.
I like to ask for support for a minimum wage policy in Singapore. This is social justice and fairness. It is for the long term good of our society.
Tan Kin Lian
Minimum wage should be $8 per hour
Someone told me that $10 an hour may be too high. He suggested that a minimum wage of $8 per hour may be more acceptable for a start. This gives $1,280 a month for 8 hours X $8 X 20 days = $1280. I agree.
Results of Poll
Poll, "Should a minimum wage policy be implemented in Singapore?"
Number of replies: 173
Yes: 75%
No: 18%
Not sure: 7%
Cheating - as defined in Penal Code of Singapore
Cheating – Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to consent that any person shall retain any property, or intentionally induces the person so deceived to do or omit to do anything which he or she would not do or omit if he or she were not so deceived, and which act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to that person in body, mind, reputation or property, is said to "cheat". For example, A cheats if he intentionally deceives Z into a belief that A means to repay any money that Z may lend to him when A does not intend to repay it, and thereby dishonestly induces Z to lend him money. Cheating is punished with imprisonment of up to one year, or a fine, or both.
Read my article about cheating in The Online Citizen:
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/stop-cheating/#comment-39083
Read my article about cheating in The Online Citizen:
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/stop-cheating/#comment-39083
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