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!

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.

Snap election in Singapore?

Here is an article by Seah Cheang Nee.

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.

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.

Rechargeable torchlight with locator light

Here is a photo of the rechargeable torchlight with the locator light turned on.

It is easy to locate the torchlight at night to visit the bathroom or kitchen for a drink of water.

You do not need to turn on the main lights and waste electricity.

In an emergency or power failure, you can find the torchlight easily.

It takes 12 hours to charge the battery and can last for about two weeks, based on light usage.

This special feature of a locator light was designed by me and produced to my specification.

The torchlight sells for $6.50 and can be bought from my office ($5.50 for purchase of 5 or more pieces). Office open Mondays to Fridays, 9 am to 6 pm. (The price will be revised to $8 from 2010 when this is made available at the retail outlets).

Delivery can be made to your address for a delivery charge of $7. You can get several friends to buy the torchlight together and share the delivery cost.