US storm
Slams into Singapore
Force bigger than most other countries because of city's premier status as a world financial centre; citizens hardest hit. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Sep 20, 2008
"MY PARENTS have been affected by my failure - my heavy losses in the stock market during the past year. Every night I am having nightmares,” one trader recently wrote.
His S$30,000 savings meant to be a deposit for a flat evaporated during the downturn, particularly in recent weeks when shares went into a tailspin.
“My loss is beyond my means, it is very painful and I don’t know what my future is,” said the lower-middle-class bachelor.
“I had to strive to rebuild my life or else I would have committed suicide.”
He is one of a growing number of people here who are hard hit by the current US banking meltdown, which has reached Singapore.
At the same time, hundreds of anxious insurance holders have been flocking to the head-office of AIA branch in Singapore to check on their policies after hearing news that its US parent company, AIG was facing bankruptcy.
They wanted to cancel their policies, even if it meant losing in investment and coverage. That the US government is providing US$85bil bailout to AIG did not stop the crowd.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has appealed for calm among holders of its two million policies.
It also acted to protect customers of another US institution, Lehman Brothers, which declared bankruptcy by curtailing its operations here. It cannot remit funds to third parties without approval.
These days being a world banking hub is beginning to look like a great idea turned sour for Singapore, particularly its investment in foreign banks, as the citizens are finding out.
The US meltdown is hitting this financial centre like a tonne of bricks at a time when it is already in the midst of an economic slowdown and super-high inflation.
To be sure, the years of excesses of Wall Street have not been allowed to intrude into the financial district in Shenton Way, which remains tightly-regulated. The impact, however, is touching the lives of many people.
“The trouble is it’s all imported; no Singaporean bank is a casualty,” said an official.
Some Singaporeans are, of course, hit worse than others, but collectively the damage is far more serious here than in other cities in the region.
Ironically, it is due to success in becoming a wealthy financial centre.
The world’s top banks and brokerages have set up their regional offices here. Now their future remains under a cloud.
And when world banking is in turmoil, Singapore’s economy is shaken up.
This sector will go through a general lull, if not decline, which will result in an exodus of foreign executives.
Lehman Brothers’ operations in Singapore came to a halt on Monday, a day after it went into bankruptcy. The jobs of its 270 staff members may disappear.
This, and the bailout of AIG and other large US corporations, are sending shock waves throughout the financial industry.
The many professionals in Singapore - foreigners and Singaporeans - are deeply concerned about their jobs.
“It’s quite worrying,” one executive told a TV reporter. “We don’t know who will be the next target.”
Any exodus of these highly-paid executives will aggravate an already poor property market, especially in office and residential rentals.
It may retard Singapore’s growth as a banking hub, at least until stability returns.
During the past 10 years, it has made financial services one of its four strategic pillars for growth.
Many of its global investments are in Western and Asian banks, which have set up operations here.
In addition, tens of billions of Temasek Holdings and GIC (Government Investment Corporation) money have gone into these investments.
They couldn’t have been worse timed. Their values have been decimated.
For Mr and Mrs Singapore, these are worrying times as the economic downturn begins to bite.
The worst appears to be the stock market, where many Singaporeans are invested. The index shares have fallen by 30% in the past year, but many other shares are down by as much as 50% to 60%.
Some life savings have been wiped out. Tens of thousands are groaning under the weight of large losses.
Other recent headlines, which are dealing fresh blows to Singaporeans, included the following:
He is one of a growing number of people here who are hard hit by the current US banking meltdown, which has reached Singapore.
At the same time, hundreds of anxious insurance holders have been flocking to the head-office of AIA branch in Singapore to check on their policies after hearing news that its US parent company, AIG was facing bankruptcy.
* Government data confirms that high inflation is eating into wage gains; average real earnings have fallen by 4% between April and June;
* Private home sales slumped 81% in August compared to a year ago, dropping from 1,723 to 320 units (partly affected by the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival);
* Retail sales fell for the first time in four months as car sales slumped (by 8%) and consumers bought fewer luxury goods, mobile phones and computers; and
* Despite the price of oil falling by a third, the government controversially raised buses and train fares by four cents (10 sen), adding to the high inflation.
The US crisis may trigger off a global recession, including Singapore.
However, the city has a protective shield: its large reserves of US$300bil built up over the years and sound economic fundamentals.
If not for these, Singapore could be overwhelmed.
But the ordinary people are a different story. With their real salaries down, they are vulnerable to any sustained unemployment and the relentless price increases.
With half an eye on the 2011 election, the government is taking precautions. It will change the laws to allow it to dip into investment returns of the country’s reserves to offset rising costs of public services.
It’s seen as a positive move, but also one that serves as a warning that life can get worse for the people.
(This was published in The Star on Sept. 20, 2008)
http://littlespeck.com/content/econo...omy-080920.htm
This fucking USA financial clique, their corruption and greed drags everyone down.
Collapsed already, need others to come in and bail out, using taxpayer's money.
What the fuck.
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:This fucking USA financial clique, their corruption and greed drags everyone down.
Collapsed already, need others to come in and bail out, using taxpayer's money.
What the fuck.
yes, and on the other hand, China's killing babies because of their corruption and greed.
But China did not drag down our economy.
USA political life is controlled by financial and corporate power, at least China has not degenerated into that state.
To get back to sovereignty and the structure of the state, another cause of today's instability is that we now have a society in America, Europe and much of the world which is totally dominated by the two elements of sovereignty that are not included in the state structure: control of credit and banking and the corporation.
These are free of political controls and social responsibility, and they have largely monopolized power in Western Civilization and in American society. They are ruthlessly going forward to eliminate land, labour, entrepreneurial-managerial skills, and everything else the economists once told us were the chief elements of production. The only element of production they are concerned with is the one they can control: capital...
The administrative system and elections are dominated today by the private power of money flows and corporation activities. I want to read you a summary from James Willard Hurst, "The Legitimacy of the Business Corporation in the Law of the United States from 1780 to 1970". He points out that there was powerful anti-corporation feeling in the United States in the 1820's. Therefore, it was established by the states that corporations could not exist by prescription: they had to have charters. They had to have a limited term of life and not be immortal. Corporations today are immortal: if they get charters, they can live forever and bury us all. They had to have a limited purpose. Who is giving us this bread made of sawdust? ITT: International Telephone and Telegraph, the same corporation that drove Ivar Kreuger to suicide in Paris in April 1931, when it actually was an international telegraph corporation, controlled by J P. Morgan...
http://www.wealthbuilder.ie/essay15.htm
In USA and most other western states, the power of financial and corporate interests has grown to be so great that they now dominate the political system.
In China, however, the situation is different as the state still calls the shots and the influence of financial and corporate interests is still checked.
We must not allow these two forces, financial and corporate power to wield such unchecked power as in the USA.
This will lead to corruption and disruption activities such as the current financial crisis in USA.
Conclusion:
Tts o.k to kill babies as long as it doesnt drag anybody down economically
Tts o.k to kill babies as long as it doesnt drag anybody down economically
No that is false.
It is not okay to kill babies.
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:But China did not drag down our economy.
USA political life is controlled by financial and corporate power, at least China has not degenerated into that state.
then I'd say that you are looking at problems selectively....
personally, i am not affected by the US economy at all....
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:No that is false.
It is not okay to kill babies.
Sorry.. i was just reading ur replies and it just looked like the conclusion derived from the 2 premises are as i said. lol.
Originally posted by BadzMaro:Sorry.. i was just reading ur replies and it just looked like the conclusion derived from the 2 premises are as i said. lol.
fact remains that P Ah P is anti-Western and pro-China....
fact remains that P Ah P is anti-Western and pro-China....
In the area of foreign policies that is true.
Anything wrong with that?
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:In the area of foreign policies that is true.
Anything wrong with that?
nothing wrong with that....
just as nothing wrong to be pro-PAP, like lionnoisy....
for the record, I am not pro or anti PAP...
Financial powers are very arrogant and they have been seeking to control governments for long time already:
In addition to these pragmatic goals, the powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.
This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.
The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations.
Each central bank, in the hands of men like Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Charles Rist of the Bank of France, and Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world...
...It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down.
The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called "international" or "merchant" bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks.
This dominance of investment bankers was based on their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and throughout the world. They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their own countries by their influence over the flow of current funds through bank loans, the discount rate, and the rediscounting of commercial debts; they could dominate governments by their control over current government loans and the play of the international exchanges...
http://symposium.gq.nu/cquigley/TH07.htm
http://real-world-news.org/bk-quigley/
Originally posted by Chin Eng:
then I'd say that you are looking at problems selectively....personally, i am not affected by the US economy at all....
we may not be affected personally but as a nation we could:
<In addition, tens of billions of Temasek Holdings and GIC (Government Investment Corporation) money have gone into these investments.
They couldn’t have been worse timed. Their values have been decimated.
For Mr and Mrs Singapore, these are worrying times as the economic downturn begins to bite.>
and btw,
<The joke going round was that the atrial flutter that Lee Kuan Yew suffered over the weekend was caused by news of Merrill Lynch's near meltdown. An atrial flutter is a cardiac condition when the upper chamber of the heart fails to beat properly.>
Originally posted by Chin Eng:
nothing wrong with that....just as nothing wrong to be pro-PAP, like lionnoisy....
for the record, I am not pro or anti PAP...
It is hard to believe your post above.
We have got the master MM Lee telling us sg not affected by US economy a few months back.
Chin Eng you not pro-PAP?
I find that hard to believe also, I did not see you criticising PAP regime.
We have got the master MM Lee telling us sg not affected by US economy a few months back.
Just wish that fucker can fucking shut his fucking mouth.
So fed up with him.
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:Chin Eng you not pro-PAP?
I find that hard to believe also, I did not see you criticising PAP regime.
you also don't see me criticizing the opposition.... except for a certain CSJ.
you also don't see me singing praises of adulation either....
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:Chin Eng you not pro-PAP?
I find that hard to believe also, I did not see you criticising PAP regime.
IB
you also don't see me criticizing the opposition.... except for a certain CSJ.
You defend PAP.
Originally posted by Fantagf:
It is hard to believe your post above.
just quote me a piece where I sing adulation of PAP..... or a piece where I condemned the opposition (with the exception of CSJ, whom I think is a fraud and a nutcase).
Originally posted by Chin Eng:
you also don't see me criticizing the opposition.... except for a certain CSJ.you also don't see me singing praises of adulation either....
At least you are here without the motivate of being nasty or finding chances to find fault.
If you are agreeable to what the PAP is doing, then I suppose you have no reason to post opposing views.
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:You defend PAP.
I will also defend the opposition when they do and say the right thing.
I believe in giving credit where credit is due.... of course you can disagree with me on what such "credit" is.
Originally posted by Chin Eng:
I will also defend the opposition when they do and say the right thing.I believe in giving credit where credit is due.... of course you can disagree with me on what such "credit" is.
Yes, I too believe in that. But I never hesitate to speak up whenever PAP is too much.
Originally posted by Fantagf:At least you are here without the motivate of being nasty or finding chances to find fault.
If you are agreeable to what the PAP is doing, then I suppose you have no reason to post opposing views.
I save "being nasty" to those that seriously deserve it....
Find fault? Sure we can... especially with people we don't like. But seriously, how many of such folks are really objective here in sgforums? lionnoisy? poh? andrew?
I find it counterproductive to curse LKY or put an expletive in front of his name each time it is mentioned.... what's the point??? likewise, as much as I dislike CSJ, I would not curse him nor put an expletive in front of his name....