While Norway insists on transparency, our Familee-managed SWFs prefer the fishing in muddy waters
Yesterday the Financial Times reported that Norway’s Finance Ministry had forbidden its sovereign wealth fund (SWF) from investing in private equity. In the article the Norwegian Finance Minister said that “Private […]
Discounts and Jobs For Relatives Are OK For PM Lee and His Family But Not For The GM of His Town Council
On Wednesday the GM of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, Victor Wong Chee Meng, was charged with 55 counts of corruption involving $107,000 according to state media. He “is accused […]
Retired Superman Goh Doesn’t Tell The Full Story When It Comes to Trade
After being told to shut up by Lee Hsien Loong and reminded that he is just an old age pensioner with no power (for criticising LHL’s slowness to fix a […]
Dear White (Racist UK Leave) People. Everything you think you know about Singapore is wrong.
On Sunday morning in the UK on a weekly BBC TV show about politics a British Conservative politician came out with an astounding figure for Singapore’s trade. He was intending […]
Will Heng Swee Keat Stop Lying About The Government’s Finances?
On Friday Sylvia Lim raised the issue of whether the Government had raised test balloons before the Budget to see whether it could get away with raising GST now but […]
While There Is A Furore Over Xi’s Scrapping of Term Limits, LHL’s Decision to Cling to Power Passes Almost Unnoticed
Over the weekend Chinese state media announced (see the WSJ article here) that China’s Party Congress would consider a proposal to scrap the two-term Presidential limit that was introduced after […]
Shock! BG Chan Chun Sing Reveals He Passed Primary School Maths
Let no one be in doubt as to the intellectual qualities of PAP’s 4th Generation Leadership! This was confirmed to me today when I read BG Chan Chun Sing’s (who […]
What Economics Can Teach Us About The Irresponsible Fiscal Policies Pursued by Germany and Singapore
It is always remarkable how much praise Singapore gets from liberal or left-leaning economists who should know better. A few years ago the Nobel laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, held Singapore up […]
Budget 2018: Same Old Cliches As Heng Makes Your Money Vanish in the Uniquely Singaporean Version of the Shell Game
Budget time yesterday and my first thought was that I had stepped into a time machine and been transported back to last year’s Budget. In fact the same could be […]
We Know It’s Budget Time When State Media Put Up An Unsympathetic Family to Trick You Into Thinking PAP Government Can’t Do More
It is Budget time again and part of our good old PAP-controlled state media’s job is to prepare Singaporeans not to expect too much from their government. Then, when the […]
Will He Stay or Will He Go?
I for one have always been sceptical of the assumption that Lee Hsien Loong would step down as PM when he reaches 70. This seems to have originated in a […]
Former Keppel O & M Employees Arrested But As Usual PAP Connected Executives Are Left Untouched
News reports today in the State Times and other Government media said that at least six former executives of Keppel Corp have been arrested by CPIB in connection with the […]
Han Fook Kwang Softens the Ground for Unnecessary and Regressive Tax Increases
A couple of days ago the State Times published an article by Han Fook Kwang titled “Time to introduce a wealth tax in Singapore?“. Han was formerly the Political Editor […]
Staying Clean Not A Simple Matter in Some Countries
I read with amusement the letter written to the State Times by one Francis Cheng arguing that Singapore MNCs should be allowed to pay bribes as otherwise foreign competitors will […]
A Shocking Window Into The Institutional Corruption That Pervades Singapore Inc
Quietly over Christmas the US Justice Department announced that it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Keppel Offshore and Marine. Under the agreement Keppel O & M, a unit […]
Tommy Koh says that Singapore inherited from the British an intolerance for nepotism and giving gifts to public officials. Really?
Well done Tommy Koh (who was a friend of my parents in the 1960s) for pointing out that Singapore has a long history as a strategic hub long before the […]
