July 30
Market manipulation has become standard operating procedure in policy circles around the world. All eyes are now on China’s attempts to cope with the collapse of a major equity bubble.
But the efforts of the Chinese authorities are hardly unique. The leading economies of the West are doing pretty much the same thing — just dressing up their manipulation in different clothes. Take quantitative easing (QE), first used in Japan in the early 2000s, then in the United States after 2008, then in Japan again beginning in 2013, and now in Europe.
In all of these cases, QE essentially has been an aggressive effort to manipulate asset prices. It works primarily through direct central-bank purchases of long-dated sovereign securities, thereby reducing long-term interest rates, which, in turn, makes equities more attractive.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think
01/20/2015
The rats with good lives didn't like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.
The rats with good lives didn't like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.
Issues, candidates matter more than strategic timing advantage
EUGENE K B TAN
JULY 27, 2015
Last Friday’s release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s (EBRC) report has generated intense speculation as to when Parliament will be dissolved and the Writ of Election issued.
The report, which took about two months to prepare, came 11 days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in Parliament that he had convened the EBRC in May. Its publication was without undue delay — it was submitted to PM Lee on July 21 and published on July 24.
Predictably, the EBRC duly delivered on its terms of reference by reducing the average size of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) from five to 4.75, and adding an additional single-member constituency (SMC) and one GRC. In total, 89 seats will be up for contest in the next General Election (GE).
JULY 27, 2015
Last Friday’s release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s (EBRC) report has generated intense speculation as to when Parliament will be dissolved and the Writ of Election issued.
The report, which took about two months to prepare, came 11 days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in Parliament that he had convened the EBRC in May. Its publication was without undue delay — it was submitted to PM Lee on July 21 and published on July 24.
Predictably, the EBRC duly delivered on its terms of reference by reducing the average size of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) from five to 4.75, and adding an additional single-member constituency (SMC) and one GRC. In total, 89 seats will be up for contest in the next General Election (GE).
Monday, July 27, 2015
Singapore's 'Chinese dilemma' as China rises
SG+50: FUTURE TRENDS 2065
JUN 1, 2015
How will Singapore fare, as a majority Chinese society in the region, with a China expected to be more assertive in the future?
Wang Gungwu
Chairman of the East Asian Institute and a professor at the National University of Singapore
THE United States talks about re-balancing to Asia; the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) wants a strategic balance between China and America. After 50 years, Singapore has maintained, like Asean, that it does not want to have to choose between America and China in the region.
But what of China? What does China want?
As Singapore celebrates its Jubilee Year and looks towards the future, it has to do so with a hard-headed look at its biggest neighbour China. Singapore needs to have a realistic assessment of China's intentions, America's resolve, and the place of Asean and Singapore in the region, in order to chart its course in the geopolitical future world.
JUN 1, 2015
How will Singapore fare, as a majority Chinese society in the region, with a China expected to be more assertive in the future?
Wang Gungwu
Chairman of the East Asian Institute and a professor at the National University of Singapore
THE United States talks about re-balancing to Asia; the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) wants a strategic balance between China and America. After 50 years, Singapore has maintained, like Asean, that it does not want to have to choose between America and China in the region.
But what of China? What does China want?
As Singapore celebrates its Jubilee Year and looks towards the future, it has to do so with a hard-headed look at its biggest neighbour China. Singapore needs to have a realistic assessment of China's intentions, America's resolve, and the place of Asean and Singapore in the region, in order to chart its course in the geopolitical future world.
Imagining what life will be like in the next 50 years
This story was first published in The Straits Times on Jan 29, 2014
Chan Heng Chee
Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology
IF I am still alive in 50 years, I will have the prospect of living to be 150 or more. This is not a fanciful statement.
Already, the number of centenarians are increasing in many countries. According to United Nations estimates, there are 316,000 centenarians in the world today.
Dr Aubrey de Grey, the chief science officer at the California-based Sens Foundation, which studies the social implications of scientific rejuvenation research, suggests that there is a possibility that people may live up to 1,000 years with the new medical and technology innovations.
If that is the case, people in rich countries will live longer; people in poor countries will not have the same advantages.
Of course there is a debate about whether Dr de Grey has made a compelling case. But the fact remains that people do seem to be living longer.
How will people live their lives when they are a healthy 100, 109 or 120? Will they think of age differently?
Chan Heng Chee
Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology
IF I am still alive in 50 years, I will have the prospect of living to be 150 or more. This is not a fanciful statement.
Already, the number of centenarians are increasing in many countries. According to United Nations estimates, there are 316,000 centenarians in the world today.
Dr Aubrey de Grey, the chief science officer at the California-based Sens Foundation, which studies the social implications of scientific rejuvenation research, suggests that there is a possibility that people may live up to 1,000 years with the new medical and technology innovations.
If that is the case, people in rich countries will live longer; people in poor countries will not have the same advantages.
Of course there is a debate about whether Dr de Grey has made a compelling case. But the fact remains that people do seem to be living longer.
How will people live their lives when they are a healthy 100, 109 or 120? Will they think of age differently?
SG100: 'Green' domes and ideas hub
Lim Say Boon
27 July 2015
An economist visualises Singapore as a vibrant ideas hub with climate-controlled domes to keep global warming at bay
Singapore in 50 years will likely be hotter but less crowded, highly skilled and even more connected to the international centres of capital, technology and learning.
None of the above is based on science. It is an optimist's view of the future, extrapolated from decisions Singaporeans will make over the decades in response to the challenges coming our way. Understanding the journey is more important than any deterministic vision of SG100.
With that optimist's lens in place, let us take a journey into the future.
A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE
By 2065, the debates of 50 years earlier over property prices, migrants and social benefits have become irrelevant.
27 July 2015
An economist visualises Singapore as a vibrant ideas hub with climate-controlled domes to keep global warming at bay
Singapore in 50 years will likely be hotter but less crowded, highly skilled and even more connected to the international centres of capital, technology and learning.
None of the above is based on science. It is an optimist's view of the future, extrapolated from decisions Singaporeans will make over the decades in response to the challenges coming our way. Understanding the journey is more important than any deterministic vision of SG100.
With that optimist's lens in place, let us take a journey into the future.
A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE
By 2065, the debates of 50 years earlier over property prices, migrants and social benefits have become irrelevant.
National fiscal discipline or European solidarity
Jonathan Eyal
Europe Correspondent
20 Jul 2015
It's not just Greece at stake in the crisis. It's also the rival visions of Germany and France on what the European Union means: individual fiscal discipline or 'solidarity', with the rich helping the poorer nations.
LONDON • Greece was spared meltdown, at least for the moment. But only at the risk of opening up a much bigger dispute in Europe, between the European Union's two core nations: Germany and France.
As the crisis reached its peak, the French were adamant that everything should be done to avert Greece's bankruptcy, while the Germans argued that no great harm will come from Greece's eviction from the euro currency zone, and no further cash should be wasted on a Greek state which has elevated bad governance and ingratitude to the level of art.
In a classic European way, a compromise was eventually found: the French succeeded in keeping Greece in the euro zone, while the Germans succeeded in imposing on Greece some of the toughest and most humiliating economic conditions ever recorded in modern Europe.
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