#263 cosmetic appearances

I gather the new young generation is going for cosmetic surgery to look better – beautiful or handsome — in order to clinch a job OR get (clinch??) a spouse! If this is true, they’re bucking the trend of the Koreans or the Japanese or the China Chinese! What a sad state! But then someone has to [...]

#221 spend, spend, spend

Is spending the only way out of recession? What kind of spending are we referring? Spending using real money, not credit or borrowed money? How does this work when people have no job translating no income, fraught with problems? I’m still trying to make sense that’s happening in this financial crisis. Has man been so dishonest that greed had [...]

#215 yo-yo stock market

I cannot believe that I read: yesterday the US stock market soared 900 points or 11% (!) while for the past few days, in spite of monies injected, yet…there was a spiral downwards! Why no stability? Who are the suckers? Who are the winners? Who has been deciding or manipulating the rise and fall of the stock market?! [...]

#209 learning to live within one’s means

Man has short memory indeed! The last recession was about 6 years ago here in Singapore? Have we picked up since then? Or are we gliding further? Up a little and slide further? Have we learnt our lessons since? Recession, panic selling in the stock market, credit crunch gale force sweeping Europe might be blessing in [...]

#207 who do you trust?

Having money is a problem these days. Putting money in the bank is no consolation either. You lose your hard earned cash when a financial institution collapsed. I was told you could file for misrepresentation — that the profile of products bought did not suit the personality of one. How does this work? The high turnover of officers serving [...]

#200 spend first pay later

‘Spend first, pay later’ – was the slogan to attract the use of credit cards. Living on borrowed money was the vogue for the past 40 years conservatively. Instead of regarding this as debt, it was sugared as ‘credit’. There was a time when it was regarded smart to travel first — to enjoy life first — [...]

#198 bail-out plan?

What if there were no bail-out for those scoundrel and irresponsible investment banks? How will this financial quake affect the US and the world economy? Why such jittery around the world? According to some pundits, if there were no bail-out, this will filter every aspect of life and economy in the US!  Was there no regulatory controls for these financial institutions? It appears [...]

#153 money, money, money

These days, I wonder where my hard-earned money went?  There is marked increase in the prices of food! With the fuel price hike, I wonder when announcements will be made for another transport fare increase? Why is money so important? No money no talk. Without money one cannot survive. Wonder how our founding governing leaders manage [...]

#149 customers

Today, everything and everyone are pegged to the dollar! Everyone is treated as customers: schools, hospitals… Are schools not centers or institutions of learning? Customers mean you have to pay and pay! Where are the state services providing for citizens? Will there come a time when education is so expensive that parents cannot afford to educate their [...]

#142 tomorrow

We are made wise NOT by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility of our future. George Bernard Shaw Changes…changes…changes going on all the time…man is always changing…and…rearranging – soaring food prices (no more cheap food), fuel crises, subprime, credit crunch, natural disasters, water shortage, going green, global warming, save extinct species… How is man to live? [...]