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沧 海 一 声 笑
歌 手 :许 冠 杰
sinetic8 ( Date: 27-Jul-2011 09:40) Posted:
Acquisition by Genting Overseas Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genting Berhad, of a total of 9,600,000 ordinary shares in Genting Singapore Plc from the open market.
Parkview Management Sdn Bhd is deemed interested in the Genting Singapore Plc shares held by Genting Overseas Holdings Limited.
 
Genting news from SGX Web.
 
So many shares being bought. Something is really brewing..
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Loose Central Bank Monetary Policy  drives down interest rates below the market rate, lowering the cost of borrowing encourages malinvestment and causes economic miscalculation as resources are diverted from the highest value use as reflected in true consumer preferences.
OVERHEARD:
Near-ZERO interest rates policy " RELATIVELY enchances" the value of dividends paid by GRCs.
As GRCs'  dividends paid appeared to be higher than bank deposit returns, listed GRCs' share prices remain " RELATIVELY higher" .  E.g. DBS, SIA, Keppel Corp, Sembmarine, SIA Engrg etc.
In turn, higher listed GRCs' share prices boost the " RELATIVE Assets Portfolio Valuation"   of sovereign funds institutions like TEMASEK, GIC and MAS.
WithOUT Near-ZERO bank savings interest rates policy, TEMASEK, GIC and MAS Asset Portfolio would suffer from much lower " RELATIVE market valuation" .
Near-ZERO interest rates policy is an  INDIRECT    TACTICAL  MANEUVER  to  sustain  sovereign  funds'  portfolio  " RELATIVE  HIGHER valuation"   and    disguise  national Financial  Centre's  True  performance.
It appears that World  Financial  Centre  Ranking  is  " RELATIVELY UNtrue"   if the bank interest rates  are not  moderated to a SAME  Benchmark  Ranking Interest  Rate.     
LEARN & THINK
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Time to reduce car import taxes
Letter from Wong Liang Yuan
It is understandable that landscarce Singapore requires high car prices to keep its car population under control.
While the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system provides that effective means of controlling the car population, the current level of import taxes on cars reduces the standard of living for Singaporeans.
The costs to car buyers here come mainly from three factors:
The Open Market Value (OMV) of the car (the actual landed cost of the car), import taxes comprising the additional registration fee (100 per cent of OMV) and excise duty (20 per cent) and, finally, the COE cost.
With the current new methodology of COE quotas based on actual vehicle de-registrations, the government has an effective control on the actual vehicle population, allowing the free market to price the “right” to own a car for 10 years.
Ever since the new methodology was put in place, and with lower quotas, this “right” has become increasingly more expensive to consumers.
What I find counter-productive is that after bidding and paying large amounts of S$50,000 to S$70,000 for the right to car ownership, consumers have to further pay import taxes of 120 per cent on their cars.
What is the purpose of this sizeable tax amount, which distorts the prices of cars?
It makes better cars (and by better, I refer to higher fuel efficiency, greater comfort levels, et cetera) more costly and more out-of-reach of the consumer.
The high car import tax system here was put in place decades before the establishment of the COE system in 1990, and it is about time this tax system is reviewed.
With an effective means of controlling the car population through COE quotas based on actual de-registrations, the government should not keep the prohibitive import taxes on cars.
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Default now, or suffer more expensive crisis later
Ron Paul
Debate over the debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with each side trying to outdo the other in a game of political chicken. If you believe some of the things that are being written, the world will come to an end if the United States defaults on even the tiniest portion of its debt.drives down interest rates below the market rate, lowering the cost of borrowing encourages malinvestment and causes economic miscalculation as resources are diverted from the highest value use as reflected in true consumer preferences.
In strict terms, the default being discussed will occur if the US fails to meet its debt obligations, through failure to pay either interest or principal due a bondholder.
Proponents of raising the debt ceiling claim that a default on Aug 2 is unprecedented and will result in calamity (never mind that this is simply an arbitrary date, easily changed, marking a congressional recess).
My expectations of such a scenario are more sanguine. The US government defaulted at least three times on its obligations during the 20th century.
In 1934, the government banned ownership of gold and eliminated the right to exchange gold certificates for gold coins.
It then immediately revalued gold from US$20.67 (S$25) per troy ounce to US$35, thus devaluing the dollar holdings of all Americans by 40 per cent.
From 1934 to 1968, the federal government continued to issue and redeem silver certificates, notes that circulated as legal tender that could be redeemed for silver coins or silver bars. In 1968, Congress unilaterally reneged on this obligation, too.
From 1934 to 1971, foreign governments were permitted by the US government to exchange their dollars for gold through the gold window.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon severed this final link between the dollar and gold by closing the gold window, thus, in effect defaulting once again on a debt obligation of the US government.
No longer constrained by any sort of commodity backing, the federal government was now free to engage in almost unlimited fiscal profligacy, the only check on its spending being the market’s appetite for Treasury debt.
Despite the defaults in 1934, 1968 and 1971to purchase Treasury debt and thereby fund the government’s deficit spending. If these major defaults did not result in decreased investor appetite for US obligations, I see no reason why defaulting on a small amount of debt this August would cause any major changes.
The national debt now stands at just over US$14 trillion (S$16.9 trillion), while net total liabilities are estimated at over US$200 trillion. The government is insolvent, as there is no way that this massive sum of liabilities can ever be paid off.
Successive Congresses and administrations have shown absolutely no restraint when it comes to the budget process, and the idea that either of the two parties is serious about getting our fiscal house in order is laughable.
The Austrian School’s theory of the business cycle describes how loose central bank monetary policy causes booms and busts:
It
Loose monetary policy caused the dotcom bubble and the housing bubble, and now is causing the government debt bubble.
Singapore in SAME  BOAT  ? ? ? ?
For far too long, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and quantitative easing have kept interest rates artificially low, enabling the government to drastically increase its spending by funding its profligacy through new debt whose service costs were lower than they otherwise would have been.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats sought to end this gravy train, with one party prioritising war spending and the other prioritising welfare spending, and with both supporting both types of spending. But now, with the end of the second round of quantitative easing, the federal funds rate at the zero bound, and the debt limit maxed out, Congress finds itself in a real quandary.
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Ms Nafissatou Diallo, for 10 weeks the unnamed woman at the centre of the highprofile case, gave
“Oh, my God,” Ms Diallo recounted saying as she caught sight of a naked man — Strauss-Kahn — in the 28th-floor suite she had entered intending to clean.
“I’m so sorry.”
Strauss-Kahn responded: “You don’t have to be sorry,” and reached for her breasts, she told
“You’re beautiful,” Strauss-Kahn said as he compelled her towards the bedroom, Ms Diallo recounted to
Ms Diallo, a 32-year-old Guinean immigrant, said she told him to stop, saying: “Sir, stop this. I don’t want to lose my job.”
But Strauss-Kahn said no one was there to hear, she said, and he went on to yank up her uniform, tear down her pantyhose, forcefully grab her crotch and then grip her head and force her to perform oral sex.
Ms Diallo told
“I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money.” AP Newsweek she wants Strauss-Kahn held accountable and she was going public to tell a story she said had never wavered. Newsweek a long and tearful interview, with her full name and picture, in a cover story posted online on Sunday.Newsweek.Newsweek, which also refers to her as “Nafi”.
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Inflation hits top earners hardest
Ryan Huang
ryanhuang@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE
However, data released yesterday showed that the pinch of higher prices was not felt uniformly across all income groups.
According to figures released by the Department of Statistics (DOS), in the first six months of the year, the consumer price index (CPI) for general households rose 5.0 per cent from last year. However, the top 20 per cent of earners in Singapore felt the higher prices more acutely, facing an inflation rate of 5.6 per cent.
This was due to significant price increases for cars and petrol, which have relatively larger weights for this group.
In contrast, those among the lowest 20 per cent of income earners grappled with an inflation rate of 3.9 per cent, while the middle 60 per cent of income-earners saw inflation of 4.7 per cent.
According to the DOS, all three groups were affected by higher car prices, accommodation costs and more expensive food.  [WHAT is The  SOLUTION  ? ? ?? ]
These increases were, however, moderated — particularly for lower income-earners — by the Government’s scrapping of television and radio licence fees and lower service and conservancy charges.
Against this backdrop and with an eye on higher inflation in the months ahead, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last week raised its official inflation forecast for the full year to between 4 and 5 per cent.  [WHY  sO lOw ? ? ? ?]  Another mIstake  ? ? ? ?
Analysts MediaCorp spoke to did not expect headline inflation to moderate until at least the end of the year.
Near-ZERO Bank Savings Interest Rate is the ROOT INFLATION  MULTIPLIER  -
the whOle wOrld knOws abOUt  thIs  trUth    — Singapore’s inflation rate last month — driven by higher housing, transport and food costs — hit 5.2 per cent compared to a year ago — the highest level in five months since it peaked at 5.5 per cent in January.
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GIC reveals performance over 5, 10 years  [WHY ?]
Teo Xuanwei
xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE
The sovereign wealth fund traditionally publishes its annual performance aggregated over 20 years but, starting this year, it will include five-year and 10-year annual rates of return to “provide a good sense of the ongoing medium-term investment performance”, said group president Lim Siong Guan at a media briefing yesterday.
As at end-March, the GIC clocked a 20-year annual nominal rate of return in US dollar terms of 7.2 per cent, slightly above last year’s 7.1 per cent. In real terms, after factoring in global inflation (3.1 per cent) and deducting all costs incurred, the gain was 3.9 per cent compared to last year’s 3.8 per cent.
Is it a bIg lOss  like  MAS  in 2011 ? ? ? ? — In response to long-standing calls for more information about the Republic’s investment portfolio, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has revealed, for the first time, its performance over various time frames in its annual report, which it will released today.
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By Channel NewsAsia, Updated: 25/07/2011
Two—thirds of NTU fresh grads secure jobs before convocation
 
 
NTU graduates
SINGAPORE: A record 9,066 students are graduating from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) this year.
And the cohort is riding on the waves of a tight job market, with two—thirds already securing employment.
Brothers Harry and Henry Zhuang have just been conferred their Digital Animation degrees and will be working in the same company.
" Actually we are quite surprised that the company is going to hire both of us. But he ensured that we are going to work on two different projects," said Henry, who graduated from NTU’s School of Art, Design & Media.
Harry said: " I think there are jobs available. It’s whether you’re willing to work or not."
The brothers make up two—thirds of a cohort that have secured jobs before graduating.
In a preliminary study conducted by the university, it was also found that the top five earners from NTU’s Class 2011 are drawing entry—level salaries of above $10,000.
NTU’s new president predicts a significant proportion would be living and working abroad. The challenge then is to ensure future graduates have the competitive edge in a globalised job market.
" I think we’ve got to change the curriculum to increase communication skills. Apart from being good mechanical engineers, physicists or biologists, you have to learn social skills, cultural intelligence, because the work market is international," said NTU’s president Professor Bertil Andersson.
" Many people say, for example, the SMU students are much better at communicating than NTU. I don’t know if that’s true, but certainly we should make the NTU students better in communication, having more social and international skills," he added.
Professor Andersson, who succeeded Professor Su Guaning whose term lasted eight years, was giving his first convocation speech. Professor Su was also conferred the title of President Emeritus.
— CNA /ls
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whOever  mAkEs
AmerIcA  bAnkrUpt
wIll  bE
nEvEr    fOrgIvEn
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OVERHEARD:
thIs  bEt  cAn    bE
nEvEr  wrOng
muifan ( Date: 25-Jul-2011 15:41) Posted:
Hi Gaecia meimei..
I hope my bet on Obama is correct. If Monday US time they can settle the debt issues, it will reward handsomely those that long today, vice versa..
STX will be reporting on 13th Aug...2nd QTR should be good for all the contract won...
Just a question on GAP, today STX opened GAP down 1.55 half a cent and went on to today low of 1.52 and then bounce back up to 1.55  closing the gap soon...to me is a bullish sign, issit correct? Base on the theory by the sifus that all GAPs have to be filled...pls enlighten me..
arigato
Gaecia ( Date: 25-Jul-2011 15:34) Posted:
mr rice,  have  a gd hand in this stxosv fella!
I'll like to see  city dev  rally abit for moi  to re-s again pls, as a  tutorial for gaecia  to see if it can close  up the gap. Anyway I just anyhow  covered it first  @10.63 i not greedy,  S-ed it  @10.93  on fri @4.58/9pm. Seriously i  want to  thank Christ  for protection, it really felt like suicide attempt to s  just a trading day ago...  my fingers turned stiff & cold  on  that yzj also back then. 
  > .<
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Macau casino factsMonday Jul 25th, 2011 |
Macau is a country in Far East Asia with legal gambling. Macau is divided into cities.
There are 2 cities in Macau which have 41 legal gambling facilities available in total.
The 41 gambling facilities consist of casinos and pari-mutuel facilities.
Legally the only types of gambling available in Macau are: casinos, pari-mutuel, dog tracks, horse tracks.
The city with the highest number of casinos in Macau is Macau with 32 casino facilities and 64 slot machines.
The largest casino in the entire country of Macau is Venetian Casino Resort which is found in Taipa.
Venetian Casino Resort has 1100 table games and 12000 casino slots / video poker games (or other video terminal gaming machines).
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during  1997 ASIAN  FINANCIAL  CRISIS
people  all  over  ASIA  enjoyed 
lOw  lOw  lOw  lOw  prices 
 
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WHAT  is  the  DIFFERENCE  ? ? ? ?
between
INTEGRITY  &   HONESTY  ? ? ? ?
The  LAWS  cannOt
determIne
INTEGRITY
An HONEST persOn
cAn  hAve
nO  INTEGRITY
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Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Whether you're doing research, exploring a personal philosophy, or are simply curious about humanism, the resources here are a great place to start:
Explanations of Humanism
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http://www.humanist-society.org/
fOr  HUMANS  ONLY 
nO  ANIMALS  PLEASE  !
steadylar ( Date: 25-Jul-2011 12:53) Posted:
The world is looking sicker by the day...
sick earth
sick financial systems
sick minds
sick bodies
sick religions
how to save us humans?
is there any hope? |
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Are  wOrld  leAders  tOday ? ? ? ?
hOnest  ? ? ? ?
less  hOnest  ? ? ? ?
mOre  hOnest  ? ? ? ?
dO  wOrld  leAders  tOday  ? ? ? ?
hAve  INTEGRITY  ? ? ? ?
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“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
 
(Who will guard the guards themselves?)
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Reconsider video recording ...
Letter from Lim Ker Sheon
I read with interest the report “Calls for video recording have been considered” (July 22), about a procedure that, to date, still troubles many criminal practitioners like myself, a law firm director.
With the greatest respect to the Ministry of Law (MinLaw), the need for video recording of interviews is not merely to mitigate against coerced statements but against inaccuracies in taking statements.
To explain the process, what happens is that the investigating officer (IO) will usually interview the witness, reading from a prepared list of questions, and will then type the answers before printing a statement for the witness to sign.
The difficulty here is, inevitably, the questions asked and answers given orally may have (sometimes material) differences to the actual statement signed.
Most interviewees would sign the statement, believing it to be an accurate reflection of what was asked and answered.
This may not always be the case, as the IO would inevitably condense the answers or otherwise change it to reflect the question.
This problem is exacerbated when the interview is conducted not in English but in a different language, as the statement itself is in English.
The translation depends entirely on either the IO himself or sometimes a different police officer who acts as a translator.
In effect, the witness “blindly signs” off.
This statement, known commonly as the Long Statement, is hardly ever released to the witness or his lawyer after it has been signed and is frequently only brought out at trial, and only after the witness has said something that contradicts the statement under cross-examination by the prosecutor.
The issue and the need for video recording is, therefore, obvious. Quite aside from the occasional rogue officer who coerces statements, this is really a case of “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (Who will guard the guards themselves?)
Where video technology is both cheap and readily available, the answer is obvious.
Certainly, the implementation of such technology would be far cheaper and a lot more effective than the additional training that MinLaw appears to be proposing.
Should video recording of interviews be allowed, I am certain the MinLaw would require certain safeguards to prevent wanton abuse of the process, where every accused person nitpicks on every small inconsistency in the statement given. That is fine.
In any event, I have absolute confidence in our judiciary to throw out any frivolous attempts by accused or defence counsel to do so.
But the argument remains — there really is no reason for such video recording not to be introduced.
And once MinLaw introduces video technology, my next hope is that FIFA will soon follow suit.
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Singapore  EcOnOmIc  grOwth  pArAdIgm:
- FINE  CITY  ? ? ? ?
- INFLATION  CITY  ? ? ? ?
- RENT  CITY  ? ? ? ?
-  RANSOM  CITY  ? ? ? ?
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frOm  the  letters  in the  newspapers and online
sEEms  lIke
sIngapOre  hIred  ALL  the  wrOng  tAlent
at    the  tOp  ? ? ? ?
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