INDRANEE THE MAGICIAN EXPLAINS THE RESERVES CONUNDRUM

Matters of national concerns arising from new or amendments to legislation draw no comments from the Law Society. The general medical community stays absolutely silent on serious concerns over mRNA vaccines. Zero input from the Society of Accountants to the conundrum of our reserves is no surprise. The apathy of people in leadership roles in relevant professions in Singapore is a crying shame. It is testament to the veracity of my old blog on kiassu, kiassi, bo-chup.

Indomitable opposition MP Leong Mun Wai had spoken recently in parliament on the high cost of public housing in which land cost is the underlying factor. Leong's argument was the government sells land at market value thus making significant gains in reserves, and since the state already has a reputedly high reserve, public housing cost can be lowered with land sales at below market prices. The 2nd Minister of National Development M/s Indranee Rajah responded thus:

“When we sell State Land, we convert the physical asset into a financial asset. For example, if we sell a parcel of State Land at its fair market value of, say, S$1 million, we no longer have the land for the term of the lease sold, but we have S$1 million. There is no net increase in the reserves. We have merely changed the physical land in our reserves into a distributed amount of financial reserves. There is no new value created and hence no addition to the reserves.”

This legal-economic obfuscatory statement to an accounting issue is now template explanation in various government websites. Never mind that it goes against the grain of every ordinary person's understanding of changes in asset values. Obviously, the intricacy of government accounting has a lot to do with this. Should we walk quietly into the financial hell of astronomical HDB prices in accepting this anguished verbiage, or do we try to understand what it is all about?

Let's look at simple accounting 101

Supposing a plot of land is bought for $1m. It was sold 5 years later for $2.5m, netting a profit of $1.5m. Government accounting is on a cash basis, thus recognition of the net profit is upon sales of the land.

Reserves is the net unencumbered assets. Thus in year 1 where assets-liabilities = 0, there was no reserves. Upon sales, it is irrefutable wealth has increased by $1.5m. This is so fundamentally simple I am insulting readers' intelligence with the above chart.

In magic tricks, the performer uses what is known as the Art of Misdirection. It is a deception to get the audience to focus on something else so they miss out on the mechanism of the actual trick. In reference to the chart above, Minister Indranee attracts your attention to the left, the Assets. Like all good magicians, she fills your mind with irrelevant details to retain your attention on the deception. She tells you it is purely a monetisation of land, changing one form of asset to another. And so she talks of land as non-earning assets and cash as financial earning assets. For good measure, she screws your brain with term of leases. By then, brain fog would have gotten hold as you go thinking of 99 year HDB leases which she did not even have to bring up. Meanwhile, you are missing out on the right hand side and see the increase in wealth of $1.5m. Indranee's explanation in parliament was either a verbal magic trick or mis-information.

Land acquisition and land reclamation by the government is funded by past reserves. To this extent, Indranee's explanation about changing reserves from one form to another without increase in reserves is absolutely correct, but only in respect of year 1, the year of acquisition, not sales. A financial asset ($1m of cash from past reserves) is changed to land (investment). There was no change in reserves, thus I assume presidential consent was not necessary in year 1.

The more discerned readers would surely be asking where is the cash coming from when past reserves fund some payments, such as land acquisition, land reclamation and pandemic aid packages? To explain this, I refer to my old chart on government cash inflows and outflows. Regular readers should be familiar with this chart by now.

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The operating revenue cash inflow (from taxes, duties, fees, fines, rental, NIRC from SWF. part of earnings from MAS) all goes into the Consolidated Fund to meet the government's fiscal obligations.

Using past reserves to pay non-fiscal disbursements, the transactions are not routed through the Consolidated Fund. The government simply pays out from the cash account at MAS. So for the land acquisition in year 1, there is no change in the net value of assets. In the government Statement of Assets and Liabilities, there are only 2 asset types -- Cash and Investments. So cash goes down by $1m and Investments increase by $1m. A change from a financial asset to land. No net change in reserves.

On disposal of the land in year 5, Cash goes up $2.5m, investments down $1m as the land has been sold, making a net asset increase of $1.5m. This should be matched by $1.5m on the liabilities side in one of the fund accounts, representing the profit on the land sales, in other words, the increase in reserves. I am not certain which funds account it ended up with. My guess is The Development Fund.

I am not quite sure if Indranee said this, but a Petir (PAP newsletter) article in relation to this subject matter, stated :

"The land will not do much for Singaporeans when it’s just left unsold. But converted into liquid cash at fair market value, it helps appreciate Singapore’s reserves indirectly and eventually for the next generation."

This could be referring to the fact that proceeds of the sales are invested by GIC which provides investment returns in the form of NIRC to help fund the national budget. It could also mean when converting to liquid cash, or sales, at market value, it appreciates the reserves, meaning, it increases the reserves. Take it which way you want.

This here is a bit off track, but I cannot help resist a little tale to add spice in connection with the Petir quote "... "land will not do much for Singaporeans when it’s just left unsold". SLA is the agency that manages some of the government properties as well as the sales of state land, amongst other functions. Some state land is left for temporary use, managed by SLA. Readers may remember a large plot of fantastic land in the Dempsey Road area. In deference to ONE very important gentleman who likes to jog in the area, the plot has been left undeveloped for decades. So a small community of quaint little shops prospered there and were left undisturbed by officialdom as there was no development plan. By and by, SOMEONE UNKNOWN came along with new ideas for the land. Not a full land development, but just to spruce up the area. Whose idea, we don't know. The agency concerned started talking to existing shop owners who were all sub-tenants. As compensation is an issue, a brouhaha ensued as it became clear no one knew who was the MASTER TENANT, and the government had no master tenancy agreement with anyone. Those in the know knew the master-tenant is the brother of another VIP. Eventually the area was tendered out which was not won by the highest bidder, but by someone with a lower bid. The reason was the winner had a better proposal, ahem. And the winner is a well-know VIP who is the wife of another VIP, someone who likes vroom-vroom, hint, hint. So unsold land can and do help earn some returns for the benefit of Singaporeans. Sometimes, we wonder which Singaporean.

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IS FTX THE BIGGEST THEFT IN HISTORY & WILL SBF GO TO JAIL?

 

As I sat down to blog about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the first couple of lines of a Robert Louis Stevenson poem floated across my mind -- "The moon has a face like the clock in the hall; She shines on thieves on the garden wall."  There's a rustic imagery of a bright moon over a burglar on a wall I once saw in a kiddy story book that's etched in my mind from childhood days. It's one of those things which never goes away. Today, petty thefts are not news. And we are no longer shocked by the audacity and the astronomical sums of money involved. 

I collated a list of the biggest financial fraud, scam and theft in modern history to have a sense of how SBF lines up. To have a comparative sense, the sums are adjusted for inflation.

Bernie Madoff still holds the record, but his is an investment scam. We don't know how much Madoff made off, excuse the pun. For the investment frauds, there are still substantial asset recoveries for distribution to investors. In the case of accounting frauds where the companies inflated profits, some investors probably lost much, but it's certainly not the sums indicated here. Similarly, for insider trading, we know how much Milken milked the investors, excuse the pun again. But that's not to say investors lost that much. In the case of embezzlement and theft, that's the real money gone.

So looking at those highlighted in yellow, FTX is the 3rd biggest theft in history.  Pardon the pun yet again, but how much did customers get fried by Sam Bankman-Fried is not yet known. It is estimated about US$10b of customers' deposits have disappeared. How much of investors money, including Temasek's $275m, did he burn in FTX operation or frittered away is still anybody's guess.

It is interesting to note the 2 biggest theft in world history involved sovereign wealth funds. Prince Bolkiah has pride of place as the top thief, taking  US$27.4b of the country's oil wealth for himself. Kuwait has 2 SWF - Kuwait Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Office. The mismanagement is in the KIA which involves several families, including from the ruling Royal Family itself. Some family assets have been seized.

By the way, the last guy Charles Ponzi, he was the gentleman after whom ponzi scams are named. A ponzi scheme relies on a high payout system to continuously attract the unwary, and old investors receive payoffs from the money of new investors. Such schemes existed long before Ponzi, but he had the honour of lending his name to this type of con.

SBF was arrested by authorities in Bahamas where FTX is domiciled. He has been extradited to US and currently out on bail under house arrest at his parents' residence. Will SBF go to jail with the severity of charges piling up against him?

According to Judge Jeanine Pirro, a popular FOX News commentator, she thinks SBF will certainly go to jail, but that a trial is most unlikely. The reason being the CEO of Alameda M/s Caroline Ellison, SBF's ex-girlfriend, and FTX co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Gary Wang, have both been charged and they have pleaded guilty. They have certainly concluded a plea bargain and will testify and throw SBF under the bus. The DOJ will press the same charges against SBF similar to Ellison and Wang. By doing so, according to Judge Pirro, there is no way that SBF will plead Not Guilty and have a court case. That is the reason why the DOJ has been slow in extracting SBF from Bahamas. They needed to have plea bargains with Ellison and Wang finalised first.

So it is very likely SBF will plead guilty, go to jail, no trial and case closed. Nobody will ever find out the truth of whether FTX and SBF are actually a front that was set up to benefit the Democrats as the money trail seems to suggest. The tell-tale sign of fishy business is the low bond for Ellison and Wang, and while bond for SBF is US$250m, his parents home worth only US$4m is pledged. Who really put up the bond is a secret. One needs substantial assets before a bank will issue US$250m bond. The fix is in.

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WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS FROM MY GOVERNMENT

 

With X'mas round the corner, it's time to make my wishes known. This is not a goofy goober request but real serious national concerns. Back in 2019 I made 27 requests, none of which has been realised. Had my request #19 been attended to, we might have been spared the lost of S$275m in FTX, and very possibly many more crypto losses ahead. (Read my 2019 requests here) All these 27 requests still stand, and in addition, I ask for the following:

1. World Economic Forum alumnus:
        In view of Klaus Schwab confessing to having infiltrated cabinets all over the world, will the government please inform the public if Singapore is also a captured country. How many in our cabinet and high ranking officials, both elected and non-elected, are WEF alumnus and who are these?

2. G20-B20 Forum @ Bali:
        Klaus Schwab said this in his speech at the forum :“In the fourth industrial revolution the winners will take it all, so if you are a World Economic Forum first mover, you are the winners”.

It is an 'impoverise they neighbour' ideology. This is extremely dangerous. I wish the government will tell us their stand on this. Do they believe in this ideology. If they do not, then why are they fawning over WEF and Klaus Schwab?

3. Sovereign Wealth Funds:
        As a minimum, I wish the government will work on an urgent basis, the setting up of a board overview committee independent of management.

4. WHO pandemic treaty:
        Has Singapore signed up for this treaty? If Yes, please explain why the public is never notified and why the government choose to relinquish sovereignty to a non-elected body whose objectives now no longer command the same level of trust decades ago. WHO is now an agency of philantropic capitalism, working at the behest of Bill Gates and big pharma. If No, would the government please advise its intention?

5. Unvaccinated blood:
        The government should facilitate the setting up of a separate inventory of blood of residents who have not taken any genetic vaccines. As long term effects of genetic vaccines remain unknown, the government should take precautions and protect the unvaccinated demographic by allowing them to have access to unvaccinated blood. Do not contaminate the genes of those who have not taken the genetic vaccines.

6. Autopsy on covid deaths :
        I want the government to conduct post mortems on those certified 'death from covid' and to report on findings. Particularly, determine if death was from underlying health issues, or due to complications brought about by the genetic vaccines, or from the use of remdisivir.

7. D-dimer test :
        I want the government to offer free D-dimer test to the vaccinated who wish to voluntarily check if they have any signs of blood clot building up.

8. Death from blood clots :
        I want the government to provide  any data from morticians as to their experience of blood clots they have come across. All over the world, reports of creepy blood clots which are not blood but some rubbery substance, are found in the bodies of the dead. There has been no such report of this in Singapore which is statistically impossible. 

9. KKK Hospital clinical trial of mRNA vaccines for 5 year olds:
    The hospital conducted a trial long ago. I want the government to publicise the findings of that trial.

10. Chop suey vaccine boosters :
        The government allows for mix use of various vaccines for booster shots. I want the government to tell us if they keep track of each individual's mix use. The government should explain if they have any contingency plans in the event of huge health issues how will they determine causation as regards vaccine brand.

11. Facial recognition ;
        I was not paying attention and I didn't know how come the 'Singpass' app appeared on my mobile. I saw an email telling me I have messages from government relating to some finance matters and to click on the app to access the mail. I clicked on the app and after authentication was asked to set up facial recognition. We are held to ransom to accept facial recognition in order to access services. There is absolutely no necessity for facial recognition on mobile apps. I want government to inform the public what is this facial recognition feature for?


NONE OF MY WISHES, 11 (2022)  AND THE 27 (2019) ARE FRIVOLOUS OR TRIVIAL. THEY ARE SERIOUS CONCERNS OF A TRUE SINGAPOREAN WHO WISHES THE COUNTRY, FELLOW SINGAPOREANS AND THE GOVERNMENT WELL.

 A MERRY X-MAS TO ALL 

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IS KLAUS SCHWAB THE HEAD OF THE SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT?

In the recent G20-B20 Summit at Bali, participants sat in awe at the feet of the non-elected father of the New World Order to listen to his marching orders. Crouched somewhere in his speech full of the usual platitudes to the organising country Indonesia, and motherhood statements of environmental sustainability issues and economic restructuring, Klaus Schwab said"

“In the fourth industrial revolution, the winners will take it all, so if you are a World Economic Forum first mover, you are the winners”.

It is an 'impoverise thy neighbour' ideology. It is diametrically opposed to Lee Kuan Yew's 'prosper thy neighbour'. In shared prosperity, there is peace and harmony. It was LKY's doctrine that guided our foreign relations with our immediate neighbours to the North and South. Schwab is advising Singapore to abandon something that has worked well in our neighbourhood for half a century.

By implication, the losers will loose everything. Schwab has already provided the answer. In his new world, we will loose everything and, in his own words, 'not own anything but will be happy'. Singaporean losers will loose everything, including their HDB flats. If you don't own anything, you will be damn happy with a S$30 GST voucher.

What is the restructuring he was talking about? Of course, it is the Great Reset. Now let's get this straight. Alex Jones, the greatest conspiracy theorist in the world, has been telling us about the Reset for decades. For years, few took him seriously in the past. Today, Alex is an icon for truth, and they are out to gag him by all means. How in the world does a libel case end up with a US$1b damages if not for the purpose of extinguishing a Light? In the internet era, truth has its way of coming to light. And so, Schwab and his cabal now puts everything out in the open.

Before you restructure, you first destroy. Does what's happening in the world seem orchestrated to you? The energy crisis, the pandemic mess, the supply line debacle, the war against farmers, the fires at various food production plants, 10,000 cows dying of heat stroke, Bill Gates and his cabal promoting food from insects, destruction of family values, normalisation of non-binary genders, etc. 

To succeed, you need a team. Schwab has infiltrated cabinets in many countries. He actually boasted about it and named amongst his princelings - Justin Trudeau (Canadian PM), Alberto Fernández (Argentinian president), Emmanuel Macron (French president), Angela Merkel (ex-German chancellor), Jacinda Arden (New Zealand PM) and God knows who else he did not mention. Is there any Singaporean name in there? Putin is a WEF alumnus, but looks like he is not playing ball. Good for him. Wait a minute. Is that the reason they are all out to get Putin because he is not playing ball and not because of the war? Just like Trump who didn't play ball?

Schwabism stands for many things which are anathema to Singapore politics. Klaus Schwab is profoundly influenced by Archbishop Helder Camara of Brazil, also known as the Red Bishop. Certainly not for the spiritual guidance, but the doctrine of Liberation Theology or to be more specific, the communist style community organisation model. I covered him in my older blog here. Liberation Theology is seen by many, certainly LKY included, as a communist ploy in disguise. WEF is ultra Left, a world of no religions, no respecter of family values that we Asians cherish. Schwab's key advisor is the mad scientist Yuval Noah Harari (actually he is a historian) who is busy plotting to lead us into their new world of transhumanism. Many believe the graphene oxide injected into your body when you were tricked to take the genetic vaccine, is key to transhumanise homo sapiens in the future.

Schwab wants a world of enslavement for us useless eaters, controlled by the use of a breakout technology of vaccine passport, carbon footprints, and central bank digital currency.

The model for handling pandemic is the Chinese zero-covid lockdown model, according to Klaus Schwab. He is all for tanks on the streets to monitor, real time tracking your movements, locking people up in the homes, yes physically locked up, as in chains and keys from the outside and you and your family inside. Surely you remember the Chinese family that was locked-up whose flat caught fire and they could not escape. The fire spreaded to neighbouring flats and a few other families suffered the same fate. Incinerated. They reported family of 8 burnt to death. Actual death toll suspected to be around 50. That is Schwab's model.

B20 is a grouping of about 700 biggest corporations in the world. G20 are the 20 governments of the biggest economies of the world. How sweet that they come together to bow at the feet of Klaus Schwab and the WEF. They represent like 0.0001% of the world's population. They sit and plot and chart for the world. But what about us? Who is representing the voices of the rest of humanity in the dystopian world they envision? 

Each time a leader talks of a new world order, nothing good comes out of it. Never. The trajectory of WEF is a dystopian world, a world Eisenhower warned us that "... is global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration'' and captured by a scientific-technological elite. What elite do you think? Could it be WEF and the B20?

In human history, ideologies come and go. Some have been for the better good of humanity, others have been divisive and destructive. Nazism killed millions, Leninist/Marxist/Maoist ideologies annihilated hundreds of millions, the Inquisition killed tens of thousands, etc. Schwabism will be no different because it is encrusted with the European disease of a belief in wanting to cull the human race.

Klaus Schwab and all that he stands for and what he is trying to do, is extremely dangerous. His speech to the elected world leaders in Bali essentially is 'Follow the WEF Fourth Industrial Revolution agenda or else". Mesmerised by Schwab, all participants, including Singapore representatives, gave a thunderous round of applause under a Dunning-Kruger effect.

Has Singapore government bought into the ideology of Schwabism? It would seem so. Singapore's plan to host the WEF Conference in 2020 was frustrated by the pandemic. For the local MICE industry, I can understand the disappointment. For the government, it is a disappointment of lost opportunity to show how the Lion City play ball with the WEF. We are eager beavers to be ahead of the class in the climate sustainability programme (our carbon tax will be hitting the roof soon). We are one of the first to sanction Russia. We rush to ramp up covid vaccination. 

A lone voice in the entire world, Archbishop Vigano shouted on top of the The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican City, to warn everyone of what he sees in Schwab's machinations and his G20 speech is a global coup d'etat..

Vigano has been the lone voice of righteousness speaking out against moral corruption in the Catholic Church; the political, cultural and 2020 electoral corruption in US; communist attempt to grab power in Brazil; and rush to judgement in the Ukraine conflict. He has been right on all counts, including now the threat against humanity in the form of WEF and Klaus Schwab.

Where are the brave and the righteous? Do they exist in Singapore?

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PRESIDENT SUKARNO : "TELL ME, WHY DID THEY KILL KENNEDY?"

In the 1950s, the US conducted clandestine activities to topple Sukarno. These led to souring of US-Indonesia relationship. Three months after assuming office, President John F. Kennedy invited Sukarno to the White House. With the relationship repaired, Kennedy promised to visit Jakarta after the 1964 election. Sukarno began building a special villa for Kennedy's visit. In a 1964 interview, reporter Cindy Adams asked Sukarno about the villa. Sukarno paused, and then said "Tell me, why did they kill Kennedy?" Third world leaders understood who killed Kennedy, not in the sense of who pulled the trigger, but the ones behind the awful act. They just didn't understand why.

In his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation  that the "potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.". He specified 2 dangers ahead.

The first is scientific-technological research and development becomes very costly and will be increasingly sponsored by the federal government. He warned of the "... danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” 

The second is " ...  the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." 

However, Eisenhower saw the threat of the military complex as the lesser of two evils. He thought it imperative that development in military capabilities must continue because of a hostile world. ''We face a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration.''

Post-war US foreign policy has been based on cold-war ideological doctrines of American exceptionalism against communist internationalism by any means possible. This has developed into US imperialism against states which have strategic interest to the West but not towing American agenda. The pursuit of these policies have seen US intrusion in political affairs of many countries, including assassinating unfriendly heads of states, and engineering regime change.

Kennedy came to the White House in 1961 with an entirely different world view. Those were times of the rise of nationalism and non-alignment as anti-colonialism spread all over the world. Kennedy understood leaders of third world nations want to choose their own destinies and be aligned to no one. The era of Western colonialism was over. A different approach was required, one based on co-operation, friendship and trust. He felt the hard approach on countries that did not tow American line will have the exactly opposite effect of driving them into the arms of the USSR.


VIETNAM

In the Indochina war before US involvement, JFK did not see an ideological contest between communism and free world. He saw nationalism vs colonialism and a hopeless French attempt to cling on to a far flung colony. US had sided with the colonialist. Nixon had suggested to nuke North Vietnam, but rejected by Eisenhower. In the end, the French lost Dienbienphu and left Vietnam. US had military advisors to support the South Vietnamese military. Kennedy went with the flow of his military advisors. US increased non-combat boots on the ground from a few hundred to 16,000. Bombing missions under the direction of South Vietnamese Air Force began. Kennedy refused to bomb North Vietnam. By 1962 his Defense Secretary Robert Mcnamara had made it clear to US personnel in Vietnam that they will withdraw by 1965. A few weeks before the assassination, JFK issued National Security Action memorandum# 263 which basically confirmed the decision to withdraw US troops from Vietnam. When Prsident Lyndon B Johnson (LBJ) took over, hundreds of thousands of US troops poured in, bombing of North Vietnam began in 1964, the war escalated, and the rest is history.

CUBA

In Cuba, JFK twice refused the advise of his military advisors. In the Bay of Pigs incident when Cuban exiles in US were taking a beating from Castro's forces, Kennedy was advised to invade Cuba. He refused. In the Russian missiles crisis, he was advised to bomb the nuclear missile sites. Again he refused, but choose to negotiate with Nikita Kruschev. Diplomacy won.


INDONESIA

After WWII and Japanese troops withdrew, Indonesia unilaterally declared independence on 17 Aug 1945 with charismatic nationalist leader Sukarno its first President. The Dutch returned but met resistance from nationalist forces. The British arrived to assist the Dutch. International condemnation and pressure led the Dutch to leave Indonesia in 1949, except for West Irian.

Two strong nationalists, Sukarno and Nehru, sponsored the Bandung Conference in Jakarta in 1955. It was their attempt to forge a non-aligned grouping. The cold war ideology of the US was vehemently against neutralism. Countries are either with the US or out. US was also wary of Sukarno because he had taken over control of Dutch major commercial interests and the communist party PKI had grown in strength. The US began to devise Sukarno's downfall. In 1958 the CIA started a covert action and staged an uprising. A pilot was shot down. He was captured and identified as American Alan Pope. With evidence, Sukarno was able to debunk CIA propaganda and the uprising ended. 

Barely 3 months after inauguration, Kennedy repaired relation with Indonesia. He realised US had tried to take Sukarno down. He invited Sukarno to White House, secured the release of Alan Pope, sent a team of US economists to help Indonesia and promised to hasten the return of West Irian to Indonesia. Eventually, the UN, with US pressure, approved the return of West Irian from the Dutch to Indonesia. Sukarno protected US business interests in Indonesia with equitable profit sharing arrangements.

Sukarno knew what Kennedy's assassination meant. On national day 17 Aug 1964, he made his famous "Year of Living Dangerously" speech. The moment LBJ came into office, he froze a small financial aid bill for Indonesia. The CIA began to sow conflicts between communist and non-communist elements. US picked on a rising star General Suharto. 13 generals were enticed to a meeting and killed, their bodies dumped into a well known as Crocodile Hole. The communists took the rap. This erupted into an orgy of savage killings of 500,000 suspected communists and brought Suharto to the fore. In 1966, Suharto ousted Sukarno, and LBJ had his man in place.


CONGO

Congo was a Belgian colony. Pro-independence movement forced Belgium to leave. In 1960 Congo became independent under a constitutionally elected nationalist president, Patrice Lumumba. The Belgians had departed abruptly and left the country with no governmental infrastructure. Chaos erupted and violence was rampant. The British and Belgians covertly planned a mineral rich region of Katanga to secede, led by their chosen front man Moïse Tshombe. A secessionist war followed. Lumumba sought the assistance of UN and US. With UN bureaucracy moving at slow pace and Eisenhower avoiding him, Lumumba turned to USSR which agreed to send aid. That sealed the fate of Lumumba.

Eisenhower green lighted CIA orchestration of several failed attempts to assassinate Lumumba. Eventually, CIA agent Joseph Mobutu, captured and brought him to Katanga. Lumumba was tortured, shot, sulphuric acid poured over his body, and remains burnt. Lumumba was killed 17 Jan 1961, 3 days before the inauguration of JFK. CIA was in a hurry to get the job done before Kennedy took office.

Kennedy did not know of Lumumba's murder until 13 Feb 1962 when he received the call from UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. Photographer Jacque Lowe was in the room in White House and snapped this photo of JKF's reaction to the news. He groaned "Oh No".

Kennedy's policy of pacifism met with much push back from a Congress that saw a communist take over of Congo. Congress was supportive of  Katanga and Tshome, the frontman of  Britain and Belguim. In other words, back to European imperialism. By then, under Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, UN had sent in peace keeping force to reunite Congo, remove the mercenaries and expel Tshombe. On 17 Sep 1961, Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash in Rhodesia in what many suspected was a sabotage. Kennedy went to the UN to encourage continuity of Hammarskjold's tasks.

After Kennedy's death, Johnson admin supported Mobutu on the strength of his anti-communist stand. With Lumumba dead, the SIMBA revolution began. These were basically tribesmen who fought with spears and arrows. With no Kennedy to pressure UN, the peace keeping force withdrew. Johnson admin invited the Belgians back to bring stability, as well as mercenaries from Rhodesia, South Africa and Cuba. Mobutu became president where he stayed on for 30 years, completely bankrupted the country, while he became the richest man in Africa.


THE PATTERN

There were several other areas of conflict, such as in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Ghana, Latin America, etc, all with interesting stories. but they all line up a similar pattern displayed in the four countries above.

Kennedy didn't step into the office with the cold-war mentality of the establishment US politicians. He had empathy for nationalist leaders who want to plot their own destiny, like Sukarno, Nasser and Lumumba. JFK basically went against the interest of European imperialists. He was against right-wing coups and military intervention. His willingness to engage socialist leaders,and non-aligned leaders is basically a precursor of 'detente' which later on in 1969 became the core of President Nixon's foreign policy. Detente is the relaxation of strained relationship through communication. In the aftermath of the cold war, it was a foreign relation policy designed to ease geopolitical tensions and reduce the escalation towards a nuclear conflict.

The pattern clearly established is Kennedy's pacifist policies up-ended post-war hard-fisted anti-communist foreign relation policies of Eisenhower, only for his successor Johnson to flip everything and revert to status quo.


MOTIVATION, MEANS AND OPPORTUNITY

A pre-meditated crime is always committed by a perpetrator(s) with motivation and has the means and opportunity. The pattern shows motivation is most certainly the desire to bring US foreign policy from Kennedy's detente with USSR and apathy for third world nationalism and non-alignment back to cold war ideology of anti-communism and anti-neutralism. The means obviously is available to the agency that has the experience and resources. The opportunity is Kennedy's open top motorcade tour of Dallas, a Democrat stronghold that harboured a lot of enmity for the first Catholic president.

JFK assassination documents were declassified in 2017 by court order made in 1967. Trump with-held some of the documents, obviously in deference to his intel advisors. 13 Dec 2022 Biden released all documents, except for 3% the CIA held back. After 50 years when all persons involved are dead, why does the CIA still want to retain thousands of documents?  

John Foster Dulles was Eisenhower's Secretary of State where he wielded enormous influence on foreign affairs for more than a decade. He was the grand master for US foreign relation with policies primed on a staunch anti-communist and anti-neutralism stand. Nationalist third world countries are not acceptable. During the cold war, countries need to be pro-West, or they get regime-changed. A brilliant man given to making famous quotes. Here's a couple that underlie his thinking:

"Our capacity to retaliate must be, and is, massive in order to deter all forms of aggression."

"The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost."

Massive retaliation, aggression and brinkmanship. The hallmarks of John Foster Dulles..

Allen Foster Dulles was the longest serving director of CIA (1953-1961). If his brother John was the foreign relations King, Allen was the espionage King. His covert exploits not authorised by Congress  included the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the evil mind control programme MK-ULTRA, regime change in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), the use of drug money to fund operations, and many others. The book 'The Devil’s Chessboard' by author David Talbot covered all the sordid deeds of Allen Dulles, depicting him as a very dark character who lived a life of assassinations and who would have no qualms killing a fellow American. Allen was dismissed from office by JFK following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

J Edgar Hoover was the Director of FBI (1924-1972). Hoover was gay, and with him compromised in some homsexual act, there was no counter-insurgency investigation. The immediate investigation of JFK assassination was basically left in the hands of Dallas police dept controlled by the Democrats.

Lyndon Byrd Johnson, JFK's vice president, was never called to account for his Freudian slip when he told his mistress Madeleine Brown several hours after the assassination "We've taken care of the son-of-a-bitch''.

George Walker Bush, the future 43rd president and future CIA director (1976-1977) was then a CIA lead agent. He was caught on camera in front of the hospital where Kennedy' was rushed to. He denied being in Dallas but CIA documents placed him in the city on that fateful day.



DONALD TRUMP

Just like JFK, Trump assumed office with policies that upset the status quo. Compared to Kennedy, Trump's situation was of a much higher severity in terms of a wide rage of policies, and the collusion of almost all government agencies. Whilst Kennedy faced push back on foreign policies, Trump faced foreign, economic, and wide ranging domestic policies in health, immigration, law and order etc. Kennedy had CIA undermining him in stealth, Trump had open revolt from CIA, FBI, Foreign services, Intelligence, DOJ etc. Kennedy set out to up-end cold war policies which at times were anti-European imperialism, and had all his work reversed by Johnson. Trump set out to clean the swamp, make peace, push America First foreign policy independent of European interests, but had all his efforts reversed by his successor Biden.


THE UGLY AMERICAN

This is a political novel by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick published in 1958. Set in South East Asia with the back ground of the geopolitics of the Cold War, it shows the arrogance and lack of empathy to local culture and language by the US diplomatic corps. US bungled their missions because the executives had no idea what was going on. On the other hand, their antagonists, the communist Eastern bloc, had success in many emerging countries. This book was wildly popular at the time, and probably played a role in Kennedy setting up the US Peace Corps, a programme that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. 

Kennedy was blocked by his State Dept and CIA stuck in cold-war anti-communist, anti-neutralism ideology. Trump was sabotaged by practically the whole government machinery hell bent on progressive liberal ideology lined up with the scientific-technology elite that Eisenhower warned, and totally in sync with neo-European imperialism in the form of Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum's agenda of One World Order. Both Kennedy and Trump had to battle with executives who are Ugly Americans, totally out of touch, with the real situation on the ground.

Both Kennedy and Trump faced a foe distinctly described by Eisenhower in 1961, a foe that is  "a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method"..

Journalist Jon Schwarz describes the dark world we live in thus :

"Yes, there is an amorphous group of unelected corporate lawyers, bankers, and intelligence and military officials who form an American “deep state,” setting real limits on the rare politicians who ever try to get out of line. They do collaborate with and nurture their deep state counterparts in other countries, to whom they feel far more loyalty than their fellow citizens. The minions of the deep state hate and fear even the mildest moves towards democracy, and fight against it by any means available to them. They’re not all-powerful and don’t get exactly what they want, but on the issues that matter most they almost always win in the end. And while all this is mostly right there in the open, discernible by anyone who’s curious and has a library card, if you don’t go looking you will never hear a single word about it."

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SINGAPORE CANCELS INNOCENTLY, US CANCELS THE INNOCENT & PROMOTES DEPRAVITY

Back in the 60s, we had our own cancel culture in Singapore. The west, especially the US, was going through a cultural revolution of sorts. It was an upheavel, a rejection of what the youths perceived as the staleness of status quo. Out went respect for the traditional. Liberalism manifested in the flower children free-love movement with excesses fueled by LSD addiction and rock and roll music of the day. A prude and prudent Singapore will have none of that, and quite rightly so. First casualty was long hair. It was trim our hair, or no discos for us. It wasn't much of a choice for us youngsters of the times. Some prudish official wanted us to look prim and proper on dance floors, so dancing with a ridiculous tie loaned at the entrance of the premises became a necessary nuisance.

RTV or Radio & TV Singapore, weilded their control over the airvwaves and in our living rooms from their castle at Caldecott Hill. At the time, a background tussle for management control of the state run RTV was being fought with the public being largely unaware. It wasn't a battle of ambitious executives. the battline line was language. The Chinese-educated won. And with that, policies changed to skew towards conservatism. The Chinese-educated of those days generally lacked the progressive, creative flair, adventurism, excitement and energy of the English-educated. The ethos over the airwaves and TV productions took a turn into the black and white staleness of 50s and early 60s (at least, that's the way my senses felt). The situation got worse with departures of many familiar names from the English-educated ailse, like George Favacho, Bernard Salosa.

Then came the cancel culture, the banning of songs. Cancelling decisions are always subjective, and I felt the Chinese-educated lacked the depth of understanding the nuances of the language or meanings of those they took out. Peter, Paul and Mary's Puff The Magic Dragon was one of the first to be banned.

Peter Yarrow wrote the song based on a kiddy poem by Leonard Lipton in 1959 about growing up pains. Apophenia, which is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things, somehow took hold. 'Puff' was smoking a joint, 'dragon' is a reference to 'chasing the dragon' which is inhaling the vapors of heroin when heated, 'by the sea' the 'sea' became "C' for cannabis,  'Honahlee' became hashish, etc. All these were nonsense because PPM was hardly a trio one associates with drugs. The recreational drug use at the time was hallucinogenic LSD, not cannabis, heroin or hashish. The flower people movement had not yet started in 1959. The sweet melodic folksy tune slandered by ignorance.

Julian's Lucy

Many other songs were also banned. The Beatles had 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' banned because some idiots said the title is a mnemonic of LSD. According to John Lennon, he simply took the title from a drawing by his son Julian who drew his classmate Lucy and the kid titled his drawing thus.

Another Beatles' song was also banned and this clearly shows idiocy at work. Some western guy said 'Yellow Submarine' is a code for the barbiturate called Nembutal because it was sold in yellow capsules, and our guys in RTV followed. What would it be had it been 'purple submarine'? The song was actually a genre called novelty song. Just a tune based on some silly stuff, a joke, a comedy, in this case Julian Lennon's drawing and some kiddy tune..

But here is the real idiocy, while the song was banned, the movie Yellow submarine' was not.

The movie was released in 1968. According to Paul McCartney, they were under contract to produce one final movie. So they sat down and clobbered the cartoon in a matter of days to honour their obligation. They simply built on the eponymous song which was featured in the movie. So the song was banned, but allowed in the movie. The idiocy with Singapore censors was they actually had no idea what was going on. The song was kiddy stuff, but the movie was actually heavily drug-induced. The colour schematic and the imaging is a mind-boggling hallucinogenic trip.

There has been no official lifting of these bans. It just got forgotten and have since been heard on air and TV. Laws have been breached and some folks are napping.

The Singapore story of cancel culture is one designed with good intentions, and initiated by the state to protect conservative values against perceived bad actors.

In the US, it is state-sponsored, and initiated at corporate and individual levels, by leftist liberals out to suppress conservative values and normalise depravity.  These article headlines from two of the most rabid anti-Trump media written by Trump-hating contributors, show the level of depravity the Democrats are leading the nation into. They are now trying to normalise pedophilia. As always, the Left will turn around to put the blame on Republicans for that which they are guilty of. Washington Post is saying it's the conservatives who are fear-mongering about the dangers and rising incidence of pedophilia.

I will just leave with these 2 songs that clearly show the depth of filth the US has descended into.

Dean Martin sings 'Baby'. A cozzy delightable little tune in the Xmas mood. But none of the hundreds of stations all over the US will air it. It has been cancelled out.

On the other hand, this tune below is played over and over and over for months. Pay attention to the lyrics and be angry they are bombarding your kids with stuff like this. I respect your sensitivity and spare you the perversities in the original video version.

Wonder if Singapore bans depraved shit such as this.

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THE GOVERNMENT HAS A SHORT MONEY - LONG MONEY PROBLEM

When I was a kid I went strolling Sungei Road 'Thief Market' once, kind of like window shopping in those long forgotten days. At a crowded cross-junction someone set up a table for a three-cup shuffling game. I was standing behind the juggler and being somewhat small at the time, my eye level was in a better position to catch subtle finger movements. I thought OK I was going to hang back, but once I catch an error, I was going to dump my pocket money on a bet. Then it happened. I saw his pinky flipped the dice under the middle cup. I excitedly squeezed my way to the front, but rowdy adults never gave way and I was too slow to place the bet. The juggler lifted the cups and hey, the dice was not under the middle cup! So glad my pocket money and I never parted.

The Government Financial Statement (GFS) is prepared on a cash basis. Their assets are in their cash a/c with MAS and investments. Liabilities are represented by the various funds accounts. Assets = Liabilities. But not all the assets can be used to meet the obligations in the funds accounts. From the total assets is deducted what doesn't belong to the government -- proceeds from debts (the various govt securities issued), fiduciary funds, fiscal surplus and proceeds of land sales. From the net assets thus derived is deducted the commitments in various fund accounts.

Based on the GFS as at 31 mar 2021 I computed an estimated deficit of S$307b. No media, academia nor social media keyboard warriors, has broached the issue except Chem-Post blog which reported that on 7 Aug 2022 . See Does The Govt Have Sufficient Cash To Meet Its Purposes. Even if the estimate is only 50% correct, the deficit is still a whopping S$153b. It's inconceivable that this be correct. Click the link and decide for yourself.

What causes the deficits and how does the govt fund itself with a deficit all these years?

Let's examine how the first pandemic aid package was funded. DPM Heng explained S$54b will be from past reserves, S$18.9b from current reserves, and S$22b from loans. Remember Heng mentioned the loans will be 'fiscally neutral' which got social media awash with the question what it means and who is lending the money to the govt.? The S$22B came from MAS money printing, that's why it was 'fiscally neutral'. No one, not Straits Times, CNA, Independent SG, Reuters, etc except Chem-Post reported this 8 Jul 2020 in "Govt Does Not Want You To Know MAS Is Printing Money For The Covid-19 Aid Package"

As to the S$72.9b (S$54bB + S$18.9b) drawn from reserves, you would be forgiven if you thought that since reserves are transferred to GIC, then the Sovereign Wealth Fund would have liquidated some assets to return cash to the govt. But there was NO return of capital from GIC. So where did the govt took the S$72.9B from?

In order to explain this, I need to pull up this chart from a previous blog.

This chart shows how money flows into govt a/c at MAS, and how it flows out when spent as per budget, ie by ministries or the various special programmes under discretionary funds. Money also flows out when fiduciary account depositors withdraw their funds, and when govt invests.

For investments, the funds are either transferred to GIC for long term investment, or govt invests and manages in its own portfolio.

Cash is fungible. That means S$1 is the same as the next S$. It doesn't matter from which stream of cash flow it comes from. And that means the cash are all co-mingled. When the govt pays out, it simply pays out of the cash balance in the MAS a/c. So it doesn't matter from which stream of cash flow, and neither is it possible to trace.

Since GIC didn't return any funds to govt, it is an absolute certainty the S$72.9b came from cash balance in MAS and the disposal of some of the assets in the investment portfolio managed by the govt.

In the ordinary course of business, all other payments whether it is expenditure in the running of the government, the payments of the various discretionary fund, and even for Securities Fund, the govt pays out of the MAS account.

In order to meet immediate and short term payment requirements the government must maintain liquid assets to cover their timeline horizon. This liquid asset is in the form of cash at MAS, and very marketable securities such as other government securities. In times of need, these securities are liquidated and balances in the MAS a/c increased. Cash in access of immediate and short term needs may be transferred to GIC for longer term investments. The liquid assets are the Short Money and the longer term assets held at GIC are the Long Money.

In view of the fact there has been no capital return from GIC to govt, Short Money runs out when:

    1. When reserves are tapped, just like the pandemic aid packages.

    2. There may be some discretionary projects, especially the Development Fund, which are very long term. Funds earmarked for these may likely be transferred to GIC for long term investment. When disbursements are eventually made for these projects and funds are not returned by GIC, the govt digs into their short money.

    3. Proceeds of long term government bonds are transferred to GIC to invest. Redemption of these debts are also paid out by the government using Short Money. However, this situation is not posing a problem because debt is rising consistently. That means redemption is easily paid off from proceeds of new securities issuance. It's being rolled over.

    4. There is another problem of short term securities (T-bills, Savings bonds, some SGS) which are issued at discounts. Govt receives proceeds at discounted value, and pays out at higher face value. The govt as a net cash payer, reduces the Short Money.

    5. Similarly with long term bonds, the coupon (interest) payments are made using Short Money

What the government has is a financial management error of mixing short money with long money.  By using short money to pay for obligations for which funds have been set aside in the long money with GIC, the govt ends up with the S$307b deficit when there has been no return of capital from the SWF.

However, this does not mean funds have gone missing or mis-spent. The S$307b are in the books of GIC.

It is hoped this technical deficit is not the source of the govt's worry of running out of operating funds that form the basis for policy decision of delaying CPF payout and increasing GST.

Co-mingling of funds and moving the cash around seems rather like the juggler at the cup shuffling game. One needs to step back to see how little pinkies move the dice around.

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GIC POISED TO BE 3RD LARGEST SWF IN THE WORLD

The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute ranks the following as top of a lot of 100+ public funds in the world.

	Sovereign Wealth Fund	Total Assets (US$)
1st	China Investment Corp	1,350,863,000,000
2nd	Norway Govt Pension Fund Global	1,136,144,193,600
3rd	Abu Dhabi Investment Authority	790,000,000,000
4th	Kuwait Investment Authority	750,000,000,000
5th	GIC Private Limited	690,000,000,000
6th	Public Investment Fund (Saudi)	607,418,895,000
7th	HK Monetary Authority Investment	588,903,442,872
8th	Temasek Holdings	496,593,722,700

If Temasek and GIC assets are combined, Singapore has a total of US$1.187T which makes our little country as having the 2nd largest invested public funds.

We are actually the uno numero, surpassing even China. The size of GIC is a secret and the US$690B indicated here is only guesswork, pulled together from investment transactions tracked. The fact that it is such a rounded figure, as for Abu Dhabi and Kuwait too, indicates they are estimates.  The actual GIC total asset is definitely far in excess of the estimated US$690B. As at Mar 2022 the longer term government securities which contributed the funds to GIC,were US571 (S$743B @ 1.3). There are 3 other GIC capitalisation that are non-transparent - budget surpluses, land sales proceeds and forex reserves transferred from MAS. Taken altogether Singapore is actually way ahead of China.,

Before Singaporeans go chest-thumping thinking SWF investments are national wealth, as most people are wont to do, folks need to understand there are basically 3 types of government run funds.

SWF handles 3 basic types of funds --
(1) a certain portion of their revenue from extractive industries of natural resources, such as oil, set aside as the shares belonging to future generation, These funds truly belong to the public.
(2) the forex reserves of central banks which are invested by a separate SWF entity to divest the profit seeking objective from the regulatory. The funds support the debt carried in the books of central banks.
(3) the national pension funds. The funds belong to the pension contributors

In the above list, Norway, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia belong to (1). China Investment Corp and HK Monetary Investment Authority are type (2). Philippines is in the process of setting up a type (3) called Maharlika Fund.

Just in case you get the idea of Singapore exceptionalism in managing forex reserves, there are hundreds of type (2) SWFs. Many handle both type (2) and (3) funds.

Singapore is unique. It has 4 special sources of funds no other country has -
(a) the national reserves - originally came from govt equity holdings in various commercial entities later transferred to the SWF.
(b) budget surplus
(c) proceeds from land sales
(d) debt - govt securities issued for non-fiscal purposes (such as pension funds)

Type (b) and (c) are cashflow-identified, but they form part of govt equity, ie reserves. Pension fund is included in (d) as they are invested in a special govt guaranteed bonds. Types (a) (b) (c) are funds that belong to the public. Type (d) belongs to investors.

Temasek manages (a). GIC manages forex reserves and type (b) (c) and (d).

Baring unforeseen disasters in the crypto contagion, GIC is poised to move up 2 rungs into 3rd place next year. This chart explains why.

In the months since y/e 31 Mar 2022, national debt has increased by S$192B. The sudden uptick is due primarily to the MAS programme of transferring excess forex reserves to GIC by subscribing for new class of securities RMGS issued by the govt. This transfer programme started in Mar 2022. Of this S$192B new debt, longer termed securities (SSGS, SGS, RMGS) of S$187B (US$138B) would have been transferred to GIC by now. The MAS transfer programme does not seem to have ended. I suspect a further increase of US$20B RMGS in the next 4 months.

It looks like GIC total assets will be boosted by another US$158B and investment portfolio hitting another record year in 2023. That is, if GIC can ride out the next 4 months without getting hit by another crypto disaster.

With additional capital injection, of course we can expect GIC investment portfolio will rise spectacularly. Bearing in my what I blogged before, any idiot can increase investment portfolio with capital injection. This is not to run down GIC staffers who, of course, work hard to bring in good returns. But recall a popular pro-government blogger who boasted Singapore got richer by S$235B in 2021, confusing asset growth from capital injection as growth in wealth.

That said, capital injection and asset growth means more investments and opportunity for growth in returns. In this, we need to bear in mind that whilst GIC reaps ROI from cost free capital, the liability is carried by MAS and govt who bear the cost of funds.

I hope my various blogs help others to have a bit more understanding of our sovereign wealth funds and be critical if you wish, but at the correct issues. The mentioned blogger no longer talks of wealth growth in the portfolio increase of S$280B by GIC in 2022. Instead he put it this way:

In other words, assuming earlier estimates are correct, GIC should have accumulated S$50 billion in direct ROI, S$45 billion it likely received through CPF inflows, and S$185 billion coming from official foreign reserves (and at least partly have already been delivered). Together, it adds up to S$280 billion — nearly a third more than a year before.

That is a better way of putting it. He tried by deduction to arrived at ROI of S$50B which is really wonderful if correct. In his echo chamber of supporters, fawning comments are plentiful.

His supporters suck up everything without any critical thinking. You see, one can be forgiven in having no idea about all these figures bandied about. But certainly, a huge ROI of S$50B you can bet GIC and media will be proudly boasting about it. Don't get me wrong. It is a fantastic achievement. If it's correct. Instead, the company took to squirming about 20-year long term rate of return, and achieving an ROI above inflation rate, which is nothing to crow about. The blogger blows trumpet about a S$50B profit, and his ardent supporters cheered him on without reflecting on the credulity.

The blogger got his math wrong. I explained in my previous blog that S$183B came from increase in debt (inclusive of cash from CPF) and S$13B from land sales. That leaves a difference of S$84B, much larger than the S$50B the blogger computed. I was faced with a S$84B difference which I did not subscribe to ROI. Instead, I wrote on what this S$84B is - "I have no idea and nobody's talking".

I am getting ahead of the news. Here's hoping no crypto disasters and GIC can climb 2 steps up. If that perchance comes to pass, by all means, be happy, but Singaporeans should continue to poke and question especially in an environment where non-transparency is an issue.

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NO INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY IN PAP FISCAL POLICIES

A family plans for their present and future needs by living within their means, avoid debt, sacrifice immediate gratification to put something aside for their future, and as far as possible, build some financial legacy for their children. By securing their own future they seek to be independent in their old age and avoid imposing burden and liabilities on their children. That is a microcosm of what a state should be doing, but many have been found wanting.

Tax and fees are a burden on present generation and a national debt is a burden on future generation. Has the fiscal policies of Singapore government been conducted in a way that has intergenerational equity, ie fair to both current and future generation?

The exploitation of natural resources benefits present generation at the expense of future generation if earnings are deployed to non-infrastructure consumption. Natural resource depletion denies future generation of its use. Examples are oil and gas, forestry, minerals, precious stones, land. Many resource rich countries set aside a portion of income from their extractive industries for future generation. These are managed by special funds. 

Weakipedia lists 49 countries with sovereign wealth funds but only 28 countries have SWF that are managing earnings from resource exploitation. The funds and earnings are for future generation. The rest are managing pension funds and foreign exchange reserves. The earnings are for present generation.

Singapore is an oddity and a complex case. We build reserves for rainy days, not for any defined future generation use. We legislate to deny the government of the day to spend away past reserves, defined as reserves accumulated by prior administration. Only a portion of earnings of the SWFs are allowed to be spent on present generation. Of the invested funds, we know how much of it is pension money, forex reserves and debt. The government's opaqueness make it impossible to determine how much of the SWFS' funds are reserves. Thus Singaporeans sit on a supposedly huge pile of reserves, exactly how much we never know, to be used on rainy days we don't know when. The pandemic is such a rainy day and it marks the second time we dip into the reserves to fund various support schemes. Since we don't know what is the pile of reserves, we have no idea what is the percentage that was tapped. Could it be 1% or 0.001%?  We would consider present inflation and cost of living as rainy days. But the government sees sunny skies.

Unlike the 28 countries that put aside income from their extractive industries, like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Norway, our reserves are extracted from the toil of present generation. It is thus extremely inequitable to the present generation if the funds are continually reserved for rainy days that may never come. A family saves for their children's future, but it ranks lower priority to putting food on the table today. The high inflation today is making it difficult to put food on the table.

Of the other countries with SWF that manage pension funds and forex reserves, earnings go to fund budgets that benefit present generation. For Singapore, earnings from managing pension funds, forex reserves AND proceeds of government debts, land sales and fiscal surplus, only a portion of the earnings are spent on present generation.

In the case of state land sales, the proceeds cannot be spent by the government. The funds are put to reserves and invested. The leases run out in 99 years, that is about 2 generations. By the 3rd generation, the land will be resold and reserves get another bump up.  The 1st generation pony up the reserves and benefits from a portion of returns on the invested funds. 2nd generation enjoys for free the returns on the investments of the land sales proceeds. 3rd generation pony up for a new lease, but enjoys the returns on the investments of 2 generations' land sales proceeds. The game is skewed against the present generation.

Singapore has over-built on infrastructures. We have excellent infrastructure, credit is due to the government. However, one needs to understand, to a large extent, the built up has been the pursuit of a legacy economic policy of big ticket projects to booster GDP, rather than from a needs analysis basis. Such blind faith policies run the risk of white elephants (the national stadium?) and wastages (see my older blog The Broken Windows Of Singapore.)  They are as much politically than economically driven decisions. The projects are mustered from collective spoils extracted from present generation. Given infras have long life span, these projects, funded by present generation, benefits future generations to come. The benefit is not just the free enjoyment of the infras, but that their generation has less need to suffer taxes to build such. It's like a parent bequeaths a child a house, he or she has no need to go into a mortgaged debt.

Singapore has laws in place that prevent the government from borrowing for fiscal purposes. There are no debts to burden future generation, unlike all other countries in the world. But this has come about from present generation paying a heavy toil. The law has recently been relaxed to allow a certain amount of debt for development spending. But this was not a decision to improve on intergeneration equity. It was a move to allow the government to take advantage of cheap cost of money at the time. Too bad the era of cheap funds is over.

Whilst it is good that one protects the future generation, over-doing it at great expense to the present generation is not at all fair. And the frustration that Singaporeans feel is that whilst much has been, and continues to be, extracted from them for future generations, it will be a future where  on third of the population will be new citizens. It is a sentiment for which there is no empathy from the government.

The increase in GST is badly timed whilst we are in the midst of a terrible inflation which appears to be a long one. The year over year inflation currently is about 7.6%. I have no idea how the CPI is computed, but general feeling is inflation is in reality much worst of up to 20% to 30% based on the ordinary household purchases I make. For the government to increase GST now is nothing short of a cruel policy. It is actually not money that is needed now, but to prepare for increased medical cost for the elderly in a shrinking younger demographic. Given that our fiscal policies have been skewed against the present generation, the planners in government have led the country to a situation not unlike a household where the parents have invested too much money on the children's future, they are finding out they do not have enough left for their own old age.

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