Sunday, March 16, 2014

SG in crony-capitalism index

Got this from the latest issue of the Economist newspaper.

We scored an awful position five from the top and we were there in 2007 but I don't remember that.

Some wonder if the ranking is accurate. I think that is the wrong question. The right question is over precision rather than accuracy.

Then they argue over this academically. They have left school long ago but remained stuck with what they had learned there. I supposed they were bright students who had done well and proud of their academic achievements. I wished they had more common sense. First ask yourself what is your interest in this. If you don't the street savvy sharks out there would and don't be surprised you end up the loser.

I think Singapore's case is unique. We are crony infested from the results but that is not obvious if we look at how our laws and regulations brought this about. Hong Kong is much easier to understand because he billionaire wealth is almost 80% of GDP. The less than 20% it is at for us allows plenty of anecdotal evidence to debunk we are not a crony state. Those are common but facetious arguments from the government and crony capitalists.

I wan to be practical here. From the personal point of view we just need to ask ourselves only one question: How much rent seeking is happening here? A lot! and it is suffocating us. What Khaw Boon Wan had done at MND to kill the golden goose for property developers was very good.


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