Wall Street Monkeys (revisited)

I found this posted on a now defunct blog called The Might Of The Pen....

If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, the following story should help...

Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers, seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.


Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50."

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere...

Welcome to Wall Street.


[First posted 13 October 2008. Reposted 2 October 2014]

Excellent analysis of Najib's $144 billion deal with China (cloned from http://donplaypuks.blogspot.my)

NAJIB'S $144 BILLION PIE IN CHINA SKY CON JOB MOU!

by Sum Ting Wong, Donplaypuks® intrepid correspondent for China affairs

Crime Minister Najib can no more change his lying and thieving ways than a leopard can change its spots. So too with his just announced $144 billion of con job MoU signed with China in a sudden and dramatic shift of global alliances away from USA and the West.

This is the demagogue who was accused of drawing out a keris and threatening to spill Chinese blood at the TPCA stadium in 1987, and who in 2013, in blatant racist overtones, accused the Chinese of causing a Tsunami in voting for the Opposition and losing him the popular vote at the General Election.

Now he is busy pawning Malaysia's prized land banks, infra projects and defence procurement contracts like its going out of fashion, not caring a toss about the damage that will do to to our finances, growth or world standing. But, Najib lost his moral compass way back in 2006 with his involvement in the C4 murder of Altantuya. CLICK HERE for 'Murdered In Malaysia: The Altantuya Story.'

Make no mistake. It was either that or hara kiri for Najib. There is a huge $30 billion hole in 1MDB's balance sheet resulting from the looting of 1MDB by Najib and his thief-in-arms, Low Taek Jho aka Jho Paris Hilton. Together with interest on massive borrowings, 1MDB's debts, much of it falsely classified as investments, stand at $53 billion. The "investments" are represented by worthless "units" or IOU, fake papers created by Jho Paris Hilton through dummy corporations and fake investment holding companies incorporated in off-shore tax shelters fronted by his handsomely paid (with money looted from 1MDB) Mafia.

Genius audit partners at Deloitte & Co were duped into signing clean audit reports for 2103 and 2014, blinded by the fact that Najib's son works there as a partner. Deloitte resigned recently, hoping to avoid global negligence law suits by putting out a disclaimer that their 2013 & 2014 audit reports should no longer be relied upon. But, it's too late. Deloitte can be sued by any investor or bond holder as no audit report can be legally withdrawn after it's been approved via a resolution at a company's AGM and financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies.

There is another $4 billion of borrowings from KWAP, the government's pension fund for civil servants, that has gone missing from 1MDB. Possibly, a hundred million or so ringgit is accounted for by investments in Mongolian and Indonesian coal-mining ventures. The rest was looted by Najib and Jho Paris Hilton. When threatened with loss of testicles by Malays, Najib, as also Finance Minister, illegally transferred the $4 billion loss to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) where rests the debt to KWAP, guaranteed by the Taxpayer with details classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA)!

Now we come to the $144 billion of MoU with China. CLICK HERE. Firstly, MoU are a dime a dozen. A few years ago when Najib went to Kazakhstan for his daughter's wedding, he took along with him a planeload of relatives, friends and civil servants, all expenses passed on to the Taxpayer by the biggest cheapskate freeholder (and his wife) in Malaysian history. To make it look real, some 40 or 50 MoU were signed between Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Till today, not one has materialized as a contract or project of any worth!

Secondly, all these projects will result in outflow of money from Malaysia to China. Ultimately, the Malaysian Taxpayer will have to foot the cost. It's not a case of the Chinese actually bringing in FDI's to invest in sustainable long-term businesses in Malaysia. They will be mere contractors. Remember, MALAYSIA has to pay for littoral ships, frigates and their maintenance contracts. That being the case, why are there no open tenders for purchase of ships, arms, weapons etc.?

Of the $144 billion of MoUs, we have the price-tag for only 1 project - the 55 billion East Coast Railway Line (ECRL). There are no figures for the rest.

In July, Sarawak Report leaked out that Najib was planning to fraudulently tag on $30 billion to the ECRL 600km project to plug the $30 billion he stole from 1MDB, thereby increasing the project cost to a staggering unheard of $60 billion or $192 million per kilometer! CLICK HERE. 

By comparison, work is scheduled to begin on the 197 km Gemas-JB double-tracking railway project awarded to China Railway and costing $7.13 billion or $36 million per km!! CLICK HERE. Given the way things are done in Malaysia, you can be sure that even the $7.13 billion price tag has been inflated by a minimum 15%. There may be a few extra tunnels, still, how could ECRL cost 5.5 times more per km than Gemas-JB?

A clueless Works Minister Fadillah Yusof screamed 'foul', saying it had not been discussed at Cabinet level at all. But, the biggest and worst conscienceless crook in Malaysian history, Najib, has now bypassed every government department and Minister, and signed the MoU with China state-owned company, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), fr $55 billion, without calling for an open tenders. 

The reason is obvious. CCCC has been blacklisted by the World Bank for serial corruption and shoddy works in several countries. CLICK HERE. A leopard can never change its spots. In 2002 Najib as Defence Minister, signed the $8 billion Scorpene Submarines contract with DCNS of France knowing they were involved in corruption AND MURDER in Taiwan and Pakistan! The ECRL project handled personally by Najib stinks of corruption even before a single line has been sketched on the drawing board. More than that:

1. How could ECRL cost $27 billion and the financing, more than 100% at $28 billion?

2. Where are the revenue projections to show how the capital sum of $55 billion and subsequent commissioning, operational and maintenance costs will be paid?

3. What is the break-even cost and years of this project? In the past, the EPU (Economic Plundering Unit) under previous crime ministers, came up with fancy pie-in-the-sky passenger traffic numbers to award sweetheart automatic toll increase and compensation contracts to croney Toll Highway Concessionaires. Similarly, in justifying $30 billion for the double-tracking railway projects, they came up with unheard of increases in passenger and freight load volume projections. Yet, KTMB has turned in nothing but huge losses.

4. Once the ECRL is completed, if ever, then the current Gemas-Kelantan line will lose big money. Has Najib factored this into his business model?

I will give it to you in black and white right now - the ill-conceived and fraudulent $55 billion ECRL, like Perwaja, Proton, MAS, will turn out to one of the biggest money losers in Malaysia's financial history.

Najib has also issued a full commercial bank licence to China Construction Bank, reckoned to be the second largest bank in the world. This surely means that Maybank, CIMB, RHB and Affin, all tier 1 banks, will take a massive whacking in profits and share prices. Has Najib thought that far ahead to what it will do to his racist Bumiputra agenda? How will the Malays react?

As for Melaka development etc., why exactly does Najib need the China parties? If you are going to hand out multi-bilion ringgit real estate projects on plum long-term deferred payment terms, why not do it by open tender to local and/or international developers? Unless of course, fraud and corruption are major considerations! 

Believe me, bird's nest export and research are not going to propel Malaysia into high income nation status anytime soon. And why would China set up a steel plant in Sarawak? Where would the steel be exported to? Malaysia where Perwaja has failed big time? To China where they can produce it cheaper and there is a slow down? Are these MOU for real?

Remember, all the other MoU too will result in OUTFLOW of money from Malaysia. Where will Najib find the money when our debts have exceeded $800 billion, and has more than doubled under him since 2009?

Jack Ma appointed digital consultant? Don't make me laugh. We had Bill Gates before and where did that get us? It's not Jack Ma who's the problem, it's the Najib mind-set. Crooks and thieves around whom three murders have revolved have no interest in the PEOPLE or their welfare.

They are doomed to fail spectacularly, not least because Communism and Islam sit uncomfortably side by side!

Clare Rewcastle Brown: "Pissed off rich Malaysian politicians are ruthless"

Clare Rewcastle-Brown. This name ranks high on the Najib administration's list of most despised individuals, given the slew of damaging articles on 1MDB in her website Sarawak Report.

In an interview with Esquire magazine published yesterday, the sister-in-law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown shares what she has learned about Malaysian politicians.

"If you piss off rich Malaysians in positions of political power, they are ruthless and unscrupulous in what they are prepared to do to get their own back.

"I've had PR outfits, lawyers, computer hackers and radio-jamming professionals thrown at me, but they've shot themselves in the foot.

"They've made me into a character I wouldn't have been if they hadn't reacted so angrily and expensively. They created my Wikipedia site, for god's sake," she said.

The 56-year-old mother of two, who was born in Sarawak and spent her early childhood there, denies she is driven by a nefarious agenda, though her detractors appear to be hell-bent on creating such an impression.

"They're always trying to make one out about me, but actually, I'm just a dreadful old do-gooder who's got a bit between my teeth," added the London-based journalist.

Blatant corruption in Malaysia

Quizzed on the issue of corruption, Rewcastle-Brown said the practice is "blatant" in Malaysia.

"You don't have to do that much research to see it. They got lazy and weren't bothering to cover it up.

"They're trying harder now, but you know, there was 30 years of fairly blatant corruption that I just started covering, and I guess nobody else was," she added.

Touching on 1MDB and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Rewcastle-Brown said the former prime minister is genuinely furious over what has happened.

"The 1MDB debacle is not only a fairly blatant heist on public funds, but also not very well done - and, you know, I think Mahathir is probably annoyed on both fronts," she added with laughter.

She also conceded that investigative journalists live in dread of committing errors with regard to their articles.

"You try to get it right on the big things, but you can often get it wrong on the little things. It's also easier to make mistakes in an environment like Malaysia, where there's so little transparency.

"You're often dealing with little bits of information that you're trying to piece together because you're not getting the information you should. But touch wood, I don't think I've made any clangers so far on the 1MDB story," she said.

No clangers on 1MDB

The key thing, she stressed, is to be honest and not publish something without evidence.

"I think if you've seen something that's a crime, you shouldn't just report it as if you have no opinion of it.

"Also, as an investigative journalist, you don't publish something unless you've caught somebody out doing something naughty; and once you do, you've got a certain amount of licence to give him a hard time.

"That's the job. I'm not trying to be objective, but I'm honest about what I say, and I'm critical where I think it's deserved," she said.

Rewcastle-Brown also spoke about her brother-in-law (right), saying he was one of the reasons she had kept her identity under wraps for a certain period.

"One of the reasons I kept my identity secret for as long as I could was because I didn't want to get him involved, particularly when he was still in office.

"But when he stepped down (as prime minister), I was bolder, and actually, he was really encouraging.

"When I started getting death threats, he said, 'Look, you should just say who you are and what you're doing because that's the best way to deal with them'," she added.

[Cloned from Malaysiakini as a public service.]

David Wilcock on Financial Tyranny & The Biggest Scandal in History

The Department of Justice - home of the US Marshals - has now blown the lid off of the biggest financial scandal in human history... after a highly covert three-year investigation. The LIBOR scandal has started the Great Revealing of Financial Tyranny. Mass arrests must begin with mass charges, and mass court cases - and that has now arrived. Disclosure of many great hidden truths will follow...

THE TIME HAS COME
By David Wilcock

Every person on Earth is increasingly aware that our world is ruled by corrupt forces - to an almost Biblical degree. The astonishing events that have unfolded since June 27, 2012 have made that much more obvious - even for those who have been in the greatest denial. This process has been fascinating to watch - not to mention remarkably rewarding.

After many years of hard work to expose the truth, we are finally seeing results - on a worldwide level. The knowledge will spread much, much more with each passing day. Critical information was leaked to us from highly classified insider sources, working for the good of humanity. Current events have proven that their plan is still very much in effect.

THE FINANCIAL TYRANNY SERIES: A FULL BOOK-LENGTH INVESTIGATION

Every word of this investigation has been released for free. The bulk of our original findings are in the Financial Tyranny series. The first and largest portion of our extensive investigation was released on Friday, January 13th, 2012. The remaining elements took almost another month to finish, and were published on Thursday, February 9th. You can begin by reading Sections One through Seven of Financial Tyranny here. Then go here to complete Sections Eight through Ten.

This truth is admittedly painful to accept. You will probably have to go through a grief process once you understand the full scope of what is going on. Nonetheless, it is absolutely essential for everyone, as a planet, to end the denial and face the truth of our world - as it actually exists today.

THE MEDIA IS ALSO IMPLICATED

The Great Revealing has not yet become the one thing everyone is talking about. The arrests and resignations have only just begun - and the mainstream Western media is equally as culpable as those controlling the financial system. After all, it's the same people.

This is one of many popular notions that are proven in Financial Tyranny. It is no longer a "conspiracy theory." Vast psyops have been used - including tens of thousands of professional online hit-men, paid to look like normal people sharing their opinion. Shame has been a very powerful weapon to stop people from learning the truth. No one wants to be "crazy" or hated for their beliefs.

You are about to see a variety of article links where the writers express surprise that the American media isn't covering this story yet. As you are well aware, this has nothing to do with the press being "shy." They are simply staring into the face of their own destruction.

THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION - WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

On June 27, 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, filed a surprise legal order against Barclays Bank - in a move that has shocked the world. A wealth of emails were presented, giving irrefutable evidence that Barclays was manipulating their own credit score - to generate almost unthinkably vast profits.

Here is the link where you can download the legal order yourself - and a photograph of the top page of this historic document.

This may not seem like a big deal at first - but in order for Barclays to have rigged their own credit score, they had to be conspiring with all the other biggest banks in the world. These are the banks they are supposedly in competition with.

This story has taken off with unprecedented, explosive force in the UK - but is almost non-existent in the US, except on Huffington Post and alternative news sites.

This legal action required extraordinary secrecy to perform. Had the Cabal gotten wind of it, they would have killed everyone involved.

ALL THE BIGGEST BANKS ARE IN BED TOGETHER

Indeed, the world just found out that all the biggest banks are in bed together. They are all implicated in a vast conspiracy to lie to the public, and create artificial investor confidence that benefits no one but themselves.

Mass criminal charges are already being prepared - by labor unions, local banks, local governments, state governments and federal governments - as a result of this move by the Department of Justice.

All the evidence is now freely available, as we will see - and the story is nearly moving faster than we can keep up with at this point, with new developments on a day-by-day basis.

SOME PEOPLE PROMOTE A GENOCIDAL BELIEF SYSTEM

Some people are so war-weary that they refuse to believe anyone in government, military, finance, intelligence or the judiciary could be a trustworthy human being - or want to do the right thing. As I have said before, this is ultimately a genocidal belief system that seeks to paint the world in black and white, reinforce victim consciousness, and create an "us" versus "them."

The reality is that humans are complex creatures. No one is "all good" or "all bad." Each person is quite capable of thinking for themselves - regardless of where they work. Plenty of people now realize that the goals and aspirations of this cabal could literally destroy our entire planet. We cannot simply stand back and watch it happen. Actions must be taken.

THE NUMBER OF "GOOD GUYS" IS NOW AS HIGH AS 75 PERCENT

Between 70 to 75 percent of the United States military community is now aligned against the cabal as of this past week. This is according to top Pentagon sources I am in contact with, by one degree of separation - as a result of years of building up insider contacts as a public investigator.

Critical steps have been taken to remove powerful opposing forces that were loyal to the cabal - who would have sabotaged this planetary healing process. Many brave men and women have put their lives on the line to uphold their Oath of Enlistment - and defend our freedom. They deserve our respect and support.

There is nothing more dangerous on Earth than to take on the ruling cabal. This also makes it a uniquely powerful act of valor. As a result of these heroic efforts - including criminal investigations - we are now seeing a Point of No Return for the global bankers.

If you don't grasp that yet, the wealth of excerpts you are about to read may well change your mind.

THEY HAVE BEEN WEAKER THAN WE REALIZED ALL ALONG

In truth, these financial institutions have been much weaker than they led us to believe for years now - since at least 2007. They have played around with their own credit reports to convince everyone that they are still a worthwhile investment. If they had told us the truth about how much trouble they were in, they would probably have already been exposed and defeated.

A vast international alliance has been financially choking off the Cabal for years now - knowing that their collapse is inevitable. They are still too powerful to be exposed until a collapse becomes visible to all. Their fraud is so vast that it encompasses every single type of financial investment there is - stocks, bonds, commodities, currency, mutual funds, derivatives, mortgages, loans, you name it.

All the money there is in the world - either real money or fake numbers in a computer - has been manipulated to create the largest financial fraud in recorded history... so far. Many experts now estimate the amount of investments that are affected could be as much as 800 trillion dollars.


[Source: Divine Cosmos]

WHO DA FUCK IS DIS GUY? NOW WE ALL KNOW...

But would you trust him with RM5 billion of your hard-earned pension funds... after he made RM30 billion disappear into thin air?


Like his former boss Daim Zainuddin, he stays clear of the spotlight, preferring to work quietly behind the scenes. As Mahathir's financial advisor in the 1980s Nor Mohamed Yakcop was implicated in a series of colossal disasters and largely responsible for the shocking loss of RM30 billion of the rakyat's money in forex speculation that ended in abysmal failure. Instead of losing his job, he gets promoted to Second Finance Minister. Only in Bolehland!

It now transpires that Daim Zainuddin, then finance minister, had in 1992 authorized Nor Mohamed Yakcop to gamble with our money in the forex casino, with the acquiescence of Bank Negara governor Jaffar Hussein and prime minister Mahathir Mohamed. They probably agreed to split the profits, if any - but any losses incurred would be quietly foisted on the public. Nice guys, huh?


From Malaysiakini (Vox Populi | 26 July 2008): "Recent developments have shown that Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop indeed played a pivotal role in Bank Negara's forex scandal between 1992 to 1994. It would now be embarrassing to Pak Lah's administration if he continues to serve as Malaysia's second finance minister after being responsible for such a colossal loss of up to RM30 billion of the people's money. The most honourable thing for him to do would be to step down and come clean on the enormous forex losses as a result of speculation in the international currency markets in the 90s."

The forex scandal is ‘plunder’ of the highest order. Pak Lah must not close one eye to this gross offence of misappropriation of funds, which had allegedly occurred. Pak Lah who serves under the BN government must carry through his pledge to clean up the country. The best way to do that is to start with all the alleged abuses and misappropriation of funds over the last 20 years of the BN rule. The Sabah immigration scandal, Perwaja, MAS, Miti share allocations and the use of the people’s EPF money. Until he does this and investigate the losses, BN will forever be haunted by the ghosts of the past. The people will not rest until we see the culprits brought to justice, and if not, BN must be held responsible.

THE RM700 MILLION BANK ISLAM SCANDAL (2005)

RM30 BILLION FOREX FIASCO (1992-94)

MORE ON THE RM30 BILLION FOREX FIASCO

IT'S A MAD, MAD WORLD


[First published 14 November 2008]

The Man Who Bankrupted Malaysia ~ Morally & Financially!

From Asia Sentinel, 5 March 2012...

Mahathir's Disastrous Financial Speculation

A murky and embarrassing case is closed, hiding top government officials’ involvement

Sometime over the next few days, a court in Kuala Lumpur will put the finishing touches to an agreement that allows Tajudin Ramli, the former head of Malaysian Airline System, not only to walk away from charges that he had allegedly looted the airline of tens of millions of US dollars but with an RM580 million (US$293.2 million) out-of-court settlement from the government.

It appears to be a settlement that the government would rather keep to itself. At the heart of the agreement with Tajudin is a convoluted story that began as long ago as the 1980s when Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, at the urging of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, began speculating aggressively in global foreign exchange markets, at one time running up exposure rumored to be in the region of RM270 billion -- three times the country’s gross domestic product and more than five times its foreign reserves at the time.

Eventually, playing with the big boys came home to roost. In 1992 and 1993, Mahathir became convinced he could make billions of ringgit by taking advantage of a British recession, rising unemployment and a decision by the British government to float the pound sterling free of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Crocodile tears

Mahathir ordered Bank Negara to buy vast amounts of pounds sterling on the theory that the British currency would appreciate once it floated. However, in what has been described as the greatest currency trade ever made, the financier and currency wizard George Soros’s Quantum hedge fund established short positions borrowing in pounds and investing in Deutschemark-denominated assets as well as using options and futures positions.

In all, Soros’s positions alone accounted for a gargantuan US$10 billion. Many other investors, sensing Quantum was in for the kill, soon followed, putting strenuous downward pressure on the pound. The collapse was inevitable. Quantum walked away with US$1 billion in a single day, earning Mahathir’s eternal enmity and earning Soros the title “the man who broke the Bank of England.”

[Read the full story here.]

Statement released by Occupy Wall Street movement

My internet connection has been down since Friday, 7 October. I just received this link via email and was so impressed by the clarity, profundity and power of the message from those spearheading this global revolution against money politics, I just had to blog it immediately from a cybercafe in Kuala Kubu Bharu. Powerful multinational corporations and their unwritten policy of "profits before people" have ruined ecosystems around the planet and triggered the extinction of countless species, including marginalized human communities.



Greedy corporations like Lynas don't give a shit about the long-term consequences of their money-grubbing, toxic activities - why should they bother, when they are offered 12-year tax holidays by the morally degenerate Barisan Nasional government. Lynas is perfectly happy to pay out several billion ringgit in bribes to push their rare earth processing project through - because they're counting on raking in at least RM8 billion a year, tax-free profits, once their plant is in full operation.

28 October 2011 marks the end of linear time - and along with it the ludicrous notion that TIME IS MONEY.

Linear time is an illusion, just as artificial clock time is useful only to control the behavior of human populations on a massive scale. After 28 October 2011, all of us will be able to access reality beyond the limitations of the 3D Matrix - and rediscover our cosmic, divine origins and destiny. When this happens we will no longer be content to accept our slaughterhouse destiny as sheeple, as mere consumer statistics - at the mercy of faceless corporate boards, the corrupt governments in their pockets, and the crowd control machinery paid for with taxpayers' money.



15 OCTOBER 2011 HAS BEEN DECLARED GLOBAL REVOLUTION DAY. WAKE UP... UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE CORPORATE "TIME IS MONEY" MATRIX... AND RECLAIM YOUR FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY - FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN, IF NOT FOR YOURSELF!

You've blown the budget. Now read the book (only RM20 mah!)

BUDGET 2010 will be released today, or so I'm told (yawn). Well, for someone like me who has never paid any attention to economics, it's just a load of dead boring gobbledygook. At this juncture a stale joke comes to mind...

How can you tell when the prime minister is lying?" That's right... when you see his pink lips moving.

But I'm really excited to hear that Teh Chi-Chang's new book on the Malaysian Budget will be out sometime this week. I've read parts of the draft and I think Teh has brilliantly achieved his objective of demystifying the subject for the layman.

The book is titled: The Budget - How the Government is spending OUR money.

I think we ought to make it our business to find out exactly how Barisan Nasional has been squandering the nation's wealth.

Another reason I'm promoting Teh's book is that I provided the illustrations, and it's always pleasurable to see one's work in print.

Priced at only RM20, Teh's book will soon be on the shelves of your favorite bookshop. Or you can order it online here. If that doesn't work for you, or you would like to negotiate a bulk purchase, please contact Teh via budgetbook@chichang.net - and I'm sure you'll get a really good deal!

Here are some advance notices from folks in the know:

“An excellent guide … so intelligently put together” - Tunku Abdul Aziz (before he quit DAP in a petulant huff and turned toxic)

"Simple language backed with solid statistics" = Prof. Rajah Rasiah of Universiti Malaya

"A straightforward, incisive approach to this normally dry subject" - Yeo Yang Poh, past president of the Malaysian Bar Council

Chi-Chang has given me the green light to publish a sneak preview of a few juicy excerpts from his book...
“Budget Day” is a very special day in our parliamentary calendar. It is the one day in a year that Parliament sits on a Friday. The eyes of the nation are focused on the Finance Minister as he delivers his Budget speech that Friday afternoon, which is broadcast ‘live’ by the major television and radio stations.

That speech is more theatre than substance. It is an opportunity to highlight government successes and provides populist sound-bites which government backbenchers can thump the tables in support of. There is often something for nearly everybody, and newspapers the next day tend to be full of complimentary comments along the lines of: “goodies for the rakyat”... “it’s a people’s budget”... “it’s people-friendly”... “it’s a growth budget”....

Income disparity among the bumiputras is the highest among the three major ethnic groups. Government policy has been focused on reducing the bumiputra income gap with the other ethnic groups. Hence, we have quotas and various bumiputra-only or bumiputra-preferred practices. The above data suggests the government should also be looking at how it implements its policies among bumiputras. It would appear that already-rich bumiputras are reaping the greatest benefits from the pro-bumiputra policies. This runs counter to the intention of raising the lot of disadvantaged bumiputras.

Should the CEO also be the CFO?

The two most powerful positions in corporate management are of chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO). The CEO is the boss and sets overall direction. The CFO controls the purse-strings. Quite often good CEOs and CFOs will disagree. CEOs by nature and expectation have to seek new growth opportunities to expand corporate profits. They would tend to emphasise the rewards over the risks. CFOs are entrusted with financial stewardship. And when it comes to stewardship, being conservative and risk-averse are the preferred traits.

So, that’s how it works in the corporate world. No reasonable board of directors would countenance the CEO also holding the CFO position. There is just too much at stake to have one person holding the two most senior positions.

That’s also how it’s supposed to work in government. The prime minister leads and the finance minister tells him what the government can afford. Perhaps the most celebrated such pair in recent history was telegenic British prime minister Tony Blair and dour Chancellor Gordon Brown. Over here in Malaysia though, no eyebrows are raised that the prime minister is also the finance minister. This practice began during prime minister Mahathir’s tenure, was continued by Abdullah Badawi, and now Najib has continued the practice.

This might explain the deteriorating state of government finances. By 2009, we would have run 12 consecutive years of budget deficits.Subsidies – literally burning cash

RM34bn was spent on subsidies in 2008. Subsidies are meant to help the poor. And yet, nearly 400,000 Malaysian households or about 2 million Malaysians still live in poverty.

RM34bn is equal to RM85,000 for each poor Malaysian household – sufficient to lift them well above the poverty line. In fact, it is sufficient to propel them to the middle-class!

So where did the money go? Mostly to fuel. Quite literally burnt to little effect.

Government must help the most disadvantaged and poorest in society. Subsidies are one method. However, something is clearly wrong given that there are still so many poor Malaysians in our midst despite the tens of billions being spent on subsidies.

Our subsidy policies actually benefit the rich more than the poor. For example, cheap petrol benefits the rich man driving a fuel-guzzling Porsche Cayenne far more than the average Malaysian in his Perodua Myvi. Similarly, cheap electricity helps the ex-Menteri Besar living in his multi-million ringgit beautifully-lit mansion far more than the poor family in a squatter home.

Cartoons by Antares © 2009

Teh Chi-Chang, 38, holds a first-class honours Bachelors’ degree from the University of Warwick, a Masters from the University of Cambridge and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He spent 14 years in the rat-race and was looking forward to spending more time with family and personal interests - until Tony Pua of the Democratic Action Party persuaded him to enlist in public service.

Chi-Chang looks forward to good, clean government in Malaysia which will enable him to then focus on his real ambitions, which are to produce a definitive English-language text on the art of tai-chi and to play the guitar like Julian Mokhtar. His corporate sector experience includes management, investment appraisal and corporate finance. He has headed Malaysia equity investment research teams as well as contributed to top-rated teams covering utilities and media companies regionally. Chi-Chang can be contacted via his blog, Analyst at Large.

Just received word that The Budget - How the Government is Spending OUR Money will be officially launched at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur at 8:00PM on 26 October 2009 - in conjunction with a public forum on Budget 2010. Panelists for the forum will include:


* Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister
* Tony Pua, MP for Petaling Jaya Utara
* Charles Santiago, MP for Klang
* Liew Chin Tong, MP for Bukit Bendera
* Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, MP for Kuala Selangor
* William Leong, MP for Selayang


All are welcome and attendance is free. Another book titled BUDGET STRATEGIES FOR ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION (published by the DAP Economic Bureau) will also be launched at this forum. Both books will be available at a special discount!

WHO DA FUCK IS DIS GUY?

Would you trust him with RM5 billion of your hard-earned pension funds?


He stays clear of the spotlight, preferring to work quietly behind the scenes. As Mahathir's financial advisor in the 1980s Nor Mohamed Yakcop was implicated in a series of colossal disasters and largely responsible for the shocking loss of RM30 billion of the rakyat's money in forex speculation that ended in abysmal failure. Instead of losing his job, he gets promoted to Second Finance Minister. Only in Bolehland!


From Malaysiakini (Vox Populi | 26 July 2008): "Recent developments have shown that Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop indeed played a pivotal role in Bank Negara's forex scandal between 1992 to 1994. It would now be embarrassing to Pak Lah's administration if he continues to serve as Malaysia's second finance minister after being responsible for such a colossal loss of up to RM30 billion of the people's money. The most honourable thing for him to do would be to step down and come clean on the enormous forex losses as a result of speculation in the international currency markets in the 90s."

The forex scandal is ‘plunder’ of the highest order. Pak Lah must not close one eye to this gross offence of misappropriation of funds, which had allegedly occurred. Pak Lah who serves under the BN government must carry through his pledge to clean up the country. The best way to do that is to start with all the alleged abuses and misappropriation of funds over the last 20 years of the BN rule. The Sabah immigration scandal, Perwaja, MAS, Miti share allocations and the use of the people’s EPF money. Until he does this and investigate the losses, BN will forever be haunted by the ghosts of the past. The people will not rest until we see the culprits brought to justice, and if not, BN must be held responsible.

THE RM700 MILLION BANK ISLAM SCANDAL (2005)

RM30 BILLION FOREX FIASCO (1992-94)

MORE ON THE RM30 BILLION FOREX FIASCO

IT'S A MAD, MAD WORLD