Blog Roll

My favorites:

The Virtues Of Vanity, Caprice and Sloth

Simple Living In Suffolk

Change As The Only Constant

Plenty of people in Australia who have left their homeland.

New Zealanders coming across the ditch.

Malaysians working in PNG.

South Africans after apartheid.

Argentinians fleeing hyper-inflation.

Brits after the fall of Thatcher.

Irish after their housing crisis.

The sorry stories of Spain and Greece.

And yes, Singaporeans.

Change is the only constant.

TBD.

Building Empires

Chinese restaurant empire building.

Others see a restaurant. I see an empire.

TBD.

Inflation: How Handouts Increase Prices

TBD

1) General theory of inflation
2) Australia - childcare grants
3) Singapore - HDB grants & CPF liberalization
4) Australia - First Home Owner Grants
5) Subsidies have to be targeted.
6) Link to universal healthcare - will be fine as long as someone else pays
7) Supply side interventions better as they tackle the problem at its source. Prices will naturally decline as availability of care increases
8) Exactly what they did - doubled budget, more beds, doubled med student intake, new hospitals

Reading List

TBD

We Were All Young Once

"Looking back at those early years, I am amazed at my youthful innocence. I watched Britain at the beginning of its experiment with the welfare state; the Atlee government started to build a society that attempted to look after its citizens from cradle to grave.

I was so impressed after the introduction of the National Health Service when I went to collect my pair of new glasses from my opticians in Cambridge to be told that no payment was due. All I had to do was to sign a form.

What a civilized society, I thought to myself. The same thing happened at the dentist and the doctor."

- Lee Kuan Yew

Understanding Universal Healthcare

TBD

Singapore Industrial Policy: Going Forward

TBD

Cochrane On Carbon Pricing

TBD

The Costs Of It All

The past six years Down Under have been a complete repudiation of Keynesianism and deficit spending. In spite of a minerals boom, racking up a few hundred billion AUD in debt and a ballooning public sector (especially in healthcare and education), the Australian economy continues to suffer from record unemployment and anemic growth.

To pretty much sum things up:

1) Australians voted for Rudd because he promised them benefits.
2) To pay for the benefits he raised taxes and racked up debt.
3) In line with Ricardian equivalence, investors left and employers started firing.
4) Australians essentially screwed themselves.

A simple premise lies at the heart of all this: all Government spending is taken from someone else. Every job "created" by the public sector is a private job lost.

Keynesians claim that if the private sector lacks the confidence to hire, governments must. But the question then becomes one of whether the Government can inspire confidence amongst the private sector.

A maverick Government like Singapore's might pull this off. But few others can.

The Keynesian emphasis on "demand" is misleading. Demand is simply a proxy for confidence and credibility. 

Employers understand that every dollar of this "demand" and every benefit paid will be eventually recouped from them via taxes. It's merely a matter of which industries will subsidize others, and when payment is due.

Furthermore, they are aware of the temporary nature of Government stimulus. Some may turn to rent-seeking and set up new enterprises to capture the monies being distributed. But these are inherently short-lived and unstable affairs which disappear as soon as stimulus is withdrawn.

Few will be misled into believing that a genuine recovery is underfoot. In fact, wasteful or poorly-targeted stimulus measures may be taken as a sign of incompetence, crippling investor confidence further.

So they react accordingly. They cut hours. They stop investing in Australia. And they fire staff.

Hence the sorry situation in Australia today.

The next time a politician promises to "support our schools and hospitals" and "create jobs", think of the costs. Ultimately, you will always pay.

Values

The meaning of life: to succeed by embodying your values, thus marking their superiority.

In order:

1. Family is everything.

2. Every argument has two sides. An educated person sees both.

3. Know where you're going. And how you're getting there.

4. Plan slowly. Act quickly.

5. Before you critique something, understand it first.

6. Logic always trumps emotion. Results always trump intentions.

7. Don't bother convincing the irrational. Just mock them when they inevitably fail.

8. The price of freedom is the possibility of failure.

9. If you want something, build it yourself.

10. Be the best you can be.

Two Sides

Every person
Has two sides
A Doctor Jekyll
And Mister Hyde

What am I?

Driven
Insensitive

Confident
Arrogant

Rational
Heartless

Critical
Condescending

Gifted
Elitist