RP is indeed the party to watch. They are more responsive, together with SDP.
1) E-Jay's articles totally taken out
2) Con't to add/update/improve in their website
3) Responsive, with depth
WP is the most hard working - on the ground, but their website is fast becoming like a parliament blog. NSP really need to do something with their website, thought they are hard working too. SPP's website keep changing, yet still one of the worst.
http://www.thereformparty.net/
Part 1
A Flawed Economic Model
According to the latest statistics, GDP in the last quarter declined at a 14.4% annualised rate and was over 10% lower than a year ago. So, it is distressing to see that according to the President’s address the government has no new strategies for coping with the worst economic recession since independence. While it has been happy to take the credit for Singapore’s perceived economic success during the boom years, it can now only point to the global recession as the reason for Singapore’s problems and state that recovery will be dependent on a global recovery. There is no admission that the economic model underlying economic policy-making is now flawed and needs fixing.
The President’s address shows that the government still relies on a mercantilist high domestic-saving, high net exports model for economic growth. The government’s view is that it would be a waste of time for Singapore to increase domestic consumption and reduce savings as it would just leak into higher imports. In fact the import component of domestic consumption is only about 35%, about the same as investment and exports, so higher consumption expenditures would still have a substantial second-round effect on domestic output and employment via the Keynesian multiplier. To demonstrate how absurd the government’s mercantilist argument is, one need only consider what would happen if the US decided to take measures to curb consumption and increase exports and savings as its response to the present crisis. The result would be an even more devastating slump that would hurt the Asian countries that rely on exports and Germany most, akin to what happened in the 1930s.
Manu Bhaskaran commented in The Edge on 2nd May 2009 that the local economy does not appear to have suffered that much as Singaporeans are still shopping and eating out enthusiastically. While the government may draw comfort from this, the converse is that despite Singapore’s high growth rates between 2003 and 2007 this boom largely passed ordinary Singaporeans by. Instead it was evidenced by the growing numbers of foreign workers (which put pressure on the incomes of lower-skilled Singaporeans and led to falling productivity) and the higher profits of the corporate sector, which largely comprises foreign multinationals and Government-Linked Companies (GLCs). Indeed average wages increased more slowly than inflation during this period. And the worst may be yet to come, as unemployment normally continues to increase for some time after an economy has bottomed out. From the President’s address and MSM comments there appears to be a lot of wishful thinking out there that the global economy will start to recover from here on in.
When Mahatma Ghandi was asked by a Western journalist what he thought of Western civilisation he replied that he thought it would be a good idea. I feel like making the same response when the President talks about sustaining economic growth in an environment where GDP in the last quarter was falling at nearly a 20% annualised rate. To that end he says that Singapore has to stay competitive, upgrade our people and create an outstanding pro-business environment. We at The Reform Party also think that that would be a good idea. Indeed we consider it absolutely essential that Singapore continue to maintain an environment conducive to business investment and growth. However to talk of sustaining something (economic growth) which doesn’t actually exist is clearly nonsensical.
A Stimulus Package
The Reform Party calls for a stimulus package of 8-10% of GDP rather than the 3.5% that was projected as the Overall Budget Balance in the 2009 Budget. Since only 50% of the expected long-term real returns from reserves invested by GIC and MAS and 50% of the net income of Temasek were permitted to be used in the calculation of the Overall Budget Balance, the inclusion of the balance of the returns could mean, depending on the degree of divergence between actual and expected returns this year, that the Overall Budget Balance was actually in surplus and that therefore there was no stimulatory effect at all.
The Budget
The following is a (non-exhaustive) list of the major measures announced in the Budget:
1. A cut in employer CPF (the Jobs Credit Scheme);
2. A move to lend directly to companies (only what every one of the major Central Banks has been doing since 2008) and forecast as having a budgetary impact of less than 10% of the headline S$5.6 billion figure (the Special Risk-Sharing Initiative);
3. Enhancements to existing training schemes (again not markedly different from similar schemes offered in the UK and other OECD countries);
4. An expansion of public sector employment;
5. Accelerated depreciation of some investments for corporate tax purposes; and
6. Some limited measures aimed at lower income groups such as the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and additional rebates of HDB service and conservancy charges for those living in smaller HDB properties.
1) E-Jay's articles totally taken out
2) Con't to add/update/improve in their website
3) Responsive, with depth
WP is the most hard working - on the ground, but their website is fast becoming like a parliament blog. NSP really need to do something with their website, thought they are hard working too. SPP's website keep changing, yet still one of the worst.
http://www.thereformparty.net/
Part 1
A Flawed Economic Model
According to the latest statistics, GDP in the last quarter declined at a 14.4% annualised rate and was over 10% lower than a year ago. So, it is distressing to see that according to the President’s address the government has no new strategies for coping with the worst economic recession since independence. While it has been happy to take the credit for Singapore’s perceived economic success during the boom years, it can now only point to the global recession as the reason for Singapore’s problems and state that recovery will be dependent on a global recovery. There is no admission that the economic model underlying economic policy-making is now flawed and needs fixing.
The President’s address shows that the government still relies on a mercantilist high domestic-saving, high net exports model for economic growth. The government’s view is that it would be a waste of time for Singapore to increase domestic consumption and reduce savings as it would just leak into higher imports. In fact the import component of domestic consumption is only about 35%, about the same as investment and exports, so higher consumption expenditures would still have a substantial second-round effect on domestic output and employment via the Keynesian multiplier. To demonstrate how absurd the government’s mercantilist argument is, one need only consider what would happen if the US decided to take measures to curb consumption and increase exports and savings as its response to the present crisis. The result would be an even more devastating slump that would hurt the Asian countries that rely on exports and Germany most, akin to what happened in the 1930s.
Manu Bhaskaran commented in The Edge on 2nd May 2009 that the local economy does not appear to have suffered that much as Singaporeans are still shopping and eating out enthusiastically. While the government may draw comfort from this, the converse is that despite Singapore’s high growth rates between 2003 and 2007 this boom largely passed ordinary Singaporeans by. Instead it was evidenced by the growing numbers of foreign workers (which put pressure on the incomes of lower-skilled Singaporeans and led to falling productivity) and the higher profits of the corporate sector, which largely comprises foreign multinationals and Government-Linked Companies (GLCs). Indeed average wages increased more slowly than inflation during this period. And the worst may be yet to come, as unemployment normally continues to increase for some time after an economy has bottomed out. From the President’s address and MSM comments there appears to be a lot of wishful thinking out there that the global economy will start to recover from here on in.
When Mahatma Ghandi was asked by a Western journalist what he thought of Western civilisation he replied that he thought it would be a good idea. I feel like making the same response when the President talks about sustaining economic growth in an environment where GDP in the last quarter was falling at nearly a 20% annualised rate. To that end he says that Singapore has to stay competitive, upgrade our people and create an outstanding pro-business environment. We at The Reform Party also think that that would be a good idea. Indeed we consider it absolutely essential that Singapore continue to maintain an environment conducive to business investment and growth. However to talk of sustaining something (economic growth) which doesn’t actually exist is clearly nonsensical.
A Stimulus Package
The Reform Party calls for a stimulus package of 8-10% of GDP rather than the 3.5% that was projected as the Overall Budget Balance in the 2009 Budget. Since only 50% of the expected long-term real returns from reserves invested by GIC and MAS and 50% of the net income of Temasek were permitted to be used in the calculation of the Overall Budget Balance, the inclusion of the balance of the returns could mean, depending on the degree of divergence between actual and expected returns this year, that the Overall Budget Balance was actually in surplus and that therefore there was no stimulatory effect at all.
The Budget
The following is a (non-exhaustive) list of the major measures announced in the Budget:
1. A cut in employer CPF (the Jobs Credit Scheme);
2. A move to lend directly to companies (only what every one of the major Central Banks has been doing since 2008) and forecast as having a budgetary impact of less than 10% of the headline S$5.6 billion figure (the Special Risk-Sharing Initiative);
3. Enhancements to existing training schemes (again not markedly different from similar schemes offered in the UK and other OECD countries);
4. An expansion of public sector employment;
5. Accelerated depreciation of some investments for corporate tax purposes; and
6. Some limited measures aimed at lower income groups such as the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and additional rebates of HDB service and conservancy charges for those living in smaller HDB properties.
