At the Singapore Tripartism Forum last Sunday, Prime Minister Lee was asked by a business leader to comment on the performance of Temasek and GIC in the wake of the stunning revelation of its recent losses.
He replied straight in the face that “these are very respectable figures” based on the annual returns quoted by Finance Minister Tharman.
“Some years it will go down, some years it will go up more. But on average it’s not bad. And we have to take a long-term view because this is not money for now, this is money for many years ahead. If you look at a long-term basis, on the overall on the way the government has managed the money, we haven’t done badly“, he said. (read the original report here)
I wondered if the journalist who wrote the report was equally as convinced as Prime Minister Lee. If the article was meant to allay the fears and angst of Singaporeans, it doesn’t sound reassuring at all.
In the first place, we are still kept in the dark over the real extent of GIC’s losses, which a Thai Daily put it at an estimate of over S$200 billion dollars. Then there is the danger of Citi Bank and Bank of America being nationalized by the United States government which will wipe out much of our investment.
Given the dire state the U.S. banks are in now, how long will we have to wait before we recoup our losses and we are talking about a mind-boggling sum in terms of billions. Even if the share prices do rebound in 10 or 20 years time, what is the opportunity cost lost when we could have grown the money by investing it in gold, bonds or fixed deposits.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=5613
He replied straight in the face that “these are very respectable figures” based on the annual returns quoted by Finance Minister Tharman.
“Some years it will go down, some years it will go up more. But on average it’s not bad. And we have to take a long-term view because this is not money for now, this is money for many years ahead. If you look at a long-term basis, on the overall on the way the government has managed the money, we haven’t done badly“, he said. (read the original report here)
I wondered if the journalist who wrote the report was equally as convinced as Prime Minister Lee. If the article was meant to allay the fears and angst of Singaporeans, it doesn’t sound reassuring at all.
In the first place, we are still kept in the dark over the real extent of GIC’s losses, which a Thai Daily put it at an estimate of over S$200 billion dollars. Then there is the danger of Citi Bank and Bank of America being nationalized by the United States government which will wipe out much of our investment.
Given the dire state the U.S. banks are in now, how long will we have to wait before we recoup our losses and we are talking about a mind-boggling sum in terms of billions. Even if the share prices do rebound in 10 or 20 years time, what is the opportunity cost lost when we could have grown the money by investing it in gold, bonds or fixed deposits.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=5613
