Wolf Money(Portfolio update end Sept 2026)part 1
September Musings
September marks the transition from summer to autumn. Oh boy, did anyone feel the chill in the stock market? More on the stock market later.
Scan the Scam
Another S which is making the headlines is the Nanning Scam. I previously warned about more people getting involved in the scam, knowingly or unknowingly. The appearance of an actor and an ex-MP at the Nanning dinner threw the spotlight on the scale of the operation. The scammers wanting to show a legitimate front have to “borrow” the established names of the actor and ex-mp to make the scam more convincing than it looks. Maybe the actor was told he will received a handsome appearance fees just by coming to the dinner. Both may or may not be involved. It is up to the police to investigate.
One will have to ask themselves if there is a kind of investment that promises high return. Why am I given an opportunity to participate alongside famous people and social elites given the huge gulf in social economic status? If the investment is so hard to resist, why didn’t the social elite or the billionaires not invest in those investments? Finally, did Elon Musk offer you pre-IPO shares of Space X that cost a few dollars before it went public? If not, give yourself a pinch to wake yourself up. All that glitters is not gold after all.
Salary and SALARY
Our government has proposed an increase in salary for those holding political office. The public have no issue with a pay increase. Everyone needs a pay raise, including those working in higher office. Can the timing be better? It sure can. Can it be done in a more sensitive manner amid the cost of living pressures faced by Singaporeans? It sure can. The explanation to justify a pay increase is imperfect. Although money is a good source of motivation in attracting talent, but a couple of hundred thousands more a year doesn’t buy loyalty. It wouldn’t even tip the scales to draw those corporate eagles into politics.
A person making a decision to join higher office based purely on how much money the person receives is likely to cloud his judgement. That person can also make a decision against the state if he receives more money from our adversaries. Everyone should be worried about our country if the primary motive for public service bodes down squarely on monetary incentives. Iswaran is an example: no amount of money can satisfy the greed of a human. The increase is not the issue here. Expectation is. When a minister draws a salary, in the eyes of many, to be out of this world. The expectation for the government to perform unrealistic god-like laser focus efficiency will increase tremendously. It puts undue pressure on all our public office holders. There will be two potentially negative outcomes from the big pay increase. The public office holder may not take on risks on good public policy. Everyone becomes too safe in protecting their own rice bowl, even if the policy is well established by facts, potentially slowing down policy responses. Secondly, if the office holders doesn’t perform to public expectations. More populist policies will be implemented to placate negative public opinion, which may result in a slippery slope down on excessive populism. US and UK are examples of gridlock government, fearing to touch the entitlement issue. Of course, there is always the possibility of a better outcome with better policy. The public will assumed the good performance is part of the justification for the higher salary. A given. The bar couldn’t be higher for our civil servants.
Minister Tan See Leng did well in the private sector before he joined public service. He is one of the rare examples in the government with real entrepreneurship experience, and that shouldn’t be spoken across the board. The formula to peg civil servant pay to the top 1000 income earners, mostly business owners, needs more clarification. Would pegging the formula to the top 5% of medium income be a better yardstick? In the end, we want our country to do better. A country, like a company, needs talent. We also need to get our money worth when it comes to the state recruitment policy. Food for thought. 🙏
Slow and Slower…
I never had my “fast” food so slowly. It took 35 mins to have our order ready. It is very tough to get people to work in the f&b industry, more so in fast food restaurants. There is a growing pool of seniors working in our fast food chain. Staffs managing orders at the counter are more senior now. Unfortunately, the senior we encountered was struggling with the demand of the job which requires fast placement of orders. A renamed of fast food restaurant into “Slow” food restaurant will managed customers’ expectations. A redeployment of the senior away from front of the house will be more appropriate in improving the working environment for the seniors, in process improving customers’ satisfaction.
Shop and Shoppers
My family and I went on a short trip to JB. Mid-Valley Southkey and KSL mall. Both malls were attracting large group of Singaporeans doing their retail therapy over the school holiday. I like Mid-Valley mall for its refined shopping experience. Popular Bookstore and Sushi Zanmai(part of the Sushi Tei group) are some of the shops we visited. I am less impressed with the ageing KSL mall with its poor maintenance. Hotel rooms are in desperate need of an upgrade.
I can understand the attraction of KSL mall among Singaporeans. It is one of the closest malls from the causeway housing a large Lotus’s supermarket for those looking to load up on their daily essentials. Ladies urgently needing a nail manicure or a haircut can choose from the many options in the mall. The mall does provide a quick turnaround for Singaporeans needing to get things done within a couple of hours under one roof without any fuss. Komtar and City Square JB Mall will be ground zero in coming months when RTS officially open for service. City Square JBCC after years of neglect, is undergoing refurbishment to welcome tourists from Singapore. I suspect prices of goods and services in those two malls to be very comparable to those of Singapore.
Part 2 coming up.
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