Latest Posts By pharoah88
- Supreme
About pharoah88
|
|
| 07-Nov-2010 15:06 |
User Research/Opinions
/
&&&&&&&& PROFITS & PHILANTHROPHY &&&&&&&&
 Go to Message
|
||||
 x 0
 x 0
|
News for li ka shing is a devil
Li Ka Shing is a 'devil'
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 15:02 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? SAFETY ???? and ???? The AUTHORIEIES ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Nov 7, 2010YOUR LETTER
Plan to strengthen Spring's power to ban unsafe productsWe refer to last Sunday's letter by Mr Kwan Jin Yao, 'Don't toy with children's safety'. The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and Spring Singapore view product safety very seriously. In regulating consumer product safety, the Government must balance risks against the costs. Products capable of serious, immediate and adverse effects on consumers are screened for safety before they are allowed into the market. This includes 45 categories of household electrical, electronic and gas products regulated by Spring under the Consumer Protection Safety Requirements Regulations. Other government agencies are also vested with the legal authority to regulate, through pre-market screening, the safety of consumer products in specific sectors such as food and medicine. However, for other consumer products (for example, toys), it is not practical to screen all the different types and models up front, given their large variety and volume. The cost of such checks will ultimately be borne by consumers. Spring monitors toy product safety through various mechanisms, such as the sharing of information with overseas safety agencies and consumer groups. Once toys are found to be unsafe, it works with suppliers to remove them from the market. Given the supply chain involved in bringing a toy to the point of sale, cooperation by all parties is key in ensuring product safety. This was demonstrated when the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) brought the discovery of unsafe toys to public attention through its tests on toys. Spring and Case then worked with retailers and importers to remove the unsafe toys from the market. Spring is working with Case to detect and remove unsafe toys during the year-end festive periods. MTI and Spring are reviewing the existing framework to regulate the safety of general consumer products. Following a study of comparable economies and consultation with stakeholders, including Case and department stores, we are looking to strengthen Spring's power to remove or ban from the market unsafe general consumer products. These include toys that do not meet international standards, such as the maximum level of lead allowed, when they are uncovered through overseas incidents or sample testing by Spring. A regulatory approach based on ex-post actions has also been adopted by a number of deve-loped economies, such as South Korea, Australia and Japan. It provides a balanced and efficient regime that does not impose unnecessary cost on businesses and consumers. We expect to complete the review by year end, and thereafter proceed to table the necessary legislative amendments. Cindy Keng (Mrs) Director, Corporate Communications Division Ministry of Trade and Industry Michael Ong Director (Consumer Product Safety) Spring Singapore |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 14:54 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? SAFETY ???? and ???? The AUTHORIEIES ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
SAFETY | ||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 14:36 |
User Research/Opinions
/
? FREE MARKET MATURITY MODEL ? ZHI Zi
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 14:30 |
User Research/Opinions
/
? FREE MARKET MATURITY MODEL ? ZHI Zi
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Hooters shows why deflation may never go away william pesek Japan’s newest sensation is one of the world’s oldest: Scantily clad women serving cheap booze.Fast Company magazine’s 2010 story about the world’s most innovative companies. That’s quite a comedown for a nation famed for the Walkman and other world-changing technologies. Its headline grabbing exports these days are bargain price T-shirts and underwear made in China.Contemporary Japan, said.BLOOMBERG
The writer is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Yes, Hooters Inc has made its way to Tokyo. Normally when hundreds of Japanese men huddle in line it’s for a new iPhone or video game. These days, it’s to be served beer and chicken wings by waitresses in white tank tops and orange short-shorts (picture). It’s also an unlikely sign that deflation will be with Japan for a long, long time. Anyone who still thinks falling prices are a cyclical phenomenon is not looking closely. It’s secular, and the sudden ubiquity of discount outfits shows how Japanese consumption has become a race to the bottom of the pricing spectrum. Japan used to be an ATM for brands like Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Women thought little of plopping down US$2,000 ($2,500) for the latest fashions from Milan and Paris. Men didn’t blink at paying US$200 for a tie. That is all fashion-industry history now. Sliding wages and rising job insecurity brought budget-shopping into vogue. No matter how much yen the Bank of Japan pumps into the economy, deflation deepens. It’s all about confidence, of which there is virtually none. Companies don’t trust that growth will return and so they avoid investing and hiring and trim salaries. Households fret about the future. Japan’s sclerotic politics are a key part of the problem. Dealing with a new prime minister every eight months or so doesn’t instil hope. Politicians who spend more time debating how to raise taxes than protecting living standards don’t help, either. It’s telling that the hottest company in Japan is a bargain clothier. In fact, Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo chain was the only Japanese name in The buzz that used to surround Chanel and Dolce and Gabbana stores has shifted to far less swanky ones: Inditex SA’s Zara, Hennes and Mauritz AB’s HandM brands, Forever 21 and Gap Sweden’s Ikea is all the rage. And throughout the nation of 126 million, 100-yen ($1.60) shops are doing brisk business. It’s all a far cry from the bubble years when fat expense accounts and surging wages supported a thriving entertainment industry. A group of businessmen could easily drop US$2,000 at a hostess club in Ginza, Akasaka or Roppongi. The gloom of the 1990s and deflation of the 2000s dented Japan’s so-called water trade in a way few could have imagined in the 1980s. Hooters is the latest step of this trend. Getting households to spend more of the roughly US$15 trillion of savings sitting under tatami mats is the key to ending deflation. That’s not going to happen with workers increasingly referring to themselves as “precariats” — a word combining precarious and proletariat. “With a growing precariat and a younger generation who are more inclined to save than splurge, second-tier retailers definitely feel they have a niche to fill here,” Mr Jeff Kingston, author of the recently published Hooters’s expansion brought it to China, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan ahead of Japan. Deflation may explain why. It delivered businessmen to a place where ¥680 beers and ¥780 chicken wings at orange counters are preferable to leather sofas and single-malt scotch. Kingston’s book brims with insights about how that happened. It explores the social changes that swept Japan since the 1980s, and not always for the better. Quietly, shifts in the underlying dynamics of Japan Inc undermined households’ sense of security and caused greater disparities in a society that once viewed itself as egalitarian. Among the most troubling side effects is a slumping birth-rate. Japan’s waning stature is manifesting itself geopolitically. China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in the second quarter. Spats since then show how little time officials in Beijing seem to have for their peers in Tokyo. Russia got into the dissing-Japan act this week. All we need now is a row with India to complete the Asian-giant trifecta. Yet Japan’s main focus has to be shoring up its flat-lining economy. It’s easier said than done with public debt at 200 per cent of gross domestic product, interest rates at zero and the yen rising. Deflation is deepening because no one believes it will be defeated over the next several years. That mindset has morphed the once free-spending Japanese into yenpinchers. It also has many a politician, corporate executive and investor needing a drink. Perhaps even at Hooters. |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 14:07 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? G20 ???? and its ???? LEGALITY ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Fed move sparks backlash BEIJING “The international community has every reason to feel worried, so the US side owes it a proper explanation for the move,” Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai was quoted as saying by the official Mr Cui’s remarks echoed concerns raised across Asia as countries brace themselves for stronger currencies and possible asset-price inflation, after the Fed announced it would sink money into government bonds over the next eight months to lower long-term interest rates in an effort to revive economic growth. China, Brazil and Germany criticised the action, and a string of east Asian central banks said they were preparing measures to defend their economies against a feared escalation of capital inflow into the region. A Chinese central bank advisor called unbridled printing of dollars the biggest risk to the global economy, and said China should use currency policy and capital controls to cushion itself from external shocks. “As long as the world exercises no restraint in issuing global currencies such as the dollar — and this is not easy — then the occurrence of another crisis is inevitable, as quite a few wise Westerners lament,” Mr Xia Bin wrote in a newspaper. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan cited the US as pursuing a “weak-dollar policy”. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority warned the city’s property prices could surge and Malaysia’s central bank chief said nations are prepared to act jointly on capital flows. Thailand’s finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said the country was prepared to introduce further capital controls, either alone or in cooperation with other countries. “We are willing to take whatever measures when necessary,” he told Reuters. Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Friday that while quantitative easing in the US was understandable because of its economy’s slow recovery, the policy might hurt the rest of the world. This debate highlighted the need for reforming the financial system, Mr Zhou said at a forum in Beijing. “If the domestic policy is optimal policy for the US alone, but at the same time it is not an optimal policy for the world ... we have to solve this problem by reforming the international currency system.” Asian stock markets climbed on Friday, as investors flocked to stocks and commodities in Asia for a second day in search of higher returns. Japan’s Nikkei share average led gains, rising 2.9 per cent. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan rose about 0.8 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.4 per cent on strong turnover. The Shanghai Composite also rose 1.4 per cent to a near seven-month high. Key indexes in Taiwan and Australia rose more than a per cent, while stock markets in India and Singapore were closed for the Deepavali holiday. “We further increased our exposure to Asia and emerging markets. QE2 (quantitative easing 2) provides more confidence that the flow of capital into emerging markets will continue and add more liquidity into asset markets,” said Shane Oliver, director of investment strategy and chief economist for AMP Capital in Sydney.
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:58 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? G20 ???? and its ???? LEGALITY ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Emerging markets slowdown ahead: HSBC HSBC Holdings, the UK’s biggest bank, said profit growth slowed in the third quarter and that recovery in emerging markets may be faltering. The rate of profit growth declined from the first half, though third-quarter profit was still “well ahead” of the year-earlier period as bad-loan provisions in the US declined, HSBC said. The lender did not providespecific figures. “Our latest data from emerging markets points to a slowdown in the rate of recovery and the likelihood of some bumps in the road ahead,” chief executive officer Michael Geoghegan said in the statement. “We believe the long-term fundamentals for emerging economies are as compelling as ever.” HSBC, which gets about two-thirds of its revenue from outside Europe, said loan impairments dropped to their lowest level since early 2007 after the bank shut its US consumer-finance unit.
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:44 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? G20 ???? and its ???? LEGALITY ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Fed’s move likely to complicate US plan at G20
The renewed tension over the Fed’s move is likely to complicate US efforts to get G20 leaders meeting in Seoul next week to press China to sign up to a new accord promising to limit current account balances.
China’s Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai rejected any attempt by other countries to set target ranges for the yuan to appreciate.
“Of course, we hope to see more balanced current accounts,” Mr Cui said. “But we believe it would not be a good approach to single out this issue and focus all attention on it.
The artificial setting of a numerical target cannot but remind us of the days of planned economies.”
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last month floated the idea of capping surpluses and deficits on the current account at 4 per cent of GDP.
Asean will also raise its concerns at the Nov 11 to 12 summit.
“We are concerned that the US plan ... might lead to trade protectionism,” Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said.
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:41 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? G20 ???? and its ???? LEGALITY ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Is G20 SUMMIT an ILLEGAL and ILLEGITIMATE ASSEMBLY ? ? ? ? | ||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:38 |
User Research/Opinions
/
???? G20 ???? and its ???? LEGALITY ????
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Is G20 a LEGAL and LEGITIMATE INSTITUTION ? ? ? ? | ||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:27 |
User Research/Opinions
/
? FREE MARKET MATURITY MODEL ? ZHI Zi
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
SINGAPORE Speaking as an “outside observer”, the Minister for Law and Home Affairs said several questions arose for him: Does the media in the United States always pursue the truth? Do parts of it act as campaign arms of politicians and “peddle halftruths”? Do viewers rely on their preferred media to confirm their existing prejudices? Is it financially more lucrative to “serve up red meat to a secure base of viewers, rather than seek the middle ground”? Citing commentators such as This is even as the American press has “become adversarial to the point that it does not contribute to the understanding of national issues, while complex issues are made into personality clashes”; and has lost credibility because “journalists have become cynical about everything, in search of the dramatic”. “I am not saying I agree with these comments,” he told his audience at Columbia University’s inaugural forum on A Free Press in a Global Society. “I am just saying we have to think carefully, before we consider adopting the American system.” For Mr Shanmugam, the bottom line was this: What role the media can play in a society must be taken in context of its political framework and society. In the US, the media has a wider and freer role than almost any other, with the fundamental assumption that American society is strong enough to withstand the possible harmful consequences, he said. Extremist sentiment will not threaten the fabric of society. But Singapore, as a small society and “micro-state” with a short shared history, cannot withstand such harm. “By the time we have some light, after all the heat, irreparable harm may have been caused — or at least a level of harm that we as a society are not prepared to accept,” he said, citing exploitable racial and religious fault-lines. As such, Singapore has clear views on what the media here must be: A neutral medium, with commentary clearly separate from news, reporting “fully and fairly” on what goes on. “It can probe, ask inconvenient questions, and expose wrong-doing.” It also “can and should convey the views of opposing political actors”, he said. “But it should not join the political fray and become a political actor.” Mr Shanmugam noted that while liberal theory holds that a fair and independent media checks the Government, keeping it honest — in reality, journalists are biased, media companies are profit-driven, ethics can be compromised by advertising dollars, and the media itself is not subject to any checks and balances. Turning to foreign critics of Singapore’s approach, he contrasted Reporters Without Borders’ ranking of the Republic as 136th on press freedom, with a Gallup poll where 69 per cent of Singaporeans said they had confidence in the quality and integrity of the media. The result for the US was 32 per cent. He also suggested that Singapore’s ranking on some polls was due in part to its uncompromising stance on libel “and the fact that we have taken on almost every major newspaper company”. As for being open to ideas, he pointed out that in Singapore, there are more than 5,500 foreign newspapers and publications circulating, close to 200 television channels on the cable networks, and more than 100-per-cent household broadband penetration. Concluding with remarks on China, Mr Shanmugam said the coverage the Western media devotes to China’s human rights record is often biased and lacks perspective. Commentators could do more to recognise China’s astonishing achievements — lifting several hundred million people out of poverty in 30 years — and understand the issues it faces, before offering criticisms and prescriptions, he said. — While Singapore’s media has been the subject of foreign criticism often enough, Mr K Shanmugam on Friday turned the spotlight on the American media, on its own home ground.New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Washington Post veteran Carl Bernstein and ABC political corespondent George Stephanapoulos, Mr Shanmugam noted their views on how news has been reduced to gossip, sensationalism used to turn attention away from the real conditions of society, and an “idiot culture” created in the news. |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 13:13 |
User Research/Opinions
/
? FREE MARKET MATURITY MODEL ? ZHI Zi
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Works for US, but not for us
By the time we have some light, after all the heat, irreparable harm may have been caused — or at least a level of harm that we as a society are not prepared to accept.
Mr K Shanmugam, Law and Home Affairs Minister |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 07-Nov-2010 12:58 |
Others
/
Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies at age 89
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:47 |
User Research/Opinions
/
#### POLLUTION #### & 3RD WORLD STANDARD ##
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
http://www.todayonline.com/PrintEdition/SL
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:45 |
User Research/Opinions
/
#### POLLUTION #### & 3RD WORLD STANDARD ##
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
#### POLLUTION & 3RD WORLD STANDARD #### I WANT to share my experience with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in getting information on the different sulphur levels in the various types of petrol sold in Singapore. I wanted the information so that I can choose which petrol to use based on which one has the lowest sulphur levels. Lower sulphur means cleaner fuel, which means less pollution. It also means better fuel economy. I had hoped the NEA could share the information with the public, empowering the public to choose to use fuels based on sulphur levels. This, I hoped, would in turn lead the petrol companies to take action on their own regarding sulphur levels in their products, instead of waiting for legislation to compel them to do so. Sulphur content is measured in parts per million (ppm); the lower the number the better. But it seems here in Singapore no one wants to tell you the ppm level of the different types of petrol on the market. I have been told that “it’s below 500 ppm” and “within acceptable limits”. In Singapore, we use the Euro II vehicular emission standard as the bar — but this is a Third World standard. In Europe they are down to 10 ppm! So, are we closer to 10 ppm or 500 ppm? I have been asking but no one has given me a definitive reply. I started my quest for an answer two months ago but I have found myself back at square one, with an NEA officer informing me that “there is currently no regulatory requirement for oil companies to disclose such information”. He would only state that “the sulphur content in all the brands of petrol are well within the specifications required for the prevailing vehicular emission standard”. Someone from one of the petrol companies apologised to me, via email, that “we are not able to tell which grade of petrol has the lower sulphur. A number of factors such as selection of available blending component might affect the outcome of sulphur content in the petrol. Hence we are not able to ensure (if any given) grade of petrol sold always has low sulphur content”. Another petrol company told me that they “do not disclose such information to the general public”. Petrol emission is one of the biggest sources of pollution around and is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. Surely the authorities should be able to get the petrol companies to divulge the sulphur content of their products sold in Singapore, and display this information at the petrol pumps and on the NEA website? |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:38 |
User Research/Opinions
/
#### POLLUTION #### & 3RD WORLD STANDARD ##
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
I wanted the information ... (as) lower sulphur means cleaner fuel, which means less pollution. It also means better fuel economy.
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:36 |
User Research/Opinions
/
#### POLLUTION #### & 3RD WORLD STANDARD ##
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Sulphur leaves a bad taste It seems impossible to find out the sulphur content of petrol sold in Singapore Letter from Prithpal Singh |
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:31 |
Others
/
TRADE FREELY & LiVE LONGER
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
Exponential Moving Average - EMA What Does Exponential Moving Average - EMA Mean?
A type of moving average that is similar to a simple moving average, except that more weight is given to the latest data. The exponential moving average is also known as "exponentially weighted moving average".   Investopedia explains Exponential Moving Average - EMA
This type of moving average reacts faster to recent price changes than a simple moving average. The 12- and 26-day EMAs are the most popular short-term averages, and they are used to create indicators like the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and the percentage price oscillator (PPO). In general, the 50- and 200-day EMAs are used as signals of long-term trends.
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:17 |
Golden Agri-Res
/
GoldenAgr
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
GoldenAgri 2010 fOreIgn eXchange gaIns 2009 lOsses
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| 05-Nov-2010 14:15 |
Genting Sing
/
Traders Lounge - Daily opportunities for everyone
Go to Message
|
||||
|
x 0
x 0
|
GoldenAgri 2010 fOreIgn eXchange gaIns 2009 lOsses
|
||||
| Good Post Bad Post | |||||
| First < Newer 3841-3860 of 13894 Older> Last |