On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:43:07 -0700 (PDT), baldeagle
yahoo.com.sg> wrote:

This is addressed to ALL armchair experts on politics and economics.

Lee Senior is not loveable and he doesn't need anyone's love. There
is nothing he can do now that will undo his record. But what a record
and what a legacy. Any other country should be so lucky to have such
a leader. LKY will leave behind a functioning country that is at
peace, has the institutions, infrastructure and a massive treasury
that will survive his passing for at least a generation if not more.
Lee Junior is already that successor generation and looks a competent
manager enough to husband that legacy and not to do anything rash.
With the eventual passing of Lee Junior the next Singapore leadership
will be on its own. Lets's hope Singapore will be even more
successful and grant you the democracy and freedoms you all declare
you value so much. Or Singapore may go south, go broke and disappear
(even global warming can do that)as a force in world affairs and its
own neighborhood. But by then Singaporeans will not be able to blame
their fate on LKY or even LHL. Go north or sink south it is LKY who
made it possible for Singapore to be in the game at all.

Yes that investment turned out to be a very bad move. At that time it
was an investment coup as many countries with massive Sovereign Wealth
Funds were already adopting the Singapore Model for investing their
funds. These SWF had more massive funds than Singapore and would have
been able to crowd out Singapore should Singapore not move fast
enough. Up till August 2007 those were top grade investments and the
international opinion was that Singapore made an investment coup. But
it turned out that the underlying valuation was a systemic fraud not
even the top financial institutions were aware of. Do read

Fraud and the subprime bubble
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG24Dj03.html
Theories abound for the cause of the US subprime crisis, with the
alleged culprits ranging from greedy corporations to rating agencies.
Yet fraud lies at the core of the crisis, with the firms now being
blamed as primary perpetrators actually being among the victims. -
George Pugh

for a long and very detailed story on what is happening that will
affect all our lives.

The horror is far from over. In the scheme of things Singapore has
come off in relatively good shape for the investment is in real
assets, if much damaged, and not in worthless paper. When the economy
recovers these have a very good chance of recovering their value and
maybe even make some money. Imagine China's anxiety in holding $425
billion in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac paper that has implied US Government
guarantees but legally does not. The massive $3 trillion in debt
obligations of the two Institutions (I am recalling all figures from
memory, read the article) may force the US Government to nationalize
them. That means all shareholder assets will likely be wiped out
although that will also wipe out international trust in the US
financial market and the USD. Thow in the global banking crisis,
hydrocarbon crisis, food crisis, etc. is way way over our heads and
over the heads of the best brains in the world. Please don't call the
Singapore Government managers (aka LKY) stupid for putting $20 billion
into play at the wrong time. You aren't even qualified to comment on
the subject.