by :J. Watanabe

Many of those in developed countries fear that emerging economies like India and China would take over the leadership in the world economy in foreseeable future. You can spend hours, days, weeks or even months discussing why this can possibly happen, but the simple fact is that the vast majority of people in emerging economies work hard and honestly and they try to get something out of their hard work. I have been in India for the last couple of months and I have seen how people work. It is a bit of exaggeration to say that most people in developed countries do not work hard or honestly, but too many people work in such ways that they do not exactly contribute to the development of their economies.

First, too many people in developed countries do nothing; they do not work. I am personally for social programs such as tax-funded healthcare and tax-funded education, but the simple fact is that too many people rely on those social programs and do not work; furthermore, social programs in some countries are too generous. For example, UK has some of the most generous social programs and its government just hands out cash to too many people; the government does not hand out just enough cash for people to survive but it hands out more than enough to them so that they can even entertain themselves.

Second, too many people in developed countries force them to feel content while they work for good hours. Not everyone has to have ambition to become a billionaire, Read more »

By : Michael Chan

Now all the currencies in the world have value only because everybody who uses them agrees they have value. The RMB, for example, is rarely accepted in the United States because of rampant counterfeiting and capital controls by the Chinese government. The USD, one of the most counterfeited currency in the world, is accepted by everybody without question because it is THE currency of trade and commerce in the world (simply because the oil states have agreed to trade oil in USD).

The SGD was not widely accepted in the early days of its use too. It was with great pride then, that I found the SGD accepted at the Leonardo da Vinci airport back in 1991 (but not the MYR!) Today, despite the Singapore government’s refusal to internationalise the SGD, it remains a currency of choice in countries like Indonesia (especially in islands like Batam and Bintan).

Now, one of the reasons why counterfeit currency is never found in smaller denominations comes from the fact that there’s a production cost involved in making the notes. The more sophisticated the anti-counterfeiting technology used, the more Read more »