Minimum wage and employment

Paul Krugman argued that cutting the minimum wage will not increase employment. Here are his reasons. I agree with his thinking.

Impact of Sichuan Earthquake in 2008

Sichuan suffered a big drop in tourism revenue for the past 12 months. Tourist visits to Sichuan dropped significantly after the earthquake. It is only starting to recover. My tour guide said that he looked after only three tour groups during the past 12 months.

My group was able to get the top class hotels as pack of the package for an affordable price. It is a good time to visit Sichuan as the cost is still low and the service is excellent. Sichuan has excellent natural landscapes, sceneries, mountains, waterfalls and rivers. Tourism is an important part of its economy.

Visit to Sichuan, China

I visited Sichuan China for the past 10 days from 9 to 16 December. I was not able to update my blog during this period as Blogspot is still blocked in China. I shall be writing about some interesting observations from my visit.

Rechargeable torchlight with locator light

Here is a photo of the rechargeable torchlight with the locator light turned on.

It is easy to locate the torchlight at night to visit the bathroom or kitchen for a drink of water.

You do not need to turn on the main lights and waste electricity.

In an emergency or power failure, you can find the torchlight easily.

It takes 12 hours to charge the battery and can last for about two weeks, based on light usage.

This special feature of a locator light was designed by me and produced to my specification.

The torchlight sells for $6.50 and can be bought from my office ($5.50 for purchase of 5 or more pieces). Office open Mondays to Fridays, 9 am to 6 pm. (The price will be revised to $8 from 2010 when this is made available at the retail outlets).

Delivery can be made to your address for a delivery charge of $7. You can get several friends to buy the torchlight together and share the delivery cost. 

Poor return on special funds

A customer was advised to invest a large single premium in an investment linked product in 2007. He was not clear about the investment. The cash value is now only 55% of the invested sum. I was surprised that the value is so low, as the stock market must have dropped only 20% during this period. I learned later that he was advised to invest in a some special funds.

The public should be careful about these types of special funds, which have high charges and low transparency, and generally perform worse than the broad market. It is better to take the market risk and invest in the STI exchange traded fund.

Lock up for 2 years at low return

Someone asked for my views about a 2 year insurance product that offers a return of  1.5% per annum. I felt that this return was rather low for the investment to be locked up. My preference is to keep the money in cash (earn 0.5% per annum) and wait for better investment opportunities.

Use of Medisave for health screening

Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan said that the Government is considering to allow Medisave to be used for health screening, but needs some safeguards to be in place to prevent abuses.

A good safeguard is to set a cap on the amount that can be withdrawn for health screening, to be used once every three years. Within this cap, the medical facilities will compete to provide the best packages that is available. Independent experts can comment on the usefulness of these packages. Consumers who wish to spend more can still use their own money, and not draw down on Medisave.