Talking The Walk

As opposed to walking the talk. On one hand, Najib is saying all the "right" things but the reality is quite different:

“What we can do is change our ways and by promoting cleaner technology and reducing fossil fuel emissions, start to reverse the damage that has already been done,” he said in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of expo in which Malaysia is the “country of honour”.

You can talk about fossil fuel emissions and reversing the damage. But the very fact is, while the world is taxing carbon emissions, Malaysia is still very much subsidizing it. Just a classic case of talking the walk. No walking involved.

HT: Hisham

Calvin and Hobbes - The Malaysian/US Dilemma? (repost)

I saw this again this morning but it was used to explain the US economy. When I posted this, I used it to exemplify the Malaysian dilemma. Apparently, it also describes the US banking industry. How about that?

Volume 3 Issue 20: Intelligent Investing

Fuel Prices

Price per liter of fuel

Can't help but to post this as I saw it on Facebook. For those of you non-Malay speakers/readers, the above chart shows the price of one liter of petrol in the respective countries. All we hear is lament and complaints about how expensive the price of petrol is. Are those complaints warranted? Perhaps.

The funny thing about the list above is that, if you were to change the title to "Countries facing political uprisings", most of the countries would still be there. No prizes for guessing which. The problem is not so much in the prices of fuel, but the amount of budget deficit we are in and how distorted the demand for fuel has become. I would bet anyone a nickel that most of the countries in the list above do not even come close to having a persistent budget deficit like that of Malaysia.

Granted, the real problem is where the deficit came from to begin with, but that is another issue altogether. But just a heads up to you Main Streeters, the era of subsidized petrol is more or less over. If you guys don't think that some particular races are entitled to any "free" gifts, you should be more than willing to taste your own medicine. We are resourceful people. We will find ways to figure out this additional burden, just like how we have always figured out to solve any other problem.

What You Can and Can't Eat in School

The government now decides what schoolchildren can and can't eat. Anyone else feels like we live in an increasingly dictator-led country? What's next?

Albeit the rationale is to promote healthy living, surely there is a better way. What makes Char Kuey Teow more healthy than burgers and sausages? Why not limit "canteen subsidies" to vendors who provide "healthy options", like less salt, sugar, etc.?

When is the government going to learn that quotas and restrictions only lead to "black market" activities as long as demand exceeds supply. Children who want to eat nuggets will still find a way to eat nuggets. The only way to pull them away from this is to put in place an incentive system for healthy food i.e. make them cheaper. As mentioned, this can be done through subsidizing only healthy food in school.

I am curious what the results would be from this quota/restriction system.