The Economy is on the mend so where's the money ?

It's now official but Singapore grew by some 3 percent and in the coming year, the Ministry of Trade an Industry thinks that we can grow by annual rate of about three to five percent a year. The word is out, we are officially out of recession and those of us who were about to lose our jobs can probably breath a sigh of relief. In a few months time, we may actually get that bonus.

I'm not popping the champagne quite yet. A week ago, I heard the phrase, "Budget" cut and lost a retainer client. I'm still trying to find a replacement to ensure that my bills get paid. The girlfriend tells me that things are looking up for her but I have a suspicion that she may be an exception rather than the rule.

Funnily enough, things were not that bad this year. Part of the reason for this was because budgets got set a year ago and although we knew things would be rough in 08, the corporate budget planners felt they could spare the pennies. However, the corporate budgets in 2010 are likely to be different - the budget was set in 2010 when everyone was in an gloomy mood. However, if the Ministry is right, we could be looking at a case where 2011 has some pretty optimistic news.

Leaving aside the economic figures, I think life will probably continue as before. The government will find a way of rising prices if people get more money into their pockets. This is Singapore, the one cheque economy and the writers of that cheque quite like it that way. People who are not beholden to the chque writer have a terrible habit of having indepdent thoughts about doing things differently.

Anyway, it's also looking like a good time to hae Yellow Skin. President Barak Obama happily completed his second deep bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan and he avoided rushing into the usual discussion on human rights with President Hu Jin Tao on his recently concluded Asian Tour. How things change? Back in 1997, the American President of the day had a lot of fun telling the Asians to get their life sorted out. Today, the American President is acting like a good boy - a well trained house nigger to a group of funny people the American public barely recognise. To put it crudely, it's the Nips and Chinks who are helping the Americans sustain a rather decadent lifestyle.

Let's put it this way, the cause of financial meltdown was not surprise. The world was living beyond it's means and eventually the party had to stop somewhere and now we're trying to recover from the hang over. The reason why the Asians haven't been as badly effected is because a lesser portion of them had the chance to afford the party. Asia, for all it's spectacular economic growth in the last two decades remains a very poor place, filled with very poor people. India for example used to occupy the top four positions on the Fobes Billionaire list and at the same time it has 400 million people living on less than a dollar a day. You can't turn the 400 million poor buggers into capitalist mad consumers until they can actually feed themselves.

But anyway, the million of Asians are somehow pulling the world of its worst economic crisis in nearly half a century and the world should be greatful for that. I'm not exactly sure about what we have to be greatful for? Yes, it's nice to see the Yellow and brown people buying up a few choice properties in London and New York but is it necessarily a wonderful thing that we're turning more people into the people who brought us this mess in their first place?

I mean it's always good to have a crisis once in a while. People need to be shaken out of certain complacencies fromt time-to-time. In 1997, Asia need to crash. Corrupt companies got shaken up and although millions got thrown onto the streets, the region quickly learnt to adapt and a generation that had grown used to instant success realised that it actually had to value it. There was some alighnment of social values.

However, it's hard to see it happening in this crisis. Yes, somewhere along the line there are words about the American consumer learning to save. But we've kept banks that behaved badly alive and companies like GM that made products nobody wanted, have yet to go the way of the dinosaur. While we shurg at the American consumer learning how to save - we're celebrating the way Asian consumers are going to become like American ones.

It will be interesting to see how sustainable the "recovery" is in light of such social transformations.