What happens when the next wave of Covid meets the Great Resignation? Singapore is going to find out—and it will be ugly. The Straits Times presents an optimistic picture of the labour market. Among other things, unemployment fell from 3 percent to 2.6 percent, retrenchments dropped from 26110 to 7820, and the Ministry of Manpower expects […]
Decoupling From Amazon
Over the weekend, Amazon de-listed Galaxy’s Edge by Nick Cole and Jason Anspach. While the series is now back up on the Kindle Store, this event caused a disruption in cashflow and no small amount of confusion and acrimony from GE fans and their circles. Nick Cole speculates that a hacker got into Amazon. Brian […]
A Parallel Economy for the Pandemic
Among the many Covid restrictions Singapore has passed to date, the unofficial vaccine mandate is the most insidious. In a single stroke, tens of thousands of workers are forced to choose between the jab and the job—as well as students who are about to enter the workforce. The Ministry of Manpower claims that termination for […]
Digital Currencies Don’t Need Government Backing
Michael Petraeus, better known as Critical Spectator, wrote an article for Vulcan Post arguing that digital currencies can only work with government backing. By ‘digital currencies’ he singles out Bitcoin for criticism. This in itself is the fatal flaw underlying his thesis. To understand where Petraeus is coming from, he is one of Singapore’s highest […]
An Amateur’s Notes on Cryptocurrency
Like most people I know I heard of Bitcoin only when it was too late to profit spectacularly from it. Even so, cryptocurrency rarely popped up in my local newspapers, except in highly technical articles buried in the business or finance pages, or whenever someone made a killing off crypto — or when crypto is […]
A deeper look at piracy
Piracy cannot be eradicated through legislation. What is required is a different business model that competes with, or co-opts, pirates to meet consumer wants and needs.
Six Weeks of Misspent Rage
Occupy Wall Street is focused on expressing outrage instead of being a force for change.