dinarpmkum

The Republicans have caved once again.  The deal hammered out between Biden and McConnell is one more setback for the nation.  It promises to put real brakes on the economic recovery because of the tax increases and makes no progress at all toward reducing the deficit that continues be the nation's number one economic problem. Why Democrats support this is a mystery?  This deal and others like it, soon to be agreed to, virtually guarantee that future beneficiaries of social security and medicare are in for a very unpleasant surprise.  Those now 50 and under cannot expect much more than half of the promised social security and medicare.  Those under 40 should not expect anything at all. Now, while age limits can be increased and means testing can be implemented, we should do it.  Doing it two years from now will effectively reduce future benefits more than doing it now.  Putting these things off just make things much, much worse in the future.  Thi...

In its extreme enthusiasm for Obama, the press has totally neglected the deficit issue, which was the entire reason behind the creation of the fiscal cliff in the first place. Instead the press has focused exclusively on Obama's absurd "tax the rich" gambit.  Obama's plan will likely lead to lower, not higher, revenues from the top two percent.  So, that part of the Obama agenda simply raises the deficit and provides disincentives to expand employment.  Great policy! Meanwhile, the $ 1.6 trillion deficit is getting larger.  The real cliff lies ahead when the debt markets begin to balk at the continued explosion in US sovereign debt.  We are now on "Greece watch."  It is only a matter of time. Meanwhile, the media continues to be irrelevant to the real issue of our time.  For a brief period, the media and Obama can enjoy their "victory," but the long run, not so long run now, leads to insolvency.  Watching Greece and Spain is instructive.  The...

This is one of the common question asked by potential PRS contributors. First, I want to emphasis that PRS is a long-term investment for the purpose of retirement planning . In investment case, long-term means you already using the most powerful method to reap a good return. Anyway, many contributors still want to treat PRS as some kind of short-term investment. I got the answer for you. Basically, PRS is very similar to unit trust investment. The underlying structure and investment philosophy were the same actually. No wonder many people perceived PRS is another unit trust scheme. Yes, you're correct to a certain extent. Under the guidelines, each PRS providers must at least launched their core funds for investors to select, namely Growth , Moderate and Conservative . To make things simple, we only discussed these core funds because I believe most of us only invest in core funds.  From these core funds, growth fund is the most aggressive one. In other words, the most risky one, w...

How will 2013 be for investors? On balance, I have to say it will be very good for global equities. Thanks to Bernanke's pronouncement, liquidity will continue to be ample, depressing interest rates. The certainty in maintaining low rates will now push a lot more funds on the sidelines to search for better returns. There is the one thing which is holding them back, the fiscal cliff. Even if no resolution is seen in the first week of January, it is not all bad. The ball will swing back to Obama and they will eventually come to some conclusion before January is over.  There is a lot of pent-up demand for investment spending in the USA that will get unleashed next year. Businesses have delayed capital projects in anticipation of the fiscal cliff. Capital spending has been notably weak in the last six months, much weaker than during the rest of the recovery. So a political deal, or even just some clarity about the future, could result in a nice bounce back in capital spending after the...

A number of Republicans have decided to vote for the restoration of the Bush tax cuts with an upper limit.  Obama's upper limit is $ 250,000. Apparently, many Republicans are willing to sign on if the upper limit is moved up a bit to $ 400,000 or $ 500,000.  If Republicans would simply refuse to sign on unless all the Bush cuts were restored, they would, without any doubt, get their way.  But somehow they have become convinced by the media, the Democrats, and their reading of the polls that they must buy into the Obama tax hike. Why would Republicans get their way?  Because Obama would be forced to go along if the choice were that stark.  Obama does not want to preside over a major tax increase that further damages an already weak economy.  He would own it, not Republicans.  After all, the Republican House passed a full extension of the Bush tax cuts last July.  It is only Obama's petty insistence on raising rates on the top 2 percent, raising at ...

Listening to the media and democratic pundits ignore the exploding national debt to indulge in a dialogue about an almost irrelevant issue -- taxing the upper 2 percent -- makes one wonder?  Do these folks not understand the arithmetic.  Are they unaware of the $ 16.5 trillion national debt, growing by ten percent per year in an economy with just over $ 15 trillion in GDP?  Why the focus on something that, at the most optimistic assessments, can only produce 0.08 trillion in revenues annually?  Even that miniscule number is unlikely.  Far more likely is that the increased tax rates on the upper 2 percent would drive down revenues from that group.  But, even at the most optimistic assessment, it is a waste of breath. So, why is that the entire conversation?  Maybe these folks are untroubled by a US decline.  They seem so fundamentally out of touch with traditional American values, maybe they are mainly interested in changing the culture to suit the...

The economy is weak because of government policy -- not the ongoing fiscal cliff stalemate.  The Obama Administration has waged war against the private sector free market from the day it took office.  That war has borne fruit.  This is the slowest economic recovery since the 1930s. The slow pace of economic growth has nothing to do with the cliff.  It has been going on since late 2009.  There is not going to be any serious economic growth in the US given the regulatory and legal environment that has been imposed upon the US economy since Obama took office.  The financial sector has been crushed, bank lending has been discouraged by the regulators, the energy sector has just barely survived the Obama onslaught, and employees are an endangered species. Obamacare pretty much says it all.  Another costly mandate on companies and ultimately on individuals was the final kicker.  Along the way the elimination of the Keystone pipeline project was emblemat...

I have been so looking forward to the movie. Les Miz is easily my all time favourite musical ever, beating out the grander Sound of Music, West Side Story and King & I. However, not everything works when you try to translate musicals to films, Sweeney Todd is one, Phantom was the other, because expectations were so high and the key is in the director and framing of the film. It is easier for success for stage to go to film, it usually fails when its film to musical stage, e.g. Grease or Legally Blonde and even Lion King. I have watched the musical 4x in various places and owns the 10th and 25th cd dvd collection as well, so I am a die hard fan.  Alfie Boe, one of the best ever Jean Valjean next to Colm Wilkinson. You should listen to them before you go hear Hugh Jackman's version. First the casting, not many realise Hugh Jackman was an established musical stage performer before he became an action actor on film, so this choice was a guaranteed success. Owing to the proximity o...

Sigh ... it happens everywhere, China is no different. The exception being, documentary reporting such as this do not excite or move most Malaysians anymore, we have tons of our own tales to tell. Btw, Bloomberg's website has been banned because of this story, which Bloomberg later expanded into a research project of enormous depth. Troubling for Beijing for sure. Now, the economic disparity is still not so great but its getting worse by the day in China. If people starts to suffer unemployment, you can bet your last dollar there is enough disenchantment for dislocation everywhere in China. Beijing has been extra careful and was vigilant in taking out Bo Xilai, but for every Bo there are another 100 princelings abusing their power. Certainly a recipe to be played out in the future, more transparency, less power?? ... if that is unlikely, then there will be blood and tears. ------------------------------ Lying in a Beijing military hospital in 1990, General Wang Zhen told a visitor ...

Why is the stock market so much higher than just a few weeks ago?  Don't stocks know that we are headed over the fiscal cliff? Going over the cliff is a good thing, not a bad thing.  Higher taxes, lower spending is just the beginning.  Much, much higher taxes and the virtual elimination of the military and other discretionary spending will be required just to get through the next 15 years of the entitlement programs.  Going over the cliff will provide 15 years of breathing room against the collapse of the entitlement programs. Not going over the cliff could force a crisis in treasury financing within the next two or three years.  Going over the cliff gets you past the end of the Obama years with a national debt of 20 Trillion and eight years of a lost decade.  But, it will get you to the end of the Obama years most likely.  Not going over the cliff will accelerate the national debt crisis with a good chance that we can't get through the Obama years wit...

 Telling a lie is a ....... Sin for a child.  Fault for an adult.  An art for a lover.  A profession for a lawyer.  A requirement for a politician.  A Management tool for a Boss.  An accomplishment for a bachelor.  An excuse for a subordinate and  A Matter of Survival for a married man.

Malaysia's upcoming popular model, Yumi Wong is the name you can't forget in the near future. She is pretty, famous and most important is very young. At the age of 23 only currently, she already features in many tv commercial, magazines, one of the most sought after model in town, and as an ambassador of many companies. Read to know more about Yumi: When were you  started  to join the modelling/entertainment industry? And, how? Still remember that when I am still in school, one of my friend got a freelance job and she needed someone to accompany her. She asked few of our friends on trying to get the job, while I'm like no harm, just try. But, in the end, only I myself got the job. This is how I started by becoming a freelancer and keep doing it until making it as my career. What's your BEST achievement so far? Best achievement? Hmmm, I won't say that I had any great achievement so far because I think that although I have been in this industry for few years, it was ...

If there is no appetite for reforming entitlements, then our future is massive tax increases and a stagnant and depressed economy.  Why not start this process now?  The track that we are on will eventually lead to the kind of top tax rates that we see in Europe -- 70 percent in France, for example.  And even those rates won't improve the national debt situation. The truth is that the Democrats plan is to continue to raise tax rates by pretending that somehow tax revenues can catch up with entitlement spending.  But there are no tax rates or revenues that can match the entitlement explosion.  Our national debt will be a multiple of GDP within a few years and is probably already unpayable at any level of tax revenues. It's time to let the public get a taste of their future -- high taxes, massive bureaucracy, a crushing of the private sector, high and permanent unemployment, and diminished employment and income prospects for younger generations.  Within a doze...

I am not much of a cookies fan but got a few presents, a couple of them came from Crabtree & Evelyn. I didn't know they made cookies!!! But they were more than excellent. I don't mind the calories cause they tasted soooo good. My favourite has to be Strawberries & Cream. Try them, they are absolutely divine. I was in HK recently, and although I smoke cigars, I don't really like cigarettes. But I chanced upon the display by Kent which bamboozled me. Obviously in addition to the cancerous lung pic, the rotting teeth and gums ... they now added this which says that smoking will make you age a lot faster. What I thought was galling: how come ageing means being much darker; this would attract tremendous outrage in countries like America, Australia for sure ... Only in HK or China can they get away with this. So politically incorrect. Funnily, when I showed this to a group of friends, the ladies ALL commented that the first thing that is NOT RIGHT about the picture was ...

Greek riots and demonstrations are now a daily event in Athens and other major cities.  Civil disorder is common place -- looting and random thievery are accepted in modern day Greece. Meanwhile, the Greek public still believes that they are beset by the evil greed of rich people and large corporations.  If only....   For three generations, the Greeks have been told that the "middle class" deserves endless services, employment guarantees, free health care, and no taxes.  They bought in. It's always about "fighting for the middle class," until there is no longer a middle class. That's where we are in Greece.  We now have a protracted battle between the protected class -- mostly government employees -- and everybody else.  We now witness a civil war between the young -- who are supposed to support all of this nonsense -- and the old, who no longer can support much of anything. Greece is the target.  That's where the Obama policies take you.  Su...

"Get something done....anything!"  That seems to be the thinking of the financial and political pundits.  Who cares if the outcome is further explosion in the national debt, more crushing taxes, and strangling regulations?  That seems to be the "rise above" mentality.  The ultimate policy is less important than the desire to get this episode behind us.  This is known as "kicking the can down the road."  The fact that the economy is getting a swift kick as well does not seem to concern the pundits. The only thing that the President and his allies are willing to do is further the punish the free market and the private sector with increasing taxes and increasing regulation and creating further divisions between rich and poor and young and old.  This is the strategy that Greek politicians used for the past three decades to get Greece to the place where it is now.  Blame rich people, blame the private sector and expand further government activity and t...

John Boehner is doing his best, but it is hard to fault the House Republicans for refusing to go along.  Boehner is playing tactics, while many House Republicans think it is too late for tactics. They are probably both right. Boehner tried to push the ball back into the President's court, since the President has been unwilling to bend on anything.  It is not unreasonable for those among Republican ranks to ask why they should vote to raise taxes on some folks absent any offer of spending cuts at all from the White House. This is especially the case given that Senate leader Harry Reid said that the Boehner plan was dead on arrival and Obama promised to veto it.  Why capitulate pre-emptorily when there is nothing forthcoming from the other side? Not that any of this matters much as long as entitlements are "off the table."  No deal is of any significance without entitlement reform.  Obama is perfectly willing to let the country go over the cliff and proceed on its...

Why Malaysian drivers drive like assholes? Why Malaysians are inevitably late for anything and everything? .................... (fill in your favourite grouses) ...... also applies to why people get married in the first place? Ever wondered why Malaysian drivers drive like assholes??!! Surely we are not like that in real life, only when we get into a car that we become monsters. When we socialise we are totally different, very few of us actually have chips on our shoulders, get to know us or come to our house and we become the most gracious hosts on earth. If we go back to our small towns and kampungs, we are generally much much nicer. So how did we get to be so un-civic minded in many areas? We speed up when we see pedestrians trying to cross the road, we speed up when cars want to cut into our lane .... Its not that we are inherently bad, I believe its conditioning. This can be explained with a most remarkable but true experimental project. A group of researchers put 4 monkeys in a c...

CNBC keeps trumpeting the "rise above" slogan in reference to the "fiscal cliff" negotiations.  Nothing could do more damage than "rising above."  Rising above is how we got to this point.  "Rise above" means "kick the can down the road."  It is time, way past time, to not rise above.  Face the reality.  Don't duck reality by adopting the "rise above" strategy of the Jim Cramer no-nothings on CNBC. Coming to a bogus agreement that does nothing to change the trajectory of medicare, medicaid and social security, accelerates the US on the path to bankruptcy.  If you like modern Greece and want to get there as soon as possible, then "rise above."  If you want the US to return to fiscal solvency, then don't rise above.  Instead fight the current media frenzy to get to a fiscal deal regardless of what it implies for our future.

John Boehner is on the right track.  Passing an extension of the Bush tax cuts for as many people as possible is the best that can be accomplished at this point.  The main virtue of Boehner's plan is that the Republicans are not tied to a deal with this approach.  If Republicans agree to a tax hike deal and essentially no spending cuts -- the Obama approach -- then they will have nothing to run on in 2014.  By committing themself to an extension of the Bush tax cuts for almost everyone, they are able to maintain their anti-tax posture. Let the Senate turn it down.  Let Obama veto it.  No harm done. Going over the cliff puts the issue of our looming national insolvency front and center.  It is about time. It is true that national defense is sacrificed and economic growth is probably jeopardized, but it would be anyway giving the current trajectory. There is no time like the present to face what needs to be faced.  Lets get on with it.

According to Securities Commission of Malaysia, tax incentives are provided to both employers and individuals for the first 10 years from assessment year 2012 ; in addition to the tax deduction permitted for EPF contributions: Amount of Tax Savings by individuals for PRS contributions For Individual: Tax relief of up to RM3,000 per year will be given for contributions made within that year. This is on top of existing tax relief already enjoyed by taxpayers. How much can you save from tax? Let's look at the table above which illustrates the amount of tax saving an individual get after personal tax relief and RM6,000 EPF + Life Insurance tax relief. Assuming maximum RM3,000 PRS relief, the amount of tax saving depends on your level of income. For high tax bracket individual, you can save up to RM780 annually!!! For Employer: Tax deduction on contributions to PRS made on behalf of their employees above the statutory rate of up to 19% of employees' remuneration was granted. Exam...

Many people are still in the dark on how actually Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) works. In order to clear  everyone's  mind, we hope this post was timely for those who may want to entitle for extra tax relief of up to RM 3,000 given by PRS before 31st December 2012. To further explain the whole scheme, Finance Malaysia Blog was glad that Alex Yeoh, a licensed financial planner is able to share with us on this matter. By Alex Yeoh, First we must know that PRS is a voluntary scheme for the purpose of retirement saving.  For ease of understanding, let us look at the picture above which explain the process into two parts. Initially, contributions were made by us into the PRS fund that we select. It was as flexible as  normal unit trust investments (shown in upper part). Contribute anytime any amount  as you like ,  without any specific intervals. As simple as that. When can I withdraw the money? Each time, your contributions were split and maintained in sub-...