What if Ukraine's situation escalates?

USA beats German, Save Europe. Returned Germany.
USA beats Japan, Save Asia including us. Returned Japan.

Isn't it obvious. Their Power and their Trust. Take a step back and think. They have their own interests. Which country no ?
They are not perfect but we need to be on their side more.

(30-04-2014, 11:21 PM)specuvestor Wrote: People conveniently forget Clinton actually achieved budget surplus and debt reduction near the end of his term

He did achieve a budget surplus ONLY because of the dotcom bubble and counting excess social security contributions. Just imagine if the Singapore government needs to count CPF contributions or stock market bubble to achieve a budget surplus, we'll be up in arms!

Without counting the excess social security contributions, his surplus would have amounted to less than a hundred billion, something the current administration incurs within a month or two.

In any case, Obama cannot try the same trick any more. Due to the aging population, social security payouts has been consistently above social security contributions for the past few years. (Not that Obama or Bush didn't tried to, e.g. chained-linked CPI, etc.).

I always have the impression Clinton policy is more inward focus thereby focusing on economy and lowering of defense spending.
Is easy to take away credit by sweeping statement which is quite unfair without data facts.

Between parties in one of the key difference is defense spending. So i did some google...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inflat...ending.PNG

As you can see, they have been instrumental in cutting debts while republicans are the huge spenders. In later years Obama hampers by huge debt interests.

(30-04-2014, 11:13 PM)orangetea Wrote: My view is...

Insufficient manpower to staff the carrier.

Declining population, decrease in NSF service from 2.5 to 2 years.

Hardware, we can buy, 'software' is the challenge.

The answer could come from technology advancement and automation. The taiwanese same as us also operate the french made lafayette but unlike us we operate these ships with only half the crew strength as compared to the taiwanese. it's true that a aircraft carrier would require more people to man, the thais operate their 'pocket' carrier with 601 men using as a yardstick maybe with automation we could reduce that by a third?

our birth rate could be declining but by 2030 there could be nearly 10 million people on this island from the current 5.4mil I don't think it's difficult to find additional 1000 men for the navy.

Question here. We are a small country we don't have much coastline territory to cover so why did our navy leap from operating gunboats and corvettes suitable for coastline to frigates and submarines as these are considered "blue water" capability which we have no need of?

But the best pretext we have now is the closure of paya lebar airbase will render us more vulnerable if ever a first strike invasion from somebody took out all our remaining runways, so alternative "backup" is to have carriers.

From past we see that mindef is always avoid being the first to intro new platform to the region so these will act like tripwires maybe during deteriorating instability in this region then we get these, I estimate we will be operating at least 1-2 sea control carrier ships by 2030.

(01-05-2014, 10:27 AM)HitandRun Wrote:

(30-04-2014, 11:21 PM)specuvestor Wrote: People conveniently forget Clinton actually achieved budget surplus and debt reduction near the end of his term

He did achieve a budget surplus ONLY because of the dotcom bubble and counting excess social security contributions. Just imagine if the Singapore government needs to count CPF contributions or stock market bubble to achieve a budget surplus, we'll be up in arms!

Without counting the excess social security contributions, his surplus would have amounted to less than a hundred billion, something the current administration incurs within a month or two.

In any case, Obama cannot try the same trick any more. Due to the aging population, social security payouts has been consistently above social security contributions for the past few years. (Not that Obama or Bush didn't tried to, e.g. chained-linked CPI, etc.).

Yeah I know the details but also generally agree with what cory said

Just to highlight that devil could also be in the detail for US energy self sufficiency, and if we can just accept simple headlines rather than details

(30-04-2014, 11:42 PM)corydorus Wrote: USA beats German, Save Europe. Returned Germany.
USA beats Japan, Save Asia including us. Returned Japan.

Isn't it obvious. Their Power and their Trust. Take a step back and think. They have their own interests. Which country no ?
They are not perfect but we need to be on their side more.

Yes. All countries have their very own agenda. I shall clarify that I am not siding any country.

But I thought, Russia did what it needs to do to protect it's sovereignty. Whatever it is, it's best to deal with relations in a peaceful and diplomatic way.(quite impossible!)

Regarding your earlier comment on China keeping a low stance on the issue, my opinion is that Chinese are already occupied by their own internal issues. Fighting corruptions, restructuring of economy, widening income gap and steering China's production capability to achieve it's economic goal. I think the paramount priority to them now is to be the biggest economy. Remember, money = power.

When Chinese fully intertwined it's economy to the rest of the world, that is when they will flex their muscles. They have yet to to be there I feel. They have yet to fully utilize their 1.3 billion asset.

Not sure what you mean Russia trying to protect her sovereignty - a Nuclear Power. The fact is South Crimea got annexed in broad daylight. And now they are testing East Ukraine. Can we imagine if everyone base on such line of sovereignty means ?

The US sanction on Russian, might provide an opportunity for new domestic credit card player(s) to grab market share. Never "play-play" with big country...

MasterCard sees threat in Putin's plans for Russian payment cards
02 May 2014 06:42
MASTERCARD, the world's second-biggest credit and debit card company, said Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to create a domestic card payment system would create "serious complications" for its operations in the country.

Mr Putin, lashing back against US and EU sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine, has said Russia needs its own card system to reduce its reliance on Western companies.

Russia's parliament passed legislation last week that would allow for the creation of domestic credit and debit cards as well as require Western card companies to pay a security deposit to operate in the country.

MasterCard and larger rival Visa Inc stopped providing services to some Russian banks after US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in March. "There are provisions (in the legislation) there that I believe would create serious complications for the way that we can operate in (Russia)," MasterCard Chief Executive Ajay Banga said on a post-earnings call with analysts on Thursday. "Russia will be tough to work through," said Mr Banga, a self-described "worrier".

MasterCard's Russian operations account for just over two per cent to its total net revenue, and the company said the sanctions had little impact on its first-quarter results.

However, a competing card system in the fast-growing Russian market would likely constrain future growth for both MasterCard and Visa, analysts say.

Visa said last week that the sanctions were already hurting its card transaction volumes in Russia and that it expected revenue growth to slow further this quarter.

MasterCard, whose shares rose as much as 4.3 per cent in morning trading, said its net income rose 14 per cent to US$870 million, or 73 US cents per share, in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 72 US cents per share.

The company also stuck to its forecast of net revenue growth of between 11 per cent and 14 per cent between 2013 and 2015.

MasterCard's worldwide purchase volume increased ten per cent in local currency terms to US$759 billion, with much of the growth coming from Latin America, Asia and Europe.

US purchase volumes rose nine per cent to US$268 billion.

Global consumer confidence returned to pre-financial crisis levels in the first three months of this year, according to a survey by research company Nielsen, and was at its highest since the first quarter of 2007.

MasterCard's net revenue rose about 14 per cent to US$2.18 billion in the three months ended March 31, beating the average estimate of US$2.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company's shares were up 2.3 per cent at US$75.26 in early afternoon trading. Up to Wednesday's close, the shares had fallen about 11 per cent since the start of the year, underperforming the S&P 500 Index, which rose 1.6 per cent. - Reuters

Source: Business Times Breaking News

this is to show that sanctions are a double edge sword americans stand to lose out also heavily.

(02-05-2014, 09:41 AM)CityFarmer Wrote: The US sanction on Russian, might provide an opportunity for new domestic credit card player(s) to grab market share. Never "play-play" with big country...

MasterCard sees threat in Putin's plans for Russian payment cards
02 May 2014 06:42
MASTERCARD, the world's second-biggest credit and debit card company, said Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to create a domestic card payment system would create "serious complications" for its operations in the country.

Mr Putin, lashing back against US and EU sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine, has said Russia needs its own card system to reduce its reliance on Western companies.

Russia's parliament passed legislation last week that would allow for the creation of domestic credit and debit cards as well as require Western card companies to pay a security deposit to operate in the country.

MasterCard and larger rival Visa Inc stopped providing services to some Russian banks after US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in March. "There are provisions (in the legislation) there that I believe would create serious complications for the way that we can operate in (Russia)," MasterCard Chief Executive Ajay Banga said on a post-earnings call with analysts on Thursday. "Russia will be tough to work through," said Mr Banga, a self-described "worrier".

MasterCard's Russian operations account for just over two per cent to its total net revenue, and the company said the sanctions had little impact on its first-quarter results.

However, a competing card system in the fast-growing Russian market would likely constrain future growth for both MasterCard and Visa, analysts say.

Visa said last week that the sanctions were already hurting its card transaction volumes in Russia and that it expected revenue growth to slow further this quarter.

MasterCard, whose shares rose as much as 4.3 per cent in morning trading, said its net income rose 14 per cent to US$870 million, or 73 US cents per share, in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 72 US cents per share.

The company also stuck to its forecast of net revenue growth of between 11 per cent and 14 per cent between 2013 and 2015.

MasterCard's worldwide purchase volume increased ten per cent in local currency terms to US$759 billion, with much of the growth coming from Latin America, Asia and Europe.

US purchase volumes rose nine per cent to US$268 billion.

Global consumer confidence returned to pre-financial crisis levels in the first three months of this year, according to a survey by research company Nielsen, and was at its highest since the first quarter of 2007.

MasterCard's net revenue rose about 14 per cent to US$2.18 billion in the three months ended March 31, beating the average estimate of US$2.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company's shares were up 2.3 per cent at US$75.26 in early afternoon trading. Up to Wednesday's close, the shares had fallen about 11 per cent since the start of the year, underperforming the S&P 500 Index, which rose 1.6 per cent. - Reuters

Source: Business Times Breaking News

sgd,
you are right.
Not just economically but strategically too.
Joint Russian + China exercise coming.

Very worrying trends.
Proven what LKY says, we got to stand up and straighten our back bone. Nobody is going to take care of us other than ourselves.

Love Compassion


A Life not Reflected is a Life not Worth Living.