Hi folks. You may be wondering why my posts are slowing down. A couple of reasons. There is really nothing much going on in the domestic scene. The same crap is being sloshed around the toilet bowl. They just refuse to flush.
To kick off the United States is doing super. Here is the Dow Jones chart for FIVE years:
As you can see the Dow Jones is at its highest levels (44,173) in FIVE years.
Someone shared a video of a very brown-nosed Chinese fellow extolling the virtues of the gomen's debt management. He said the gomen debt at RM1.3 trillion was ok. Why? 'Because it could be higher' said Sor H*i. This is like saying 'Its ok if you got raped. You are lucky because you could have been gang-raped'.
Then brown-nose said Malaysia's foreign debt is low. This was a generalised statement. You must break up external debt into its various components.
For example Federal gomen debt is different from total external debt of the country. The largest portion of external debt in Malaysia is owed by corporations (and some banks)? Not by the Federal gomen.
For over 25 years now the Malaysian gomen itself has always maintained a manageable level of external debt. This means less borrowing in foreign currency and from outside the country. Malaysia has more than enough domestic Ringgit funds. EPF alone is now managing over RM1.26 trillion in our savings. That is a lot of money.
Then you must differentiate between Ringgit debt and foreign currency loans. The danger lies in FOREIGN CURRENCY loans. Never borrow in foreign currency because if the Ringgit suddenly depreciates - (which happened in 1997-1998 and again last year, under the same Finance Minister) then you must look for extra Ringgit to pay off every US Dollar or every Japanese Yen loan. So even if you have to borrow from foreign lenders it is ok but make sure you borrow in Ringgit. it is safer to borrow in Ringgit.
But for about 30 years now, thanks to Dr Mahathir, the Malaysian gomen has never borrowed too much foreign currency loans especially from foreign lenders. Which is another reason why we came through the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-2000 quite unscathed.
In the mid 1990s (over 30 years ago) I personally handled one of the few Japanese Yen loans (about RM2.0b equivalent if I recall). It was a syndicated loan which also included Malaysian Labuan banks which is why I was there. The main lenders were Japanese banks. That was a long time ago.
Getting back on track, another FIVE year plan has been launched. Dia tak faham apa dia cakap pun. Folks, stick your head out the window. Has anything changed? Nothing will change. Outside my window IOI is developing a few hundred townhouses, shoplots etc. The property developers are happy. But other than that nothing has changed or will change. If you live in Kuala Kangsar how is the grass growing?
Ok the situation in the Ukraine is approaching super critical. I follow the developments closely everyday. The Russians are just ploughing everything into the ground. Russia has also fully introduced the insanely hypersonic Oreshnik missile. The missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound (Mach 10) or 12,300 km per hour or 3.40 km per second!! It is a theatre missile or tactical missile for use in battlefields. They are going to wipe out Ukraine.
Here is a brief video where a Ukrainian Member of Parliament spills the beans on how Ukraine is being destroyed. She says over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have deserted. The Ukrainian government is illegitimate. Zelenskiyy is no more the elected president. He rules by Emergency powers he granted himself. Ukraine does not call the shots in this conflict. They are dictated to by the UK, France and the European Union - in that order.
This war in Ukraine will not stop unless Zelenskiyy is removed from the scene. That may happen as well.
