If Beekok has too many Lawyer, SG has too many Property Agents, Kym Boss JohnTan??

[k1976]

America’s Lawyerly Society Can Learn From China’s Engineers​

Plus, checking in on Fed prediction markets.

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
By Walter Frick
August 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM GMT+8
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Welcome back to The Forecast from Bloomberg Weekend, where we help you think about the future — from next week to next decade.

This week we’re looking at a new book comparing the US and China. Plus, with the Fed’s Jackson Hole meeting coming up, we’re checking in on prediction markets tracking the next Fed chair. You can read Bloomberg News’ coverage of the Trump-Putin summit here and here.

America’s Lawyerly Society vs. China’s Engineers​

When Dan Wang first heard President Donald Trump describe the date for imposing tariffs on US trade partners as “Liberation Day,” the phrase caught his ear. “‘Liberation’ is not a very American word,” he told me recently. “It’s much more of a Chinese word.”

Wang would know. For years, as a China-based analyst for a macro research firm, he pored over speeches and official documents of the Chinese Communist Party, trying to extract meaning from jargon.

 

[k1976]

Wang now sees parallels between Trump and President Xi Jinping, he says: the blind loyalty of their base, the demonization of foreigners and a willingness to foment unease among immigrants and minorities by threatening their status within society. “What we have in the US is authoritarianism without the good stuff,” he says. The good stuff being, according to Wang, things such as high-speed trains, well-functioning cities, and political and economic stability.

The United States needs to study China if it’s going to remain a superpower, Wang argues in his new book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. But it needs to learn the right lessons — including, most importantly, how to build.


In Breakneck, Wang argues that the key difference between the two giants is that China is run by engineers — in 2002 all nine members of the Politburo standing committee had engineering backgrounds — whereas the US is run by lawyers. China prioritizes building colossal public works such as bridges, dams and airports, as well as products like toys and iPhones. The US excels at making and enforcing rules.

 

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This was a good thing during the 1960s and ’70s, when lawyers pushed back against the American technocratic regime that had damaged the environment, run highways through urban neighborhoods and gotten the country mired in Vietnam.

But now the rulemaking has gone too far, Wang says, and it’s preventing the US from keeping pace with rivals.

Wang calls for the US to take a page from Xi’s playbook and rediscover hard engineering as a proud pursuit, to celebrate “the world of atoms instead of the world of bits.” It doesn’t matter how many apps the US designs — or even tools for AI warfare — if it runs out of missiles.

 

[k1976]

Breakneck – why China’s engineers beat America’s lawyers​

Dan Wang’s compelling and provocative book explores both the merits and the madness of China’s engineering state.
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Engineers follow their robots as they compete during the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Aug 15.

PHOTO: AFP
John Thornhill

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China

Published Aug 17, 2025, 04:00 PM
Updated Aug 17, 2025, 04:55 PM

In April 2022, during China’s belated Covid-19 lockdown, airborne drones buzzed around Shanghai repeatedly blasting commands to hungry residents huddling in their apartments. “Repress your soul’s yearning for freedom,” a woman’s voice ordered. “Do not open your windows to sing, which can spread the virus.”

Such a scene may seem like something out of a dystopian science-fiction movie, but Shanghai’s 25 million residents had already grown used to drones barking at them to mask up or return home. Little escape was to be had online either as ever-attentive censors quickly expunged all posts and videos from anti-lockdown protesters, who provocatively cited the first line of China’s national anthem: “Arise, you who refuse to be slaves.”

 

[k1976]

Qing Dynasty refusal to modernization at the 1st And 2nd Industrial Revolution had a direct impact on the next 150yrs of Asia history

Our ancestors spend next 3-4 gen to catch the golden chance to hike the wave of 1970s after countless of hardship and n8ghtmare. peace and prosperity dun come easy.

Always ask the hard questions and do the heavy lifting tasks like the one who came before us. The road to success is always laced with trapdoors and bear traps

 

[jw5]

Too many insurance and property agents.

 

[k1976]

Too many insurance and property agents.

They also help to Huat Kah Liao de woh

 

[k1976]

Singapore key exports slip in July as US shipments tumble 42.7 pct​

AFP News
Mon, 18 August 2025 at 12:26 PM SGT 2 min read

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A container vessel docked at Singapore's Pasir Panjang port in July. Non-oil domestic exports slipped 4.6 percent in July from a year earlier, latest government data shows, as shipments to the US plunged by more than 40 percent (Roslan RAHMAN)
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports slipped 4.6 percent in July from a year earlier, government data showed Monday, as shipments to the United States plunged by more than 40 percent.

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy is heavily reliant on international trade and is vulnerable to any global slowdown induced by the tariffs -- even if Singapore only faces a baseline 10 percent levy from US President Donald Trump.

 

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On August 6, Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on chips from firms that do not invest in the United States, and threatened levies of up to 250 percent on pharmaceutical imports.

The 42.7 percent July contraction in main exports to the US -- Singapore's biggest market -- was largely caused by a 93.5 percent decline in pharmaceutical shipments, the government body Enterprise Singapore said on Monday.

Meanwhile, exports of specialised machinery dropped 45.8 percent and food preparations were down 48.8 percent.

Non-oil domestic shipments to China and Indonesia also declined in July, but grew to the EU, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

The city-state last Tuesday raised its 2025 economic growth forecast, but warned the outlook for the rest of the year remains clouded by global uncertainty, in part due to US tariffs.

The trade ministry lifted its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 1.5-2.5 percent from an earlier range of 0-2.0 percent.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sunday said that he took "little comfort" from the 10 percent baseline tariff rate the US imposed on Singapore.

"Because no one knows if, or when, the US might raise the baseline, or set higher tariffs on specific industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors," he said in a National Day speech.

"What we do know is that there will be more trade barriers in the world. That means small and open economies like us will feel the squeeze," Wong added.

 

[k1976]

No new CDC Vouchers or handouts??​

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Jobs, infrastructure and homes at the core of Singapore’s resilience: Economists​

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PM Lawrence Wong set out a strategy focused on equipping workers with new skills, helping businesses adopt technology, renewing the living environment and ensuring affordable housing for future generations.

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

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National Day Rally 2025

Published Aug 18, 2025, 06:05 PM
Updated Aug 18, 2025, 06:43 PM

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s economy remains resilient despite US tariff uncertainties, thanks to the nation’s core strengths in job creation, infrastructure and housing, economists said after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s

National Day Rally

on Aug 17.


While no new handouts were announced, PM Wong has set out a strategy focused on equipping workers with new skills, helping businesses adopt technology, renewing the living environment and ensuring affordable housing for future generations – priorities that economists said play to Singapore’s long-term strengths.

“PM Wong’s second National Day Rally speech charted a forward-looking vision for Singapore and its citizens: one filled with hope, possibilities and opportunities, yet firmly grounded in realism and caution. The short- to medium-term challenges are immense, particularly on the economic front,” said Mr Suan Teck Kin, head of research at UOB.

 

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NDR 2025: Building a ‘we first’ society will strengthen the Singapore spirit for generations to come, says PM Wong​

“We certainly don't want to end up as a society where people rely solely on the government”, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in this year’s National Day Rally.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivering his English speech during the National Day Rally 2025 at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College headquarters in Ang Mo Kio on Aug 17, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)

 

[rocket]

Who is LanLan Yang? How a crash in Sydney's ritzy Rose Bay involving Kyle Sandilands’ chauffeur sent Chinese social media into overdrive​

The online gossip fest about the heiress who crashed her Rolls-Royce into Kyle Sandilands’ chauffeur is a window into the Chinese people's distaste for the wealthy elite, writes Sky News host Cheng Lei.