Financial Freedom SG

This image on the left shows the journey that the Pentax camera bought on the online retailer B&H made before travelling to Singapore.

It went from New York to Louisville, Kentucky to Anchorage, Alaska and then on to Taiwan (the place my wife was born in) and finally arrived here in Singapore in the wee hours of 12.20 am Singapore time.

Travelling from the west coast of USA to all the way here in Singapore, it again shows the marvel of globalisation and technology that it could be tracked at all times on a computer and you'd know exactly or guess where it was at any one time.

While, it was travelling here on its journey, I was busy getting the rechargeable batteries and the SD cards so that once unpacked, it can be used straight away.

In the meantime, my personal finances will get hit as I get more and more accessories and get into the photography bug. I understand why they said that this is an expensive hobby. As I become better at it, maybe it can turn into an additional income stream in future- hopefully.

Now, I am looking at getting a bag that can be used for all the equipment that is coming. This Lowepro Slingshot 100 looks like a good bag to have. Anyone out there has used it?

This is a camera that is designed in Japan, assembled in Philippines, retailed in USA and shipped to Singapore.

Having eyed an DSLR for a while, I had been looking for a low cost and newbie friendly camera.

The Pentax K2000/K-m is feature laden and the smallest DSLR that allows backward compatibility to Pentax lenses all the way back to the 1970s.

It is also a product that shows globalisation at work.

While there are problems getting this product in Singapore because there is a change of the wholesaler here, one can look around the world to get the product you want and often get a good deal. It is also a way to save that bit of money by getting things from where it is cheapest.

At the same time, it goes to help the people in retail trade in USA, the people who manufactured it in Philippines, the guys who designed it in USA and the postman who will deliver it in Singapore. My mini stimulus to the global economy.

Without this freedom to trade and low barriers to trade, a transaction like this will be too costly to consider. Having said that, I look forward to taking photos with this new camera when it arrives and this blog should have better images after it arrives.

The big news today has been the outbreak of swine flu from Mexico which has killed 81 people as of today has till date could have spread to the United States, France, New Zealand, Spain and Israel.

According to the news, it has made health authorities all over the world sit up and take action. With the local authorities here in Singapore setting up and putting the thermal monitors and cameras to use.

This is likely to spark a run down of markets all over the world as the concerns over the spread of this swine flu throughout the world will hit the tourism industry hard as well as trade between countries.

Expect traders to short tourism dependent industries like the aviation and hotel which are already suffering from the financial meltdown throughout the world. They are likely to be hit with a drop in demand equivalent to that experienced by the Asian carriers during the SARS crisis.

Over the next few days, these industries will be sold down heavily. Patient investors with a longer term view will do well to wait on the sidelines and look to invest into these industries when they have been battered down over the coming weeks.

The beneficiaries over this outbreak are likely to be mask suppliers, medical suppliers and the pharmaceutical companies like Roche USA who are the makers of Tamiflu which is stocked by countries to combat avian flu and swine flu such as this current outbreak.

Companies like Baxter are also likely to benefit from an increase in demand for its medical supplies as countries worldwide will be ordering more of its products during this time to stock up in case of an influx of patients to the hospitals.

BBC news has a good FAQ about what Swine flu is all about.

May those who are afflicted with the virus recover quickly. Meanwhile, let's hope that wearing face mask when you are down with fever or flu becomes popular and please excuse your employees if they call in sick.

I saw this photo on the internet and it struck me as one of a person doing her duty well and concentrating on the dual nature of her job- policing and protecting the citizens. With other riot police behind her, what are the thoughts that are going through their minds? Do they sympathise with the protesters? By the way, it is a photo of the Hong Kong Police, not Myanmar's soldiers.

To turn it back to the topic, protectionism is as the name suggest to defend and preserve and in this case it is to protect local industries, companies and jobs. This is through measures of either completely barring any foreign companies from setting up shop in one's country or having high barriers to entry and so restrict either the number of foreign companies or to limit their scale.

Globalisation is the opposite of protectionism. It espouses integration of the world's economies, encourages the movement of capital, migration and free international trade. So basically it means that any company from United States or from any other country can set up in whichever countries it so wishes to establish a presence in.

The concept of globalisation scares a lot of people. Especially those from industrialised and developed countries whose workers are fearful that their jobs will be taken over by cheaper labour from other countries and they will be out of a job. The media reports of companies outsourcing their business functions to countries in Asia like India for example adds to this xenophobia.

However, from what little I remember of my economics classes on International Economics, it is quite clear that international trade boost the welfare of all. While protectionism decreases everyone's welfare. A simplistic analogy will be to imagine the days of humans before barter trading. A farmer will basically farm his land and get food from his farm. He may grow some tomatoes, rice, and say some lettuce and maybe keep some chickens. When another farmer comes by and occupies the farmland next to him and grow other items but also farm rice like him. The first farmer can have two reactions.

First, is to barter trade with the farmer so he could exchange his surplus tomatoes for some potatoes from the second farmer. It will enrich his diet and increase the types of food he consumes so his welfare and that of the second farmer increases. Second, he refuses to have anything to do with the second farmer and keeps to himself and hoards his farm produce.

If the scenario develops on and more farms appear on the scene, under the first reaction, the farmer will have even more types of food to eat and can choose to go into another industry, maybe retailing and buy up the farm produce to sell in the nearest town. Under the second reaction, the farmer will remain in his status quo while the rest of the world improves and changes around him.

So the answer to the question is, there isn't a choice between the two. Globalisation wins hands down. It does not mean of course that it is without its negative side effects, but the overall benefit outweighs the negativity.

The next topic, I will go and look at the American elections and try to see which side- the Republican or the Democrat will be better for the world's economy.