I’m really sorry that I neglected my blog. No “Best Reads” last week because I was busy with something.

But back to regular programming this week.

Photo by Mikes Photos on Pexels.com

From making waves to drowning in red ink: Hyflux, Tuaspring and how a business giant came undone (CNA)

A brief story of how Hyflux came undone. Maybe they’ll rise from the grave. Who knows? But the basic lesson is that regular folks who plonked a whole lot of cash into their bonds and subsequently lost it all kind of deserve to.

After all, we’ve seen this story before with the GFC, the dot-com boom and bust, the Asian Financial Crisis. To be more specific, Singaporeans should have learned something from the minibonds saga, NOL’s fall from grace, Chartered Semiconductors, and even further back, the Pan Electric Crisis.

Clemens on minimum wage (The Grumpy Economist)

Doesn’t matter which side of the minimum-wage argument you stand on. You will want to read this post to gain some clarity on the issue.

Fortune Analysis: The Tech Superstars Never Went Through Cash Like Today’s Big Burners (Fortune)

Great piece of research. Not the most academic but it does raise a lot of doubts on whether Tesla, Uber, Lyft, and Snap (basically representing the new-age tech) can be the next Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

The short answer is no.

By the way, we have our own nonsense versions of the new-age techs here in Singapore in the form of Carousell, Grab, Honestbee (which seems to have one foot in the grave) as well as a host of others which have a much smaller user base (think: eatigo, Chope etc.)

Stop the Financial Pornography! (Of Dollars and Data)

Great, great piece!

Also, in Singapore, we have a proliferation of “how to get rich by buying properties with little or no cash down” kind of schemes being advertised (horror of horrors, our local paper even featured the people behind this scheme in an article, thereby giving them some legitimacy).

Read the article above and be aware that people who claim to have achieved some form of return, especially those in a short period of time with little capital, are not telling you the entire picture.

How To “Lie” With Personal Finance (Early Retirement Now)

Basic financial literacy stuff. Don’t skip it this unless you have had some sort of training in finance.