Stan The Man


Let me state first that I am not a big comic book person. Like it or not, all of us grew up pretending every now and then to be Spiderman, and later The Fantastic Four and X-Men. I also really liked Black Panther, needless to say.


I hope what’s not lost amidst the accolades of the comic book guru was his strong stance against racism and discrimination. That to me was very pleasing to know and added loads of character and integrity to his achievement.

Below were some quotes by Stan Lee throughout the ages.


‘If we could only learn that the world is big enough for all of us …’


In 1968, the year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, Lee wrote: “Let’s lay it right on the line. Racism and bigotry are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed supervillains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them, is to expose them – to reveal for the insidious evil they really are.   Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill out hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God–a God who calls us ALL—His children.”



“The bigot is an unreasoning hater – one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately … He hates people he’s never seen – people he’s never known – with equal intensity – with equal venom … It’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race – to despise an entire nation – to vilify an entire religion,” Lee added at the time. 


During a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone,  Lee said: “I think the only message I have ever tried to get across is for Christsake, don’t be bigoted. Don’t be intolerant. If you’re a radical, don’t think that all of the conservatives have horns … I think most people want the same thing. They want to live a happy family life, they want to be at peace, they want no physical violence, nobody to hurt them, and they want the good things that life has to offer. But I think everybody sees us reaching that nirvana by a different path.” 


In the same 1971 interview, Lee added: “I think one of the terrible things in the world is that we are so inclined to think in black and white, hero and villain, good and bad, if you don’t agree with me I’ve got to destroy you. If we could only learn that the world is big enough for all of us. For a guy who wants to wear his hair long, and a guy who wants to be a skinhead. Neither of ’em has to be bad.”


During an interview in 2016, Lee said: “America is made of different races and different religions, but [that] we’re all co-travelers on the spaceship Earth and must respect and help each other along the way.”

Mr. Sachs, Show Me MY Money


We tend to take things for granted very easily. With what we know as of today, just imagine if we did not change the government back in May. Many dastardly shenanigans would have continued, the degenerates would have continued merrily stuffing their pockets, the skimming and shaving and loading would have continued unabated.

Plus its not just financial crimes. If anyone stood in their way, things would kautim-ed one way or another, by hook AND crook. Planted evidence, unnecessary audits, the taxman cometh … or let’s take a trip to Kajang.

So, it is in this light that our Finance Minister is asking back the fees paid to Goldman Sachs. It is also good to see the share price of Goldman Sachs being “sold down” in light of the 1MDB issue.









We are ‘lucky’ in that the 1MDB fiasco was big enough to make a dent to the behemoth that is GS. Can you imagine if our “losses” were minuscule compared to their market capitalization, reputation, integrity, profits??!! Then 1MDB might not have mattered to them and their shareholders.

Going down 7.2% in a single day is a big deal. Its market cap is around $76bn, a 7.2% drop meant in one day it has lost $5.5bn (RM22.7bn). To put that in perspective: …the $6.5 billion it raised in 2012 and 2013. Goldman Sachs handled the deals, reaping almost $600 million in fees.

Anyone can see that IT WILL BE CHEAPER TO JUST GIVE US BACK THE FEES. Rich people are not stupid, especially when the figures are staring like that in their faces.

So was what GS did so bad?

Answer: YES, YES …

a) the corrupt who has the power can only do so much… they need “ideas”, shortcuts, devious means and ways to “get the deal done” … hence the enablers of a crime/CBT should be punished as well

b) GS cannot say they did not know… they knew, otherwise who will pay such exorbitant fees for a simple bond issue… Malaysia is not a third or fourth world country .. the bond rates and fees charged were nothing short of being exorbitant and repulsive

c) Big banks were fined royally for pushing toxic products, and/or money laundering … this is worse, being complicit and enabling corrupt politicians and influencers to pillage and burn.


Losing $5bn in market cap (with more to come) … or pay us back $600m, and I am certain Malaysia can sue for at least another $2-4bn for collateral damages, punitive damages, etc…

Malaysians continue to be foolish

Image result for images of waiting to die
Before GE14 our national debt stood at RM1.38 trillion.
After GE14 till today our national debt shot up to RM2.2 trillion.
In 6 months time our debt is expected to rise to RM3 trillion if there is no more stealing by you know who.

Yet many continue to sing praise to Demi God Mahathir.

There are 4 million Malaysians in the category B40.
While 2 million Malaysians are in M40.
In 6 months time there will be an increase of 2 million to the 4 million making it 6 million in B40.
And another increase of 2 million to be added to the already 2 million making it 4 million in M40.
Thanks to another stupid scheme FundMyHome  2 million Malaysians will not be able to service their loan  during the five years period pushing them to category B40. Good example is PTPTN loan.  How many people paid back?
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Oil prices have come down to RM60 but our fuel is going up.  What the fuck is the government doing?

During Najib’s time our ringgit against US$ was 3.8 today under Mahathir it is at 4.2.

People are claiming Demi God Mahathir can bring back the glorified days of yesterday to Malaysia but what many do not realised is that the old magic wand is today broken into pieces.

Mahathir, Daim and Azmin Ali have been going around begging for loans, selling bonds etc and the response has been NIL except for Japan.  In return there will be not 1 but 3 Japanese school by 2020.  But this will not solve our national debt.  How many Malaysians will be employed in the Japanese school?

Migrate population stand at 6.8 million and every month millions of ringgit are transferred out.  PH government has not taken any serious action to get rid of them.

Mahathir and Daim are being punished for their past action now, so whatever they want to do for their legacy no longer work.

Azmin Ali had never been able to bring in investment during his time as Menteri Besar of Selangor and today has proven once again he is not capable as an Economic Minister.

LGE cannot do anything because his job is to make the accounts pretty,plus he is already a billionaire.

Those loudspeakers before GE14 who demanded and protested for accountability and transparency are today quiet as a mouse because Mahathir and Daim have given them position.

Meanwhile Malaysians continue to enjoy without care leaving the nation to incapable leaders who have ego like their overworked penis.

Whole world using GST, only Malaysia going backwards

I support GST because everyone has to pay.
In SST, the malays and millionaire don’t pay.
So Malaysia is back to square one where the minority have to pay taxes to support the majority.
I find this very frustrating and unfair to the minority in Malaysia.
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‘GST a good tax but ruined by poor implementation’ – MoF deputy undersecretary

Koh Jun Lin  |  Published:   |  Modified: 

This cannot that cannot but Azmin and Zuraida can

Azmin and Zuraida can go to Sarawak during PKR election.
Kak Wan and Anwar cannot go to Sarawak during PKR election.
Azmin and Zuraida can have sponsors like Vincent Tan, Naza, Genting, Toto and Eco World to bribe PKR voters.
Rafizi cannot have sponsors to bribe PKR voters.
Azmin and Zuraida sent thugs to create trouble at polling centers.
Rafizi cannot have thugs at polling centers.
I find it odd that many bloggers, gossipers, trouble makers, facebook lovers and liars saying it is okay for Azmin and Zuraida to do whatever they like and how they like since they have great sponsors and backers like Mahathir and Daim who created a loss of RM66 billion in Bank Negara just after GE14.
BUT WHEN IT COMES TO ANWAR, KAK WAN AND RAFIZI EVERYTHING IS NO, NO.
By the way when will Latheefa who is double spy for Daim  be kicked out from PKR.
She has caused tremendous trouble and divided the members into camp inside PKR when Anwar was in jail for the second time yet no one dares to touch her.
ME THINK IT IS HIGH TIME SHE IS SHOWN THE DOOR.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/11/07/azmin-claims-to-be-in-the-dark-over-wan-azizahs-visit-to-pkr-julau/
Image result for images of azmin and zuraida

Pribumi Ministers have carrot brain

Image result for images of carrot brain
Maszlee is definitely not a wise choice as a Minister.
He is like a LOSER in a game of snake and ladder who depends on the dice for every move to reach his destination. Each time he almost reaches the finishing line, he dives straight back to the beginning. Till today he does not know what he is supposed to focus on neither does he understand how bad our Education system is. What needs to be done immediately.

Malaysians changed the Government to have a more liberal environment.  Improvement on our life.  The demand is simply NO MORE RACIAL THINKING, NO DIVISION ON OUR LIFE, BETTER EDUCATION AND WELL RUN SYSTEM IN OUR DAILY LIFE.

Just one trip to Japan, Maszlee now wants to introduce Breakfast for B40 students only.  Again a division class of people. Does Maszlee really understand why the Japanese Government introduced lunches.

The Japanese Government unlike our Minister who love to syiok sendiri does things for the development of the nation.  The Japanese are far sighted. Maszlee just wants to give good impression his carrot brain is working and hopefully a title is coming his way.

Pribumi people like Syed, Rani, Mukhriz and Maszlee are not Minister material.  These carrot cake are show case model to SYIOK SENDIRI BERHAD.
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Kyushoku – Japanese School Lunch

On October 13, Gohan Society paid a Midtown visit to the Nichibei Exchange group to listen to a presentation by Ms. Alexis Agliano Sanborn, one of The Gohan Society’s fantastic volunteers, about the Japanese school lunch system. Wait, school lunch? You mean that nasty stuff kids are forced to eat in school? Actually, Japan’s school lunch is quite the national treasure – and it tastes good to boot!
Even those well-versed in Japanese food and culture often overlook the charm and insight to the country’s institutional meal system. For those Americans among us, school lunch does not usually yield positive memories or connotations. Many of Japan’s baby boomer generation would agree! They associate their lunch time with memories of powdered milk and flavorless bread. However, most Japanese kids today are blessed with healthy, fresh, flavorful and well-balanced daily meals.
Currently, school lunch, or (gakkoukyushoku, is a public system in place at 92% of elementary and middle schools around the country. It is maintained locally but governed nationally, influential in the regional economy and society.
As Ms. Sanborn noted, school lunch has had a long history in Japan. The country boasts one of the oldest school lunch systems in the world, beginning in response to a poor economy, stressors of modernization and natural disasters of the late 1880s and 1890s. School lunch’s early advent is thanks to Japan’s communal spirit and modernization efforts, spurring a movement for youth to be reared healthy and capable.
In the postwar, the piecemeal system was transformed by the influence of America – and the lunch-lineup heavily adopted Western flavors. While the flavors and taste may have suffered throughout the 1950s and ‘60s as Japanese chefs grappled with a clash of cultures, strong systemic foundations were erected.
Systemic foundations? What does that mean? Well, simply put, the local and national government helped to establish the operational rules and guidelines that over the years have contributed to school lunch’s resounding success. Sounds confusing, but really it’s quite simple. Beginning in the 1950s, the Japanese government decided to structure the system in a uniquely Japanese way. It took elements from its own culture – the ideas of group labor, perseverance, endurance, cleanliness, humility, gratitude and comradery – and encapsulated them into a daily ritual. This ritual was to become the school lunch system, one that heavily relies on student participation as its key to success.
Students are expected to participate and engage in practically every aspect of the meal – that is, besides making the food themselves (although, from time to time they do that too!). Every day right before the lunch hour, students dutifully don masks and aprons, clean the classroom floors, rearrange the desks, transport food from the kitchen, judiciously measure and serve, and then carefully clean. Over the years these daily formalities instill all manner of manners! For example, children learn to extend and appreciate the efforts of the meal’s benefactors (i.e., the lunch ladies). Other lessons include understanding the importance of cleanliness, sense of community and society, strength, justice, and morality. Heavy stuff for lunch time.
During a brief video which followed the school lunch process from start to finish, many of the Americans were amazed by the diligence, care and manners instilled in these children through the daily process. As one commentator put it, “Everything about Japanese society you can see through lunch.” It’s true!
What about the food then? Well, despite the blips and burps of the 1950s and 1960s, the food scene really began to take off in the seventies and has had a recent renaissance in the 2000s. Gone away are the processed and canned foods. Today, most schools have their meals prepared fresh daily– even down to chopping the vegetables. As for the menu, although bread used to be the principle staple in the days of yesteryear, today rice is definitively served at least three times a week. For the Japanese school lunch has become a vehicle through which to experience elements of the world around them – from the global to the local. Children learn about the principles of washoku as well as the various types of yoshoku, and international foods from across Asia. By utilizing local sourced ingredients and specialties, children also learn about the local food economy, as well as the seasonal ebbs and flows which have defined the Japanese culture for millennia.
All in all, the presentation showed us that there is a lot more to Japanese school lunch that meets the eye.
Alexis Agliano Sanborn researched the Japanese school lunch as her Master’s thesis at Harvard University (2013), and currently is developing a school lunch cook book proposal to submit to publishers. Meanwhile, she is also developing her school lunch webpage.

Bohemian Rhapsody – Review & Personal Notes


Movie Review: It is terribly unfair with all the hype surrounding the movie prior to its release. Expectations were high. If you don’t know Queen or just a so-so fan, this movie would still rate 9/10. If you are a true blue Queen fan, its way off the charts fantastic.

One thing is clear, Rami Malek will be a shoo-in to win next March Best Actor Oscar. He was so good. You can have voice training and even movement coaches, but you still need to have the ability to assimilate and interpret. After 10 minutes you feel you were watching Mercury.

To be fair, there were some minor tweaks to the real truth (such as how Mercury became the band’s singer, etc.), and the focus on the Live Aid concert as the “grand finale”. But movie producers need an entertaining movie.

Its a riveting portrayal by Rami Malek, and he did not overdo it. If you were a Queen fan, you’d be amazed at the similarities in expressions and mannerisms. 

The movie uses Bohemian Rhapsody as the anchor as to how it came about and how it conquered the world – but till today most people still have a vague understanding of the lyrics. 

There were incredible moments: when the fans sang back Love of My Life to the band; when Freddie composed the first few lines of the song; when Freddie wrote the first few lines of BH and cried; the sheer amount of love and respect Freddie showed to Mary; etc…

There were no dull moments in the movie, and the selection of songs to be played was well thought out and appropriate. The best thing about the movie was how much more we could see things from Mercury’s perspective, in trying to understand his inner demons and unabashed brilliance.

There will be plenty of mediocre reviews by critics because it was not savage enough, or too entertaining, or glossing over facts … That’s all good, this was not meant to be a real biopic but rather a tribute to Mercury and Queen, where we can get to know both much better.

And just like Queen, … having fun is paramount, which was what the movie did.



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Why Queen Is My Favourite Musical Artiste

I started to listen to Queen thanks to a friend who so kindly recorded the 3rd album Sheer Heart Attack on a wonderful cartridge for me. It was so good, I looked for their earlier albums, Queen 1 and Queen 2. Then came NATO (our fanboys favorite way to refer to A Night At The Opera).

They were not the conventional rock band. They love to evolve and do different things. They were not shy of composing melodies and catchy hooks for rock songs. Plus they have a keen eye for harmonies, for a rock band, that was prissy. They also had no problem embracing technology and did not put rock and roll into a box but rather their music had none of the usual boundaries.

Musicality, Brian May was superb as their lead guitarist and a great composer. May and Roger Taylor’s drums were largely responsible for Queen’s sound. Roger is a very decent drummer and an even better high pitched harmony singer. Mercury was mercurial, a great composer and his voice was unique and wide-ranging.

My favorite albums in order of preference:

1.  Sheer Heart Attack
2.  Night At The Opera
3.  News of The World
4.  Jazz
5.  Day At The Races
6.  Queen II


I was fortunate enough to catch Queen live back in 86 or 87 in Sydney with Mercury still delivering the goods. Its the only concert where I could be seen singing to every bloody song. It was magical and satisfying.


What about the songs? Here is my recommended list of lesser-known ones, if you haven’t heard most of Queen (just go to You Tube):

a)  Brighton Rock – a brilliant catchy rock number with possibly the best guitar solo by Brian May in the middle, play it loud.

b) In The Laps Of The God – An eerie, hymn-like, religious chant that is very melodious. Great harmonies. Listen to Roger Taylor’s ethereal soaring harmonies. The song comes in 2 parts.. its the beginning of the inclusion of long play-operatic songs which led to BR.

c) Mustafa/Teo Torriatte – An throwback to Mercury’s Persian/Zanzibar roots. Brave and bold. Plus a Japanese song that could have easily be the theme song for a Japan Olympics.


d) Fat Bottomed Girls – I had the huge poster of naked gals riding bicycles from the album. It was so wild.

e) Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy/ Bring Back That Leroy Brown – In their early records, they always insert some sort of vaudeville-like song. Versatility at its best.

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The New MB of Kedah

Johari Abdul left UMNO to join Anwar during Reformasi time.
As punishment he was left to survive at the Pudu Market.
After GE14 again Mahathir and Daim choose to ignore him.
THANKS GOD, SOMEONE BELIEVE IN HIM AND THIS COMING WEEK HE WILL BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO DEVELOP KEDAH WHICH HAS BEEN NEGLECTED SINCE 1982.
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Ahli Parlimen Sungai Petani Datuk Johari Abdul malam semalam berkongsi kisahnya yang sebelum ini berstatus ahli perniagaan jutawan, bertukar menjadi seorang penjaja yang papa kedana setelah meninggalkan Umno untuk menyertai PKR.
“Saya ceburi bidang perniagaan dan bekerja dengan seorang tokoh yang cukup berkuasa, (Tun) Daim (Zainuddin) dalam membangunkan Langkawi. Ketika itu saya menyertai Umno,” katanya.
“Saya berhubungan rapat dengan ahli-ahli politik, saya agak selesa memiliki kilang gula-gula yang besar di Pulau Pinang. Saya juga banyak mengembara.
“Apabila perbalahan antara (perdana menteri) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan (timbalannya) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tercetus, saya memegang jawatan penting dalam Umno, dan saya juga adalah proksi untuk beberapa pemimpin terkemuka dalam syarikat mereka,” katanya tanpa menamakan pemimpin berkenaan.
Johari, yang berucap pada majlis amal ‘Sponsor a Constituency’ malam semalam, mengakui dirinya adalah seorang jutawan ketika itu.
“Saya terpaksa membuat pilihan antara sama ada terus bersama Umno atau menyertai gerakan Reformasi,” katanya.
“Ia adalah masa yang sukar bagi saya. Saya berbincang dengan isteri dan anak-anak saya, dan mereka berkata, saya seharusnya berjuang.
“Jadi saya menyertai Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail untuk menubuhkan parti baru,” katanya.
Susulan keputusan itu, kata Johari, beliau kehilangan semua jawatan lumayan dalam dunia korporat dan terpaksa hidup dengan menjadi seorang penjaja di pasar Pudu selama dua tahun.
“Ini adalah pengalaman yang saya mahu berkongsi dengan kamu, khususnya golongan belia.
“Apabila tiba masanya untuk membuat keputusan, kita perlu memilih kepentingan rakyat tanpa mengambil kira kekayaan dan jawatan penting,” katanya. – Malaysiakini

China Evergrande – A Precursor & Harbinger Of Calamity For China Property Markets

If you just brush aside the latest news on Evergrande, you are actually missing the headline for a future newspaper article – China Property Companies Crashed! The news is so smacked right in your face that it is too obvious to not to notice that the emperor is naked… heck, the whole parade, and procession are naked.


In the first half of the year it generated $44bn of revenues and $4.5bn of profits, paying out half in dividends. It has $98bn of debt, $44bn of it due within the next twelve months.


Any first-year business and accounting student can tell you it is highly unsustainable. $4.5bn profits and you pay out half in dividends. The amazing thing is that for 1H2018, it paid out $4.2bn in interest payments!!! If it had no debt, net profits would have doubled.

(owner, Hui Ka Yan)
Assuming you do the same for the second half of 2018, you have $4.5bn to cover the $44bn due over the next 12 months. That’s provided the $4.5bn is real net positive cash flow and not gains on revaluation of assets.

The key here was that Evergrande has recorded NEGATIVE CASH FLOW every year since 2010!!! Every bloody year. It has been running on fumes. As long as property markets there remain speculative and robust, the fumes will not be so toxic… but…

So what triggered the calamitous view? Read below:


The owner, Hui Ka Yan, had to put in $1.8bn of his own money to subscribe to the new company fund rasing bond. The coupon rates were 11%-13% p.a.  … where on earth do you get a company bond with that coupon rate??? I mean, one of the largest listed stock in China/HK.

It means, no banks want to lend any more, they have maxed out usual suspects for fundraising. Look at their net profit ratio to revenue, they barely make 10%. That would not be sufficient to pay the coupon rate even.


Why Care About Evergrande

– It is the largest China property company by revenue.

– It is also the most indebted developer there.

– It still has a market capitalization of $30bn, the potential domino effect should it fail will be catastrophic.

– An implosion of the country’s largest developer will see a lot of its property holdings for investments being sold, which will further flood the marketplace. Any signs of weakness in the leader will further exacerbate other property developers in terms of their borrowing cost.

– We may see a “who can get out fastest” among the developers soon.

Evergrande’s assets, as suggested above, are large. For instance, its current land reserve, which spans 822 projects, covers a mammoth 305m square meters, close to 120 square miles, a touch below the size of Malta.
We thought we’d turn our attention to a corner of that expanse, $23bn worth of investment properties. According to one equity analyst we spoke to, little attention is paid to these investments which, despite only accounting for 9 per cent of total assets, represents half of Evergrande’s equity due to its levered nature.
According to its half-year report, Evergrande’s investment properties “include commercial podiums in living communities, office buildings with gross floor area of about 8.43 million square meters and approximately 408,000 car parking spaces”.
Yet it does not look like these investment properties generate much cash. In the past six months, rental income from investment properties amounted to $68m, an annualised yield of only 0.6 per cent. A figure significantly below the Shanghai Interbank lending rate, which stood on Wednesday at 2.49 per cent, according to S&P Capital Markets IQ.
One reason for the low rental incomes is that some of the properties are still under construction, but at the end of 2017, this was the case for just 14 per cent of the portfolio. So unless all are let at peppercorn rents, some must be empty, provoking memories of China’s ghost cities, vast unoccupied real estate developments built in the hope of future demand.


Recently it has been borrowing more from China’s trust companies: its loans from those quarters jumped 63% last year to $42 billion. That move showed that the company may be running out of “the usual options” for refinancing. It also shows that Beijing is aware of the importance of Evergrande, and cannot let it fail. Sounds familiar – too big to fail.


Strategy, Views, Opinions… & Catalysts

One can have a view that a certain market is overvalued or overpriced, or vice-versa. That does not become actionable unless we have a sense of timing involved because if you are bearish or bullish long enough, BOTH will eventually be right.

Key then is to note the catalysts, and to me Evergrande has just provided the biggest bullet… excessively high coupon rate with $44bn due over the next 12 months.








Battling Shorts

It is also the most shorted stock in HK, almost 18% being shorted. The owner has been very combative, engineering sudden share buyback to squeeze the shorts. You cannot squeeze the shorts forever if your balance sheet and cash flow have problems.

Trouble is, the funds you raised will somehow go to more share buybacks to battle the shorts, instead of actually paying down loans. You do the math, something’s gotta give…



Hopeful Saving Grace

– If the trade war ended completely, then Evergrande may have a chance to survive the next 12 months. Otherwise, its implosion possible at the cinemas.

Why EPF So Good Ah?


The study by the World Bank was timely (I will explain later). Being a government led pension fund puts EPF squarely against other similar funds by other countries. I must say that EPF has been punching above its weight for the longest time.


The Future Challenges 

However, we need to know why EPF did well, or else we will not be able to replicate the past performances. I think its critical that EPF, having done wonderfully, has to reposition and re-strategize because it has gotten too big for certain assets that it has invested heavily in the past.

EPF will also have to contend with how much more inter-related and correlated global markets is nowadays and will continue to be even more so in the future (thanks to the proliferation of ETFs and indexing).

As good as EPF has been, we have to be cognizant of the fact that Malaysia is still a place where there are not a lot of safety nets (e.g. reasonable life term pension scheme, unemployment benefits, free medical, free university education, etc. … basically, programs that protect their citizens from economic shocks and natural disasters).  

Just looking at the average savings would reveal the first problem – insufficient amount to retire). The second statistic, which is less than half the population actually has an EPF account, is just as alarming. To be clear, both issues are not under the purview of EPF and its management, but rather on the government’s blueprint going forward.
























EPF Stats

As at the end-2016 total funds managed by EPF was RM731.1b.  As for the end of June 2018 it stood at  RM814.3b. EPF is the second largest pension fund in the world among developing countries. The fifth largest in Asia and 15th globally. To put into better perspective, Malaysia is number 66th globally in nominal GDP per capita. In terms of working population size, Malaysia is ranked at 36th position globally.











Success Factors for EPF

Show the above chart to all CPF holders, they will cry. The study by World Bank confirmed that the “success of EPF” was due to:

a) an astute team that developed in-house expertise over the years to make sound large-scale investments over multiple asset classes,

b) strong governance structure – one that is independent and transparent, and free from interference from the ruling government of the day (although the last bit may be open for interpretation on its absoluteness).









The above excerpt is very important. It shows that EPF is very much aware of the ballooning size of funds under management and the need to tweak exposure to certain assets. This is to ensure that EPF does not turn from an investor to a substantive/critical investor in that asset class. The danger of that is that it could distort the market prices, and worse, artificially influence the price.





























Another feather in the cap is that the cost to manage the funds stands at just 0.26%, almost the average cost of ETFs or indexing. Believe you me, that is a great achievement. On a side note, we still need some deep restructuring to the local unit trust and funds management industry. No investor should be made to pay more than 1% or even 1.5% to invest, period. The current practice is ridiculous and eats at short and long-term investment returns substantially.



















If you have ever needed to deal with EPF, its a breeze. It is easily the best-managed government-linked unit in terms of customer service. When it is solid at the top, it transpires to every facet of the company. The same argument can be made with other inefficient and slow government departments when dealing with the public.

I have written often on how wonderful EPF has been, how most of us take for granted the 6%-7% annoual returns for a fund of that size:

https://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2018/02/epf-returns-pictureworks-nabs-ocean.html


The Future Challenges II

a) Size per asset class – The Malaysian equity market has been taken up by more and more local funds, esp over the last 10 years. EPF would have been aware of such developments, and wisely, has upped its overseas equity investment side. Nonetheless, we have to careful how “fairly valued” are local equities moving forward. If the bulk of local funds hold substantive stakes in key index component stocks, it could be easy to “manage or maintain” prices regardless of the fundamentals of the said stock. Call it a crowding out effect, call it by any name, it is a big issue.

b) Inter-related/Correlated Investing – The world’s investing paradigm has shifted over the past few years with the rise and rise of ETFs and indexing.

https://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-future-for-equity-funds.html

The bulk of my arguments lead to the age of normalized returns, the age of reduced alpha and the need to concentrate more on small caps.

c) Safety nets/only half of the working population has an  EPF account/ average sum of savings not sufficient for retirement – These 3 issues are not EPF’s problem but the ruling government. Take note.

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