My recent argument with Jamus Lim (you can follow it in full on his wall) has revealed just how ambitious and self-confident WP's economist is.After lecturing trade unions back in 2020 about "folksy wisdom" that apparently guides their negotiations with the government re: minimum wages, Jamus clearly believes there are deep flaws in how Singaporean companies are being run.
In my exchange with him he doubled down on his comparisons to allegedly cost-oriented cheap manufacturers like China or Vietnam, and how Singapore should learn more from the developed West (the very same where China actually carries out its foreign acquisitions these days...).
Not only does he want SGD to appreciate in value to lower consumer prices - he wants to use it to motivate Singaporean companies to compete on quality not on price, like he alleged they are.If SGD is more expensive then local businesses will be forced to become better! Genius!Dear Singaporean business owners - you're running your companies wrong! Your behind the times! You're not modern or forward-looking enough! You're not innovative enough!
Will you "never learn"!?!?
Jamus claims that, unbeknownst to the rest of us, Singapore is seen by the world not as a highly advanced, competent, specialized, complex economy where oil rigs, petrochemicals, machinery and modern electronics are being made but a cheap workshop where small-minded local entrepreneurs are stuck in the past.
That's why it needs, as he says, "painful structural adjustments" to FINALLY! make local businesses offer high quality products and services, and abandons the cheapskate mentality.
Lo and behold, for half a century Singapore has been following the wrong path but luckily there's now a genius to diagnose all of the country's problems and tell everyone how to fix them. He's recommending to make Singapore more expensive to foreign buyers so that local businesses try harder (or die, probably). There you go - all it needs is a bit of just currency exchange rate manipulation that MAS is obviously too blind or conservative to enact, to make Singapore the world's next Silicon Valley.
I think it's only a matter of time before local business owners are going to petition Jamus to start a course on management and entrepreneurship for them, so they can understand their grave mistakes better and improve.
This is yet another groundbreaking advice, after misquoting Nobel prize winners on minimum wage and recommending that HR managers and chemical engineers begin to learn how to code, as Jamus recommends imposing huge carbon taxation to drive petrochemicals out of the country and replace them with "green" industries like IT, solar panels or, presumably, wind turbines.
The good Doctor has a solution for everyone, it seems - how to make people earn more, keep prices low, motivate businesses to improve their quality, stave off GST increase by drawing more from reserves and, last but not least, how to help middle aged workers become top notch software programmers for TikTok and Facebook.
How has Singapore ever managed without him?
