Economic crisis? Spend more money, urge the economists. And some Singaporeans are taking that advice to heart.

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Yeah... many people would rather give up creature comforts than gastronomical delights! ;)

yes, go indulge in some minibonds......

That has been the spending pattern of the young Japanese, who have forgone property investments for life's little pleasures.

I guess these pple aren't hit hard during the last financial crisis. Also, there is no sense of crisis in them - fear of losing their job. Try asking the employees in DBS now and reply may be different...

Spend more money they say!!!

I wonder too how many retailers were crying in their beer at the SRA ball last week, on account of the current dismal business scene.

Some are too young to remember the late 80's when , like now, the economic climate , was not good. There was an oversupply of shopping centres and shops, rentals were too high and there were not enough customers. The credit squeeze then meant shopkeepers going to the wall. And they did.

Singaporeans love affair with shopping has not abated, since.
The test of a good shopping centre, however, is watching to see how many bags people are carrying.
Not just those, window shopping.

Two decades later, we still have too many shopping centres and too many empty shops.
Some, sadly, are already like ghost towns.
Yet there is building works for newer and bigger shopping centres, galore.
Everywhere.

In the supposedly busiest hub stretching from Tanglin all the way to down to Cathay, there are shop lots going a-begging. Many have been empty for months.
A casualty, no doubt, of already an over supply of retail space and the asking of ludicrous rentals and the present economic woes. Landlords take note.

I happened to be in the Palais Renaissance, the other day. Only, as a brief respite, from the oppressive heat. Apart from a few bored sales women in their shops, polishing their nails; the only sound I heard was the drip from the fountain.

Then there is ION Orchard, with a nett letting space of over 660,00 square feet, four floors above and four floors below.
Apart from its anchor tenants, who would have just moved their establishments from one side of the road to the other; the upmarket shops with no doubt a high price rental, will not draw in the locals, to keep them afloat.

So,pray tell me, where are we going to find enough tourists to empty their wallets in this latest of shangri-la's?
So here and now, when the world is facing, possibly its most serious crunch, where are we going to get the numbers to fill our hotels, our visitor attractions and our shops?
And then,at what expense for the other malls, already built and still struggling to survive?
Tourist numbers are already down.

Are we so blinkered that we cannot see our nose from our face?
Have we not learned from the previous experience?
The wounds of then,for many, have not yet healed.

It's never too late to shout..STOP.
Better now than more casualties.

The punishment for failure can be very severe in singapore.
The graveyard of failed businesses is full.
One only needs to peruse through the dismal press insolvency notices daily.

And sadly, like everything in life; there will be winners and losers.
The losers will be the hapless,the forgotten, the insolvent.
The winners will be the developers, the banks and the lawyers.

What goes around, comes around.

It seems we will never learn (sigh)

Raise our costs of living so much higher in the past year AND yet want us to spur the economy?

They really think Singaporeans are carrot heads. Expect us to be saviour for everything.

The powers that be see S'poreans as mere cogs, which keep the wheels of our economy running. During times of recession, we should not stop spending in order to revive the economy. Our leaders would rather save for a rainy day or invest in assets overseas.

How to indulge? No money, leh. Well-paid ministers should spend more especially in support of charities.

#6, we are all banking with the IRs. The gambling started even before the casinos were ready. Singapore is fast morphing into one big vice hub.