September 23, 2008
inSingapore: DBS High Notes – have we been too passive?
I wrote this back in May:
In the past, we may have looked to banks as trusted custodians of our savings. Today, with banks turning more towards aggressively selling different types of products, it may be wise to remember… BUYER BEWARE. (from inSingapore: No Credit to Banks)
Even then, I was thinking that many banks have crossed the line when marketing their products.
In the wake of the DBS High Notes issue (where investors claimed that the product was sold to them as a low-risk product, and now they may lose a very substantial proportion of that investment due to the collapse of Lehman), I wrote a more detailed piece with my thoughts on the way banks today are marketing their financial products on Hubpages: Don’t bank on your bank’s sales pitch.
This morning I woke up wondering:
Could consumers like me have done more to highlight the problems with the way banks are marketing financial products? Have we been too passive? Should we have done more than roll our eyes at some of the products being marketed and the ways they were marketed?
I believe now that we should have, even if no one would listen (They wouldn’t have, not when things are going along fine, and they are making money). The disjunction between claims that they were offering financial planning and the way products were being pushed was just too great, and has been so for a number of years. When investment products started being pushed aggressively in neighbourhood shopping centres, that’s when the alarm should have been raised.
September 22, 2008
TV Themes on Emmys? Sure makes me think of Clay Aiken…
I’m definitely majorly biased, but I think Clay has the perfect personality and voice to carry off a TV Theme medley.
TV Theme medley from Clay’s concert in 2007:
September 10, 2008
Clay Aiken encourages all to join in the fight against malaria
Clay Aiken appears in another video for UNICEF.
He talks about how insecticide treated bednets provided by UNICEF are being used to protect children from malaria in Somalia in a new video for Unicef.
And, how, if you donate now, Malaria No More will match your donations.
For the video, go here:
UNICEF Field Notes — Clay Aiken: Give the Gift of Growing Up
September 8, 2008
Richard Feynman… one of my friends thinks he’s tops as well!
A friend called up yesterday, all excited that I loved Richard Feynman as much as she did! She never thought that she’d find another person that loved Richard’s writings here in Singapore. And she only found out through a blog entry I posted back in April: Discovered Richard P. Feynman yet?
Guess a blog really does connect you in new ways, even to people you thought you knew really well!
btw, if you haven’t read of Richard Feynman’s popular writings, I really encourage you to do so! He writes in such an accessible, witty style that you’ll be charmed.
Talking about connected, my mum and I sent out the overseas postage-paid Grand Prix postcards (I wrote about these postcards in another of my blogs). We were trying to help our friends and relatives win a trip to Singapore. Well, no trips won, but what’s really nice was that we got a lot of emails and calls back from our friends overseas — heard from quite a few people we hadn’t kept in touch with in quite a while. And all for free! That postcard project is over now, but if you want to send postcards free to your friends overseas, there’s another set that you can get (check out this blog post)
Crooked Turret 