Free Republic

The EU Commission decided to keep the trade agreement with Singapore secret until it enters into force in order to avoid pressure that may prevent it’s passing from the European Parliament according to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). FFII analyst Ante Wessels says: "The European Parliament overwhelmingly voted down the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) after citizens pointed out it would violate their human rights. This time the Commission hopes to have a 'better result' by keeping the text secret until it enters into force. This is nothing less than an assault on democracy. Without democracy, the union...

Sometimes I myopically focus on fiscal policy, implying that the key to prosperity is small government.But I’ll freely admit that growth if maximized when you have small government AND free markets.That being said, our goal should be to expand freedom, not merely to have the largest possible GDP.Which is why the Freedom Index is a good complement to Economic Freedom of the World.It shows, for instance, that Singapore may be ranked #2 for economic freedom, but it is only #39 when you look at all freedoms.We also have a comprehensive ranking of economic and personal freedom for the 50 states.Here...

Singapore likes to promote itself as a business-friendly country where the government has a soft touch. But by firing a professor known for criticizing the government's censorship strategies, ruling elites have demonstrated that they still have a firm hand in controlling political conversation. It should make U.S. universities rethink their research partnerships with universities in Singapore, because such relationships actually help launder the regime's reputation.As one of Singapore's most high profile censorship critics, Cherian George is guilty of several things. In his teaching, he is guilty of corrupting several cohorts of young journalism students with ideas about press freedoms. In...

Singapore Income Tax System & Tax Rates Investors turn to Singapore for establishing their operations for several reasons. The ease of setting up and operating businesses is a prime motivator. Another central determinant is Singapore’s tax regime – well-known for its attractive corporate and personal tax rates, tax relief measures, absence of capital gains tax, one-tier tax system, and extensive double tax treaties. Persons, including corporations, partnerships, trustees and bodies of persons carrying on any trade, profession or business in Singapore are chargeable to tax on all profits (excluding profits arising from the sale of capital assets) arising in or...

The Japanese have said “Enough.” After a generation of stagnation, they’ve chosen an all-of-the-above policy to boost economic growth. The nation’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is promising a “three arrows” strategy: bold monetary easing, increased public-works spending, and structural changes, such as regulatory reform. He’s throwing the ramen against the shoji and hoping something will stick. Some of those ideas are good ones, some probably aren’t. But it’s clear that Tokyo’s priority is growth, growth, growth. Time to get Nippon moving again. Nations probably never choose decline, at least not consciously. More likely they become victims of a creeping...

China has leapfrogged the US to become the world’s biggest trading nation, bringing an end to the US’s post-war dominance of global commerce. The total value of US exports and imports in 2012 was $3.82 trillion (£2.4 trillion), the US Commerce Department has revealed. China’s customs administration has already announced that the country’s total trade last year was worth $3.87 trillion. “It is remarkable that an economy that is only a fraction of the size of the US economy has a larger trading volume,” Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, told Bloomberg....

Four ex-SMRT bus drivers have been jailed in Singapore for their part in last November’s strike. Wang Xianjie, Gao Yue Qiang and Liu Xiangying were sentenced to six weeks in prison, while He Junling was sentenced to seven weeks. On top of organising and participating in the strike, he had also posted on social media network Baidu encouraging others to join in. All four had pleaded guilty in court. Choo Zheng Xi, lawyer for He Junling, presented a mitigation plea, saying, “It was never Jun Ling’s intention to startle or alarm the public, nor was it a calculated plan of...

As China enters the "Year of the Snake," Singapore stands as a beacon of sound currency in a world gone mad. China's renminbi remains pegged to the US dollar, while even steadfast Switzerland has followed the US, UK, EU, and Japan into an impoverishing strategy of currency debasement. Singapore, alone, has been able to sustain genuine economic growth in the context of a strong national currency. The Currency Snakes In most major economies, a corrective recession has become politically unacceptable. In order to conceal negative real economic growth, politicians and their central bankers have resorted to the irresponsible policy of...

In the wake of increased tension with Japan over disputed islands, China’s soldiers have been directed to be ready for a war in 2013 and also win it. Government Chinese media disclosed this in a report. The report also said the soldiers are being prepared to the best possible level and that they are being trained for the purpose. According to reports, in 2012, no such directive- of getting ready for a war and winning it- was given. The Chinese army has also been told to improve its activities and enhance information and intelligence gathering techniques. In 20th century, Japan...

President Barack Obama offered on Saturday to provide any assistance the Algerian government needs after a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant and said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what took place there. "The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the families of all those who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack in Algeria," Obama said in his first comments on the hostage crisis. Obama's written statement was issued by the White House after the Algerian army carried out a dramatic final assault to end a...

SINGAPORE -- While the U.S. unemployment rate "dropped" to 7.7 percent last month -- a figure even the Washington Post acknowledged was due "in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000" -- here in this modern and prosperous city-state of slightly more than 5 million people, unemployment is practically nonexistent at 1.9 percent. In part, this is due to a work ethic that seems to be in the genes here. But there is something else at work that should astound Washington politicians struggling with expensive "entitlement" programs and with those who receive them. The Economist wrote about it...

The most emotionless society is Singapore's despite its reputation for being among the world's richest, a new survey has revealed. Gallup looked at 150 countries where about 1,000 residents were asked whether they experienced five positive and five negative emotions a lot during the course of a day. The results were based on interviews taken over a three-year period. Questions included whether people felt well-rested or enjoyment, smiled and laughed or felt worry, sadness, stress or anger. The 36% in Singapore who reported feeling anything is the lowest in the world, the Washington-based research and analytics organization found. This figure...

A random South-East Asian girl steps up to a karaoke machine in a store in front of a grocery shop and sings Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You. She absolutely floors everyone

Nigeria's navy says it has rescued a Singapore-owned oil tanker hijacked by pirates on Tuesday night with 23 Indian sailors on board. A navy spokesman told the BBC the crew was safe, the hijackers had fled and the vessel, the Abu Dhabi Star, was being escorted into the port of Lagos. Earlier, the navy denied reports that the tanker was seized in the port. There has been a significant increase in the number of pirate attacks in parts of West Africa. The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says unlike the piracy off the coast of Somalia where hostages are held...

Louie Huang, a Porsche-driving, millionaire Shanghainese, has stumped up the sizeable investment needed to buy himself residency rights in Singapore.... Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneurs with at least half a million dollars to spare are being encouraged to invest in the US economy at a seminar in a plush office suite with a spectacular view of Shanghai. Their reward is a green card under the EB-5 visa scheme, as long as the investment can be shown to have created at least 10 jobs. In 2006 Chinese nationals were granted just 63 visas under the scheme. [T]his year it is already above the...

If you enjoy peering inside the minds of the world's super rich, take a spin through the 2012 "Wealth Report." Compiled by Citibank, and a property consultancy called Knight Frank, it's a lengthy analysis based partly on interviews with the super rich. (Definition: people with more than $25 million in investable assets.) Yes, the report contains musings on why yacht sales are down and the pros and cons of buying a sports franchise. But that's not the most interesting part. The study predicts that Singapore -- that little Southeast Asian city-state with loads of Type A zeal -- will be...

China recently declared that most of the 3.5 million square kilometers South China Sea had become Sansha, the latest Chinese city. The area China claims is within the city limits comprises over two million square kilometers of largely open ocean and a few hundred tiny islands and reefs, many of which are only above water during low tide. Sansha is administered from one of the Paracel islands (Woody Island). The U.S. government responded by asking that China obey international law. China currently claims South China Sea areas close to neighboring nations, except for areas about 22 kilometers from the coast....

Earlier this month, I decided to see how hard it would be to set up my own offshore bank account. I figured it would be pretty difficult, because I’m not rich and don’t have a team of tax lawyers to oversee my money and because the E.U. and U.S. governments have been cracking down on tax havens by imposing stricter tax-sharing requirements. So I proceeded with some caution. First, I Googled “company registration tax haven” and randomly picked three firms that set up accounts in offshore jurisdictions. Then I called each and explained that I was hoping to minimize my...

Rising debt and regulatory constraints continue to damage the reputations of the U.S. and Europe as business-friendly locales, but America's northern neighbor is doing the right things to encourage entrepreneurship with robust tax reform, strong investor protections and a lack of red tape. 1 Canada 3.1 39,400 -3.1 34.0 2 New Zealand 1.5 27,700 -2.3 4.3 3 Hong Kong 6.8 45,900 6.6 7.1 4 Ireland -1.0 37,300 -0.7 4.7 5 Denmark 2.1 36,600 5.5 5.5 6 Singapore 14.5 62,100 20.8 4.7 7 Sweden 5.5 39,100 6.3 9.1 8 Norway 0.4 54,600 12.9 4.7

The United States on Thursday exempted China and Singapore from sanctions over purchases of oil from Iran, hours before restrictions would have entered into force against their banks.