S&P 500 in 1957 and now

Of the 500 co.s in S&P in 1947, only 74 are still in it 40 yrs later
Only a few disappeared via M&A, most others shranked or went bankrupted.

Temasek Holdings

Temasek, which oversees $130 billion, said senior management has volunteered to take a 15 percent to 25 percent pay cut. The key managers will provide almost 90 percent of the savings from the companywide cut, it said in an e-mailed response yesterday to a Bloomberg News query.

Administrative expenses for the group, which includes Temasek's share of the companies it invests in, rose 6.4 percent to S$8.6 billion ($5.6 billion) in the year ended March, making up 10 percent of revenue. Profit doubled for the year to S$18.2 billion as sales of energy and Chinese banking assets countered slowing returns from stock market investments, Temasek said in its annual report released on Aug. 26.

Sg banks vs Citibank

UOB mkt cap 18bn SGD
OCBC mkt cap 14bn SGD
DBS mkt cap 14bn SGD

Total 46bn SGD = 31bn USD

Citibank mkt cap 25bn USD

The three big banks in Singapore is worth more than Citibank!

Car ownership

USA has a car ownership ratio of just over 100%--meaning there is just over 1 car for each of the 240mn Americans old enough to drive.

Canadians, Europeans and Japanese only have an ownership ratio of 74%

Singapore is roughly at 20% by my own calculations
(500,000 / 2.5mn)

S&P 500 - 1/3 of stocks cannot meet criteria

1/3 of the entire S&P 500 Index is now NOT even qualified to be in the index - 186 stocks now have a market cap below $4bn (which is the minimum requirement for membership)

singapore crime stats

Almost all murders are solved

Ballpark 1,000 crimes for housebreaking, robbery, motor theft, molest etc
3,000 cheating crimes
100 rape cases

Unsolved murders (US)

In 2004, there were 16,137 cases of murder or nonnegligent manslaughter in the United States. Because 37.4% of these cases went uncleared, around 6,035 people "got away with murder" that year.

Given our better Government, probably Singapore has a lower %?
ie 30% of crimes are unsolved?

Tourists to Singapore

10.3mn tourists visited Singapore in 2007
Spent S$13.8bn

Crisis mgmt cost

According to a recent IMF survey of 42 banking crises since 1970, total fiscal costs (net of recoveries) associated with “crisis management” averaged 13.3% of GDP, with bank recapitalizations alone averaging 6.0% of GDP. Given the size of the US economy, that would suggest that a total net fiscal cost for the current crisis of $1.9 trillion would be in line with historical averages, including $866bn in bank recapitalization.

EPS estimates

David Dreman and Michael Berry in a study published in the FAJ in 1995 and subsequently updated in 1996 examined brokerage analysts quarterly earnings projections as compared to the actual earnings reported between 1972 and 1996. Estimates for the quarter were usually made in the previous 3 months and analysts could revise their estimates up to 2 weeks before quarter end … in all, 94,251 consensus forecasts were used requiring at least 4 separate analyst estimates before including a consensus number in the study. The average EPS estimate error for the study was 44%. In the last eight years of the study the average error was 50% and in two of those years, 57% and 65%, respectively.