Singapore says it wants to back away from strict rules to combat Covid-19 and the curbs on commercial and social life that come with them.
But the reality on the ground shows a lack of conviction trib.al/3miYoiS
Singapore returned to a lockdown-like state in mid-May. The situation has improved quickly:
🏫 Schools will resume in-person after summer break
🍽️ Larger social gatherings and dining-in are permitted trib.al/ymeOmie
Singapore wants the outward signs of being open for business, but appears unwilling to take risks to get there:
➡️ Showcase events have been shelved
➡️ An air-travel bubble with Hong Kong has gone nowhere trib.al/ymeOmie
Certain experiences illustrate the split-screen life in Singapore:
🎙️ Recorded music is forbidden, lest people talk too loudly over the noise and transmit germs
🚆 Public transport users are urged to be silent during their journey trib.al/ymeOmie
Politicians now talk about Covid as endemic, something that vaccinated people can tolerate without falling very ill.
Officials have held out the prospect of removing masks outdoors and a revival of the travel industry trib.al/ymeOmie
Yet after more than a year of on-again, off-again crackdowns, it's hard to see Singapore dispensing with the extreme risk aversion that's defined its response to the Covid-19 pandemic trib.al/ymeOmie
The approach has delivered impressive results:
➡️ Deaths have been few
➡️ Hospitals are coping
➡️ DIY test kits are available at pharmacies
➡️ Two-thirds of the country’s 5.7 million people should be fully inoculated by August trib.al/ymeOmie
But there is a lack of specifics about how substantially life will change after Singapore’s vaccination push.
Officials have floated the idea that inoculated people will have more scope to travel.
But how much more? Where will they be allowed to go? trib.al/ymeOmie
There is a risk that Singapore imprisons itself in this relative success.
All the country needs to do is step out of the way. When the pace of recovery slows next year, the moves will have to be a lot bolder trib.al/ymeOmie
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Would you spend $1.3 million on a dilapidated, crumbling house?
Someone already has. In New Zealand, one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world, quality and price are not obstacles to the property boom trib.al/lFnLdGd
Property markets around the world are running hot in similar ways to New Zealand’s.
128 out of 150 cities saw prices rise year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, with 43 growing at double-digit rates — more than twice the amount in the previous year trib.al/Bc1xtoH
A genuine economic recovery is underway, driven by $5.4 trillion of extra savings worldwide.
Aspiring “upsizers” are searching for space and long-term financial investments, especially among aging millennials who see a shot at outpacing rich boomers trib.al/Bc1xtoH
How many times have you said to yourself: “If I could only earn $X, then I’d be happy.”
It raises the question: How much money is enough to truly feel wealthy? trib.al/OLSKdYi
People’s views on wealth have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
➡️ In 2020 respondents said $2.6 million was needed to be wealthy
➡️ In 2021, respondents said $1.9 million was needed to be wealthy trib.al/vs5UGZF
What it takes to feel wealthy is a moving target.
Although it’s wise to think about how to grow your personal wealth, you can spare yourself a lot of anxiety by focusing on how to find contentment trib.al/vs5UGZF
A month after Kristallnacht, @davidjshipley’s father’s family left Berlin for the U.S.
As Jews, their time as Germans had to come to an end, to put it charitably. The family went first to NYC before settling in Oregon, a distant corner of a foreign land bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-…
Their relentless desire to become Americans, to join up with the country that had saved their lives, was brought home to @davidjshipley recently when he stumbled on Julian Shipley’s — his grandfather — study guide for his citizenship exam bloom.bg/2TDbG1o
@davidjshipley It wasn’t until the 1950s that the U.S. put in place a standardized citizenship exam.
Before then, applicants went before a judge, who quizzed them. Trick questions were forbidden, but everything else was fair game bloom.bg/2TDbG1o
The vacation housing market seems to be cooling off.
The number of mortgage rate locks on second homes increased 48% in May compared with a year earlier. Since last June, the jump had been greater than 80% each month trib.al/uP5egsl
But prospective second-home buyers shouldn't interpret the data as indicative of some big shakeout and a sign to take action
It's likely to remain a seller's market for vacation homes for the foreseeable future trib.al/uP5egsl
While some employees will be returning to the office, many will continue to have some flexibility.
And with limited labor available in seasonal towns, it will take even more time to increase the supply of homes than in the rest of the market trib.al/uP5egsl
California’s hydropower reserves are drying up in the most literal sense.
This summer, the fuel that normally stands in for water is also running lower than usual trib.al/UQVzi8s
Natural gas typically fulfills two roles for California’s power grid during the summer:
➡️ It fills in the gap left by depleted hydropower
➡️ It handles much of the state’s surge in electricity demand during the early evening trib.al/13I89vX
The premium on local gas supplies has jumped to its highest level since February.
Power stations in California and Nevada Were also suddenly burning double the amount of gas compared to the previous month as a heatwave washed over the West trib.al/13I89vX
➡️ 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party
➡️ 24 years since the return of the former British colony to the motherland
➡️ One year since the national security law took effect trib.al/IUvy2iL
Hong Kong’s fate has lessons for the world, not least on the fragility of a liberal way of life and institutions in the face of autocratic determination trib.al/0JZkvHg
Placid scenes around Hong Kong at the moment feed into Beijing’s chosen narrative:
The pro-democracy protests were a plot fomented by hostile foreign forces to subvert China’s socialist system, while the national security law ended the chaos trib.al/0JZkvHg