“Singapore” on The Daily Caller

Dear Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, (more)

For the fourth year in a row, the United States has fallen on the Heritage Foundation’s international Index of Economic Freedom. For 2011, the U.S. fell from 9th to 10th, just behind Ireland. (RELATED: IMF providing bailout support to heavily indebted Ireland)
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President Barack Obama’s campaign heads to the Pacific and Asian corners of the world this week where his public relations crew will produce a symphony of visuals for American voters. The nine day trip will include visits to San Diego, Hawaii, Australia, Bali and Indonesia. (more)

SINGAPORE (AP) – Singapore’s economy grew a record 14.7 percent this year, rebounding strongly from last year’s recession as the global recovery boosted exports and tourism. (more)

The weekend’s WikiLeaks release has already embarrassed a number of nations and individuals, not the least of which is Malaysia’s political opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim. If the WikiLeaks revelations are to be believed, officials in Singapore and Australia are convinced that Anwar is guilty of the sodomy charges for which he is on trial in Malaysia — and they believe that in committing sodomy, he knowingly walked into a trap set for him by his political enemies. (more)

How’s this for a provocative start of an article: the Tech Guys advocate attracting 100 million new immigrants to the United States in the next 20 years. Why? For three simple reasons: to expand the economy, to remain the world’s strongest country and to be consistent with American values. (more)

SINGAPORE (AP) — First came two quick bangs. Then, on the left side of the Qantas superjumbo jet, passengers saw flames, a stream of smoke and debris from a stricken engine. A gouge scarred the top of the Airbus 380′s left wing, scorch marks were on the outside of the blown-out engine and part of its cover depicting the airline’s familiar red kangaroo logo had fallen off during the flight over Indonesia. (more)

Unemployment remains high, with Washington politicians clamoring for job creation.  China is ever more confident, challenging the U.S. economically and politically.  The People’s Republic of China (PRC) even has displaced America as the number one trading partner of such leading East Asian states as South Korea. (more)

The House Ways and Means Committee has just approved a bill that would attempt, albeit modestly, to crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit.  The Ryan-Murphy currency bill (HR 2378) would allow the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy for the purpose of calculating countervailing duties intended as retaliation.  This bill has to be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the Senate before becoming law, but already the prophets of doom are squealing about the dangers of starting a trade war with China. They are wrong. (more)

The diva has landed – on her tush. (more)

If there’s one thing everyone knows these days, whether they’re happy about it or not, it’s that we live in a “global” economy.  This fact is taken as so obvious that anyone who disputes it is regarded as not so much wrong, but as simply ignorant—not even worth arguing with.  So it may come as a shock to many that, in reality, the cliché that we live in a borderless global economy does not survive serious examination.  The key is to ignore the Thomas Friedmanesque rhetoric flooding the media and get down to some hard numbers. (more)

SINGAPORE — The wealth of rich Asians has surpassed Europe’s millionaires for the first time as the region’s stock and property prices rebounded from the global recession, a report showed Wednesday. (more)

There are now more than 83,000 people in the U.S. on the waiting list for a kidney. Yet with less than 17,000 transplants done each year, more than 40 percent will die waiting. As bad, transplants are most likely to succeed when they are done early. So as the waiting time increases (now about 5 years), even those lucky enough to get a new kidney do not benefit as much as possible. (more)

China’s on-again-off-again approach to U.S-China military interaction and Beijing’s refusal to allow Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to visit China during his recent Asian trip reveals a dysfunctional military relationship that’s the result of much more than Beijing’s displeasure over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. It reflects fundamentally different national strategic objectives and the changing locus of leverage that result from China’s growing power and influence relative to the U.S. (more)

Washington (CNN) — The failure of General Electric engines on four jet aircraft overseas during the past two years has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue an “urgent” recommendation to increase inspections of the engines on U.S. aircraft. (more)

Washington, D.C.—Last week negotiators held the eighth round of negotiations of the hotly contested Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in New Zealand. As a result of these negotiations, negotiators publicly released the previously confidential negotiating text for the first time. The negotiations have been plagued with leaks over the past several years, and non-governmental organizations have criticized both the Bush and Obama administrations for their failure to release the confidential text before now. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released the 39-page ACTA text this week, which includes numerous brackets around provisions that remain under negotiation between the parties. (more)

SYDNEY (AP) — Several thousand air passengers were stranded in Asia for a second day Saturday as flights were grounded because of a massive cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano that paralyzed European airports. (more)

Last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released new information about the high-profile and hotly debated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The entire text was also leaked last week for the first time by the French digital rights group La Quadrature du Net, despite the official designation of the text as confidential between the ACTA negotiating parties. ACTA is an intellectual-property rights (IPR) agreement aimed at combating counterfeiting and piracy. ACTA negotiators are from Australia, Canada, the EU and its 27 member states, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States. USTR estimates that these countries make up half of all global trade. Thus, ACTA is a high-stakes agreement that has the potential to have a positive impact on IPR protection and enforcement, opening markets, and promoting global trade for U.S. businesses. The next round of ACTA negotiations will be held in New Zealand starting on April 12, 2010. (more)

After months of emphasizing the need to coordinate a global regulatory response to the global financial crisis, the Administration has done an about-face. Instead of working in concert with international partners, the Administration now wants to enact reform unilaterally so as to “set the global agenda.” The supposed first-mover advantage would allow the U.S. to shape “a level playing field on terms that play to our strengths.” In reality, regulatory reform at the national level is unlikely to work because of the size and breadth of the institutions. And rather than stimulate international cooperation, unilateral action is likely to result in regulatory competition that ultimately disadvantages U.S. firms. (more)

MELBOURNE, Australia—Last week the United States concluded its first round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement here. The U.S. delegation was led by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, who engaged in trade talks with counterparts from seven countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. (more)