John Micklethwait
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
You've had this onrush of money coming here.
You've had this big push to lure people here, the family offices, you see many of them here.
A lot of wealthy people coming here.
And you get two issues from that.
The first one is this issue of inequality, which I know...
the Gini coefficient has got better, so that in income terms... In income terms.
Income terms getting better.
But there is this, every time I come here, people talk about inequality more.
And I wondered, you've already introduced taxes on luxury cars and properties, but do you see Singapore moving towards other things, a capital gains tax, for instance?
I'll take that as a maybe.
Just the other issue about a lot of wealthy people coming here is that not all of them have been virtuous, if I can put it that way.
You know, you had the money laundering... Yeah, we've got illicit flaws.
Yes, and you had the accusations from the US about one of the heads of the main Asian crime families being here.
You've dealt with these things, but there is... One of your ministers had a very nice Chinese saying, when we open the windows, some flies...
may also enter.
And sometimes we get more than flies.
Yes.
But how many flies can Singapore tolerate?
And do you need a bigger fly swatter?
Can I ask you about energy?