structured whatnots part 2, deposit guarantees

glad that the straits times is finally putting up articles on this nonsense, after the speaker's corner event took place...

on another note, also glad that mas and mof have finally decided to guarantee bank deposits until dec 2010 although how they intend to use s$150bn to cover approx s$700bn is beyond me.. sdic's website is also not updated yet...

i also note, rather disgustedly, that the motivation for this move was to "avoid an erosion of banks’ deposit base and ensure a level international playing field for banks in Singapore" - pro-business reason, rather than for pple's ease of mind... of course, other govts have also been doing it to shore up confidence for their banks...

the stated reasons for NOT guaranteeing bank deposits fully work in all circumstances:

1. if banks are already safe, there's no need to guarantee..
2. if banks are not safe, then it will cost too much to guarantee and this will eventually trickle down to taxpayers (well, in fact this cost thing was used by mas to justify the measly 20k limit, so if banks are not safe one can only imagine that this reason will be strutted out even more)

BUT, now that banks' competitiveness is threatened, they guarantee the bank deposits... so my romantic notion that the govt works for the good of the pple has just been dented...