Andy Xie's resignation as Morgan Stanley's chief economist in Asia last week followed an e-mail in which he characterized Singapore as an economic failure dependent on illicit money from Indonesia and China.Xie, who worked at Morgan Stanley for nine years, sent the e-mail to his colleagues after attending the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings last month in the Southeast Asian island state. The 46-year-old Shanghai-born economist questioned why Singapore was chosen to host the conference and said delegates "were competing with each other to praise Singapore as the success story of globalization."
"Actually, Singapore's success came mostly from being the money laundering center for corrupt Indonesian businessmen and government officials," Xie, who was based in Hong Kong before leaving Morgan Stanley on Sept. 29, wrote in the e-mail. "Indonesia has no money. So Singapore isn't doing well.
Read the rest of this Bloomberg article.
And from an earlier Bloomberg piece:
...At a dinner party hosted by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, "people fawned him like a prince," Xie wrote. "These Western people didn't know what they were talking about,'' he wrote, describing the praise for Singapore as "nauseating pleasantries."
Also see Urban Rant and Finance Asia.
