Singaporeans Say Budget Not Enough to Manage Rising Costs, Poll Finds
(Bloomberg) -- A majority of Singapore residents view measures in the latest annual budget as inadequate to help them cope with rising costs of living, according to a new poll.
Trump Targets $128 Billion California High-Speed Rail Project
Trump to Halt NY Congestion Pricing by Terminating Approval
Trump Asserts Power Over NYC, Proclaims 'Long Live the King'
Airbnb Billionaire Offers Pre-Fab Homes for LA Fire Victims
Sorry, Kids: Disney's New York Headquarters Is for Grown-Ups
Among 1,002 adults surveyed by Singapore-based Milieu Insight, 55% said the budget's nearly S$124 billion ($92.8 billion) in spending that includes shopping vouchers and elder-care subsidies is not enough to cover elevated prices from food to housing. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered the budget on Feb. 18, which forecasts a second year of fiscal surplus.
The findings underscore the challenges for the ruling People's Action Party as it prepares for a general election this year, a period that's likely to see slower economic growth and renewed tariff wars that threaten open economies like Singapore. Wong, who became premier in May 2024, will lead the PAP for the first time into an election due by November.
The pace of price gains in Singapore has cooled. Core inflation, which excludes housing and private transportation costs, rose 1.8% in December from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 2021. Meanwhile, the city-state expects economic growth to come in at 1%-3% this year, down from 4.4% in 2024.
Wong acknowledged that locals are still adjusting to 'new price realities' and pledged future support. 'We will continue to provide support for as long as needed, within our means,' said the PM who double-hats as finance minister in the budget speech.
Apart from spending on infrastructure, the government will give households S$800 in vouchers to help cover costs at supermarkets and food outlets, higher than the S$600 announced the previous year. Other measures include tax rebates and support for families with children, low-income people and the elderly.
In 2024, a similar post-budget poll found that 62% of respondents did not find announced measures sufficient to help Singaporeans cope with rising costs, a larger proportion than this year.
When asked whether the 2025 budget reassures them about managing costs of living, results were split. Overall, 47% responded positively to the budget and 37% said they were neutral. About 16% disagreed.
The poll was carried online by Milieu Insight between Feb. 19 and 21. Milieu Insight conducts market research in Southeast Asia.
Meet Seven of America's Top Personal Finance Influencers
Japan Perfected 7-Eleven. Why Can't the US Get It Right?
India's Most Reliable Retirement Plan: Selling Grandma's Jewelry
The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory
How Med Spas Conquered America
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘It is a whole different environment': Republicans revisit key Biden investigations with new momentum
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to interview former Hunter Biden special counsel David Weiss behind closed doors on Friday, two sources familiar with the interview told CNN, as part of a broader Republican effort to revisit previous probes into the Biden family that stalled last Congress but are gaining new momentum now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. The scheduled interview, which could still be moved, would be the second time the Republican-led panel will interview Weiss about his work as Republicans continue to probe whether the investigation was hampered by political interference. Weiss has still never testified publicly about his six-year criminal probe into the president's son, which included three convictions, but was ultimately short-circuited as a result of the former president's unconditional pardon of his son. House Judiciary Republicans have long wanted to call Weiss, the Trump-appointed US attorney, back for questioning after his first closed-door interview in 2023. Committee Republicans were also able to finally secure interviews with two Department of Justice tax division prosecutors involved in the Hunter Biden probe who they had been aggressively pursuing for months, one of the sources familiar told CNN. The Justice Department is working with Weiss to provide access to documents he may need for his interview, a person briefed on the matter said. Any delays in getting access to documents would be a scheduling issue and the ability to have personnel who can oversee it, the person briefed on the matter said. It's not the only Biden investigation Republicans are reexamining that leans into a fresh political appetite with GOP control of Washington. House Oversight Chair James Comer is returning to his probe of the former president's mental fitness in an entirely new landscape after a recent book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson put Joe Biden's physical and mental decline back in the spotlight. Comer told CNN he is in the process of scheduling key interviews with Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, and other senior aides who had all rebuffed his efforts last Congress. Beyond the five initial interviews from Biden's orbit, the Republican Chairman told CNN he wants to look at the executive orders Biden signed in his last six months in office and use of the autopen. In the weeks immediately after Biden's disastrous 2024 debate performance that unraveled his presidential campaign and upended the Democratic party, Comer requested to interview Biden's doctor and subpoenaed three senior Biden aides to discuss their roles in the Biden White House, which never materialized. Now, Comer said in an interview with CNN, 'it is a whole different environment.' At the time of his 2024 interview requests, Comer's impeachment inquiry into the Biden family's business dealings had fallen apart and the Biden administration felt no incentive to comply with the House Oversight Committee. Probing Biden's decline now, Comer says, will be a lot easier than trying to convince his colleagues of an alleged Biden family foreign influence peddling scheme, which even Comer conceded was difficult to do, particularly in a minute or less on Fox News. Republicans failed to uncover evidence to support their core allegations against the president, and lacked the votes in their divided, narrow majority last Congress to impeach the president. 'The money laundering and the shell companies, the average American couldn't understand that. I mean, that was hard to understand,' Comer told CNN. 'You know, I did not do a good job explaining that.' But with his investigation into Biden's mental and physical decline, Comer said, 'people see a president that clearly is in decline. They saw it in the debate.' Democrats sought to dismantle the Republican-led 11 month impeachment inquiry into Biden last Congress at every turn. Comer told CNN that although those Democrats aren't jumping at the opportunity to cooperate now, he does not see them as being obstructive either. 'I take that as a step in the right direction,' he told CNN. Tapper and Thompson's book documents how Biden, his closest aides and his family forged ahead with the former president's doomed 2024 reelection bid despite signs of his physical and mental decline. In a previous statement to CNN, a Biden spokesman criticized the book, saying that evidence shows that 'he was a very effective president.' Former Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who launched a long-shot challenge to Biden and was outspoken about his concerns over the former president's age, told CNN he did not think there needed to be an investigation on Capitol Hill at this point into Biden's fitness as president. 'This case already went to trial, the jury of American voters convicted the party of the accused, and handed out the harshest political punishment possible-losing the single most consequential election in modern history,' Phillips told CNN. Instead, Phillips called on Biden to authorize his physician to disclose his health file and condition under oath. 'Only if the former president refuses, or if questioning uncovers possible criminal activity, should an investigation be initiated,' Phillips added. Biden was recently diagnosed with an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer. CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Internal Docs Raise Questions About Trump IRS Pick Billy Long's ‘No-Show Jobs' And ‘Strange' Schedule Inside A Powerful Agency
It's not quite clear what is happening with former Missouri Congressman Billy Long and his associates at the federal Office of Personnel Management, where he has been a senior advisor to the director since March. And Long's internal OPM calendar, which was obtained and reviewed by TPM, doesn't exactly shed light on the situation. In fact, multiple former OPM employees who discussed the matter with us said Long's schedule — which shows him averaging less than three items per week over the past three months — only adds to the questions about his workload and whether he is complying with recordkeeping requirements. In a statement to TPM, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who is the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, suggested the calendar data from OPM indicates Long and some of his associates were taking advantage of the agency, which plays a crucial part in the federal bureaucracy. 'If you ask me, it sure looks like Congressman Long got himself and some pals no-show jobs with maxed-out federal salaries,' Wyden said, adding, 'Somebody who abuses taxpayer dollars like that shouldn't come within 100 miles of the IRS.' Long and an OPM spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions from TPM about his schedule and role at the agency. OPM, which essentially serves as the chief human resources office and personnel policy manager for the federal government, is not the most high profile agency, but it is an influential one. During the second Trump administration, it has played a particularly central role, working closely with the Department of Government Efficiency — the initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk — to slash the federal workforce. Even as his current job is raising eyebrows, Long is on his way to taking a more powerful post. On Tuesday, members of the Senate Finance Committee voted 14-13 along party lines to advance Long's nomination to become commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. That sets the stage for a Senate floor vote that could end in Long's confirmation. President Trump announced his intention to have Long lead the tax agency on Dec. 4, 2024. Long, who represented Missouri's Seventh Congressional District from 2011 until 2023, previously pushed to abolish the IRS and earned a reputation as a staunch Trump loyalist. As TPM has previously reported, Long was one of the members of Congress who promoted bogus conspiracy theories in texts with Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, during the president's fight to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. In the announcement about the nomination, which came before Trump took office for his second term, the president boasted of Long's past work as an auctioneer and described him as the 'consummate 'people person.'' Since then, Long has been installed at OPM as his nomination has worked its way through the Senate. In that time, various controversies have erupted around his nomination to lead the IRS. These include questions about Long's tax credentials, which seem to come from a Florida business that offers a three-day seminar, and about his past private-sector work promoting a non-existent tax credit as well as another credit that has been described as 'riddled with fraud.' And, in recent weeks, Long's stint at the OPM has added to those concerns. On May 23, shortly after Long appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, members provided him with additional written questions for the record. Wyden, who cited the internal OPM calendars, took the opportunity to ask Long about the work that he and three associates — Ben Elleson, Karen Meads, and Mark Czuchry — are doing at OPM. According to Wyden, Long's in-person answer about the role that he and his associates play at the agency left much to be desired. 'If Congressman Long and his associates had real jobs doing serious work at OPM they'd have proven it to us when we gave him the opportunity,' Wyden said. 'The best he could do when staff questioned him on this was to read aloud a printout of a random press release and garble a few brief answers about proofreading and retirement issues, and it wasn't believable at all.' In his written questions to Long, Wyden claimed that both Long and Elleson, who was previously deputy chief of staff and legislative director in Long's House office, were both earning $195,200, which is the maximum salary for a federal worker in Washington D.C. Wyden also referenced the calendars as he asked Long, 'How many hours per week do you work?' Long's response did not directly answer that question or several others that were asked by the senator about his specific accomplishments and schedule. Instead, Long offered a terse three sentence reply. 'As a Senior Advisor at OPM, I work with the Acting Administrator in modernizing and digitizing the federal government retirement system,' Long wrote. 'This includes identifying improvements and discussing options to better serve federal employees. I work at OPM in the Washington, D.C. headquarters.' TPM obtained and reviewed internal OPM calendars that were provided by a source involved in Long's confirmation. They show Long had a total of 34 items on his schedule during March, April, and May, a period that included thirteen weeks and 64 working days. The calendars did not detail the appointments on Long's schedule, but none appeared to last a full day. And many of the items on Long's calendar may not have been work at all. Eleven of them were identified as 'tentative,' rather than scheduled commitments, and one of the blocked off periods was explicitly listed as 'free.' Long's associates at the agency had similarly open schedules. The calendars show Elleson, whose title at OPM is reportedly 'senior adviser,' had 65 items scheduled, an average of slightly more than one thing per day for the three-month period. Of these, eight were listed as 'tentative' and three were identified as 'free.' According to Wyden's questions for the record, Meads, who spent a dozen years serving as the scheduler in Long's district office, is earning a salary of $175,000. Her OPM calendar shows just six items for all of March and April. Everything on Meads' schedule during that two month period was identified as either 'tentative' or 'free.' Meads' calendar for the month of May was completely empty. In his written responses to Wyden, Long defended the work of both of his associates while providing few details. 'Mr. Elleson is a trusted and respected employee with years of experience. He was brought on following normal hiring practices and procedures,' Long wrote, later adding, 'Ms. Meads is a seasoned employee with extensive government experience. She was brought on following normal hiring practices and procedures.' Elleson and Meads did not respond to requests for comment from TPM. A former senior OPM staffer who left the agency prior to Trump's second term and requested anonymity to avoid retaliation said the lack of activity on these calendars is unusual. 'I can't imagine a day that I had less than six or seven meetings when I was at OPM — or more — that were back to back. That's especially true for senior directors,' the former senior staffer said. The ex-staffer went on to point out that DOGE, the so-called government efficiency agency, has extensively focused on OPM and placed personnel inside the agency. One of the items highlighted by DOGE as part of efforts to eliminate 'waste, fraud, and abuse' is a decommissioned mine in Pennsylvania that OPM has used to warehouse retirement records. Because many of the retirement functions that Long has suggested he is focused on are based there rather than in D.C., the former staffer suggested his work should include an abundance of online meetings that would crop up on the calendar. 'As DOGE mocked or made clear, retirement services is based in a mine in Pennsylvania, so your work cannot be done in person,' the former staffer said. Obviously, it is possible that Long and his associates are simply not inputting all of their activity on the internal calendar system. However, the former senior staffer suggested this would raise other issues since federal recordkeeping requirements call for detailed tracking. Long's third associate at OPM, Mark Czuchry, brings up a whole host of other issues unrelated to workload and bookkeeping. Czuchry is a Minnesota lawyer and partner at the financial firm Lifetime Advisors, which employed Long after he left Congress in 2023. Czuchry, a member of his family, and other employees at Lifetime Advisors were among a group of donors who provided Long with an influx of campaign donations after Trump announced his nomination. Long used that cash to reimburse himself for a personal loan he had made to the failed Senate bid that led him to abandon his House seat. And, last month, the news outlet The Lever surfaced a recording where the CEO of a financial services company touted his relationship with Long and asserted that, if he was confirmed, Long planned to bring Czuchry on board at the IRS. In his written questions to Long, Wyden said Czuchry is also earning a $195,200 salary at OPM. Wyden also noted the fact 'Czuchry was one of many individuals who recently contributed to your Senate campaign fund.' Wyden went on to ask about Czuchry's role at OPM and whether Long wanted to have the attorney 'join' him at the IRS. 'Mr. Czuchry is not employed at OPM and does not plan on being employed by the IRS,' Long wrote in his response, which was submitted on Friday. However, OPM records obtained by the Project on Government Oversight last month described Czuchry as a 'senior advisor' at OPM. While Czuchry seems to have worked at the agency in the past, an OPM spokesperson told Bloomberg for a May 15 story that he had left. Czuchry also had an internal OPM calendar. Like the others belonging to Long and his associates, it was conspicuously empty. There were 27 items on Cuzchry's calendar in March and April of this year. Of those, ten were listed as 'tentative' and one was identified as 'free.' In May, Czuchry's calendar displayed six items, all of which were listed as either 'tentative' or 'free.' A second former OPM employee who left the agency earlier this year and declined to be named for fear of retaliation described Long and his associates' calendars as 'pristine' and said the absence of appointments on them was 'incredibly unusual and disturbing.' The employee had firsthand knowledge of the calendars and said they had raised concerns among others at the agency. 'To be a senior adviser and not be having meetings with various teams — particularly for these sweeping policy initiatives — is strange. They're trying to reimagine the federal workforce,' the employee said. 'They would be meeting with multiple teams. You would be seeing advising or fact finding scheduled throughout the day.' The employee also stressed that, due to its role providing oversight to other agencies, OPM is especially concerned with maintaining standards and procedures. Because of this, the person said, it was particularly problematic to 'have a pocket of four people who aren't contributing to personnel policy in any way but are taking salary.' They also echoed the concerns about recordkeeping and suggested the situation with Long and his associates is even more troubling given the Trump administration's supposed commitment to government efficiency. 'What are these people adding? Why are the American taxpayers paying for him and these three people? What are the taxpayers getting for this time that they have purchased? It doesn't look like anything and that's incredibly disturbing,' the former employee said, adding, 'Talk about 'waste, fraud, and abuse.' What is going on at the government personnel agency? … We always talk about the tone being set, so if this is happening at the personnel agency, what else is happening?'
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
"Amen" at the end of the long day: Laid-off workers seek community and solace online
When Melanie Ehrenkranz, the founder of the 'Laid Off' Substack newsletter, launched her newsletter for unemployed workers in August 2024, she didn't expect to create a vibrant, active community of over 11,000 readers in less than a year. In addition to the newsletter, Ehrenkranz also runs a Discord community, which offers its members additional ways to connect, support each other and navigate the uncharted waters of unemployment during the second Trump term. This community is private for paid readers at the monthly fee of $5. While the particular kind of financial strain and psychological pressures that characterize unemployment have been around as long as there have been jobs, the scale of layoffs, the transformative nature of AI that is upending entire industries, stubborn inflation, economic uncertainty and new ways social media is connecting people again post-pandemic makes 2025 a unique time to be navigating the ever-shifting job market. 'This moment feels heavier,' Ehrenkranz told Salon. 'People aren't just getting laid off — they're getting ghosted, strung along, maybe even experiencing their second or third or fifth layoff in their career.' Magenta Fox, one of the members of the community Ehrenkranz created, has been laid off since 2023. Fox says this period of unemployment is 'vastly different' from the other times she was laid off, in 2009 and during 2016-2018. 'With this search, I've paid for resume rewrites and interview coaching— something I've never done at any point in my career,' Fox said. 'And it seems like there's no end in sight. At least with the Great Recession it seemed like there was an effort in Washington to try to make things better.' This time around, Fox found her interactions with recruiters more cutthroat. 'I've had recruiters no-show on calls and write rude emails— something I've never gotten from anyone, recruiter or no, in my professional life, ever,' she said. The uptick in ghosting behavior from recruiters adds to the mental health toll job hunting can take. 'The psychological effect was really enormous,' said New York-based Dio Martins, who has been recently laid off and has just landed a new remote opportunity. Martins found networking and connecting with friends helpful in his job search. 'It's incredible how helpful a little text message can be to someone, just reminding you that you're not alone, and to keep trying things,' he said. As of late May 2025, U.S. employers cut nearly half a million jobs, which is a 93% jump compared to the same period last year. So far, 2025 has been a brutal year for US employees. Major U.S. employers like Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Blue Origin, Estée Lauder, Kohl's, Southwest Airlines, Walmart and Business Insider have announced major layoffs ranging from hundreds to thousands of jobs. Inspired by communities like Rachel Karten's Link in Bio Discord and Julia Harrison's Saloon Substack, Ehrenkranz wanted to remove the stigma from being unemployed and create a nurturing environment for those looking to get back on their feet. 'I noticed a lot of readers were using the Substack Chat to share their stories and ask for advice, and so I wanted to create a space that had more layers to it for people experiencing job loss to connect,' Ehrenkranz said. 'The intention behind the Discord, similar to the overall mission, is for people to feel less alone and to destigmatize layoffs. And also to have some fun and maybe make some friends.' Over time, she noticed that members started using the Discord as a way to deal with the day-to-day pressures of job searching, both online and in person. 'I've seen people in the Discord share advice on how to post about their layoff on LinkedIn without it feeling cringe, how to wear their hair in a Zoom job interview, how to respond to a hiring manager that ghosted them after several rounds of interviews, and how to tweak their resume so it doesn't get trashed by ATS software,' she said. 'I've also increasingly seen folks trying to meet up outside of the Discord, whether it's in a vent session on Google Meet or grabbing drinks during the week.' Ultimately, the mental health break and human connection is what online communities like 'Laid Off' offer its members: without the gloss or pretenses of traditional social media or the unproductive bureaucracy of an unemployment office. 'In this economy, finding full-time employment is like finding a needle in a haystack,' said 25-year-old Niya Doyle, one of the people Ehrenkranz profiled for her newsletter. Doyle made a TikTok about how she was laid off, one of many who turned to social media to seek solace from others going through the same experience. 'I just saw a lot of my FYP even before I got laid off,' she said. 'I guess it makes it feel like you're not alone. It's comforting.' Whether it's Substack comments, Reddit forums, Discord communities or TikTok posts detailing their layoff experiences, more job seekers are finding comfort in numbers on social media, making their isolating experience of a layoff a little bit more palatable. 'They're the co-workers I wish I had, in a way,' Fox said about the Laid Off community. 'We exchange tips and share rejection stories. I feel like I can go there to vent without being seen as a bummer.'
