Thriving on optimism

AS a graduate fresh off a Colombo Plan scholarship, finance industry veteran Seck Wai-Kwong, then in his 20s, was off to a promising start. In his second posting to the Monetary Authority of Singapore - after a brief stint at the Administrative Services - he was tapped to build Singapore's first econometric model.

But the project, initiated by then-MAS chairman Goh Keng Swee, was scrapped after just three months, and just as suddenly, it seemed he was bereft of a job.

Recalls Mr Seck: "Wharton had the most sophisticated model of the US, and they were also helping us with the work. This was in 1981, Paul Volcker had tightened US interest rates and the model forecasted growth but the US economy went into a recession. Dr Goh looked at the report and said - we're wasting time. He closed down the department and so, suddenly, I was actually out of a job."