The past couple of days have been the equivalent of a 7pm Channel 8 boxing drama for personal finance geeks like me. In the Red corner we have Roy “Colourful Charts” Ngerng (how do you pronounce that name?) crying foul at how our CPF funds are being used by the “gahmen”. In the Blue corner we have PM Lee “You just got Davinder-ed” Hsien Loong who just wants to come up with a retirement plan for all Singaporeans without being harassed by those ungrateful bloggers out there.

And in the audience we have the hoards of armchair activists citing conspiracy theories, economic studies, and most commonly, whining about how unscrupulous the government is, how the rich are screwing the poor, and wah, why is it so hot in Singapore nowadays ah?

Who’s right and who’s wrong? Was it right for Roy to selectively publish data that would support his ...