Having opinions can be dangerous, especially in an e-mail

Economists are for the most part an inoffensive lot, uncontentious in their views. They are sometimes a little earnest, often rather dull. They seldom get embroiled in controversy. And on the rare occasions they do, it tends to involve arcane bickering with other economists over some obscure point of abstruse academic theory. It hardly ever makes the news.

But in Asia, you can get in trouble for holding opinions, even if they are only about economics. Last week, Andy Xie, Asian chief economist at US investment bank Morgan Stanley, abruptly quit his job after the public circulation of a private e-mail in which he expressed his true opinions about the economy of Singapore.

They were not flattering. Mr Xie questioned why Singapore had been chosen to host last month's meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, given that these days Southeast Asia is a relative economic backwater.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he wrote, 'has been a failure. Its GDP in nominal dollar terms has not changed for 10 years. Singapore's per capita income has not changed either at US$25,000.'

Mr Xie described the 'nauseating pleasantries' of delegates eager to 'kiss up to Singapore's prime minister (and son of the state's founding father) 'prince' Lee Hsien Loong.

'Questioners were competing with each other to praise Singapore as the success story of globalisation,' he wrote. 'Actually, Singapore's success came mostly from being the money-laundering centre for corrupt Indonesian businessmen and government officials.'

Now, that Indonesia is struggling, 'to sustain its economy, Singapore is building casinos to attract corruption money from China,' Mr Xie wrote.