Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Nobody can dare deny that China has become a big superpower. I remembered I went to China last 2007 (which would be more than 10 years ago). China had become such a huge metropolis of power that I'm amazed at it. I was thinking about how Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing were truly magnificent cities before the pollution problem (which should call for eco-capitalist measures). I was thinking about how I never realized China was once dirt poor.  Did you know China used to be so dirt-poor? The "economic legacy" of Mao Zedong was a disaster with the so-called "Great Leap Forward". It was a great leap forward all right--a great leap forward to ruin. Mao seeking to avoid the use of foreign resources to launch China proved disastrous. The 1970s would see a dramatic change when Deng Xiaoping finally took over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The beginning of the rise of Communist China under Deng's new political policy would pave the way to China becoming a great s

During the late 2010s, I remember one of the greatest things I got into was Mexican food. I remembered a delicious Mexican restaurant opened in I.T. Park Cebu but it was later closed down. From what I heard, the owner closed it down out of grief and I don't blame the person for it. Years later, there was El Taquito at SSY which I also enjoyed. However, El Taquito is now located on Governor M. Roa Avenue in Cebu City. I would like to talk about the Red Lizard--Taqueria which has branches in SM Cyberzone, IT Park (where I usually get my deliveries), and Ayala Center Cebu.  I had quite a wild imagination thinking the restaurant was founded by a retired wrestler. I thought Red Lizard was a real luchador or Mexican wrestler. On the contrary, the character of Red Lizard is as fictitious as Jollibee's mascot, an anthropomorphic bee named Jollibee. Further research showed that Red Lizard belongs to the Abaca Group of Companies founded by Jason Hyatt and his Chinese wife Anna (whom he m

Overspending is just bad economics, isn't it? Economics is defined as the following for the sake of a review of high school basics: Economics is a social science concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. It studies how individuals, businesses, governments, and nations make choices about how to allocate resources. Economics focuses on the actions of human beings, based on assumptions that humans act with rational behavior, seeking the most optimal level of benefit or utility. The building blocks of economics are the studies of labor and trade. Since there are many possible applications of human labor and many different ways to acquire resources, it is the task of economics to determine which methods yield the best results. Economics can generally be broken down into macroeconomics, which concentrates on the behavior of the economy as a whole, and microeconomics, which focuses on individual people and businesses. It had me thinking of 2016 wh

DebtWave Back in high school, I could remember how I often overspent during my teenage years. It wasn't "easy" to have thrifty parents but it was worth it. College came in and I remembered how I had to deal with different types of people at the University of San Carlos-Main Campus (USC-Main). It could be seen that various people of various classes were spotted. There were rich people who valued money, rich people who no longer became rich because of their bad money habits, poor people who manage money well and are no longer poor but not necessarily rich, and poor people who don't value money as much as the overspending rich. Spending is part of economics. However, too much spending is basically too much of a good thing and becomes junk. Junk food contains excessive salt and sugar--both of which are beneficial but end up damaging the body in excess. That's why it's called junk food. I think about the typical Pinoy spending habits and what went wrong. I confess

Sometimes, people can confuse frugality with being a miser. I think about a couple of times when I watched Spongebob Squarepants back some time ago and getting irritated at Mr. Krabs. Unfortunately, there are some people who are so obsessed with money (or money comes first) that they end up becoming misers. As I was watching Spongebob while studying to get my bachelor's degree in business administration--I felt that the Krusty Krab model won't work well in real life. I mean, I tend to eat at Jollibee almost daily since I was studying in the University of San Carlos-Main Campus (USC-Main). As I was eating there--I thought would have Tony Tancaktiong build Jollibee as an empire if he was a miser? Mr. Krabs ran his Krusty Krab on a miserly mindset--just one cook and one cashier. Mr. Krabs would even artificially inflate prices just to get more money. In real life, Mr. Krabs should go to jail. Drawing the line between being thrifty and stingy It's often easy to confuse both of

Cebu Live I could remember Shawarma Gourmet when it opened at Parkmall but I never got to eat there. Instead, I remembered eating there at the Escario Central Mall in Cebu City to taste the shawarma. I kept hearing it was the best shawarma in town so I wanted to try it. I wanted to give Lebanese food a shot after I was so used to the Persian Palate at Ayala Center-Cebu. I did get to meet Chef Mansour Houran a couple of times after my first meal. So far, it's what I call a lighter approach to Persian Palaate (which is probably still my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant) whcih serves bigger servings. Meanwhile, Shawarma Gourmet's meals can be mixed between lunch meals and snack meals depending on which time of the day. I could go there for a snack (my preferred thing to do) though I would also eat there for lunch. The location in itself is rather convenient though not so big. So far, the Parkmall Branch is no longer operational. Instead, we have the Escario Branch which right ac

The Philippines has had a history of protectionism. Back then, Carlos P. Garcia declared the Filipino First Policy in 1935. Later, Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. also carried out more or less the same policy in the 1973 Constitution. Eventually, the Foreign Direct Investment Act of 1991 (R.A. 7042) kicked in which limited certain sectors to only 40% for foreigners. On paper, it sounds good but the practice is rather excessive in reality. As said, the 60-40 policy isn't about land ownership. Instead, it's all about the limits that an FDI has concerning a foreign firm. Why is 60-40 rather impractical in practice than in theory? The practice of 60-40 or limiting foreign ownership in certain industries is pretty much excessive. Here's a bit of an illustration you want to think about. Just imagine yourself opening a commercial space or looking for one. Do you think tenants would want to rent a space if they had to give 60% of their net profits to their landlowners? Do you want to rent

I could remember back in high school (back when it was K+10) that we were told the necessity of getting good grades in English, Mathematics, and Science to get into the courses people liked to take. Back then, it was a fad to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) to which people were taking it at the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus. It was always said that if you get even one low grade for the three subjects--you had to be pushed to "trash courses". However, two of my classmates told me these truths that (1) a chef can be a highly paid job, (2) if Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) as a course was so easy then it wouldn't be offered in college, and (3) you need good communication skills in the HRM. So teachers have been rather outdated about that and should've said that if you don't study well--why not become an editor for the vernacular or Bisaya comics instead? I took the Associate in Computer Science course (because my math grade

Stock market investment is one of the great legitimate ways to earn money. However, there's always the concern of risks. Any good bank manager or financial adviser may advise against it in some cases--that's unless someone has extra money to spare or to get the expertise. It's very easy to understand the whole buy low and sell high. It's easy to think about viewing the history of the company that one's buying stocks from. However, not everyone can have the technical expertise or the time to handle stock market. The stock market carries big returns but also big risks. True, the risk is manageable but are you willing to put too much into stocks? Just thinking about the higher risk of the stock market made me think of taking lesser-risk programs. I've been depositing money in Metrobank from 2007 up to the present. I opened a savings account, later opened a time deposit account, then later decided to try the Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) and the Long Term Negotiable Ce

I remembered discussing about who ought to be the next president. I mentioned about the need for the removal of economic protectionism for better services. The next statement that I got was that, "Why would you let them invest here? Only they (foreign investors) will get rich!" It's a common lie and misunderstanding about foreign investment. Some might even be thinking that foreign investments equals foreign debt or foreign invasion. However, such isn't the case when you know about the subject of International Marketing . It was very last 2004 but there's one statement that can't be denied--the world is becoming a global village. Studying international marketing that year talked about the need to do international trading. Trading with other countries has always been part of economics. Fear FDI, fear competition I think the big fear of some anti-FDI sentiments is rooted upon one thing--fear of competition. It was said that Carlos P. Garcia made the"Filipin

I was thinking about how the world of Halal cooking managed to get into me. It all started with shawarma and eating food from the Persian Palate. Persian Palate was founded by an Iranian named Armand Vatandoost in 1989. However, I've also noticed some halal eateries owned by Filipino Muslims presumably from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Granted, the ARMM is influenced by Arab and Malaysian culture so food items like satay and lokot-lokot (garajilu) are very prevalent in those areas. After all, Islam is from the Middle East, right? Survival by innovation  I remembered seeing a halal restaurant in Cebu City. Walking downtown, I noticed some of them come and go. I don't even bother to remember the names. I even heard some don't even have a permit like people in ARMM who are selling pirated DVDs. I definitely didn't want to taste their food and risk getting hepatitis or cholera. Then, I remembered walking alongside J. Climaco St. finding a halal restauran

I wasn't always a fan of Indian food (at first). I remembered eating in an Indian restaurant before that didn't serve good quality food. However, I had made some friends with some Filipino-Indians during my stay in the University of San Carlos (USC) as a business administration student. I finally at the house of an Indian friend of mine. I tasted some of their food which more mostly meat dishes though I prefer the vegetarian food routine. Some Indian restaurants popped during the 2010s though I preferred halal restaurants. Indian restaurants usually don't serve beef because most of the owners are Hindus. Hindus don't eat beef because cows are considered sacred animals to them. I remembered that some Indians protested against McDonald's due to the beef problem in the international marketing class. As courtesy, please don't ask if there's beef in their restaurant.  Mr. India, now Bollywood Tandoor I was soon an MBA student in USC in 2011. Soon enough, Mr. Indi