Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Syntrio As hearing for charter change in the Philippines (which I prefer to call  constitutional reform ) goes on, you'll get a lot of social media gossipers. In Filipino, the word marites is used to describe such people. Such talk was already heard during the times of two former Philippine presidents. First, we had it when the late Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III. Later, we had it with Rodrigo R. Duterte. Both presidents have had their hand in easing FDI restrictions. In Duterte's case, there was the Public Services Act of 2022. Social media gossipers (or mariteses). I could remember gossip like, "Foreign invasion!", "Duterte's gift to China!" or if I'm not wrong, Aquino III wasn't spared from such gossip either! Such comments can be very irritating to read. I'd like to write this post asking a question, "What wonderful economic plan for the Philippines do these social media gossipers have anyway?"  Boomers on social media may say the

I was laughing just thinking about ignorance about the bear and bull markets. Yes, we know about social media gossipers (seldom called a marites in Filipino) tend to spread gossip. I ran into several people panicking when the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) was mostly red. Others would panic but Warren Edward Buffett recommends, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful." That's the best market timing. Some people do cost averaging because it's practically less risky in contrast to lump sum investing. Buffett recommends that non-technical people should periodically invest in a low-cost index fund over a period of ten years.  Now, the Philippine Star has an article by Wilson Sy, where the first paragraph talks about the Philippines' entry towards the bull market : Most stock markets have undergone a dramatic shift to start the year, transitioning from a bear market to a bull market. Peak inflation, a slower pace of interest rate h

It's Chinese New Year and I can remember some crazy stuff back in my childhood. Right now though, there are still some Filipinos of brown descent (either Malay or Indonesian) who still have their typical bitter attitude towards successful people. I was reminded of someone who blamed the rich, rather than their poor attitude towards money, as to why she had to work as a working student. There are still some who have their attitude of hating the rich for simply being rich . I don't deny that some rich people deserve hate. But why hate the rich person who has gotten rich through honest gain and hard work? Why not learn from good rich people who can offer sound advice instead of being bitter about their success?  Some Filipinos of non-Chinese origin may feel too proud about their being "Pure Filipino". However, any study of Filipino history will reveal that their brown skin isn't too unique. We can see Malaysians and Indonesians tend to have brown skin. Some of the ea

Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines It's Chinese New Year's Eve tomorrow and this is an essay I felt like writing before the festivities begin. I did write about how Taiwan bested China back then during the time of Mao Zedong . Mao was running his planned utopia via protectionism and it failed miserably . The Great Leap Forward was nothing more than a spectacular failure. Deng Xiaoping had to learn from Singapore in order to bring China forward. I'm afraid that China is going backward at the cost of the Chinese citizens. I don't blame all the Chinese citizens but their government for any tensions. Meanwhile, Taiwan, according to The Heritage Foundation has a score of 80.1% in terms of economic freedom . It's noted as follows: Taiwan’s economic freedom score is 80.1, making its economy the 6th freest in the 2022 Index. Taiwan is ranked 3rd among 39 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is above the regional and world averages

No gossip, no hearsay, face-to-face debates, liars are slapped in the parliamentary system! Right now, I'm still a member of the CoRRECT Movement Moderated Public Forum. For me, I'm really "trolling" the boomers since they're the ones spreading disinformation. Facebook has some interesting fights such as Diehard Duterte Supporters (DDS) vs. Dilawan (Yellow). Today, we have the whole Marcos vs. Robredo dichotomy. Some Dilawans (now termed as Kakampinks, a combination of kakampi meaning comrade and pink). Fortunately, CoRRECT Movement now has some Kakampinks for constitutional reform. I'll never forget how a blatant Yellow, Charles Edward P. Celdran aka Carlos Cedran, had been an advocate for constitutional reform. Meanwhile, some Kakampinks still need education as to how a parliamentary system will work. Previously, I wrote an article on that which discusses why the Philippines should become a parliamentary republic . Some say that we can just focus on better e

  Facebook has been one useful tool. I've used it to communicate with people from my past and present. I could also say that Facebook has been useful in sharing ideas. However, Facebook has also been a source of many quarrels as to why some people even leave it. Some people may only be using Messenger now. This reminds me that there are also some very onion-skinned Filipinos on social media. I've noticed that any news about economic liberalization also tends to be met with so much animosity. I could read a lot of comments regarding it. I'd be wasting much of my time if I had to single them out. Instead, I decided to write another onion-related post . This time though, it's not about literal onions but onion-skinned Filipinos and their incredibly annoying comments and posts regarding economic liberalization. I can't be sure if the comment was made because (1) they believe what they post, or (2) they actually have an agenda as to why they made up the lie (i.e. like a

Am I really surprised at what I'm reading right now? I just read from the Philippine Star that analysts say that plan to import onion could hurt local farmers. The "brilliant plan" actually comes from IBON Foundation, an NGO that I couldn't take seriously: Sonny Africa, executive director of  nonprofit IBON Foundation, expects the import plan to collide with onion harvest season.  “The proposal to import onions will make farmgate prices fall at the expense of local farmers starting to harvest in January and February, collapsing their incomes further, while the impact on retail prices is uncertain and depends on how these will be sold,” he said in a Viber message.  Onion prices have become a trending topic on social media in December, as a kilogram of the produce in now costs as much as P700 in Metro Manila.   This is making me laugh thinking about why in the world should I take Africa seriously? Africa, of IBON Foundation , nonetheless with their obsession with three

The Manila Times Right now, I'm still tackling people complaining about the rising costs of onion. It's official that the Philippines now has the most expensive onions in the world. How is it so? I decided to check  The Manila Times based on my Google newsfeed. I'd like to share this excerpt from The Manila Times   which addressed the cost of onions in the Philippines vs. other Asian countries : THE retail price of red onions ranging from P550 to P700 per kilo in markets around Metro Manila on New Year's Eve made unpleasant headlines during the festive season. Red onion was sold at P90 to P120 in mid-2021 and P120 to P170 four months ago. Onion prices hover around P85 in Singapore, P55 in Vietnam, P35 in China and in India . The onion was easily the inflation leader in 2022 and made Philippine onions the most expensive onion on Earth. Though the price is likely to drop significantly in the coming month as the annual harvest kicks in from February to May, and the Departm