Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

It's #ThrowbackThursdays, and I thought about making another post. I remember the time in the 1990s when the PCs and the Internet were luxuries . Yes, several of them tend to drive the costs up, given the price of PCs and the Internet. They also had this inconvenience factor: using the Internet means I couldn't make a call, unlike today, with the use of the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). Today, I can type this entry and make a phone call at the same time. The PCs were also inconvenient because, as far as I can remember, there was a tendency for hang-ups  and brownouts in the 1990s Philippines, which were annoying inconveniences .  Technological development will always have its earlier stages . The product life cycle is often Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. That would explain why Windows had to continuously evolve. The technology would've been so new, meaning that even the production process may have been harder. A PC would've been more expensive because of ...

  It's Thursday, and I will try to recall some things from a business and economics perspective. I thought about how I didn't do well as a high school student, and that teachers often tell me to look past by it . Even the late headmistress of Bethany Christian School (who died of cancer in 2019) told me that when my high school report card was submitted ot the University of San Carlos , it should be a letting-go ritual.  I still couldn't get over the toxic attitude that people have towards menial labor. Back then, I remember how I started slipping  in my studies. Eventually, I started getting bad grades. The Filipino subject even had an example of a father trying to get his child to study, showing him the work of menial workers as the "fate of those who don't study hard enough" . The child was scared to see people do carpentry work. I was told that if I weren't studying hard enough, I would end up as a garbage collector. However, Typhoon Odette proved tha...

BluPrint It's the Chinese Ghost Month, which starts on the first day of the seventh Lunar Month. This year, Ghost Month started on August 13, 2026, and it will end on September 10, 2026. Today is called the peak of the Ghost Month. For the sake of a post, I want to write about this Chinoy Ghost Story that I remember from the 1990s. This was when our Grade 2 Chinese siansi (I don't know where she is anymore, but I remember her as being very strict, and the next year, Grade 3, was even stricter ) would use the statement that she said, "If you can't speak Chinese, you will have a hard time finding a job." She even mentioned a peer who baliwala (took for granted) his Chinese studies and ended up as a motorcycle driver in their community. However, I often suspect that white lie was made out of desperation because grades mattered that much.   The threat, however, proved ineffective because the students were in Cebu City. Chances are, several huan-a students ( a word use...

High School Philippine History Movement It's August, and it's frequently associated with Buwan ng Wika . However, August tends to be celebrated more like Filipino cultural month than it is about the language. Right now, I want to "de-stress" by writing about the Filipino subject . I can remember how someone nearly didn't graduate from elementary or high school (during K+10) because of  the Filipino subject . It might sound absurd for Generation Z students but in my case, I can relate. Honestly, I hated the Filipino subject, especially since I grew up as a natural-born Filipino, but three out of four of my grandparents were Chinese citizens who took a long time to become Filipinized. I had to deal with the fact that my paternal grandmother became a Chinese citizen again when she got married to my paternal grandfather. It was in the 1990s, and I remember the Filipino subject. I could easily talk to my Filipino teacher now . Just because I have already forgiven the F...

It's time for another Throwback Thursday post. It's often how irritation can sometimes give me inspiration . I want to think about the problem with boomers. I was thinking about how, as a millennial, I can navigate life with some boomers who are open-minded (even if they still use boomer talk, such as "When I was your age," which can be irritating but can be bearable once they admit they achieved it via open-mindedness) vs. those who are plain stubborn. In fact, I often read some stories on Facebook where some boomers,  or better called the stubborn boomers , often try to operate in a world that no longer exists. This is the difference when the stubborn boomers start opening their mouths because blah blah blah, they were honor students, successful businessmen, etc., and try to make their children (and grandchildren) "extensions of themselves", rather than succeeding as individuals. It made me think about how boomers tend to marry in their 20s . Some can brag...

Mr. India Facebook Page Since it's Thursday, I feel like doing a random throwback post. Back in college, I had a few Indian Filipino friends who could speak Cebuano . I was usually into Arabic cooking . I remember eating in an Indian friend's house where his mother prepared some Indian dishes. It was around 2012 when Mr. India opened. This was the restaurant that would eventually become Bollywood Tandoor on M. Cuenco Avenue . It was a humble restaurant that served authentic Indian cuisine while learning to adjust to the Filipino palate.  I could remember my hesitance to eat there before. It was because I once had a bad memory at an Indian restaurant on Mango Avenue, which closed down so soon . It had bad service, and I will not mention its name. It was sometime in July of 2012 (more than 10 years ago) when the establishment opened at Gaisano Country Mall. I only entered the establishment a few years after it opened. I ate some of their foldover sandwiches (which were my favorit...

Anti Free Trade Postcard From 1910. Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images I was thinking about a few more anti-protectionist posts and I found this "antique" postcard. Not that I have a physical copy of it (which would be aged by now) but that it's from the 1910s. That would already be 112 years ago when this postcard was first made. Unfortunately, this post card is still used as deceptive propaganda even some time. What should be interesting is that the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic had protectionists taking opportunity over it. After 1918, the world went into the Stock Market Crash of 1929 followed up by the Great Depression of that same year.  Events after the postcard that proved the postcard a lie The postcard promoted two lies that protectionism (in the form of tariffs) creates prosperity and happiness while free trade creates unemployment and misery. Here's a definition of tariff from ThoughtCo : The most commonly applied protectionist ...