Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

I grew up complaining and complaining about stuff. I always looked at the Philippines as a hopeless case. I hated studying the Tagalog subject--which was mandatory by the DepEd. I was told, "Look lazy bum! If you want to make the Philippines a better place--study harder!" In college, I began to apply myself more seriously even if I didn't graduate summa cum laude. I felt a sense of achievement when I won a commerce award for making an outstanding difference. What I never thought was that during the practicum--it was working smart and not working hard. Sure, hard work is there but smart work allows more hard work to be done at a better pace. Not long after, I took my MBA course but it was also at that time, I was scammed . I discovered I wasn't alone in being scammed--many MBA students were scammed during the same time I was scammed! However, what I discovered was the problem of saying, "Your grades will determine your future!" It was typical in Philippine sc

  It's September and the -ber months are here. It's already known that  the Philippines has the longest Christmas celebration in the world . Christmas can be the most expensive time of the year. In the Philippines, Christmas decorations tend to be out earlier. With Christmas in mind, the keywords and key phrases that come to my mind are "overspending", "last-minute shopping", "buried in debt", "spending beyond your means", "feasting over finances", "just add sugar if it's bitter"--just to name a few of the many financial stupidities during Christmas. Such phrases can be linked to  the Filipino's typical lack of financial literacy . That's why discussing business and economics isn't more fun in the Philippines! It's not just because of financial illiteracy but also due to  economic illiteracy . Even worse, some people still adhere to what the late Lee Kuan Yew would call a third-world mentality . Suc

Đoàn Thanh niên Trường Đại học Ngoại thương Facebook page Tomorrow is Vietnam's Independence Day. I planned to publish  my article on Vietnam's Doi Moi project  today. However, I felt the urgency to publish it because some people on Facebook gossip that Vietnam is supposedly protectionist. While looking at the pages and using Google Translate--I found pictures of Vietnam's Foreign Trade University (FTU) --a university located in Hanoi, Northern Vietnam. Fortunately, there was an English page since I don't speak Vietnamese.  The idea that Vietnam doesn't accept FDI is silly. Those fools at the now-defunct Philippine Anti-Fascist League (and others) believe that Vietnam's only "FDI" is selling its products worldwide. However, this is also found in the  FTU's introduction : Promoting international cooperation has always been recognized as an important measure for the development of the FTU in an increasingly globalized environment. Towards the develo

It's still Buwan Ng Wika or Month of the Language. Even if it's not Buwan Ng Produkto or Month of the Product --I still feel the need to write this. It's because schools tend to focus more on Filipino heritage than the Tagalog language. The meme above with Atty. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna (last 2016) has an absurd statement. Where do you think the microphone and other stuff that Atty. Colmenare is using, came from ? Atty. Colmenares' statement in complete English is, "The moment you allow entry of foreign products in the Philippines, they will beat down the local businesses and industry." The claim to that claim is baloney . What's Atty. Colmenares going to encourage? Would Atty. Colmenares encourage Filipinos to blame the richer Asian neighbors (read here )? Last August 10, I wrote about asking if the Philippines is poorer because Singapore is richer . I find the statement as stupid as saying the Philippine peso is weaker because the U.S. dollar is str

Tatler Asia In elementary, I remember how the Sibika at Kultura (Civics and Culture) subject talked about Filipino achievements abroad. Some great Filipinos mentioned in our classes are the late Lydia De Vega,  Lea Salonga-Chien, the late architect Leandro Locsin, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, Raphael "Paeng" Nepomuceno, and Eugene Torre. It's effortless to gloat about Filipinos achieving this and that. One may even notice that these names get mentioned in a Buwan Ng Wika program. By the way, I think Buwan Ng Wika feels more like it should be renamed as Buwan Ng Filipino instead. I mean, the programs tend to raise awareness of one's Filipino heritage and history, more than the Filipino language! The recent wins of athlete Carlos Yulo should be something to be proud of. I see it on my Facebook feed and I feel happy for Carlos, even if I don't know him personally. These days, I've already accepted that I'm a Filipino. Sadly, some Filipino "natives" st

Two years ago, I wrote about the socio-economic cost of Pinoy Pride Economics . It might be better to call it Pinoy Fried Economics because such mentalities have caused the Philippines to fail. Pinoy Pride Economics  has  fried  up any potential for the Philippines to improve. As it's August, the month is commonly called Buwan Ng Wika (month of the language), the celebrations tend to focus more on the celebration of Filipino Culture instead of Tagalog. I remember Buwan Ng Wika programs tend to showcase how cultural exchange evolved the Filipino Culture--such as showing the Chinese traders and Americans in their interaction with Filipinos. On this very first day of August, I'll discuss the problem of the Filipino vs. Foreigner dichotomy. Last I re-studied Filipino History, I never saw it as once free from foreign influence. The Chinese traded with the Philippines--way before the Chinese Communist of China (CCP) caused trouble because of their country's terrible leadership .

The Express Tribune The recent Microsoft Global Outage was caused by Crowdstrike. Since I'm no IT or CS expert--it's better if I let them talk in the news. From BBC News , here's a detail from Crowdstrike that reveals the root cause of the problem has been systemic with an update: This is still a little unclear. CrowdStrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. According to CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update . "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he said. "This is not a security incident or cyber-attack." What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem. Thankfully, those who created th