Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

ABS-CBN News I thought about what life was like in the late 1990s. It was a boomer vs. millennial clash . I remember how often I kept complaining about high school during the K+10 era. Even worse, the real problem why I hated school was that school cared more about grades for the sake of grades , instead of teaching students how to get good grades based on learning first. What may have compounded it is that we've had boomer parents who thought that fatigue is a badge of honor .  What I realized is the common problem of toxic positivity . We have the "good vibes only" or "everything will turn out right in the end". Sadly, life doesn't always turn out that way. You can tell a terminally ill cancer patient that, and the cancer patient would die anyway. No amount of toxic positivity ever fixes the problem. This time, I'd like to rant once more about how toxic positivity has been used to defend the outdated 1987 Constitutio of the Philippines.  The classic r...

Al Jazeera Who can remember the execution of three drug mules in China on March 30, 2011 ? These were three separate cases where the three convicts were  Sally Villanueva , Ramon Credo (who was cremated before his remains were brought home, and Elizabeth Batain (whose face was never shown). Sally had an episode in the GMA-7 TV show Magpakailanman,  where her husband was personally interviewed by Mel Tiangco. We never got Sally on the big screen. The husband's side of the story said that his wife was guilty of a frame-up, while Mel herself said, "If the offer is too good to be true, don't take it, or you could end up in the same pickle." Take note that I'm just paraphrasing Mel's words, not saying the words she said.  Reviewing the three drug mules who got arrested, based only on what's available for public viewing on the Internet If we read through the circumstances , this is how they were arrested, proving they weren't a trio: China has brushed aside...

Inquirer Gasoline prices have increased again, haven't they?  A few days ago, I wrote  why #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba's view of gas prices is questionable . Today, I feel like writing this after several complaints on Facebook. I would like to create a follow-up post. People are complaining too much without understanding the real reason why some countries have lower prices of gasoline. Real talk. We need to talk about economic policies,  and  of course, please do a study on supply-demand analysis  on supply chain management . Let's examine the complaints made by Bulatlat Bulatlat Here's a chart from Bulatlat that compares the increase in prices of gasoline between the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It's always problematic when people ignore simple economics. It's funny, but Bulatlat mentions this on their website: Note also how expensive our diesel and gasoline products are compared to those of our ASEAN neighbors. The estimated common price today of diesel in...

International State College of the Philippines Today is Flor Contempacion Day , and rallies are expected. However, whether it's Flor's death anniversary or not, rallies are expected for the wrongest of reasons. I would like to address this photo from the International State College of the Philippines' Facebook page. The demands here are rather clunky and stupid. We have the following demands that would naturally clash with each other, such as: No to the oil deregulation law while demanding lower oil prices. This is simply ignoring the basic fundamentals of economics, namely the law of supply and demand . They say that oil companies are greedy for gain. These rallyists probably don't really understand the difference between revenues and profits . Let's understand the Oil Deregulation Law  The Oil Deregulation Law, or the Republic Act No. 8479 , passed on February 10, 1998, under the late Fidel Valdez Ramos. Here's how the liberalization works: CHAPTER II  LIBERAL...

That's right. Jose de Venecia  recently passed away yesterday. As an advocate for reform, it's sad but true that de Venecia didn't win because he was boring . It was easy to think of him as a boring guy. I remember the time when he was called in ISPUP as Yoda De Venecia (after the Star Wars character). I was just a clueless college student at that time when the ISPUP episode was shown. I was only 13 years old when de Venecia ran for president. It was also that era when Joseph Estrada (who's now 88 years old) ran for president, and it was that time when Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. (who turned 90 last year) became the chief justice.  Just recently, I found this eulogy   for JDV. I will not post the whole eulogy, but only the one from the one that would "fit better" for a business-economics blog: He helped advance policies that enabled major infrastructure projects through public private partnerships, converted former military bases into thriving economic centers...

Alice Guo aka Guo Hua-Ping may be in jail now . However, I believe the saga is far from over . It reminds me that I actually wrote about how several idiots on Facebook go so far as to say, " Alice Guo should be a warning about open FDI! " Some have even gone as far as to say that POGO and Chinese spies should "justify" the Filipino First Policy . However, the harsher reality is that the Filipino First Policy may actually be encouraging dummy investors instead ! As the saga continues, I've decided to write what I might call my harshest entry yet. It's going to be Chinese New Year this year. This might be an entry that may need to be shared before the Lunar New Year! My grievances are  still ongoing because some people still demand #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba, no matter how destructive it  will be . That's why I use Venezuela as an example, especially during Nicolas Maduro's downfall . Back to the topic, I remember writing a joke post where I said, "Wh...