Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

I would like to apologize in advance to my readers. The picture I'm presenting is in Tagalog, and not all my readers speak Tagalog. I would translate the picture's text into English for convenience. It says:   "Ano ang bumubuo sa mga presyo?" means "What comprises the price?" "Gastos ng materyales" means materials expense "Gastos sa kasangkapan" means depreciation expense ""Gaston sa pasahod" means salary expense "Kapitalista" means capitalist Renta is well, rent "Kayang pababain ang presyo" means "Prices can be lowered". It says that capitalists (industrialists, landlords, bankers) and elitist governments are part in the gross profit. Get rid of excise taxes (either permanently or temporarily) for the prices of goods and services. In the times of crisis, in the burden of sacrifices, we need to be watchful for capacity. Whatever savings for times of difficulty by the workers and countrymen, the...

Today is Valentine's Day. I feel Valentine's Day is plain overrated. Some people just get a date for the sake of it--even if it means enduring that materialistic girlfriend or abusive boyfriend! Isn't romance a year-round thing? A few Valentine's Day ago, I wrote about Filipinas marrying foreigners and that FDI doesn't include Filipinas dating foreigners . This time to add some comedy, I wrote this post. It's something to say, "Yes! Somebody is married to a foreigner!" It's the hype to get job opportunities abroad or to marry a foreigner. Blossoms Why do Filipinos want to marry foreigners? The Blossoms blog writes down the following: Love and Affection: Love is often the primary reason for marriage, and Filipinas who marry foreigners may do so because they have fallen in love with someone from another country.  Financial Stability: Some Filipinas may marry foreigners because they believe a foreign husband can provide financial stability and secur...

The Straits Times As the battle for economic charter change goes on, another lie often spread: "First world countries, first industrialized by themselves, before they opened their economy to FDI." I'm seeing it ironically on Facebook. I tell them, "If you hate foreigners so much, why don't you get out of the Internet?" Some of them give replies like, "We're not hypocrites for badmouthing FDI on Facebook. We're simply forced to use imported equipment because foreigners unfairly own the means of production (read rebuttal here )." When I ask for their sources, they give sources like people from Bayan Muna (Nation First), the League of Filipino Students, the IBON Foundation, Kabataan Partylist (Youth Partylist), the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), and maybe even the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Most of these sources (not all) are the favorite sources of those going against badly needed economic cha-cha.  I...

Having sea crab yesterday or just eating crab, I always think of that old commercial in the 1990s. It was called, "Iwasan ang crab mentality." or "Avoid crab mentality." This makes me recall a scene when I was a child. I saw a pail full of mud crabs (called alimango in Filipino) and if one crab got out, the others pulled it down. The TV commercial showed how if the crabs got together, they could all escape their grizzly fate of becoming eaten for human consumption. Chefs are just lucky crabs pull each other down. However, it also shows that the crabs would rather all be cooked together than let that crab escape.  Unfortunately, crab mentality is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines. It's not all that unique among Filipinos. However, it doesn't Filipinos should ever take comfort in engaging in a crab mentality, just because other people do it . Here's an interesting excerpt from Inquirer   by Jerry Peres de Tagle PhD: Studies in human behavior ...

Manuel L. Quezon III"s Twitter Account Foolish people on Facebook say the dumbest things. I looked into the Freedom for Economic Foundation Facebook page . I keep finding idiotic comments written by mostly baby boomers (1946-1964). It's really that stupid that some people never learned even during the COVID-19 pandemic that protectionism doesn't work! As always, I wouldn't give them clout. Instead, I will give an idea how the comments were written.  Somebody said something like this, "It's best to think about how to stop the thieves in the government. Not that economic charter change that's in favor of the thieves in the government." I'm not going to shame the person here to avoid getting personal. Where do these people who say such get their source? Would it be from the Catholic Bishops Conference in the Philippines (CBCP) which is ironically part of a multinational organization? Would it be from people in Bayan Muna like Atty. Neri Colmenares an...

Philippine Star   This may be a touchy post. Politics is often a source of fights during parties. That's why we're told not to talk about politics during parties. Unfortunately, some people on Facebook are now using the late Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino Jr. as an excuse not to execute even economic charter change. Never mind that blatant supporter of Atty. Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona-Robredo, Andrew James Masigan, supports economic charter change . The late Charles Edward P. Celdran was also an anti-Duterte critic. As I looked at some okay boomer posts, I'm not surprised at people who still use Noynoy as an excuse to shout with all their might, "No to economic charter change!" Somebody posted on Facebook the following. As always, I won't publicly shame anyone. If possible, I will only refer to them by codenames or use the name Anonymous. I want to remain as professional as possible. This person said that under Noynoy there was no econom...

I wrote a post discussing that it's certainly not more fun discussing business and economics in the Philippines . I confess that it's such a headache doing so. I can start talking about why we need for FDI. The answer will be typical like, "But only they will get rich if you let them invest in the Philippines." All the while, the same person indulges in a luxurious lifestyle. That's why I wrote that such people may be confusing revenues for profits . Some people may say, "The Philippines isn't Taiwan, isn't Vietnam, isn't China, isn't Singapore, isn't Malaysia, isn't Indonesia! It's the Philippines! Filipinos aren't good at business! That's why we have the Filipino First Policy!" The Filipino First Policy is spoken by Carlos P. Garcia as follows: THE “FILPINO FIRST” POLICY The ”Filipino First” policy of this administration re­ceived a resounding popular indorsement in the last election. Politically we became independe...