Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

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 ...

The Philippine senatorial elections are on, right? One of the many things candidates (regardless of party) need to hold is the need for economic reform. As  I continue discussing economic charter change, several objections are held. One of the objections is allowing 100% FDI--a subject often subjected to mockery. These mockeries can range from promoting colonial mentality, selling the Filipino to foreigners, borrowing money from abroad (which is definitely not investment, read here ), or even the ridiculous notion that FDI includes Filipino women dating foreigners (read here ). This time, I would like to address another hypocrisy. This time, it's all about Filipinos who rejoice that Filipino businesses are investing with 100% FDI ownership. All the while, this is crying foul when there's a law passed that will allow foreigners to own 100% FDI ownership , in the Philippines. This is a meme to expose the hypocrisy. Jollibee has 158 branches in Vietnam, which I assume happened bec...

Discussing international marketing or world economics with boomer Filipinos can be painful. Some people still believe in the Filipino First Policy. I cite Vietnam as an example of why economic charter change (called econ cha cha) should be done. Some people cite that Vietnam's increase in FDI is because of the fight against corruption. I don't deny Vietnam has a crackdown on corruption. I don't deny that fighting against corruption helps the economy. However, fighting corruption without the proper tools and not having economic development, is useless. Fighting corruption isn't a panacea or cure-all either.  Spanking is part of child discipline, not the whole of child discipline. People who only spank but never teach right and wrong, render spanking ineffective . Instead, look at Vietnam's economic policy vs. the Philippines' economic policy. Some people blame the following for the Philippines' lack of foreign investments, some things Vietnam also suffers fr...

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, I noticed that 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 keep them Anonymous. I want to remain as professional as possible. This person said that under Noynoy there w...

Tomorrow is Bonifacio Day. It's effortless to say that Filipino First Policy works. I wouldn't be surprised if Andres Bonifacio gets used as a poster boy. However, Bonifacio worked for British and German investors . I'd like to talk about how decades of Filipino First Policy compromised our education system. Some idiot on Facebook said which I'll paraphrase to avoid getting personal. The idiot said, "If you let foreigners invest here, can Filipinos afford it?" The same idiot also scorns the law of supply and demand (read my post discussing why that's plain silly  here ). People who believe in #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba must first prove it works by opening such stores nationwide, to show that the Philippines doesn't need FDI to succeed (read here ). Of course, I can expect them to say "It's the government's responsibility to raise salaries without raising the prices of goods." That's just plain bad accounting and finance too! Andrew Ja...

This is an interesting drawing I found on Facebook. It's often used to portray people who look at the removal of the unnecessarily restrictive 60-40 shares ownership policy as, "The current president's gift to China." The same was done during former Philippine president Atty. Rodrigo R. Duterte. The same was also done with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. It makes me think of stupid comments written by idiots on Facebook. It would be ironic if a lot of anti-FDI and anti-American rants were made not only on Facebook but also were typed using Apple gadgets of all things! They may be quick to use whatever irrational reasons. Some reasons can range from foreigners "unfairly" owning the means to produce equipment (read here ) and that they're simply forced to participate in the capitalist economy model to survive (read here ). However, I must ask if these guys were forced to use the luxury brands they're using (read here ). As the map shows, s...

What happens is that the traditional Philippine education system focuses too much on  monuments of fame rather  than learning milestones . It reminds me of the incident where Rep. Raoul Abellar Manuel stressed out he was a cum laude, and that he's not stupid. I feel this is a microcosm of a much bigger problem that happens with the education system. I'm not going to deny that going to the University of the Philippines and graduating summa cum laude isn't an easy feat. However, I wrote an article on what's the use of being a summa cum laude when one opposes badly needed reforms . It's because whether we want to admit it or not, schools focus too much on the ability to memorize without also focusing on the ability to understand . Memory is also the least reliable tool.  It would be time to continuously attack the problems of the education system. I felt shamed back then because students were often told, "Your grades will determine your future!" In college, I...