Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Lawrence Wong's Facebook Page Happy 60th anniversary to Singapore. I could remember the first time I went to Singapore. It was when I experienced a city far better than Cebu City. It was a fine city because you get fined  a lot if you refuse to keep the place, clean and orderly. It's that fine that makes Singapore a fine city. As Singapore hits 60, it reminds me that Singapore was once an impoverished country , as documented in the late Lee Kuan Yew's book From Third World to First . What truly sickens me, though, is how often LKY's words on the Marcoses are held high, all the while his useful economic advice is often ignored (read here ). In fact, we have stubborn Filipino boomers who can quote LKY in one moment, then they would choose to listen to Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. instead of the  more proven Kishore Mahbubani (read here ). The Philippines' obsession with symptoms (short-term) I was thinking about the logic of Facebook pages like Silent No More PH . Do t...

Perdana Leadership Foundation Last time, I wrote a post on whether Filipinos should listen to (a) Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr., or (b) former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad . Both of them know the law, but we can still tell who made a significant difference to the nation. I thought about what Mahathir said, that education is a lifelong process . One can graduate with honors but fail in real life when one stops learning (read here ). It's a far cry from Davide's stubborn attitude, where he refuses to even amend the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, to fit with the times! Mahathir's quote on entrepreneurship explores why some long-time successful businesses either fail in the present or continue to succeed. Nokia could've still remained relevant in the mobile phone market if it had taken such advice to heart . Nokia's lack of vision caused the crash and loss of dominance after decades of success. For businesses, the need to evolve is always there (read ...

Cebu Digital News As a non-professional driver, I simply hate driving around South Road Properties, Cebu. Last time, I almost crashed into a car where the driver was texting . Bobby S. Avila of The Freeman (although the article was reshared at the Philippine Star ) gave an opinion piece last 2017. An opinion is a differing view but it must be backed up by facts . It's a view or judgment or what someone thiniks. However, it's not an opinion that so many Filipinos don't deserve a motorist's license. That's why I dare to say that they don't have the right to complain about increasing gas prices, because many of them don't deserve how to drive. I decided to write this article because yesterday, I was driving by Escario, and another motorcycle incident happened. I talked with someone today, and an incident last May 2025 was brought up. I confess that because I'm squeamish about blood, I dropped by dreams to become a medical doctor. Just thinking about one ro...

Tax season can be stressful. I think about how easy it becomes to overlook certain stuff. One can be distracted by either happy events or sad events. I remember how I accidentally signed the wrong document when my paternal grandmother died of old age. I remember how I could easily forget receipts until I started to document them. Memory should be the least reliable tool ever. I tend to get mad whenever I become forgetful. We end up excessively scolding others for their bad memory. I even end up either (1) scolding others too hard, or (2) being too hard on myself. That's why I've grown critical of the education system itself. Just imagine that even honor roll students are forgetting what they learned back in high school. Right now, I even have to download notes to relearn stuff that I learned in college . This may be the best picture for college, especially for those without a board exam. I didn't take the board exam since I'm a business administration graduate. I confes...

I found this meme on Facebook. Fortunately, there's already an attribution on the picture. In my case, I prefer to say, "Continuous improvement is better than expecting sudden perfection." It's because perfectionism is lethal, and we're all but human beings. As the midterm elections come in, there are still people who may either be (1) reminiscing that "perfect leader" (ex. Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, etc.) or (2) still expecting the perfect leader.  It's sad some people still believe in the old lie repeated all over again, "It's not the system that's the problem. It's the people that's the problem." They still wait for this "grand glorious leader". That's why I often joke on Facebook saying, "Why don't you create this perfect leader so I too may follow him to victory!" Of course, there's no perfect leader, and trying to genetically engineer that...

The Facebook group "Stop Blaming Capitalism for Socialism's Failures" is now plagued with Anonymous Participant posts. It's probably because they could no longer defend themselves. Anyway, let's think of the fallacy of this thinking. I'd like to point out that people get rich from the net profit --not from the sales. People should stop confusing sales for profits! Business & Plans If we look at that sample income statement, we look at how the coffee shop operates. Let's use the USD currency over the PHP, even if I'm a Filipino . The reason is that the sample income statement is from an American website. If we look at the income statement--we have sales deducted from the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), and every other expenses. SG&A means selling , general , and administrative expenses--which involves paying the coffee growers, the coffee refiners, the coffee packers, and the coffee brewers. The person who runs the coffee shop is involved in the chai...

Tech Republic As Christmas is almost near (and I hate the Christmas season in the Philippines but not Christmas itself), I think of why working on papers and shopping from September up to December is a hassle . I hear the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" at all. However, it's ironic that Christmas starts early but Christmas shopping is delayed until the last minute (read here ). One of the biggest problems that cause shopping (or any transaction for that matter) to become a hassle is AIDS. No, I'm not talking about the AIDS virus but an Internet slang called As If Doing Something. I learned the term during my MBA days. Part of me is wondering, "Was it worth it to get an MBA in the Philippines?" It's because I never learned how to invest in an index fund in school  but through reading Warren Edward Buffett! I remember some of the worst things in my college days. Some people say, "I'm busy!" in the Cebuano dialect. I update...

It's been some time since Jesse M. Robredo died too soon. Hopefully, his wife Atty. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo is true to her word, in her willingness to amend the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, for the sake of foreign investments. It's a shame I never wrote about the late great man. The CoRRECT Movement on Facebook gave this important note on Robredo's life. Robredo said, "It's not enough for an official to be good. There has to be a system that forces them to be good." Whether or not Robredo was for charter change or a few constitutional amendments, I can't tell. For some racists, let me remind them that Robredo's real surname is Lim,  and his paternal grandfather is the late Lim Pay Co.  In terms of Robredo's credentials (and I tend to sometimes brag about the credentials of those I quote), here's what the City Government of Naga website says: He is an Edward Mason Fellow and a graduate of Masters in Public Administration at the Joh...