Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

It's a few days before Christmas. I don't like December because of heavy traffic, some people prefer Christmas shopping at the last minute (since procrastination is a common habit in the Philippines), the stress of year-end work, and December is the end of the year's cycle. I decided to write this entry. There's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas or having a good time. The problem comes when one celebrates beyond one's means (read here ). That means having extravagant Christmas parties that require a music band that one can't afford, inviting the whole village, etc. when one can't afford it. Speaking of which, these incidents remind me of OFW families. I remember a study presented at the University of San Carlos. If I remember correctly, it was done by accounting students. It was a study showing the spending habits of OFW families. Outstanding Filipinos Worldwide Facebook Page Here's a meme on Facebook that I found. For the sake of non-Tagalog spea...

Philippine Star It's Christmas again, right? Two years ago, I wrote an essay discussing that Filipinos can't be home for Christmas, thanks to the lousy Filipino First policy . I did some research and landed on the Philippine Star . The data presented seems to suggest that the OFW program is feasible: MANILA, Philippines — Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continued to climb in September, increasing by 3.3 percent amid the anticipated seasonal holiday surge and currency gains from favorable exchange rates. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that personal remittances reached $3.34 billion in September, $107 million higher than the $3.23 billion recorded in the same month last year . Of the total amount, cash remittances coursed through banks amounted to $3.01 billion, $96 million higher than last year’s $2.91 billion .  An old fool I ran into on Facebook said, "OFW program is better because they bring in dollars. FDIs will just bring in pe...

It's really annoying when people keep up with their #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba economics. It's easy to ridicule me because I'm not using a domain, unlike sites like the IBON Foundation. However, they may be very beholden to the WordPress blog of Atty. Teodoro "Teddy" A. Casiño (which is currently not as updated as intended, presumably due to his busy schedule as a lawyer), which is a free domain just like BlogSpot. Now, I'm going to write another post on the job market. Since I'm being belittled because of my lack of degrees like the Monsod couple (I'm neither a lawyer nor an economist) or the people at IBON, I'm going to quote other sources.  Graph taken from CFI I came across the Corporate Finance Institute   (where I got the graph above) where I found a useful article on the job market. This would be to help me understand why salaries just shouldn't be increased (or decreased) at a whim . This would also help understand how allowing more MNCs to...

Today is Friday the 13th and I felt like writing this post. Also, Halloween is just around the corner. I found this from the Simple Sum website. The word pera-normal is a portmaneau of the word "pera" (money) and paranormal. There's always this savings jar is always empty or the bank fund is running out of money. It's because impulse buying seems to be the norm in the Philippines. The Philippines tend ot follow the US a lot. I even heard Filipinos tend to follow bad American spending habits too. A lot of Americans today are overspenders . The basic rule is to charge to your credit card what you can't afford. Instead, a lot of Americans are doing the reverse. Whether we want to admit it or not, it's very tempting to overspend especially on payday or profit-sharing day. The money received hardly lasts on the hands of an extravagant person . Shouldn't it be a rule that if you live paycheck to paycheck not to splurge the paycheck? It's already payday. Ins...

Archives Online Today is Singapore Day. I guess it's not surprising that there will be more people still crying over the death (and "unjust execution") of Flor Contemplacion. Back then, the late former Philippine president Fidel V. Ramos nearly cut ties with Singapore until the forensic results came out. Not everyone was all too happy as some people still made Flor a "heroine" and a movie about her was made. FVR reestablished ties during the reign of former Singaporean prime minister Goh Chok Tong. The late Lee Kuan Yew in his autobiography didn't only talk about the Marcoses (and sadly, some people just cherry-pick that and forget the more important lessons ). It also talked about the problems that hit the late former Philippine president Maria Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.  LKY talked about how Mrs. Aquino herself was meant to work up the people's feelings. What LKY also highlighted was the endless coups that hit Mrs. Aquino. What I find interesting is how...

The battle for or against economic liberalization has been going on for years. Back then, I remembered the Filipino First Policy and how it was taught in values education (read here ). With March, it's very easy to remember the late Flor Contemplacion, whom Migrante (Migrant) International (or some people on Facebook gave them the nickname  Migraine International ) still has declared as some kind of heroine (read here ). Migrante International (which has branches around the world, ironically ) has also shared several ideals that are really declared failures yet they still insist on them. They have been demanding for "Trabaho sa Pinas, hindi sa labas." (Jobs in the Philippines, not abroad). Yet, one big question that I'd like to ask as an MBA graduate (though I'm no longer planning to pursue a doctorate) is this, "Do these groups demanding jobs for Filipinos, instead of abroad, provide local employment." A look at the economic nonsense arguments of Filipi...

Back in high school, I could remember whining about why the Philippines was the way it was. At first, I wrote an essay in my high school days about what I'd do if I were president. Just having turned 15 too soon, I remembered writing my stupid solution that I would discipline every single Filipino (read here ). Eventually, I was asked why is the US rich and the people there aren't as disciplined as in Singapore. Even worse, I remembered how the K+10 system tried to achieve economic literacy in just one year in the fourth year of high school. Sure, my economics teacher was as brilliant as the late Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago, or MDS for short. However, my teacher who was as brilliant (and strict) as MDS could only impart  theoretical knowledge. I only knew how economics was used in college . I still feel stupid (until now) because of that! I couldn't understand why the US was a powerful country (back then) and it was the American dream. I had that American dream in high scho...

It's just a few days before Christmas, right? I was reminded of how certain parts of the Philippines couldn't celebrate Christmas because of Odette (and I was included). Before Odette, there was also Typhoon Phantone which hit on Christmas Day . The idea that nothing goes wrong on Christmas is absolutely stupid. Some people even die during the Christmas season. Christmas gets so often associated with family get-togethers. However, some people wouldn't be home for Christmas when they could've. I'm once again talking about OFWs. Yes, they're working abroad not because they're out there "conquering the world". Instead, they're out there because of one lousy policy since Carlos P. Garcia. That's namely the Filipino First Policy . Once again, I dare say out loud that the Filipino First Policy caused the Philippines to fail . That's why I wrote that Filipino First Policy has no place in the rising Asian century (read here ). I was rather disg...

BusinessWorld Online I could remember how Buwan Ng Wika (Month of the Language) was often celebrated in schools. Just then, I remembered as August 2022 is ending and September 2022 will begin a few hours from now. One of my memories of the Buwan Ng Wika program, when I was in Grade 4, was the presentation of "Kuko Ng Agila" (Claws of the Eagle) song. One scene also had the late Flor Contemplacion's execution. I had mixed feelings about Contemplacion's death. Later, the late former Philippine President, Fidel V. Ramos, repaired ties with Singapore.  Ramos was even mentioned in the late Lee Kuan Yew's economic masterpiece, From Third World to First . Lee Kuan Yew also mentioned the following in his book on pages 304-305: ... Millions of Filipino men and women had to leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education . Filipino professionals, whom we recruited to work in Singapore are good as our own. Indeed, their architects, artists, and musicians...