Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Live Index Yes, the global stock market is currently down. There's no use for the Filipino people to blame President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for that matter. At this point, I'm still invested in the ATRAM Global Technology Feeder Fund (read here ). Right now, I've observed the trend went downward. After the CrowdStrike outage and some problems at Microsoft--I expected that there would be a downward turn. The reasons why stocks appreciate and depreciate are company performance, investor sentiments, industry performance, and economic factors . All these drive the supply and demand up and down. With what happened to Microsoft and CrowdStrike, the setback may have caused people to sell off their Microsoft stocks. In turn, the supply of Microsoft stocks will increase again and the demand will lessen due to investor sentiments. As I Googled "Why must the stock market go down", I ran across the four reasons that the stock market is plunging this 2024 . One of the reason

The Express Tribune The recent Microsoft Global Outage was caused by Crowdstrike. Since I'm no IT or CS expert--it's better if I let them talk in the news. From BBC News , here's a detail from Crowdstrike that reveals the root cause of the problem has been systemic with an update: This is still a little unclear. CrowdStrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. According to CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update . "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he said. "This is not a security incident or cyber-attack." What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem. Thankfully, those who created th

Wired   I'm out of topics to write for now. However, I'd like to reminisce about some crazy experiences in business school more than 20 years ago at the University of San Carlos-Downtown Campus. I had a marketing professor who one might say has OCD. She was very particular about case studies. She would really warn the class about failing them. Sure, I was able to finally make up for that missing activity so I don't get an NC. I do love that teacher for her meticulous detail. I had many ups and downs with that teacher. In my case, I'd like to discuss an out-of-league case study in a marketing class. The third and fourth case studies were made individually because free riders were becoming common. It was time to look for volunteers. I volunteered to be in the first. I discussed airline rates in a price war. I lost the soft copy because it was from an old PC. I doubt the business administration department will let me dig into their archives. A classmate wasn't paying

There's the statement that  some  honor students didn't do well later in life. I don't blame  their  being honor students as to why they failed in  real life .  The late John Gokongwei graduated as an honor student . Just reading this can explain why some honor students are still doing well in real life:  Mr. John didn’t resume his studies until nearly five decades later. By then, he had already founded JG Summit, built his business empire, and made a name for himself in various industries.  Despite his success, he still went back to school and proved that learning truly is a lifelong process .  Apart from pursuing a master’s degree in business administration from De La Salle University, Mr. John also completed a 14-week Advanced Management Course at Harvard University.  “ It took me four years since I was a working student. When I got my diploma, it was one of the proudest moments of my life, ” he previously shared during his alma mater’s Grand Reunion for Alumni Champions

Interaksyon I was running out of ideas until I saw iPhones on the Facebook feeds. Right now, I'm indirectly invested in Apple stocks via the ATRAM Global Technology Feeder Fund and recently, the ATRAM Global Opportunity Feeder Fund. ABS-CBN News reports that scores queue for iPhone 15 release . This was just the introduction of the whole event: Around 200 peopl e queued outside an Apple Premium Partner store at a mall in Makati City on Friday, with some even having spent the night lining up, so they could be among the first to get their hands on the latest iPhone model. Accessories worth several thousand pesos were given to the first 300 individuals who purchased the iPhone 15 before dawn.  Now, I'd like to also present this part about Filipinos and the iPhone craze: Krisel Loreto, the marketing manager of Power Mac Center, said they host the giveaway annually to help patrons “make the most of their investment.” “ We all know iPhone comes with a hefty price. We do events such a

Manila Shaker Make no mistake that I'm still for SIM card registration (read here ). What I'm currently shocked is just how can SIM registration be this careless . SIM card registration is supposed to help stop scams but laugh (and cringe) at the stupidity. Just think for a second about the news that the picture of a monkey was used in a SIM card registration . Some people joked that it might've been the photo of Senator Francis Pangilinan aka Kiko. Pangilinan was often called Kiko Matsing--based on a character from the children's show Batibot . Even worse, more cartoon characters slipped into the SIM card registration . Maybe, that's why former president Atty Rodrigo R. Duterte vetoed the bill . Though in 2013, Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino did want the bill passed because of a Cagayan De Oro bombing incident .  I think the problem has to do with a lack of competition. Why is FDI often demonized as invasion or an increase in loan? I even met someone on Facebook w

As a person who grew up in the 1990s, some parents considered the PC to be an "unnecessary luxury", as if it was like the latest video game console of that time. That's pretty much a categorical error. I remembered the typewriter which I call that paper-eating monster . One of the comments that some boomer parents make is, "You're just lazy! Back in our day, we used typewriter!" It can get worse when they start setting their own milestones as "standards of excellence". Well, many 19-20 year old people will be looking for their college degrees. What's to be proud about starting early if you didn't do much?  In high school, I even remembered having to write a journalism report with a typewriter. It was because we ran out of ink. Again, the same classic complain by "excellent parents" is, "Use a typewriter! Don't be lazy!" With the standards having been raised, would one want to go gardening with faulty tools ? Would on

PC Worth Facebook Page, CTTO Here's a meme that's most likely just free domain from Facebook. I was running out of ideas until I found this funny meme on Facebook. There's the term MARITES which means Masters in Arts in Relaying Information Through Exaggerated Storytelling. It's a shame to any decent woman named Marites that the name has a negative connotation. There's even the use of Ken and Karen as a negative name for a reason. I keep reading through stupid comments on Facebook that say that having FDIs provide the Philippines with telecommunications is an automatic breach of security. Even worse, they still use the China scare as if China's the only place in the world that can provide the Philippines other services. Some idiot even said that maybe Elon Musk might steal information from Globe and PLDT. What would Musk get if he steals information from there? Musk is already a well-known international businessman unlike those of Globe and PLDT! People keep com

Is it me or are Philippine politicians that fond of band-aid solutions? A few days ago, I ended up reading from The Philippine Star where Senator Jose Pimentel Ejercito Jr. aka Jinggoy Estrada proposed yet another band-aid solution. Here's an excerpt from what Estrada wants to do: It seeks to amend Section 20 of the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines to include a provision mandating refund credit to a customer who experienced a service outage and disruption for an aggregate period of 24 hours or more within a month. Under the proposed measure, the refund credit shall be also granted to customers subscribing to a service on a prepaid basis. “Why should we pay for a service that we have not benefited from? And at a time when almost everything depends on gadgets and digital devices, it is important to have a fast, accessible and reliable connection,” Estrada said in Filipino. “Genuine accessibility can only be achieved if the connection services are regular, reli

I guess SIM card registration can be a very controversial topic. It was pretty much like the National ID law that was passed during the time of former Philippine president, Rodrigo R. Duterte. Some idiot on Facebook dared to post, "Well, it's state subversion! It's so the government can easily subvert us!" Well, if I could only respond, "Where's the proof?" The person could only reply something like, "Trust me bro or you're automatically stupid!" What a nice response, right? Well, I'm obviously being sarcastic. For one, after receiving multiple spam messages . It was very tiresome dealing with them offering things too good to be true. That's why as a business graduate, I'm very in for the sim card registration law for a good reason. Some people could appeal to Privacy International. An article from Privacy International was in regards to SIM card registration . However, a bit of research on Privacy International's founder, S