Category: Economy

Angkas and the #SaveAngkas activist fad are parts of the problem, not the solutions

December 22, 2019 benign0 4 Comments

The latest fashionable hashtag at the moment is #SaveAngkas. Angkas (a colloquial term for “hitch a ride”) is a motorcycle ride hailing and delivery service that is one of those modern-day jeepney-style solutions to systemic problems that could have been avoided if Filipinos exercised a bit more foresight and longer-term planning. The Philippine government is…

Development, Economy, Money Talks

Will DOTR Usec. Mark Richmund De Leon Get A Christmas Gift from Angkas?

November 3, 2019 P. Farol 1 Comment

With the crazy heavy traffic, motorcycles seem to be the fastest way to get around Metro Manila and some times, it is the only way to get to an appointment anywhere. Because not everybody owns a motorcycle or would want to have one in addition the two or three cars they may own, the motorcycle…

Economy, Government

Filipinos should have a strategic plan to exploit Hong Kong’s troubles

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 benign0 4 Comments

Tough luck for Hong Kong. This is really the attitude Filipinos should be applying to their regard for the circus going on in Hong Kong. One country’s crisis is another’s bonanza and Manila can profit massively at the regretful but necessary expense of the erstwhile shopping mecca of their chi chi elite classes. Unlike the…

Economy, Money Talks

Rappler “economist” @JCPunongbayan is growing up!

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 benign0 10 Comments

First it was high prices and “galloping inflation” — something the Philippines’ community of snowflake “activists” screeched about. Now everybody’s panties are in a knot over crashing rice prices at the farmgate. So what is really behind the movement of prices? Just last year, resident economics “expert” JC Punongbayan fixated on the nuances in the…

Economy, Education

More labour regulation could motivate businesses to reduce reliance on cheap workers and be more INNOVATIVE

July 29, 2019 benign0 4 Comments

Tightened labour contracting laws is good. It will force businesses to rely less on labour and be more reliant on technology and capital solutions to improve productivity. When the process of hiring workers is convoluted and highly-regulated, well, why bother, right? Tighter labour regulations and higher minimum wages could therefore kill lazy entrepeneurs and reward…

Economy

The Philippines is going down a FAKE development path

June 17, 2019 benign0 7 Comments

The Philippines is a vulnerable society — vulnerable because, though it is resource-rich, it is almost wholly dependent on external capital for its survival. Japan and Singapore, for example, are resource-poor countries, yet they are among the world’s most prosperous and highly-developed. The Philippines along with many African and South American countries lie in a…

Development, Economy

Filipinos’ addiction to OFW remittances is incompatible with economic development

June 10, 2019 benign0 5 Comments

Look more closely at the facts surrounding the much-vaunted stellar growth of the Philippine over the last several years and one will find the same old disturbingly-familiar drivers of that growth. Or, rather, it is the absence of the right drivers that is more disturbing. Growth is still chugging along the traditional way — through…

Development, Economy, Money Talks

The Philippines needs to gear up to exploit the US-China “trade war”!

June 7, 2019 benign0 6 Comments

A trade war between the United States and China presents a wealth of opportunity to the Philippines — if, of course, Filipinos are up to the challenge of seizing them. Up for grabs is a bonanza for suppliers of goods and services that the US is set to cut China out of if this “war”…

Development, Economy