OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Some TikToks say it all. To afford a rare McLaren 620R, worth at least $280,000 or more than ₱16 million, one should get used to living in a farm and running a piggery business. Prepare to live a simple life, grow with your father’s workers and yes, do homeschooling....
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Not a few market players and observers were unnerved when the Philippine peso breached ₱57 to a dollar last April 17, the lowest at that time since November 2022. It was good BSP Governor Eli Remolona tried to calm the market by saying that those movements are something we...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Last Friday, we paid our last respects for Donato “Mang Nato” Gonzales, our loyal driver of 15 years. He started working with the family in his mid-50s but he stood tall in his crew cut and with a built honed in the gym. He had a stern face, he rarely smiled, but he was...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT We are going through the Lent season this week. Some will find it strange but there are Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches that read the scriptural account of Zacchaeus on the penultimate Sunday of the Pre-Lenten Season. They even call that Sunday Zacchaeus...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT During the Spanish Inquisition between 1478 and 1834, religious activities were above the law. The Inquisition even transformed into a judicial institution in order to combat what the royal throne considered heresy in Spain. Under the Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada,...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Business activities are judged based on, among other key indicators, the strength of both market support and resistance. Fundamental factors could drive the dynamics in the local bourse like the uptick in inflation in February 2024 that pulled down the bellwether index by as...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT In one of the episodes of Karen Davila’s ANC talk show about three weeks ago, former NEDA Director General and Socio-Economic Planning Secretary “Mareng” Winnie Monsod clarified a few important points critical to the issue of Charter Change. First, she questioned...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Last week, some think tanks observed that the monetary authorities are becoming less hawkish based on their policy statement, that references to keep monetary policy sufficiently tight “is completely gone” and that keeping it steady is emerging to be the norm. Economists...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT It was truly a big surprise for us to read Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsi Balisacan saying that “while growth is below our target of 6-7 percent for this year, this keeps us in the position of being one of the best performing economies in Asia.” A bigger...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT By this time, all the chips are down and we know that the 1987 Philippine Constitution might be revised — as when we revamp our form of government, for instance, or change how Congress should vote on any proposed change — or amended — like some alterations to improve...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT No, this is not about inflation being driven by the growth of the money supply as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman talked about it in India in 1963. That inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon is true in the long run during episodes of persistent inflation....
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT As we observed in our In Brief for GlobalSource Partners last Monday, the Jan. 5 release of the December 2023 inflation report in the Philippines could signal another episode of price downtrend. At 3.9 percent, the December inflation is the fourth month marked by price...
