OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It was necessary for the President to have met his economic managers last Oct. 18 and discussed inflation, exchange rate and interest rates. Our people should be reassured that today’s critical situation has the attention of those in the highest places....
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It was just a few days after Typhoon Yolanda pummeled most of the central Philippines in November 2013 that we appeared before CNN in New York in the course of the Republic’s global fund-raising exercise. We updated the world about the damage we...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Smart households set aside some contingency funds, whether in cash or in bank deposit. It’s a precaution which may sound costly but the peace of mind that it buys is priceless. It’s no different for the sovereigns, but it’s their central banks or...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Some 14 years ago, Daron Acemoglu, Davide Ticchi and Andrea Vindigni argued in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (‘A Theory of Military Dictatorships’) that one, the elite who wish to maintain their political power motivate a...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo It’s not news anymore, that latest Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” survey that was conducted between June 24 to 27 with some 1,200 respondents showing that the most urgent concern among Filipinos was controlling inflation, or the rate of increase of...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo Make no mistake about it, but the relatively softer inflation reading for August 2022 of 6.3 percent should not lead one to celebrate that inflation is now over the hump. Inflation is yet to be tamed. Unlike in the early part of 2022, inflation today is no...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo (Conclusion) The second question is quite obvious: What are the key risks that we face today? First, the risk of pandemic resurgence. Covid-19 may now be treated like a common flu, but this requires massive rollout of the vaccines plus two boosters. As of...
Of substance and spirit Diwa C. Guinigundo In the late 1970s at the then Central Bank of the Philippines, we would at times be assigned the task of consolidating the draft write-ups on the various sectors of the Philippine economy. Under its charter, the monetary authority is mandated to submit...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo Hearing those tales of some Mangyan servants of God was more than heartbreaking. Their children had to trek for three hours each way to reach school to get some learning. Instead of entering school at seven years of age, they would wait until around 10...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo There’s an interesting anti-inflation strategy emerging in the United States. The US Senate calls it Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and they consider it a major achievement for the Democrats after spending over a year to craft what should have been...
Diwa C. Guinigundo OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Nothing was trivial for FVR, for at the time he was gunning for the presidency, every little support meant the world for him. There was no mistaking that FVR seemed to hold no chance at all. The New York Times reported on Dec. 1, 1991 that Laban ng...
OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT Diwa C. Guinigundo He declared it was his duty to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, July 25. No doubt aware of both domestic and external challenges shaping the times and the seasons, he assured the nation finding solution will be a continuing...
