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What do past recessions tell us about how fast we can rebound from the deepest contraction our economy has seen in modern history? In our last deep recession 36 years ago (1984-1985), the economy actually shrank by…
I’ve heard it said that we must discount government economic managers’ economic growth projections by up to 2 percentage points, because their positions oblige them to be publicly optimistic “cheerleaders.” If one is to go by the…
A quote I once saw in a motivational poster struck me and stuck with me all through the years: “Think not of what could go wrong or why it won’t work; think of how to make it…
If we do things right henceforth, agriculture could well be the game changer for the Philippines’ post-pandemic economic future. After all, it was the only major economic sector that defied the economic downturn, posting positive growth while…
No doubt about it: The whole world is seeing a very different Christmas this year. There is at least one reason to believe that women may be harder hit on a more permanent basis by all the…
It’s a lot easier to write on things that go wrong “only in da Pilipins,” as they say—be it traffic, shoddy public services, sadistic government processes, inept or corrupt public “servants,” or what have you. But once…
Those of us in Metro Manila and Calabarzon were spared from Supertyphoon “Rolly’s” worst fury, through what many believe was yet another proof of prayer power. But make no mistake: Rolly badly debilitated the Bicol Region with…
Today, Americans will choose a new president, and many have asked me what the implications of a Trump or Biden victory would be for the Philippine economy. We can’t say that our economy has thrived within the…
It seems conventional wisdom now that the way out of the COVID-19-induced recession is to throw money—lots of it—at the problem. The term commonly used is “economic stimulus,” which in the current context means government spends unprecedented…
Reports describe the Philippine peso as the “best performing” currency in Asia this year so far, having appreciated against the US dollar by 4.3 percent since the year started, thereby “outperforming its regional peers.” I have a…
After the deep decline in jobs last April that brought our unemployment rate to a record 17.7 percent and the number of jobless workers to 7.3 million, the July jobs data gave a bit of a…
At a time of great uncertainty on when the pandemic crisis will blow over and what further threats lie ahead, I’ve seen heartening examples of how firms and households are coping with and adjusting to the severe…
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