Post away folks! :colgate:


Link to Thread 1 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=629890&page=50) in the Archives. :okay:

RP yet to substantially
benefit from free trade

Malaya Business Insights
Dec.4, 2009

The Philippines has yet to substantially benefit from the growth opportunities of free and open markets, according Ambassador Manuel A.J. Teehankee, head of the delegation of the Philippines at the 7th session of the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference the other day in Geneva, Switzerland.

Teehankee said that while in the last eight years the Philippines did finally achieve a level of economic stability with an average real growth in GDP of 4.8 percent based on policies that are anchored on open markets and economic fundamentals, "our experience and experimentation demonstrates that much more needs to be, and can be, done for or the Philippines to substantially benefit from the growth opportunities of free and open markets."

Even as we have experienced some economic stability, Teehankee said, the Philippines had in the past 20 years experience various boom-bust cycles generated by balance of payment problems, oil embargoes, political instability, global economic slowdowns, the Asian financial crisis, and many internal factors like low savings ratios, and low tax collection rates.

Teehankee said the Philippines had embraced industrialization, trade liberalization, and globalization, in the hope of winning the fight against poverty and underdevelopment.

But without specifying the Philippine experience, Teehankee said developing countries have sometimes adopted trade liberalization measures even without the required capability to compete with the more efficient firms of developed countries.

"To some extent, this has led to the closure of many domestic companies and the unemployment of personnel not prepared or adequately re-trained for other employment," Teehankee said.

"Globalization and trade liberalization have not necessarily improved and corrected persistent inequalities between and within countries," Teehankee said. At the working session 2 on "The WTO’s Contribution to Recovery, Growth and Development," Teehankee warned of the use of non-tariff measures in preventing the Philippines as well as other developing economies, gain market access.

During the session, Teehankee also pointed to making use of "aid of trade" for the Philippines and other beneficiary countries in helping them cope with the global financial crisis.

Teehankee warned the proliferation of non-tariff measures as a challenge that developing countries like the Philippines could face in trying to gain market access through the benefit of reduced tariffs.

"(Such challenge) would slow the phase of our development," Teehankee added.

Teehankee outlined how aid for trade can contribute to the recovery and growth process of beneficiary countries like the Philippines especially in the aftermath of the crisis when additional resources need to be mobilized.

He urged the WTO to spearhead a collaboration which addresses core problems for developing countries such as trade-related infrastructure, productive capacity, and domestic capacity, among others. (Irma Isip)

.... THE NEXT BUBBLE TO BURST....

... print print print ... print print print... :bash::bash::bash:

eZA0qNsf4m0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZA0qNsf4m0&channel=inflationus

Eto may nagkwenta ng balance sheet ng America. Looks like it validates the video posted by Doggman...:nuts:

Run on the US Dollar

Nov 30, 2009 - 04:33 PM
By: DailyWealth

Porter Stansberry writes: It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while...

Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion.

Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?

How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt – whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE – the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then "rolling over" the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, "a rolling debt collects no moss."

What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt... at ever shorter durations... at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that's when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next.

When governments go bankrupt, it's called a "default." Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists – Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti – published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. The formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule.

The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard currency reserves equal to at least 100% of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world's largest money-management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: "The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100% of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support."

The principle behind the rule is simple. If you can't pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you're a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured.

So how does America rank on the Greenspan-Guidotti scale? It's a guaranteed default.

The U.S. holds gold, oil, and foreign currency in reserve. It has 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold (it is the world's largest holder). At current dollar values, it's worth around $300 billion. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve shows a current total position of 725 million barrels. At current dollar prices, that's roughly $58 billion worth of oil. And according to the IMF, the U.S. has $136 billion in foreign currency reserves. So altogether... that's around $500 billion of reserves. Our short-term foreign debts are far bigger.

According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44% of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves.

Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months.

So... where will the money come from? Total domestic savings in the U.S. are only around $600 billion annually. Even if we all put every penny of our savings into U.S. Treasury debt, we're still going to come up nearly $3 trillion short. That's an annual funding requirement equal to roughly 40% of GDP.

Where is the money going to come from? From our foreign creditors? Not according to Greenspan-Guidotti. And not according to the Indian or Russian central banks, which have stopped buying Treasury bills and begun to buy enormous amounts of gold. The Indians bought 200 metric tonnes this month. Sources in Russia say the central bank there will double its gold reserves.

So where will the money come from? The printing press. The Federal Reserve has already monetized nearly $2 trillion worth of Treasury debt and mortgage debt. This weakens the value of the dollar and devalues our existing Treasury bonds. Sooner or later, our creditors will face a stark choice: Hold our bonds and continue to see the value diminish slowly, or try to escape to gold and see the value of their U.S. bonds plummet.

One thing they're not going to do is buy more of our debt. Which central banks will abandon the dollar next? Brazil, Korea, and Chile. These are the three largest central banks that own the least amount of gold. None owns even 1% of its total reserves in gold.

All of this is going to lead to a severe devaluation of the U.S. dollar... Which I expect to happen within 18 months. I examined these issues in much greater detail in the most recent issue of my newsletter, Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory, which was published last week. Coincidentally, America's paper of record – the New York Times – repeated our warnings (nearly word for word) last weekend. Word is getting out.

If you haven't taken steps to protect yourself from the coming devaluation – like owning gold and silver bullion, foreign real estate, and farmland – make sure you do it soon. The dollar rout is coming.

Point is, the Philippine economy should be wiser and stop depending to much on the US or even the Japanese economy.

We have to diversify our economy and integrate it with other countries.

Point is, the Philippine economy should be wiser and stop depending to much on the US or eve Japanese economy.

We have to diversify our economy and integrate it with other countries.

strong pa rin ang privatization technique nila...daming little thinktank at daming big brother

RP doing better than most N-11 members

BY JIMMY C. CALAPATI
Malaya Business Insights
Dec 9, 2009

The Philippine economy is seen doing better than other emerging countries in the N-11 basket, according to global think tank Goldman Sachs and Co.

"The BRIC and N-11 economies, collectively, appear to be emerging from the global credit crisis better than the major economies. Within the N-11, Indonesia and the Philippines have positively surprised," Goldman Sachs said in its latest Economics Paper.

The term BRIC, for Brazil, Russia, India and China, was first used by Goldman Sachs economists eight years ago.

In 2005, the same economists coined N-11 or the next 11 economies that are worth keeping an eye on outside of BRICS.

The Philippines is one of these 11.

In Goldman Sach’s latest research note, the Philippines is seen doing better than most in the N-11 basket.

Within the BRIC and N-11 countries, the economists at Goldman Sachs said they can currently identify three groups:

The first group includes economies that have surpassed expectations. China is at the top of the list that, within BRIC, would also include Brazil and India.

"Of the N-11, we would include Indonesia and the Philippines in this group," Goldman Sachs economists said.

A second group contains countries that have largely performed in line with early projections, namely, Bangladesh, Egypt, Korea, Turkey, Nigeria and Vietnam.

The third group includes countries that have largely disappointed: Iran, Pakistan and Mexico.

While overall the BRICs and N-11 saw much sharper contractions than the developed countries, Goldman Sachs said that they also saw much stronger rebounds.

"Within the two groups, this picture is not uniform, and the extent of differentiation in the magnitude and speed of rises and falls is extraordinary," it said.

A number of countries are already back at their pre-2007 levels on a number of metrics, while others are recovering more slowly.

In terms of the differentiation, Goldman Sachs said it can identify three broad groups.

"One group comprises those that have displayed remarkable resilience during the global financial crisis.

This group of "winners" includes Brazil, China, India, Egypt, Indonesia and the Philippines. They have experienced a relatively mild slowdown, and have shown an impressive rebound in growth and activity this year, Goldman Sachs said.

It added that at the other end of the spectrum, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan and Russia have suffered more from the crisis.

"They stand out given the depth of their recessions and sluggishness of recoveries," Goldman Sachs said.

In-between lies another group that includes Korea, Nigeria, Turkey and Vietnam, which have also seen impressive rebounds despite relatively sharp contractions.

Goldman Sachs said the N-11 contribution to world growth has risen by a modest 1 percent in the last two years to 11 percent.

The contribution from all emerging markets as a whole was over 80 percent, as compared to the 2000-2006 average of 45 percent.

The G7 has only contributed 20 percent in the past two years.

While the 2000-2006 contribution to global growth was almost equally split between the developing and developed world, the last two years saw the trend change sharply, with the divergence mainly driven by the BRICs.

"On an individual country basis, all of the BRICs and seven of the N-11 (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Philippines and Vietnam) contributed more to world growth in 2007-2008 than from 2000 to 2006," Goldman Sachs said.

The Philippine economy posted a modest expansion in the third quarter, backed by consumption, the government reported on Thursday.

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said the gross domestic product, or the sum of all goods and services produced within the country, for the July to September period was at 0.8 percent, within the government’s forecast of 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent expansion for the whole year.

In the year’s first half, the country’s economy expanded one percent.

Analysts had said personal consumption expenditures (PCE), boosted by steady remittance from overseas Filipinos, likely supported the economy’s growth in the third quarter. PCE makes up about 70 percent to 80 percent of the GDP.

Climate change: Rich must fund poor nations


Friday, 11 December 2009 00:00
Manila Times

FIRST, it looked like the division of the house in the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was clearly between the rich, developed nations and the poor, economically and industrially developing nations together with the poor, rather economically and industrially underdeveloped nations.

To simplify the dichotomy:

The rich countries are neither willing to make larger reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions nor willing to accelerate their reductions so that the goal of nearly no emissions is reached before our planet becomes irreversibly doomed. (The doom scenario is based on calculations of the scientists favored by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.)

The poor countries want the rich ones to increase their GHG reduction targets and schedule the reductions faster. They refuse to curb their own emissions according to the targets the rich countries want because this would mean retarding their (the poor nations’) industrial development, economic progress and ability to reach the level of prosperity and global competitiveness enjoyed by the rich.
And the poor nations also want the rich to fund their projects to acquire and develop technology to achieve zero emissions. They make this demand (which President Gloria Arroyo articulated eloquently in the last Asean summit with key developed nations) because they rightly see that the rich and developed countries reached their level of wealth and development by causing much of the ecological harm to our planet.

The harm the industrialization and economic success of the rich countries caused over the past century created the global warming and weather effects that hit the poor countries hardest. These have scant resources to mitigate the severe rains, typhoons, flooding and rising of the sea that devastate their farms and cities (just as Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi recently did to us.) Therefore, the rich countries must make up for their abuse of the planet and endangering the poor countries by funding their climate-change projects.

New division among developing countries

Then, in the past couple of days, however, a new dichotomy has surfaced within the ranks of the developing and poor countries.

China is the perceived—and in effect the self-appointed—leader of the developing countries and the Philippines seems to accept this pecking order. China has been insisting, prior to the opening on Monday of the Copenhagen conference, that (as President Arroyo had also stressed) the developed nations must provide adequate funding to help poorer countries fight climate change and its effects. Chinese officials, the official media of the People’s Republic and of the Chinese Communist Party, have called for “fairness and justice” and for the rich countries to accept the responsibility of helping the poor countries, which contribute so little to global warming, pay for their “transition to cleaner economics.”

“Whether developed nations, as repeatedly promised, can provide short-term financial aid to poor countries, and gradually establish a long-term support mechanism . . . is the key to realizing this fairness and justice,” said an editorial of the state-run Beijing News. And the Communist Party’s People’s Daily ran a commentary, saying: “Developed countries should promise . . . to provide more funding and technical assistance to developing nations, to help them achieve emissions reductions.”

As if to validate the Marxist thesis-antithesis-synthesis description of socio-political progress, in Copenhagen there is now a division within the poor and developing nations’ camp. (The thesis-antithesis-synthesis formulation is wrongly used to describe the thought of Hegel, thus the so-called Hegelian Dialectic. But Hegel never used these terms. Marx and Engels adopted the formulation to elucidate their theory on poverty, society and the political economy.)

As China, the World’s No. 1 GHG emitter, continued to press for more action and aid from rich developed countries, which China again accused of reneging on their promises to cut their emissions and to give financial support to poorer countries to cope with the effects of global warming, Tuvalu, a small Pacific island country, submitted a proposal to have a “legally binding amendment” to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that would demand stricter and more substantial GHG emission reductions not just on the developed countries but also on China, India and the other richer and more successful emerging economies.

Support the Tuvalu proposal

Tuvalu and other Pacific islands fear being submerged by the rising seas when the ice caps melt. The Tuvalu proposals, backed by the poorest countries most vulnerable to climate change, want the major emerging nations to make heavy reductions in their emissions by 2013. China and India (two of the BRIC nations), Saudi Arabia and other rich developing nations, oppose the Tuvalu proposal.

The tiny island states and African countries reject the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2.0°Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels. This seems to be acceptable to most of the 192 countries in the Copenhagen conference although it was proposed by the world’s richest and most industrialized G-8 nations.

Tuvalu and others want to set a lower temperature rise cap of only 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). They think this lower increase of heat would give their countries a chance of not being devastated by deep flooding or deadly drought.

Tuvalu’s head delegate, Taukiei Kitara, said on Thursday that the biggest emission constraints would still be on the rich developed countries but there must also be large demands on the rich and most polluting developing economies, foremost of which is China.

Where does the Philippine delegation stand on this controversy in Copenhagen? We tried but failed to get that information up to press time.

The Philippines must support the Tuvalu proposal. Most of our most important cities are extremely vulnerable to high sea rising after all—just like Tuvalu.

Copenhagen, Climate and Globalization

Written by Walden Bello
Monday, 14 December 2009 18:41
Business Mirror

STARTING last week, representatives to the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen started to wrestle with the challenge of climate change. At about the same time, influential actors in the World Trade Organization Seventh Ministerial Conference taking place in Geneva are trying to push for a conclusion to the nine-year-old Doha Round of trade negotiations. The two meetings are at cross-purposes and their juxtaposition highlights a profound reality: The world has to choose between free trade and effective climate management.

The global downturn: Relief for the climate

The last 12 months have seen the unraveling of a particular type of international economy: export-oriented and marked by the accelerated integration of production and markets. This globalized economy has been transportation-intensive, greatly dependent on ever-increasing, long-distance transportation of goods. For instance, a plate of food consumed in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles from source to table. Transportation, in turn, is fossil-fuel intensive, accounting in 2006 for 13 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) and 23 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions.

A downturn in the export-dependent global economy thus brings about a significant downturn in carbon emissions as well. It spells relief for the climate. In 2009, the drop in the level of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) has been the largest in the last 40 years. The thousands of ships marooned by lack of global demand in ports such as New York, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro and Seoul means a significant reduction in the use of high-carbon Bunker C oil, which is used in 80 percent of ocean shipping. The cutback in air freight has meant a significant reduction in the use of aviation fuel, which has been the fastest growing source of GHG emissions in recent years.

Deglobalization as opportunity

In response to the collapse of the export-oriented global economy, many governments have fallen back on their domestic markets, revving them up via stimulus programs that put spending money in the hands of consumers. This move has been accompanied by a retreat from globalized production structures or “deglobalization.”

Writes the Economist, “The integration of the world economy is in retreat on almost every front.” While the magazine says that corporations continue to believe in the efficiency of global supply chains, “like any chain, these are only as strong as their weakest link. A danger point will come if firms decide that this way of organizing production has had its day.”

For many environmentalists and ecological economists in the South and the North, the unraveling of the export-oriented global economy spells opportunity. It opens up the transition to more climate-friendly and ecologically sensitive ways of organizing economic life. But the fossil fuel-intensiveness of global transport and freight is merely one dimension of the problem. Environmentalists insist there must be a change in the reigning economic model itself. The global economy must make a transition from being driven fundamentally by overproduction and overconsumption to being geared to real needs, marked by moderate or low consumption, and based on sustainable and decentralized production processes.

Accordingly, the assumption of most policymakers in the North that consumption trends can continue—and that the only challenge is the transformation of the energy mix and the adoption of technofixes such as biofuels, “clean coal,” nuclear power, carbon sequestration and storage, and carbon trading—is not only based on illusions but positively dangerous. Indeed, the climate problem cannot be addressed strategically without addressing the inherently environmentally destabilizing dynamics of capitalism —its incessant drive, motivated by the search for profit, to transform living nature into dead commodities.

Instead of heralding this transition to a much less fossil-fuel-intensive and ecologically sustainable production, most technocrats and economists see only a temporary retreat from export-led growth until global demand makes the latter viable again. The policy debate in establishment circles focuses on who will replace the bankrupt American consumer as the engine of global demand. With Europe stagnant and Japan in almost permanent recession, the hope is that China’s growth will be the basis of global reflation. This is a mirage. China’s 8.9-percent annualized growth in the last quarter is due to their current stimulus, a $585-billion program that has been funneled mainly to the countryside. Domestic demand will likely cease to grow once the money is spent. A limited spurt of cash will not transform Chinese peasants into the saviors of the global economy. After all, because they bore the costs of the country’s export-oriented economy, these peasants have seen their incomes and welfare severely erode over the last quarter of a century.

The Doha dead end

But however this debate over the global consumer of last resort is resolved, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its most influential members, both from the North and the South, hope that completing the Doha Round at the Seventh Ministerial Meeting in Geneva will bring about a resumption of the carbon-intensive march toward globally integrated production and markets.

The preoccupation of economists and policymakers with the export engine to revive the global economy, which often excludes concerns about the negative impact of export-led globalization on the climate, is a dangerous divide leading up to Copenhagen. Says John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies: “We have economic policymakers concerned with reversing recession and ecological economists concerned with strategic ways of reversing climate change talking past one another.”

State of play on the climate

The climate negotiations have their own share of problems, even without the WTO threat. In the lead-up to Copenhagen, the focus of the climate discussions has been on two issues: mitigation and adaptation. Both are stymied, largely owing to the positions of the industrialized (Annex 1) countries. On mitigation, pivotal developed countries have so far resisted offering legally binding cuts. And what voluntary cuts they have offered are slight. In the case of the United States, President Obama’s nonbinding commitment is to reduce GHG by 17 percent from 2005 levels. This translates into an insignificant 4-percent reduction from 1990 levels, which serve as the benchmark for serious cuts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has asserted that a 25-percent to 40-percent cut in GHG by 2020 is the minimum figure that would keep global mean temperature from rising above two degrees centigrade during this century. And, already, the latter is said to be an underestimate.

In the area of adaptation—assisting the poorer countries to prepare themselves for the consequences of climate change—the negotiations have been held up by the rich countries’ reluctance to come up with the minimum amounts of aid necessary, to transfer technology unconditionally, and to channel the sums to the developing world through institutions apart from the World Bank, which they control.

The challenges in these two areas are daunting enough. And yet, unless the question of which economic model or strategy the countries of the world should move toward is front and center in Copenhagen, even the most ambitious agreements arrived at on mitigation and adaptation will be simply a Band-Aid. Unless the negotiators in Copenhagen dethrone the Doha model, the fundamental driver of climate change—an export-oriented globalized capitalist economy based on perpetually rising consumption—will continue to reign.



Walden Bello is a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, a senior analyst of Focus on the Global South, and a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus.

RP to seek inclusion of Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung corridor in Taiwan-China free-trade area


Written by Max V. de Leon / Reporter
Tuesday, 15 December 2009 20:15

TAIPEI—Not wanting to be left behind, the Philippines will be seeking to gain a ticket to the proposed Taiwan-China Economic Cooperation and Framework Agreement (Ecfa) by asking Taipei to include the Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung economic corridor in the negotiations for the planned free-trade area (FTA).

Ambassador Antonio Basilio, resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) here, said there are now concerns that most of the Taiwanese investments that are supposed to go to the Philippines will just again be diverted to China with the forging of the Ecfa.

This, he said, makes it more pressing for Meco to ask the Taiwanese government to consider expanding the Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung economic corridor to include some southern provinces of Mainland China and have it incorporated in the proposed Taiwan-China FTA.

“So this will be our assurance. We will probably formalize this proposal in the next JEC [Joint Economic Conference] meeting [of the Philippines and Taiwan],” Basilio told the BusinessMirror.

The next JEC, which serves as the venue for the Philippines and Taiwan in coming up with new bilateral cooperation programs, is scheduled early next year.

Taiwan and China, on the other hand, are scheduled to negotiate the terms of the Ecfa, which is the initial step in the opening up of trade between the Chinese nations, in the first half of 2010.

Basilio said all the three countries will benefit from the expanded economic corridor because they will be able to complement each other in manufacturing through seamless production lines in their respective economic zones, aside from according all parties larger markets.

He said with the addition of the Philippines in the picture, the products to be produced by China and Taiwan will gain access to the 600-million Asean market. They will also be able to gain benefit from the skilled work force of the Philippines, particularly in the higher end of the value chain.

The Philippines, meanwhile, will be able to get some of the investments.

He said aside from the fears of diversion of Taiwanese investments to China, the Philippines will also lose out more Taiwanese tourists to the Mainland with the Ecfa. “In tourism, we are feeling it now,” he said.

To prevent this from happening, Basilio said the Philippines will have to sell the idea of an expanded version of the economic corridor involving southern China.

The Philippines and Taiwan are now in the final stages of the completion of the requirements in the Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung economic corridor, which is supposed to funnel Taiwanese investments to the economic zones of Subic and Clark, where they will enjoy preferential treatment.

Former finance secretary says RP
to benefit from US interest in Asia

BY JIMMY CALAPATI
Malaya Business Insights
Dec.16, 2009

Former finance secretary Roberto de Ocampo yesterday said that he sees a vision of hope for the country next year, adding that the country "is fortunate to be in the right part of the world."

"Expected improvement in global conditions will provide greater impetus for growth. The US is actively re-engaging with Asia where growth is projected to be highest, compared to other regions in 2010," said De Ocampo, in a forum organized by the Asian Institute of Management.

He stressed that domestic demand will strengthen next year, supported by election spending.

He also sees improvement in the labor market due to a rise in business confidence in the second half on the assumption of a smooth election and transition in government.

For 2010, the former finance chief said that he sees gross domestic product (GDP) growing between 3 to 4 percent, remittances growing between 4 to 6 percent and exports staying in the positive territory after slumping by around 20 percent this year. "Net exports are expected to make a slight contribution to GDP growth," De Ocampo said. But if there are good news, De Ocampo also sees possible bad news for the economy.

"Despite the Philippines’ projected growth for 2009 and 2010, hurdles will keep the Philippines from achieving pre-crisis level growth, top of which is a non-conducive business environment, as illustrated by the country’s dismal ranking in competitiveness surveys," De Ocampo said.

The Economist Intelligence Unit conducts a survey that spans five years on business environment rankings (BER) in 82 countries with first place being the most conducive for business.

For 2004-2008, the Philippines ranked 51st It ranked 52nd for 2009-2013.

For the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 – 183, with first place being the best.

A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. The Philippines ranked 144th and 141st out of 183 economies for 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Also, the Philippine economy ranks 104th freest of 183 countries included in the 2009 Index.

Its score, 56.8, is 0.8 point higher than last year, primarily reflecting improvements in monetary freedom and investment freedom.

The Philippines ranks 20th out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is slightly below the world average.

But foremost among De Ocampo’s bad news is the increasing deficit, which he projects will reach between 3.5 to 4.2 percent of GDP next year, roughly around P375 billion, P100 billion more than this year’s year-to-date deficit of P266 billion.

"The government’s ambitious revenue targets may not be reached since it has not been able to win legislative approval for revenue-strengthening proposals, such as excise tax reforms and changes in fiscal incentives to investors," De Ocampo said.

Also, while overseas demand for Filipino labor in healthcare and other basic services is projected to remain strong, adjustments in the global economy could result in lower demand in some sectors.

"Filipino seafarers would be affected by the slow growth in world trade volume and (other OFs will also be affected by) the projected continuation of high unemployment in advanced economies," De Ocampo said.

So how to avert the bad news?

Strengthening revenue collection efforts was foremost in De Ocampo’s mind.

"My advice would be to not think of raising taxes, rather collect much better," De Ocampo said.

He also suggested that a better economic strategy be adopted.

"Focus on what we can best offer – service and tourism. Learn from the crisis. No need to be export-led like Japan," De Ocampo said.

The government should also increase business confidence, which De Ocampo said is likely to happen if the country is able to peacefully elect the next President. "Therefore, the elections must take place and be perceived as clean," De Ocampo said.

Subregional trade scheme
eyed for RP-Taiwan

BY IRMA ISIP
Malaya Business Insights
Dec.16, 2009

TAIPEI. -- The Philippines is eyeing the expansion of a trade and investment preferential treatment scheme with Taiwan to include the southern region of China so the country will not be left out of a looming closer integration of the economic ties between China and Taiwan.

Antonio I. Basilio, resident representative and managing director of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), said the Philippines is tapping the sub-regional arrangement as Taiwan and China prepare to forge a free trade agreement, the negotiation of which could start as early as next year.

The Taiwan-China deal has spawned fears that Taiwan’s investments, which are focused on Southeast Asia, would go to China instead.

The Philippines and Taiwan earlier forged an alliance under the Subic-Clark-Kaohsiung economic corridor, giving preferential treatment to locators in the economic zones.

Basilio said the Philippines is floating the idea of expanding the arrangement to include the southern part of China, covering Guangzhou, Fujian and Hainan, provinces which host a lot of Taiwanese locators, and areas that complement the Philippines’ and Taiwan’s industrial and agricultural sectors.

He said the plan, leveraging on the strong relationship with Asean, could also be widened further to include the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean growth area or BIMP-EAGA, leveraging on Taiwan’s involvement with Asean that it is trying to push an FTA with the bloc as Asean+3½.

But Basilio does not see the sub-regional scheme taking off until Taiwan gets an FTA with China.

"This is a concept or vision to get people interested," he said.

But Basilio admitted that the existing economic corridor concept has not resulted in significant investments from Taiwan to Subic and Clark as Taiwanese locators in these zones cannot sell in the domestic market.

"The key here is for them to be able to sell to the domestic market," Basilio said.

The Philippines and Taiwan have yet to agree on the rules of origin which define the local content requirement of goods made by Taiwanese locators in Subic and Clark.

"They (Taiwanese) are not comfortable with the current formula," Basilio said.

Taiwan wants a lower 25 percent local content while the Philippines is asking for 40 percent. The current formula limits to 30 percent of the entire production that the firm can sell to the local market. Products beyond the hurdle are imposed the regular tariffs.

Basilio said if the local content hurdle is met, companies would be able to increase the volume of sales.

So far companies like Golden Sun and Tong Lung have expanded their operations in Subic under the economic corridor agreement.

One positive impact of the economic corridor is the harmonization of customs procedure for goods entering Subic, Clark and Taiwan

Point is, the Philippine economy should be wiser and stop depending to much on the US or even the Japanese economy.

We have to diversify our economy and integrate it with other countries.

strong pa rin ang privatization technique nila...daming little thinktank at daming big brother

Not only that. Their governments got control of TECHNOLOGY especially US. Knowledge is really power, not just wealth. We know that US is running a huge trade deficit with China. If China suddenly withdraws their Dollar reserves in favor of Euro or Gold, it might trigger the Third World War because US won't simply pay their debts that run into trillions of dollars when China is demanding assurance. There's a reason why America doesn't want to simply sell their failing car and other heavy industries from a technological point of view.

The Philippines should develop their own body of knowledge through education and hard research and development which the government barely pays attention. Only through that means the country can find the ways to become economically self sufficient enough to create a working domestic economy that doesn't rely too much on external trade further exposing itself in a failing global economy. It's about time to abolish the labor export industry.

Somali officials to visit Manila; anti-piracy cooperation on agenda

MANILA, Dec. 19 (PNA) -- Somali Deputy Prime Minister Abdurahman Aden Ibrahim Ibbi heads a high-level delegation due to officially visit the Philippines on December 21 to 23, the result of an invitation by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she met a few African Union leaders in Tripoli last August.

In announcing the high-level visit, the first since Foreign Minister Abdurahman Jama Barre came to Manila in 1979, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it is "expected to boost the Philippines’ anti-piracy efforts."

The DFA indicated that Manila and Mogadishu would explore possibilities of cooperation and training in maritime security, combating piracy, aquaculture development, search and rescue, law enforcement operations, marine environmental protection, and human resource development.

"The visit is expected to boost the Philippines’ anti-piracy efforts," DFA announced, noting that "as the supplier of about a third of the world’s shipping manpower, the Philippines is directly affected by the scourge of piracy."

Ibbi, who is also the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Somalia, is scheduled to meet with officials of the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine Navy, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Civil Service Commission.

The Jakarta-based Somali resident ambassador to Manila, Mohamud Olow Barow, and Somali Navy Commander Admiral Farah Ahmed Omar complete the entourage.

Training Somali maritime authorities may help curb piracy off the coast of Somalia, where numerous international vessels have been hijacked by Somali pirates in recent years, DFA added.

Somalia is known to Filipinos in the Mindanao peace process as a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Committee on the southern Philippines conflict resolution.

But its sea coast and territorial waters are also infamous as a hotbed of high-seas piracy, where a number of Filipino seafarers -- 54 at the latest estimate -- are still among international captives held by pirates in inland Somalia. Many of such pirates are supposedly indentured fishermen looking to kidnap ransoms as a quick source of livelihood.

President Arroyo was in Tripoli last August 31 and appeared at the Special Summit of the African Union, where she drummed up participation in the now-deferred Non-Aligned Movement Special meeting which Manila was to have hosted this month.

At the sidelines, she met with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and extended the invitation, offering the Philippines’ assistance in training and strengthening the capabilities of the Somali Coast Guard and civil service.

Manila-Mogadishu diplomatic relations have not fully developed, partly due to the prolonged civil strife in Somalia.

DFA Undersecretary for Policy Enrique A. Manalo will host a luncheon for the Somalian guests. (PNA)

PGMA calls for new world order in fight against global warming

COPENHAGEN, Dec. 18 (PNA) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo late Thursday issued an appeal for collective action by all nations to address the harsh effects of global climate change, as she stressed that participating countries must not leave the unprecedented summit “without a deal.”

Speaking before other top delegates to the climate change summit at the Bella Center in this Danish capital, the President warned that the hour is late and the need to do something about global warming is urgent.

“We come to Copenhagen in partnership with other nations to find a way to meet the harsh impacts of climate change and avert a global crisis,” the President said. “The problem will certainly take years to solve, but we need to start the process now.”

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, held Dec. 7-18, is hosted by the Kingdom of Denmark. Some 183 countries have sent in their president or prime minister making the affair the biggest gathering of top-level government officials in history. It also attracted tens of thousands of print and broadcast journalists, members of non-governmental organizations, tourists and curiousity seekers.

Taking her scheduled slot a few speakers after President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, President Arroyo urged developed countries of the world to own up to their responsibility.

According to President Arroyo, developing countries are the least responsible for the global warming but they suffer the most from its ill-effects.

The Philippines, for instance, emits only 1.6 tons of greenhouse gases per capita, while the world’s average is six tons per capita. For any meaningful progress in the effort to avert disaster, recent studies suggested, emission must be brought down to three tons.

Tragically, “we are one of the top 12 countries, identified by the United Nations at risk from climate change,” she said. “Two recent typhoons cost the Philippines $ 4 billion or 2.7 percent of GDP. Over 600,000 hectares of farmland were destroyed.”

The same typhoons affected nine million people and claimed 900 lives.

“We cannot afford to leave Copenhagen without a deal,” the President told her fellow top-level delegates.

But for an equitable outcome, she said, developed countries must lead in reducing emissions “under the principle of common but differentiated responsibility.”

The President appealed to rich countries to establish a financial mechanism that will facilitate a seamless transfer of technologies necessary to fight the global warming phenomenon.

“We applaud Secretary [Hillary] Clinton’s ground breaking announcement that the United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $ 100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” she said.

The President said that equally essential to the establishment of global funds from which developing countries can draw is their replenishment from time to time when there is need for it.

“Humans started the problem,” she said. “Humans can solve it.” (PNA)

Chinese Pig and Geese Farmers Hoarding Metals :nuts:

Before getting into to the relationship between copper and pork products, I want to draw your attention to what makes me nervous, have a look at these photos from China. They are excerpted from a China Central Television Channel (CCTV) program documenting private speculation and hoarding of metals throughout the country. According to an associate of mine at an Asia-focused hedge fund who was just in China, “It’s pervasive; people are piling this stuff up in their backyards.”

(“It’s pervasive”)

Some of the more telling lines from a translated script of the CCTV program (which I assume to be accurate) include:

* Wang Chao lived in Anxin county of Hebei province (rural area). He is in charge of a metal scrap collecting company. He used to purely take commissions for collecting scrap. Since 1H 2009, he started stocking scraps. He told CCTV his business now is like 'gambling'. Not only him, Mr Wang said many people in his town have stocked a lot of metal at their home.

* They told CCTV they believe the metal prices will 'certainly rise', and they have 'a lot of' stocks. For example, he said, in Laohetou county, every household has dozens to hundred tonnes of copper. Nobody wants to sell. They believe copper price will goes back to Rmb70,000/tonne from currently Rmb40,000/tonne.

* Traders in Wenzhou city of Zhejiang province: A business man told CCTV, they use a lot of bank loans and bought a lot of metals for stocking. For one warehouse, he stocked at least 15 Kt to 20 Kt of copper. For his total personal metal inventories, he invested Rmb1-2 bn. He believe all metal prices will surge with inflation.

* A non-ferrous metal warehouse manager, Mr Qin Baoqing in Wusong District of Shanghai. He said many metals cannot be put in their warehouse, so they have to leave them in the backyard. Many stocks have not been moved for 3 months now. For example, he said, they have many aluminium stocks from Lanzhou Aluminium, Guizhou Aluminium etc.

* He Jinbi from Maike (metal trading company). He told CCTV they saw many farmers in Guangdong province stocking more than 100 tonnes of aluminium at home. These people used to raise geese for living.

* Because the interest rate is too low in China. Many farmers could make hundreds of RMB profits per tonne, with dozens of Rmb per tonne cost of interests. They use their existing inventories to borrow more from banks. Banks are very 'happy' to lend to them.

[a side bar here: China’s 4 trillion stimulus package equals about 15% of GDP and according to the Financial Times, bank loans are up ~140% this year to ~8.6 trillion Yuan and official State investment accounts for 88% of GDP growth. What we are witnessing is Chinese savers experiencing negative real interest rates in their savings accounts: much worse than in the US. At the same time they are able, in fact motivated, to borrow money at rates that are less than the inflation rate. Hence, the massive government stimulus combined with unlimited cheap money has fueled a soaring stock market, real estate prices, and as presented here, commodity speculation. Approximately 60% of the stimulus money is estimated to have gone into these speculative sectors.]

* On the other hand, many stock brokerage firms in China have become futures trading companies this year. Stock brokerage firms are very rich of cash. Private investors plus those brokers have at least invested Rmb20-30 bn in metal futures market. In 2008, only 50 bn Rmb were in the Shanghai futures market. This year, the number has increased to 80 bn Rmb. Everyday, he said, there are more money flowing into the market.

The CCTV program concludes, “Many speculations in metals have sent mis-leading signals to the government and disordered the market. The government should pay enough attention to it.” (the Chinese version can be read here.)

A September 17 Bloomberg story by Singapore-based Glenys Sim reports that “Private investors in China, the world’s largest metals user, have stockpiled ‘substantial’ quantities of copper as the government ramps up stimulus spending to spur the economy.” The article points out that pig farmers and other speculators have amassed in the order of 50,000 tonnes of copper. That is about half the level of inventories tallied by the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

Point is, the Philippine economy should be wiser and stop depending to much on the US or even the Japanese economy.

We have to diversify our economy and integrate it with other countries.

Most ng mga pinakamalalaking trading partners natin e.g USA and Japan eh nasa gitna ng krisis. Sana naman mabalance yung dependency natin at huwag lang puro sa America at Japan.

Most ng mga pinakamalalaking trading partners natin e.g USA and Japan eh nasa gitna ng krisis. Sana naman mabalance yung dependency natin at huwag lang puro sa America at Japan.

Tama ka roon.

Dapat pagtuunan natin ng pansin ang iba pang bansa outside Japan, US and Europe.

We should try strengthening our trade relations with ASEAN, China, Africa and Latin America.


We should also try to trade with former Eastern bloc countries like Poland, The Baltic States, Central Asia and Middle East.

Tama ka roon.

Dapat pagtuunan natin ng pansin ang iba pang bansa outside Japan, US and Europe.

We should try strengthening our trade relations with ASEAN, China, Africa and Latin America.


We should also try to trade with former Eastern bloc countries like Poland, The Baltic States, Central Asia and Middle East.

Don't forget INDIA..:lol:

yung mga Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil, Venezuala atbp. ay maganda ring gawing major trade partners.

^^ ... and Canada! :):cheers:
http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/CAD/graph120.png

Ottawa talks up loonie as reserve currency (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d117e12-efae-11de-833d-00144feab49a.html)

By Peter Garnham

Published: December 23 2009 11:26 | Last updated: December 23 2009 22:33

The Canadian dollar advanced on Wednesday after Jim Flaherty, Canadian finance minister, extolled the virtues of the loonie as a reserve currency.

Mr Flaherty said it would not surprise him if China and Russia, two of the world’s largest holders of foreign exchange reserves, were to raise the share of the Canadian dollar in their stockpiles, adding that many investors were “looking around the world to invest in market currencies that are reliable”.

Analysts said it was notable that the Canadian dollar had outperformed the resurgent US dollar since the US unit hit a 16-month low on a trade-weighted basis late last month.

Camilla Sutton, of Scotia Capital, said many of the factors that had led to the recent US dollar rally were also supportive of the Canadian dollar.

She said the upward pressure on the US dollar had been caused by the realisation that there were many hurdles ahead for the eurozone, including sovereign risk, and that fundamentals in the US were improving faster than many had previously thought.

“Canada has limited sovereign risk and what is fundamentally good for the US is also good for Canada and therefore the Canadian dollar,” said Ms Sutton. “Accordingly, we think the recent outperformance of Canadian dollar is justified and expect it to be an ongoing trend.”

In late trade in New York, the Canadian dollar was up 0.8 per cent to C$1.0487, its strongest level in almost two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Swiss franc made ground as traders continued to test the Swiss National Bank’s tolerance towards a stronger currency.

After breaking through SFr1.50 against the euro at the end of last week, a level that the Swiss National Bank had been defending since March in its fight against inflation, investors have been pushing the Swiss franc steadily higher in an attempt to provoke a reaction from the central bank. Jane Foley, of Forex.com, said traders were “playing chicken” with the SNB.

“Signs that the Swiss economy continues to improve has strengthened the notion that the SNB will allow the Swiss franc to appreciate versus the euro,” she said. “However, no one has the confidence to expect that the SNB will step away from the market completely.”

The Swiss franc was up 0.4 per cent to SFr1.4887 against the euro and climbed 0.9 per cent to SFr1.0397 against the dollar.

The pound dropped to a two-month low against the dollar after the minutes of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee showed all nine members voted to keep interest rates at record low levels and maintain the asset purchasing target.

The MPC said it was difficult to identify with any degree of certainty whether the economy had turned.

The pound fell to a low of $1.5921 against the dollar, its weakest level since October 14, before paring its losses later in the session, to $1.5950. Weaker-than-expected November US new home sales undermined demand for the US currency.

The dollar, which surged to its highest level in almost four months on a trade-weighted basis on Tuesday, also lost ground elsewhere. The dollar fell 0.6 per cent to $1.4350 against the euro and was down 0.1 per cent to Y91.71 against the yen.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Some interesting articles about a new type of reserve currency valued in Kilowatt hours or joules (energy) instead of limited silver and gold reserves or speculative sensitive fiat money that is so prevalent today.

http://www.energybackedmoney.com/chapter7.html

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/echochamber/39284/

http://www.gaianeconomics.org/pdf/ebcu.pdf

If something is to replace a US dollar or precious metals, why not use energy as a logical and convenient storage of value?

Some interesting articles about a new type of reserve currency valued in Kilowatt hours or joules (energy) instead of limited silver and gold reserves or speculative sensitive fiat money that is so prevalent today.

http://www.energybackedmoney.com/chapter7.html

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/echochamber/39284/

http://www.gaianeconomics.org/pdf/ebcu.pdf

If something is to replace a US dollar or precious metals, why not use energy as a logical and convenient storage of value?

Panalo Pinas yan in the future.

Our DENR claimed that we are one of the most "mineralized" country in the world.

In other words, we sit on a goldmine.We can produce food for our people for many many more years.

Resource poor but rich countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore will be dead in a few years. Because money will became obsolete and their products useless if food and energy became more scarce.

Tama ka roon.

Dapat pagtuunan natin ng pansin ang iba pang bansa outside Japan, US and Europe.

We should try strengthening our trade relations with ASEAN, China, Africa and Latin America.


We should also try to trade with former Eastern bloc countries like Poland, The Baltic States, Central Asia and Middle East.

RP, Syria sign 6 economic agreements to boost trade ties

By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
December 26, 2009, 1:40pm
Manila Bulletin

Philippines and Syrian governments have signed six agreements to enhance and expand bilateral economic relations ranging from cooperation in tourism, IT, real estate, and micro, small and medium enterprises.

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila and Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah Dardari led the bilateral negotiations held in Malacañang recently.

There were four government-to-government Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and two bilateral agreements signed during the meeting. The signing of the various agreements was done in Malacañang and witnessed by no less than the Philippine President, H.E. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. DFA Secretary Alberto G. Romulo and Press Secretary Cerge Remonde of the Office of the President were with President GMA at the signing ceremony.

Favila said that economic cooperation and cultivating new initiatives topped the agenda of the bilateral meeting.

The bilateral agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments is geared towards creating and maintaining conducive environment and favorable conditions for two-way flow of investments.

The agreement on trade and economic cooperation establishes the framework to develop and promote bilateral trade and to collaborate on initiatives in accordance with development needs and cognizant of mutual benefits.

The MOU on Tourism, signed by DoT Secretary Joseph Ace Durano and Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Dardari, provides for the development of tourism and as avenue for exchange and sharing of culture and history.

The MOU on One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) Promotion and MSME development adopts the OTOP business model to flourish trade and industry in the MSME sector.

OTOP is a Philippine government’s priority project that aims to promote local entrepreneurship and job creation by highlighting the diversity and distinctiveness of every municipality through the development and promotion of a handcrafted product or services, which the MSMEs produce or render with competitive advantage.

While the MOU on IT serves as an anchor for information and technological competency-sharing between the Philippines and Syria, the MOU in the field of housing and construction seeks to promote cooperation on regional planning, engineering and consulting, tendering and bidding, and contracting.

Philippine and Syrian officials put themselves to task by negotiating and concluding bilateral agreements that will broaden trade, investment and economic relations. Assessment of bilateral economic relations and the review of the action plan drawn up during the inaugural meeting also figured out prominently in the discussions.

From the private sector side, it is worthy to note that the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), established in the Philippines in 1987, entered into a ten-year Investment Agreement with Syria’s Tartous Port General Co. to operate in Syria with an option to extend it for five more years.

In 2008, Syrian Arab Republic ranked as the Philippines 120th overall trading partner, 130th as export market and 138th as import supplier.

For the same period, Syria was the country’s 13th trading partner and occupied the 12th slot both as an export market and import supplier in the Middle East region. Philippines top exports to Syria consist of bleached, refined and deodorized oil, coconut (copra), pineapples, and woven, knitted and crocheted fabrics as well as powdered milk and cream. Major imports from Syria consisted mainly of articles of iron and steel.

From January to July 2009, Syria ranked as the Philippines 116th trading partner, 107th as export market and 117th as import supplier.

Panalo Pinas yan in the future.

Our DENR claimed that we are one of the most "mineralized" country in the world.

In other words, we sit on a goldmine.We can produce food for our people for many many more years.

Resource poor but rich countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore will be dead in a few years. Because money will became obsolete and their products useless if food and energy became more scarce.

It makes more sense than using a hard currency like a dollar because energy is relatively scarce and is dependent on effort of production, in other words, manipulation of values through money supply controls are more difficult than printing paper money that is not backed by any precious commodity. Energy is much closer and more connected to our existence and growth of our advancing civilization than a piece of paper or any precious metals. Since the values will be in kilowatt hours, any payment that produces energy of equal amounts will be acceptable (whether it will be in coal, natural gas, or other fuels), which are scarce themselves and this allows more room for improvements in the future. Advances in research and development of renewable energy resources and any new discovery of energy sources (i.e. deuterium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium) for fusion technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion)) will always be a welcoming possibility.

I think the world economy will be a ton better if kilowatt hours or joules of energy is the basis for the value rather than dollars, euros, yens, pounds and other 'hard' currencies out there because they represent real assets - energy which our civilization is depending on.

Looming 2010 Global Food Crisis

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article16063.html :ohno:


Looks like the US is getting a fair share of unusual weather patterns brought on by climate change...

USDA Primary Natural Disaster Area Designations

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=edn&newstype=ednewsrel

In other words, we sit on a goldmine.We can produce food for our people for many many more years.

[/QUOTE]

^^ Ay naku, friends, 2nd tayo sa mundo sa deposit ng gold, pangatlo tayo sa copper at pang anim tayo sa deposit ng chromium sa buong mundo. 73 provinces out of 79 ay may mga mineral deposits- ganyan kayaman ang mahal nating Pinas, May deuterium pa sa Philippine deep at oil so paano mo sasabihing tayo ay mahirap sa yamang mineral? Kalakhan nga lang sa ating mga Pinoy ay mahirap. :ohno:

RP sees P9B in losses from free trade deals

By Ronnel Domingo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:57:00 01/20/2010


MANILA, Philippines--Free trade agreements with large neighboring markets that took effect starting Jan. 1 and provide for the gradual removal of tariffs will pare off up to P9 billion from government revenues this year.

Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves, however, said the negative effect of dismantling tariffs would be “quickly compensated” by the expected rise in the traffic of goods in general.

“Certain tariff lines will be affected, but there will be additional importation of raw materials that will become inputs for finished products,” Teves said.

For 2010, the net effect of reduced tariffs would be revenue losses of between P7 billion and P9 billion,” he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which the Philippines is a founding member, last Jan. 1 kicked off two agree ments establishing free trade areas (FTAs) with China, Australia and New Zealand.

Initially signed in February 2009, the Asean-Australia-New Zealand FTA hopes to create a trans-Pacific free trade zone comprising a market of 600 million people with a combined $2.7-trillion output of goods and services.

Under the agreement, tariffs will be reduced gradually starting Jan. 1, 2010, until a zero-tariff regime is realized by 2015 or at least those of Australia, New Zealand and the so-called Asean6—the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

The newer Asean member states—Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam—have longer time frames.

On the other hand, the Asean-China FTA came into full force after a prelimary “early harvest program” spelled out under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation that, for the Philippines, started in 2006.

The program gave Asean members an advance low-tariff entry before the free trade agreement takes effect on condition that Asean markets be open to Chinese products.

The Philippine-China EHP covered 209 tariff lines that include plant, animal and marine products.

Panalo Pinas yan in the future.

Our DENR claimed that we are one of the most "mineralized" country in the world.

In other words, we sit on a goldmine.We can produce food for our people for many many more years.

Resource poor but rich countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore will be dead in a few years. Because money will became obsolete and their products useless if food and energy became more scarce.

the problem is that the one's whose earning the most out of these minerals are foreign companies so in turn the money goes out of the country.. what we get is atleast jobs and taxes. :ohno:

Public Lives

Those cheap Chinese products

By Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:02:00 01/23/2010

FASCINATED BY THE GROWING NUMBER OF Filipinos who have found instant—sometimes suicidal—mobility in very affordable motorbikes from China, I recently got myself a new Chinese-made 125cc underbone for the price of a branded Japanese helmet. Light and handy, the bike handles pretty well on short commutes. My friends, with whom I share a passion for big bikes, warned me not to ride it on rough terrain. Before you know it, they told me, it will start falling apart like one of those 10-peso plastic toys you find in a tiangge. How much of this, I wondered, is undeserved prejudgment arising from China’s reputation as a source of cheap but inferior products, and how much is factual?

Well, on my first ride, the bike did feel like it was going to wash out from under my seat. It began to rattle and wiggle so wildly I thought I would lose the handle bar itself. The rattling, I found out, was due mostly to a chain that had too much slack and a plastic fairing that was not tightly screwed onto the frame. Both problems were easily cured. They were not intrinsic to the vehicle’s basic construction. The wiggling, on the other hand, stemmed from my attempt to steer the ultra-light bike as if it was a Ducati Monster. Like an unbroken horse from unknown parts, it began to respond better when I showed it more respect, and stopped assessing it by the standards of an Italian café racer. What needed correction was the initial attitude I brought into the steering of the bike rather than the engineering of the bike itself. This is a bike made for practical purposes rather than for leisurely sports riding.

In a superficial way, we might find in this little tale a fundamental insight into modern China’s role in the global economy. This is a country that is transforming itself in a phenomenal way by producing goods mainly for the world’s masses. It started with canned meat loaf known locally as “Ma Ling,” that quickly displaced the American brands of Hormel and Spam from the shelves of our neighborhood groceries. But, in less than three decades, China’s manufacturing juggernaut progressed from processed food to motorcycles and cars, and, believe it or not, to aircraft. Not many people know that many of those high-performance European and American motorcycles and sports cars
are packed with precision parts and instruments that are made in China. How did China do it?

I think the simple answer to that question is: By releasing the creative energy and initiative of their people while making sure they do not politically disintegrate as a society. This is not as easy as it may seem. We are wont to think of an economic and political organization as subject to the same principles. Thus, if a nation wants to open up economically, how long can it remain closed politically?

The conventional theory states that a free market economy can only be sustained in the long term by the democratization of political life. But the Chinese experience shows there are no hard and fast rules on economic development and political stability. Ironic as it may be, China has created a vibrant capitalist economy under the tight leadership of its communist party. Party leaders still prefer to call it “market socialism.” So be it.

The Chinese reform process did not occur overnight. Deng Xiaoping’s promotion of “rethinking socialism” was formulated to proceed hand in hand with adherence to the so-called Four Fundamental Principles. These political non-negotiables are: leadership of the communist party, Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought, the socialist road, and the people’s democratic dictatorship. Together they constitute ideological shorthand for party supremacy.

The re-assessment of socialism in China began in 1976. By around 1982, the communes, those principal signifiers of Chinese socialism, had vanished. In 1983, a conference on export-processing zones brought me to China for the first time. I remember Beijing, with its wide socialist boulevards, as a city of bicycles. At the meeting, the Chinese were keen to know the mechanics and the problems of export enclaves that would host foreign investments.

But the reform process was derailed by the ferment that was already rapidly unfolding in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself in the ’80s. The fall of socialism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 made the Chinese re-think the re-assessment. A clear line had to be drawn between the re-thinking of socialism and the abandonment of the socialism itself. This period led to the purging of liberals like Zhao Ziyang from the party leadership.

In 1990, more than a year after the Tiananmen protests, I joined a group of about 30 other professors from various parts of the world to view developments in China. As we all suspected, the real agenda was to hear the official line on the Tiananmen incident. This was confirmed when we were received by Premier Li Peng himself. Here is what I recall him saying: “I am sure that in coming to China at this time, you carry with you an attitude that is critical of the way the government handled the Tiananmen incident. We have tried to explain what happened. But, as unfortunate as it may be, we cannot allow this incident to distract us from what we need to do to keep our country together, and to prevent our people from going hungry. A China that is unable to govern itself will not be the Chinese people’s problem alone; it will be the whole world’s problem. If China is thrown into chaos, millions of our people will want to flee. Will your countries be able to summon enough generosity to welcome our boat people?”

* * *

public.lives@gmail.com

We are afraid of pursuing a Buy Pinoy policy because our major trade partners are warning us not to. And yet its ironic that the US and Japan who opposed protectionism are the very first one who practice protectionism.:bash::bash:

What a bunch of hypocrites! All they want is to maintain their status as rich countries.:bash::bash:


Japan changes auto program
after US objects

Malaya Business Insights
Jan.30, 2010

WASHINGTON - Japan has changed its auto replacement incentive program to give US cars more chance to qualify after the United States complained its automakers were shut out, the Japanese government said.

President Barack Obama’s administration welcomed the move, which also prompted a senior US lawmaker from the hard-hit auto state of Michigan to postpone a hearing on barriers US automakers face in Japan and South Korea.

"I welcome the news ... that Japan is going to drop the complete exclusion of US automobiles from their Cash for Clunkers program," said Sander Levin, chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means trade subcommittee.

"But the problem of their closed market requires our vigorous and renewed focus, as increased exports must be part of our economic recovery and job creation efforts," Levin said, adding the hearing originally set for Thursday would be rescheduled to give lawmakers more time to prepare.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Japan agreed to open its program, but US officials were still evaluating details of the announcement "to ensure it meets the concerns my office has been raising with Japan since last fall."

Japan, in a statement from its embassy in Washington, said cars imported under a "preferential handling procedure" (PHP) established in 1986 for US automakers would be able to participate in a Japanese program to subsidize purchases of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

US automakers had complained their cars would not qualify for the subsidy, even though the "cash for clunkers" program created by Congress last year was open to all imported cars.

Japanese autos accounted for almost half of the 677,842 vehicles sold under the $3 billion US auto purchase incentive program, which ran late July to late August. Many of the Japanese cars were made at US plants.

Representative Betty Sutton and many other Midwestern lawmakers complained that Japan’s program was tilted against US cars and urged Kirk’s office to file a World Trade Organization complaint unless Tokyo opened it up.

US automakers General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler also wrote to Kirk in December to complain about Japan’s program.

The problem arose because cars imported under the PHP program face less testing in Japan than other cars, a Japanese embassy official said.

Now, US automakers will be able to submit their own fuel economy data to see if their cars are eligible for the Japanese government subsidy.

"We’re saying, ‘Bring your numbers and we’re going to take a look at them’," the embassy official said.

The huge imbalance in US auto trade with Japan is a longtime irritant that has received more attention recently as the US industry struggles to get back on its feet after severe sales downturn that helped force bankruptcies at GM and Chrysler last year.

The US government owns 60 percent of GM and nearly 10 percent of Chrysler after providing billions in bailout and bankruptcy financing for both.

The United States imported $21.2 billion worth of passenger cars from Japan during the first 11 months of 2009, but exported just $257 million to Japan in the same period. – Reuters

Breaking News para sa Outsourcing Industry.

Ito ans strategiya ngayon ng ibang bansa.
Kailangang Tagalugin ko Ito para Pinoy lang ang makaintindi.

Alam nyo ba ang ginagawa ng ibang bansa gaya ng singapore para i-promote ang bansa nila. Next week, magpapadala ang gobyerno nila ng mga representatives sa mga napiling kumpanya sa Estados Unidos para magbigay tulong kuno kung papaano matutulungan ang Estados Unidos na i-tap ang Asian Market. Syempre sila ang bida don, para sa kanila dumaan ang bawat kumpanya na nakabase sa US bago pa bigyan ng pansin ang ibang bansa na Asyano. Nalaman ko ito kasi isa sa napili ang Kumpanya na pinag-ta-trabahuhan ko. Ganon sila mag-promote. Wise ano. Kaya sa kanila napupunta lahat ng investment, ang pag-promote nila ay ginagamit nila ang buong Asya as a whole pero pagkatapos makukuha lang nila ang lahat ng investment galing US.

Next week, I will tell you kung ano ang plano nila.

Mangyari kaya sa Pinas to?....:cheers:


Los Angeles Grocery Store Accepts Gold & Silver as Payment
7IfyXyu7xNI&feature

Global players are slowly coming back...

Investment pledges double to P29.95b

Manila Standard
march 22, 2010

The Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority registered combined investment commitments of P29.95 billion in the first two months of the year, up 107 percent from P14.45 billion year-on-year.

Trade Undersecretary and investments board managing head Elmer Hernandez told reporters over the weekend that the BoI approved commitments of P9.92 billion in January and February, up 233 percent from P2.97 billion on year. Peza registered P20.04 billion worth of investment pledges, up 75 percent from P11.47 billion on year.

Hernandez said combined BoI and Peza pledges from foreign investments surged 671 percent to P14.58 billion from P1.89 billion on year. Local investors committed P15.38 billion in the two-month period, up 22 percent from P12.56 billion.

The two agencies registered 99 new projects from 96 last year, with employment prospects rising 29 percent to 20,837 from 16,156.

The manufacturing sector received investments of P14.70 billion from just P1.29 billion on year.

Investment pledges in real estate, including mass housing and industrial estate fell 15 percent to P9.05 billion from P10.62 billion on year.

Power projects jumped to P5.31 billion from P140 million last year.

Japanese companies led the bulk of registered investments in the first two months with P7.12 billion, followed by Singapore at P4.83 billion and the United States at P1.18 billion.

The biggest investments were led by the manufacture of flip-chip LAN grid array, green film auto voltaic panel, and power generation and wind projects.

The biggest power generation project is located in Nabas, Aklan worth P2.55 billion while the largest wind project is in Sual, Pangasinan worth P2.54 billion. Both projects were registered by Petro Energy Resources Corp. Julito G. Rada

Top

Mangyari kaya sa Pinas to?....:cheers:


Los Angeles Grocery Store Accepts Gold & Silver as Payment
7IfyXyu7xNI&feature

Possible bec. we're looking at what might be deflation leading to inflation, advice from Jim Rogers, Marc Faber, and others. etc.

^^^^
malabo.

Geely has expressed its desire to put up an assembly plant here in the Philippines...and I never taught this Chinese company is huge..


China's Geely shares up on Volvo deal


Agence France-Presse
First Posted 19:07:00 03/29/2010

Filed Under: Company Information, Economy and Business and Finance, Mergers - Acquisitions - Takeovers, Automotive Equipment

BEIJING—Shares in Geely Automobile Holdings surged nearly five percent Monday after its Chinese parent company sealed a 1.8-billion-dollar deal to buy Volvo Cars from US auto giant Ford.

The Hong Kong-listed unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group rose as much as 4.9 percent to 4.30 Hong Kong dollars ($0.55) before closing at 4.16, up 1.5 percent in a stronger market.

The broader market finished 0.88 percent higher at 21,237.43.

"It is a comprehensive acquisition," said Jerry Huang, a Shanghai-based analyst with automotive research firm CSM Worldwide.

"Volvo will get funds which it needs badly at the moment and a market that has enormous potential. Geely gets a platform to learn and gain experience in the industry."

The deal signed Sunday ended more than a decade of Volvo ownership by Ford Motor Co., which saw the upmarket Swedish carmaker become a loss-making thorn in the side of the US giant, which is burdened with its own woes.

Geely chairman Li Shufu said he saw huge untapped potential for Volvo in international markets and especially in China, which has not only the biggest but also one of the fastest-growing car markets in the world.

"I see Volvo as a tiger. (The) tiger belongs to a forest, it can't be found in a zoo ... We need to liberate this tiger," he told a press conference after the deal was signed at Volvo Cars headquarters in Gothenburg, southern Sweden.

"The tiger has a heart and it lies in Sweden, (and) in Belgium but its power should be projected all over the world.

"I see China as one of the markets where Volvo can show it has the opportunity to liberate itself," he said.

Geely said it had not only secured financing for the 1.8 billion dollars it was paying, but was also eager to keep Volvo in operation.

It also said the deal, which Ford initially agreed to in December, included agreements on intellectual property rights as well as supply and research and development arrangements between Volvo Cars, Geely and Ford.

China Jobs Gain Signals Honda Offer ‘Tip’ of Iceberg
By Bloomberg News - June 2, 2010

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- China’s manufacturing job growth accelerated to the fastest pace in at least five years in the past three months, signaling more employers may be forced to follow Honda Motor Co. in offering higher wages.

The Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday in Beijing its average factory employment index for the past three months reached 52.7 even as its measure for manufacturing growth slid. The release came a day after Tokyo-based Honda offered a 24 percent pay increase to workers at a factory in the aftermath of a strike that shut down its Chinese production.

Faster job growth and higher wages will help Premier Wen Jiabao’s government rebalance the world’s third-largest economy away from export dependence. The shift may also stoke inflation, making it more important that officials contain prices in part by ending China’s currency peg to the dollar, said Peng Wensheng, head of China research at Barclays Capital.

“Honda’s just the tip of the iceberg, and it reflects the urgency of adjusting China’s growth model,” said Huang Yiping, an economics professor at Peking University and a former Citigroup Inc. chief Asia economist. “After three decades of rapid growth partly driven by cheap labor, China must adjust” to higher wages, he said.

Manufacturing Peak

Earnings are poised to rise even amid signs that the acceleration of growth in China’s industries may have peaked, economists said. Yesterday’s report showed the country’s manufacturing purchasing manager index dropped more than forecast, to 53.9 in May from 55.7 in April; readings higher than 50 indicate expansion.

The decline contributed to a sell-off in stocks that saw the MSCI Asia Pacific Index snap a four-day winning streak. It retreated again today by 0.6 percent as of 10 a.m. in Tokyo.

China’s regional officials are contributing to wage gains. After halting minimum wage increases last year amid the global recession, seven Chinese provinces raised their levels in the first quarter, according to the Labor Ministry. Companies from Dell Inc. to Hon Hai Group have also increased pay in their Chinese businesses this year.

Foxconn Technology Group, also known as Hon Hai Group, the assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, said today it will raise workers’ salaries by at least 30 percent in China. At least 10 people have died this year at its manufacturing complex in Shenzhen and police are treating the deaths as suicides.

Honda Strike

Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker, said it plans to resume full operations today at its parts plant where workers went on strike. The company hasn’t decided when to reopen its four car-assembly plants in the country, said Akemi Ando, a Honda spokeswoman.

“The Honda strikes could lead to an increase in these types of incidents,” Auret van Heerden, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based labor-monitoring group Fair Labor Association, said by phone yesterday. “This sort of labor action generally has a copycat nature.”

About a quarter of workers in nine Chinese provinces surveyed by the central bank said they expected at least a 10 percent pay increase this year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported in March.

Tao Dong, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG, said “I expect double digit wage growth a year for the migrant workers over the next few years.” China has about 145 million migrant workers across the nation, about 11 percent of the total population, according to government data.

‘End of an Era’

“The events have dramatized the beginning of the end of an era of China as world factory,” Tao said.
Faster wage increases and yuan appreciation should both be in policy makers’ toolkit to help reallocate resources away from exports toward domestic demand, said Peng at Barclays, who is based in Hong Kong. “Wage increases may push up domestic inflation so letting the yuan strengthen at the same time may help cool inflation.”

China’s consumer prices rose 2.8 percent in April from a year before, approaching the 3 percent target that the government has set for this year’s average.

Any change in the yuan’s 6.83 peg to the dollar, kept since July 2008 to aid exporters, may hurt manufacturers with thin profit margins, such as Zhejiang Mingfeng Car Accessories Co., an exporter of car covers and seats cushions whose margin last year stood as low as 2.5 percent.

‘Great Distress’

“Pressure on wages has been greater this year especially as we expanded our business after the New Year holiday,” said Bai Ming, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Mingfeng, adding that his company has raised wages by almost 20 percent. “Even a 3 percent yuan revaluation may cause great distress for our business,” he said.

China’s trade balance has already shrunk with foreign demand gains outstripped by domestic spending. The country’s gross domestic product climbed 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year before, the most in almost three years.

China faces a “pressing” task in the “post-crisis era” to adjust its growth model and move away from growth reliance on investment and exports, which may be restrained by a slow world recovery, Vice Premier Li Keqiang wrote in the Chinese Communist Party magazine published yesterday.

P.1-B loss to technical smuggling bared


Written by Jennifer A. Ng / Reporter
Wednesday, 02 June 2010 09:02
Business Mirror

LOCAL businesses, led by the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), disclosed on Tuesday that the government has lost at least P100 million in potential revenues from 2007 to 2009 due to the rampant technical smuggling of palm oil and palm olein.

FPI president Jesus Arranza alleged that some unscrupulous importers are in cahoots with some officials and employees of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to undervalue their shipments.

“We have records showing that some companies that have imported palm oil from the years 2007 to 2009 undervalued their shipments,” Arranza told reporters in a press briefing in Makati City on Tuesday.

One importer, he noted, declared the price of imported palm oil in container and packs at $0.10 per kilo. This is “dirt cheap,” said Arranza, compared with the $1.10 per kilo price declared by state-run CIIF-Oil Mills Group.

Figures released by CIIF show that the average price of palm oil was pegged at $1,200 per metric ton (MT) in 2009. This translates to around $1.20 per kilogram of palm oil.

Records released by CIIF, however, indicate that one importer paid for the imported palm oil at $70 per MT.

Arranza noted that the government lost around P23.01 million in value-added tax (VAT) last year due to the undervaluation of the imported palm oil. The importer, Matahari Trading Inc., allegedly did not pay around $494,940 in VAT in 2009.

Matahari Trading Inc. president Giovanni Ong, however, denied that his company is in collusion with BOC officials and that they resort to undervaluation of their shipments.

“Just because the international market price is pegged at a certain level doesn’t mean we have to follow that. We do not undervalue our products. Our price is based on the acquisition cost,” said Ong, partly in Filipino, in a telephone interview.

Matahari, he said, has been in the palm-oil business for 10 years and is the exclusive distributor of Bimoli cooking oil in the Philippines. Bimoli is a popular brand of cooking coil in Indonesia.

FPI said it would submit the documents they obtained to the Post-Entry Audit Group of the BOC.

Arranza said Port of Manila district collector Rogel Gatchalian would also be given copies of the documents.

FPI also suspects the possibility of the outright smuggling of palm oil last year. In 2007 palm-oil imports reached 119,000 MT. This climbed to 139,000 MT in 2008.

Last year importation simply dropped to 76,000 MT. “This may be a result of outright smuggling,” said Arranza.

Geely has expressed its desire to put up an assembly plant here in the Philippines...and I never taught this Chinese company is huge..


China's Geely shares up on Volvo deal


Agence France-Presse
First Posted 19:07:00 03/29/2010

Filed Under: Company Information, Economy and Business and Finance, Mergers - Acquisitions - Takeovers, Automotive Equipment

BEIJING—Shares in Geely Automobile Holdings surged nearly five percent Monday after its Chinese parent company sealed a 1.8-billion-dollar deal to buy Volvo Cars from US auto giant Ford.

The Hong Kong-listed unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group rose as much as 4.9 percent to 4.30 Hong Kong dollars ($0.55) before closing at 4.16, up 1.5 percent in a stronger market.

The broader market finished 0.88 percent higher at 21,237.43.

"It is a comprehensive acquisition," said Jerry Huang, a Shanghai-based analyst with automotive research firm CSM Worldwide.

"Volvo will get funds which it needs badly at the moment and a market that has enormous potential. Geely gets a platform to learn and gain experience in the industry."

The deal signed Sunday ended more than a decade of Volvo ownership by Ford Motor Co., which saw the upmarket Swedish carmaker become a loss-making thorn in the side of the US giant, which is burdened with its own woes.

Geely chairman Li Shufu said he saw huge untapped potential for Volvo in international markets and especially in China, which has not only the biggest but also one of the fastest-growing car markets in the world.

"I see Volvo as a tiger. (The) tiger belongs to a forest, it can't be found in a zoo ... We need to liberate this tiger," he told a press conference after the deal was signed at Volvo Cars headquarters in Gothenburg, southern Sweden.

"The tiger has a heart and it lies in Sweden, (and) in Belgium but its power should be projected all over the world.

"I see China as one of the markets where Volvo can show it has the opportunity to liberate itself," he said.

Geely said it had not only secured financing for the 1.8 billion dollars it was paying, but was also eager to keep Volvo in operation.

It also said the deal, which Ford initially agreed to in December, included agreements on intellectual property rights as well as supply and research and development arrangements between Volvo Cars, Geely and Ford.

Pwede namang bilhin ng Pilipinas ang Volvo, turn their technology to our own.

^^^^China nga hindi nabili ng technology. Rampant ang pag-pirate ng mga Chinese companies ng mga techonogy from rival companies.


Ex. Yung Chery QQ kamukhang kamukha nuong Chevrolet model. Gayang gaya.

Yung Geely na kotse ginaya yung kotse ng Daihatsu.

Tayo nagawa na ng FMC Anfra at even our jeepney.Konting improvement lang sa design at engineering aspect may panlaban na tayo.

Actually ang jeepney natin iconic puede namang magproduce ng aerodynatic and modern jeep at gawing parang British black taxi.

EU woes to weigh on global growth,
says Stiglitz

Malaya Business Insights
June 3, 2010

ATHENS - Global economic growth will be "markedly lower" by the end of the year as European governments push through painful austerity measures, strangling the region’s recovery, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.

Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, said on Tuesday it was not yet clear whether the world was headed for a double-dip recession, but that one thing was certain: Europe is going to face a roller coaster ride for the "foreseeable future".

"I think the only thing one can be confident about at this juncture is that there is likely to be volatility," he told Reuters in an interview in Stockholm.

"And volatility is bad for growth. This is not a zero sum game, this is a negative sum game."

World stocks fell on Tuesday and the euro skidded to a four-year low against the dollar on expectations that slowing growth in the euro zone and China would hamper the global economic recovery.

"The problem is that we’re in, you might say, a vicious cycle," Stiglitz said on the sidelines of a development conference. "Austerity is going to lower growth. A weak euro and a weak Europe is going to be bad for the United States."

European Union member states including Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy have announced austerity measures to placate nervous financial markets worried by Europe’s debt problems.

Spain’s parliament passed by just one vote last week government plans to shave 15 billion euros ($18.2 billion) off the fiscal deficit with measures including salary cuts for public workers and pension freezes.

Europe’s single currency has come under pressure on concerns that sovereign debt problems and slowing growth will usher in a new round of writedowns for the banking sector.

Exactly how painful the impact on growth will be is uncertain, Stiglitz said.

"It would depend to some extent on how successful the countries are in bringing austerity, how fast they bring those policies in. Because we have had such bad accounting of the banks, we don’t know how bad a shape they are in."

The fact that not just fiscally weak southern European countries, but also nations such as France and Germany at the euro zone’s core are under pressure to cut debt and deficits amassed during the financial crisis, is adding to concerns.

Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and formerly a chief economist at the World Bank, said Europe needed to restructure expenditures and taxes in ways that would bring down government deficits while also enhancing growth.

He would not say whether the euro was currently undervalued or whether it could fall further against the dollar but said exchange rates and markets would remain extremely volatile until steady global growth resumed.

Apart from a potential spillover of Europe’s fiscal debt woes to the United States, Stiglitz said the world’s biggest economy had a host of its own problems to deal with: the banks, poor accounting standards, bad credit supply and higher mortgage defaults. - Reuters

^^^^China nga hindi nabili ng technology. Rampant ang pag-pirate ng mga Chinese companies ng mga techonogy from rival companies.


Ex. Yung Chery QQ kamukhang kamukha nuong Chevrolet model. Gayang gaya.

Yung Geely na kotse ginaya yung kotse ng Daihatsu.

Tayo nagawa na ng FMC Anfra at even our jeepney.Konting improvement lang sa design at engineering aspect may panlaban na tayo.

Actually ang jeepney natin iconic puede namang magproduce ng aerodynatic and modern jeep at gawing parang British black taxi.

Pwede din, gawing ganito:

http://binrock.net/photos/p/526

http://estb.msn.com/i/F7/82474DBBCAD33D4D7A25B793AD6CA.jpg

Ingenious din ang design ng jeepney natin eh. for example, instead of individualized seats, we use only elongated ones. Menos gastos na sa space, menos gastos pa sa seating.

fr ralfy
Re: GDP "growth," from what I know, 70 pct of it is based on consumer spending, which means there's actually no growth. It's best to check balance of trade to see how we're doing. In relation to that,

"The crash of the leading indicators"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/10/883286/-The-crash-of-the-leading-indicators

^^^^China nga hindi nabili ng technology. Rampant ang pag-pirate ng mga Chinese companies ng mga techonogy from rival companies.


Ex. Yung Chery QQ kamukhang kamukha nuong Chevrolet model. Gayang gaya.

Yung Geely na kotse ginaya yung kotse ng Daihatsu.

Tayo nagawa na ng FMC Anfra at even our jeepney.Konting improvement lang sa design at engineering aspect may panlaban na tayo.

Actually ang jeepney natin iconic puede namang magproduce ng aerodynatic and modern jeep at gawing parang British black taxi.

I totally agree with you bro...jeepney no doubt is an icon for Pinoys. If the government would spend time and money in developing our product (JEEPNEY) that is, Philippines could be in a better position in terms of transportation manufacturing. Philippines has thousands of bankable and extremely well educated graduates every year. The government should come up a workable strategy to utilize those skilled and talented human resources the country has. Same talents given the opportunity to shine..they could take the country in upper gear of economic competetiveness with the rest of the Asian nations.

The problem is....some politicians would rather take care the families' treasurer chest rather looking after the people.

That's probalby why some real estate investors (apartment block) in North American cities are prominent politicians and their cronies.:bash:

Pwede din, gawing ganito:

http://binrock.net/photos/p/526

http://estb.msn.com/i/F7/82474DBBCAD33D4D7A25B793AD6CA.jpg

Ingenious din ang design ng jeepney natin eh. for example, instead of individualized seats, we use only elongated ones. Menos gastos na sa space, menos gastos pa sa seating.

Oh absolutely:cheers:

^^^^^^very nice!:)

China's position in global economy...world's second biggest.

China overtakes Japan in 2Q as No. 2 economy
(philstar.com) Updated August 16, 2010 03:40 PM Comments (0) View comments

TOKYO (AP) – Japan lost its place as the world's No. 2 economy to China in the second quarter as receding global growth sapped momentum and stunted a shaky recovery.

Gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of just 0.4 percent, the government said Monday, far below the annualized 4.4 percent expansion in the first quarter and adding to evidence the global recovery is facing strong headwinds.

The figures underscore China's emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding.

China has been a major force behind the world's emergence from deep recession, delivering much-needed juice to the US, Japan and Europe. Tokyo's latest numbers, however, suggest that Chinese demand alone may not be enough for Japan or other economic giants.

"Japan is the canary in the goldmine because it depends very much on demand in Asia and China, and this demand is cooling quite a bit," said Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. "This is a warning sign for all major economies that just focusing on overseas demand won't be sufficient."

China has surpassed Japan in quarterly GDP figures before, but this time it's unlikely to relinquish the lead.

China's economy will almost certainly be bigger than Japan's at the end of 2010 because of the huge difference in each country's growth rates. China is growing at about 10 percent a year, while Japan's economy is forecast to grow between 2 to 3 percent this year. The gap between the size of the two economies at the end of last year was already narrow.

Japan's nominal GDP, which isn't adjusted for price and seasonal variations, was worth $1.286 trillion in the April-to-June quarter compared with $1.335 trillion for China. The figures are converted into dollars based on an average exchange rate for the quarter.

Japan has held the No. 2 spot after the US since 1968, when it overtook West Germany. From the ashes of World War II, the country rose to become a global manufacturing and financial powerhouse. But its so-called "economic miracle" turned into a massive real estate bubble in the 1980s before imploding in 1991.

What followed was a decade of stagnant growth and economic malaise from which the country never really recovered. Prime Minister Naoto Kan now faces a long list of daunting problems: a rapidly aging and shrinking population, persistently weak domestic demand, deflation, a strong yen and slowing growth in key export markets.

In contrast, China's growth has been spectacular, its voracious appetite fueling demand for resources, machinery and products from the developing world as well as rich economies like Japan and Australia. China is Japan's top trading partner.

China's rise has produced glaring contradictions. The wealth gap between an elite who profited most from three decades of reform and its poor majority is so extreme that China has dozens of billionaires while average income for the rest of its 1.3 billion people is among the world's lowest.

Japan's people still are among the world's richest, with a per capita income of $37,800 last year, compared with China's $3,600. So are Americans at $42,240, their economy still by far the biggest.

"We should be concerned about per capita GDP," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. China overtaking Japan "is just symbolic," he said. "It's nothing more than that."

But the symbolism may be exactly the "wake-up call" Japanese leaders need, said Schulz of the Fujitsu Research Institute. "Japan is always strangely inward looking," he said. "And nobody is doing anything about it."

Japan's people appear resigned to the power shift. A national poll conducted earlier this year by the Asahi, one of Japan's biggest newspapers, showed a roughly equal split between those that believed Japan's fall to No. 3 posed a major problem and those who did not. More than half of the 2,347 respondents said Japan does not need to be a global superpower.

The country's annualized growth in the second quarter was also sharply below expectations of 2.3 percent in a Kyodo news agency survey of analysts. On a quarterly basis, Japan's GDP — or the total value of the nation's goods and services — grew 0.1 percent from the January-March period, the Cabinet Office said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP, was flat from the previous quarter, the figures showed. Capital spending by companies rose 0.5 percent, while public investment fell 3.4 percent.

The outlook for the third quarter is uncertain. Private consumption appears to be solid so far, helped in part by unusually hot weather, said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JP Morgan Securities Japan. But the slowing global economy is weakening exports and production.

A stronger yen, which hit a 15-year high against the dollar last week, also poses a major risk for the country's export-driven economy. Yen appreciation reduces the value of repatriated profits for companies like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. and makes their products more expensive abroad.

The currency worries led Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to say last week that he is closely monitoring foreign exchange rates. Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa released a similar statement to try to calm markets.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=603303&publicationSubCategoryId=200

^^uh hayan na,,,the sleeping dragon awakening--king of the east...

us dollar must be fallen to replace amero ...be ready for the rising of the last empire iron and clay empire (EU&ME) headed by the gog-magog

You going on the Revelation aspect?

time will tell again...

The sleeping dragon has finally risen!!!


China overtakes Japan as world's No. 2 economy


(The Philippine Star)
Updated August 17, 2010 12:00 AM
Comments (0) View comments

TOKYO (AP) – Japan lost its place as the world’s No. 2 economy to China in the second quarter as receding global growth sapped momentum and stunted a shaky recovery.

Gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of just 0.4 percent, the government said Monday, far below the annualized 4.4 percent expansion in the first quarter and adding to evidence the global recovery is facing strong headwinds.

The figures underscore China’s emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding.

China has been a major force behind the world’s emergence from deep recession, delivering much-needed juice to the US, Japan and Europe. Tokyo’s latest numbers, however, suggest that Chinese demand alone may not be enough for Japan or other economic giants.

“Japan is the canary in the goldmine because it depends very much on demand in Asia and China, and this demand is cooling quite a bit,” said Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. “This is a warning sign for all major economies that just focusing on overseas demand won’t be sufficient.”

China has surpassed Japan in quarterly GDP figures before, but this time it’s unlikely to relinquish the lead.

China’s economy will almost certainly be bigger than Japan’s at the end of 2010 because of the huge difference in each country’s growth rates. China is growing at about 10 percent a year, while Japan’s economy is forecast to grow between two to three percent this year. The gap between the size of the two economies at the end of last year was already narrow.

Japan’s nominal GDP, which isn’t adjusted for price and seasonal variations, was worth $1.286 trillion in the April-to-June quarter compared with $1.335 trillion for China. The figures are converted into dollars based on an average exchange rate for the quarter.

Japan has held the No. 2 spot after the US since 1968, when it overtook West Germany. From the ashes of World War II, the country rose to become a global manufacturing and financial powerhouse. But its so-called “economic miracle” turned into a massive real estate bubble in the 1980s before imploding in 1991.

What followed was a decade of stagnant growth and economic malaise from which the country never really recovered. Prime Minister Naoto Kan now faces a long list of daunting problems: a rapidly aging and shrinking population, persistently weak domestic demand, deflation, a strong yen and slowing growth in key export markets.

In contrast, China’s growth has been spectacular, its voracious appetite fueling demand for resources, machinery and products from the developing world as well as rich economies like Japan and Australia. China is Japan’s top trading partner.

China’s rise has produced glaring contradictions. The wealth gap between an elite who profited most from three decades of reform and its poor majority is so extreme that China has dozens of billionaires while average income for the rest of its 1.3 billion people is among the world’s lowest.

Japan’s people still are among the world’s richest, with a per capita income of $37,800 last year, compared with China’s $3,600. So are Americans at $42,240, their economy still by far the biggest.

“We should be concerned about per capita GDP,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. China overtaking Japan “is just symbolic,” he said. “It’s nothing more than that.”

But the symbolism may be exactly the “wake-up call” Japanese leaders need, said Schulz of the Fujitsu Research Institute. “Japan is always strangely inward looking,” he said. “And nobody is doing anything about it.”

Japan’s people appear resigned to the power shift. A national poll conducted earlier this year by the Asahi, one of Japan’s biggest newspapers, showed a roughly equal split between those that believed Japan’s fall to No. 3 posed a major problem and those who did not. More than half of the 2,347 respondents said Japan does not need to be a global superpower.

The country’s annualized growth in the second quarter was also sharply below expectations of 2.3 percent in a Kyodo news agency survey of analysts. On a quarterly basis, Japan’s GDP – or the total value of the nation’s goods and services - grew 0.1 percent from the January-March period, the Cabinet Office said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP, was flat from the previous quarter, the figures showed. Capital spending by companies rose 0.5 percent, while public investment fell 3.4 percent.

The outlook for the third quarter is uncertain. Private consumption appears to be solid so far, helped in part by unusually hot weather, said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JP Morgan Securities Japan. But the slowing global economy is weakening exports and production.

^^ What will Japan's 130 million do with 1 billion? Obviously it will succumb...

^^ What will Japan's 130 million do with 1 billion? Obviously it will succumb...

Absolutely...but what scares me most is China's military might, rather than its economic strenght.:ohno:

Absolutely...but what scares me most is China's military might, rather than its economic strenght.:ohno:

it will reach to 200-million man armies together w/ india...

^^ What will Japan's 130 million do with 1 billion? Obviously it will succumb...

mas matatalino namn ang utak ng 130m. :lol:

Nanaginip lang ng gising ang China kung iniisip nila na napakayaman na ng mga Tsino dahil lang nalagpasan nila ang Japan. Mas magiging matimbang parin ang perang tinitanggap nga bawat indibidwal and China's per capita income is just around 5000 Dollars lang. Compare it with Japan which is already a high income country.

Much more if they think they can surpass America's $45,000 individual income. Not even within 50 years. The national economy though, is fueled by 1.8 Billion consumers whom we can't say has the capability to spend.

The quality of their products would reflect their status as an advanced economy. So far, China's products are of low quality as they are more inclined with QUANTITY rather than QUALITY as reflected by many news of poisoning and health issues experienced by users from China and even the U.S.

correction,... China has 2 billion people po hehe =)

Absolutely...but what scares me most is China's military might, rather than its economic strength.:ohno:

I think both are equally scary.
They have a lot more man power, and already a lot of labor is going to China instead of RP.

^^ Let's see what they will do. Kaya nga if the US really decides to step-up to China, kakalabanin neto in many aspects e.g., population, military might, paramihan ng industriya.

correction,... China has 2 billion people po hehe =)

It's just the same story if only a handful of this 2 Billion people are capable of spending money.

correction,... China has 2 billion people po hehe =)

Dude, 1.3 billion.

Dude, 1.3 billion.

I agree. The CIA Factbook says China has 1,330,141,295 (July 2010 est.) while India is second at 1,173,108,018 (July 2010 est.).
@simple dude: What is your source?

Dude, 1.3 billion.

Yep, and India has already over 1 billion, and the US has 300 million.

.

Quantity vs quality ...

RP to pursue FTAs with 6 countries

By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
(The Philippine Star)
Updated September 02, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (1) View comments

MANILA, Philippines - The government is looking at entering into free trade agreements (FTA) with six countries led by the United States to boost foreign trade.

In a press conference, Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said that they are now mulling the possibility of discussing FTAs with the US, Taiwan, Vietnam, Europe, India and China.

Although the country has an FTA with the ASEAN and China, Cristobal said it is still beneficial the Philippines if there is a separate agreement with Taiwan.

“Within the year we would like to open a formal discussions with Taiwan,” he said.

Former Trade Secretary Jesli A. Lapus has already said that a bilateral agreement with Taiwan is not necessary because the Philippines and Taiwan already have the Joint Economic Conference. Lapus said that with this in place, a free trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan is no longer needed because the JEC will already ensure good trade and investment relations.

However, Ambassador Donald Lee, Representative of the Taiwan Economic Cooperation Office (TECO), already warned the Philippines that the signing of the Economic Cooperative Framework between China and Taiwan in July would result in the transfer of some Taiwanese factories in China because it is cheaper to produce in China.

Lee cleared that the FTA with the Philippines has nothing to do with the one China policy. He stressed the urgency of forming an FTA with Taiwan because he said firms would choose to locate in China because of the big domestic market. China has a population of 1.2 billion while the Philippines only has 92 million. The access to raw materials is also easier in China rather than the Philippines.

I think most asian countries benefit from outsourcing. In the U.S. for example most jobs are getting outsourced to countries like the Philippines and India. Outsourcing spells job loss in the U.S. http://www.newsbeats.net/showthread.php?5109-So-when-will-outsourcing-end the Philippines should grow from this.

I think most asian countries benefit from outsourcing. In the U.S. for example most jobs are getting outsourced to countries like the Philippines and India. Outsourcing spells job loss in the U.S. http://www.newsbeats.net/showthread.php?5109-So-when-will-outsourcing-end the Philippines should grow from this.

US is still losing jobs and there's no end in sight.....

as of this month;
US unemployment = 9.7%
US underemployment = 18.4%

Philippines unemployment = 6.9%
Philippines underemployment = 17.9%

looks like we are better off than US with these figures. hope our new administration can sustain the momentum.

Government open to review of country's labor laws
By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star) Updated October 15, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (1) View comments

MANILA, Philippines - The government is open to relaxing its labor laws because its strictness has been cited by investors as one of the reasons why the Philippines is uncompetitive.

During his address at the second day of the Philippine Business Conference at the Manila Hotel yesterday, Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said that “maybe we can relax some of our labor laws. The stricter the labor laws the less competitive,” he added.

Domingo explained that the strict labor laws are only helping those that are already employed. However, because of its rigidness, it can cause the contraction of the labor force. “The employed have better benefits but there is less employment.”

“Laborers need some protection; the question is to what degree so that we don’t become uncompetitive,” Domingo said.

Domingo said the government is doing its best to make the Philippines a viable business destination. In fact, for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) that is being espoused by the government, Domingo said that they are trying to mitigate the risks. “It is unfair for the private sector to take that risk.”

Another concern of the investors is the ownership law. Unfortunately, this is a constitutional matter. “There are a lot of restrictive clauses in the constitution. This is a sore point for the trading partners,” Domingo stressed.

The secretary said that he has already told investors that the problems with Philippine laws may be workable but with the constitution he said “who knows. It could be next year. It could be never.”

Meanwhile, Domingo said that the Philippines does not have much choice when it comes to participating in trade agreements. He said that if the Philippines closes its doors to free trade agreements (FTAs), we will be left behind. “Not doing so will be a disaster.”

Domingo said that the normal knee jerk reaction would be for industries to ask protection from the government but he warned that this will lead to the demise of the demise of the protected industries.

He stressed that protection may work in the short term but the government would not want it to remain unless we want our economy to be smaller and smaller.

Government open to review of country's labor laws
By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star) Updated October 15, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (1) View comments

MANILA, Philippines - The government is open to relaxing its labor laws because its strictness has been cited by investors as one of the reasons why the Philippines is uncompetitive.

During his address at the second day of the Philippine Business Conference at the Manila Hotel yesterday, Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said that “maybe we can relax some of our labor laws. The stricter the labor laws the less competitive,” he added.

Domingo explained that the strict labor laws are only helping those that are already employed. However, because of its rigidness, it can cause the contraction of the labor force. “The employed have better benefits but there is less employment.”

“Laborers need some protection; the question is to what degree so that we don’t become uncompetitive,” Domingo said.

Domingo said the government is doing its best to make the Philippines a viable business destination. In fact, for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) that is being espoused by the government, Domingo said that they are trying to mitigate the risks. “It is unfair for the private sector to take that risk.”

Another concern of the investors is the ownership law. Unfortunately, this is a constitutional matter. “There are a lot of restrictive clauses in the constitution. This is a sore point for the trading partners,” Domingo stressed.

The secretary said that he has already told investors that the problems with Philippine laws may be workable but with the constitution he said “who knows. It could be next year. It could be never.”

Meanwhile, Domingo said that the Philippines does not have much choice when it comes to participating in trade agreements. He said that if the Philippines closes its doors to free trade agreements (FTAs), we will be left behind. “Not doing so will be a disaster.”

Domingo said that the normal knee jerk reaction would be for industries to ask protection from the government but he warned that this will lead to the demise of the demise of the protected industries.

He stressed that protection may work in the short term but the government would not want it to remain unless we want our economy to be smaller and smaller.

From my observation, working on assignment in the country in industry the prob is the proper and fair implementation of labour laws not the actual cost of labour or the strictness. Mr. Domingo should have a committee to evalute these laws, their implementation first before actually changing them.

Many companies are inneficient because they don't know how to account for all the costs (labour is only a component), don't analyze their p/l, let alone interpret their data. Labour is the most visible and cheap target. Quite often many businesses conveniently "forget" to account for all their revenues (for a very good, sly reason.) so data is skewed to show labour cost as very high. Actually, it is very low already in the country based on international benchmarks. Many of the smes I worked with, always say labour is cheap that's why they don't to automate. A European colleague said, there is a strong middle class, but the wages are low.

This article shows only the argument from the big business side. Where I think local Filipino businesses are losing out to their world competitors is lack of r&d, quality standards, innovation, and long term objectives. As for int'l businesses who will relocate in the country, there is only one motivation - profit. If they can't make a profit, they will not relocate regardless of laws, politics, religion, incentives etc.

Obama: End tax breaks to stop overseas hiring :ohno:

CNBC
Published: Saturday, 16 Oct 2010 | 9:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama urged Congress to end tax breaks that reward some U.S. companies with overseas subsidiaries and encourage those businesses to create jobs in other countries.

Yet it's an idea that has raised concerns even among some lawmakers in the president's own party.

At issue is a bill, now stalled in the Senate, that would do away with some tax credits and deferrals for U.S. companies for operations abroad.

"There is no reason why our tax code should actively reward them for creating jobs overseas," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "Instead, we should be using our tax dollars to reward companies that create jobs and businesses within our borders."

Though Obama singled out Republican opposition, the bill also failed to get support from some Democrats, including the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus. He has expressed concern that the change would put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

The ending of the tax provisions has run into opposition from business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers.

Obama said that while companies that conduct business internationally do make an important contribution to the U.S. economy, it doesn't make sense to grant them tax breaks when companies at home are struggling to rebound from the economic crisis.

Obama has said he wants revenue collected from ending the tax provisions to go to other business tax breaks, by making permanent research and development tax credits and allowing businesses next year to write off all new equipment costs.

In the Republican address, Rep. Mike Pence urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call Congress back into session to take an immediate vote on whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts.

"The prosperity of the American people is more important than the political fortunes of any politician or any political party," Pence said.

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have said the tax issue will be taken up after the Nov. 2 election.

The tax cuts have been a point of contention between the president and Republicans in the lead-up to the Nov. 2 elections. The Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for all Americans, including the top income earners, while Obama wants to extend the tax cuts only for the middle class — those families earning less than $250,000 a year.

Engineering & globalization
By ACD. REYNALDO B. VEA, National Academy of Science and Technology Philippines
November 6, 2010, 9:13pm

MANILA, Philippines – THE world of engineering education and practice is truly going global.

International standards in engineering education are now slowly but surely being forged. In Europe, the EUR-ACE stamp is placed on engineering academic programs that meet standards set by the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE). Outside of Europe, there is the Washington Accord, an agreement among accreditation bodies of various countries that their accreditation systems of engineering academic programs are substantially equivalent.

In Europe, an organization called FEANI, representing 3.5 million engineers in 31 countries, grants the EUR-ING title to qualified engineers so that they can more easily practice across national boundaries. APEC economies and ASEAN countries are also granting the APEC Engineer and ASEAN Engineer titles, respectively, for the same reason. There have arisen, in effect, registers of engineers that are international in scope.

At the moment, Filipino engineers can be admitted to the APEC and ASEAN registries. It is, however, expected that the educational eligibility requirement in the case of the APEC Registry will be changed so that graduation from a program that has been accredited under the terms of the Washington Accord will be required.

This would be the same requirement of an even bigger register called the International Professional Engineers (IntPE) Register.

The problem is that we are now not a member of the Washington Accord. If we do not get to be a member soon enough, this eligibility requirement will prospectively pose a barrier to the entry of Filipino engineers into these registries.

There are structural/conceptual features in our current accreditation system that prevent an easy entry into the Washington Accord. Whereas all Accord members have accreditation systems that are basically run by professional societies of engineers, our professional engineering societies up to this point have not engaged in accreditation work. Whereas all members have accreditation systems that are independent of schools, our existing accreditation bodies have schools as members and send out accreditation teams composed solely of academics wearing the hats of their respective schools. Whereas all members subscribe to what is called an outcomes-based approach, we do too much bean-counting of inputs to academic programs.

Faced with this situation, a number of Philippine organizations have come together to mount a bid for membership in the Washington Accord. The Philippine Technological Council (PTC), the umbrella organization of all professional engineering societies, and the accreditation bodies – PACUCOA and PAASCU – have moved to establish a Washington Accord-compliant system. The Engineering Sciences and Technology Division of the National Academy of Science and Technology (ESTD-NAST) has lent impetus and support by conducting a number of forums on this issue with funding from the UNESCO National Commission. The Joint Congressional Commission on Science, Technology, and Engineering (COMSTE) adopted membership in the Washington Accord as one of its major recommendations and made provisions for it in the 2010 GAA with a Congressional Initiative authorizing a budget item for CHED. The CHED is currently actively considering possible funding sources. The PRC and DoST have also lent a hand.

The members of the Washington Accord are: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Germany, India, Russia, and Sri Lanka have provisional status. Thailand reportedly also wants to apply for membership. The geographic reach is clearly expanding. On top of this, EUR-ACE and Washington Accord are in talks to harmonize standards.

When this happens, one system will blanket much of the globe.

Clearly, Philippine membership in the Washington Accord is important to individual Filipino engineers. It opens up a lot of opportunities for global professional practice. It is also important for the competitiveness of Philippine-based companies. These companies can more easily get engineers educated in indisputably international-standard curricula because they can be locally sourced. The fact alone that these firms will be known to have these well-educated engineers in their shop floors and offices should already enhance their competitive posture. Fear of further brain drain should not deter us from further improving our system of engineering education. It would be more costly in the long run to rein ourselves in. We just have to keep on producing more and better engineers for the world and for our own country.

The US signatory in the Washington Accord is ABET, which stands for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. It is a federation of some 25 professional and technical societies in the fields of engineering, computing, applied science, and technology.

In 2008, it started to accredit non-US programs. One Philippine school, the Mapua Institute of Technology, applied for the accreditation of three of its programs, namely, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, and Computer Engineering. In late July 2010, accreditation was granted, making these three programs the first ABET-accredited programs in the Philippines and in the whole of Southeast Asia. Mapua has since applied for the accreditation of its other engineering programs as well as of its Computer Science and IT programs. Mapua graduates of its ABET-accredited programs can thus claim that they satisfy the educational eligibility requirement – i.e., graduating from a program that is accredited under the terms of Washington Accord – once they apply for membership in international registers of engineers. Mapua’s experience is an argument that Philippine schools are up to scratch and that, consequently, Philippine membership in the Washington Accord can be made to work.


http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/286250/engineering-globalization

RP confident vs EU, US claims in WTO
Sunday, 07 November 2010 10:41 Max V. de Leon

THE Philippine government is confident it will be able to parry the allegations of the European Union (EU) and United States (US) that the country’s excise-tax regime violates the multilateral trading rules during the first oral hearings set by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on November 17 and 18 in Geneva.

“Together with the legal team and the distilled spirits industry, the Office of the Solicitor General has put together substantial factual data, evidence and innovative legal arguments,” Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz said.

Cadiz, being the country’s statutory counsel, will be beefing up the Philippine trade negotiating team in Geneva, headed by Ambassador Manuel Teehankee, the Philippine permanent trade representative to Geneva. Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr., also a lawyer and former director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, will also be joining the Philippine panel.

To highlight the importance of the WTO case to the different Philippine sectors—from the raw-material suppliers in the farm sector to the domestic liquor manufacturers—the government also hired White & Case Llp. and Sycip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, with Justice Florentino Feliciano as the head of the Sycip law team and ACWL as collaborating counsel.

The Distilled Spirits Association of the Philippines (DSAP), a nonstock Philippine corporation that was created by Philippine sugar planters and millers and Philippine manufacturers of distilled spirits—including Ginebra San Miguel Inc., Tanduay Distillery Inc., Emperador Distillers Inc. and Destileria Limtuaco & Co. Inc.—have also provided technical assistance to the Philippine government.

In July 29, 2009, and January 14, 2010, the European Communities (EC) DS 396 and the US DS 403, respectively, filed their requests for consultation with the Philippines pursuant to Article 4 of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) with respect to Philippine taxation of imported spirits.

The EC and US alleged that Section 141 of the Philippine National Internal Revenue Code (Tax Code), as well as certain Philippine revenue regulations, discriminates against imported spirits by taxing them at a substantially higher rate than domestic spirits.

However, under Section 141 of the Tax Code, spirits are not classified into imported and domestic, but rather classify spirits based on raw materials used, which has been in the Philippine tax laws since 1914, long before the GATT.

Under paragraph (a) of Section 141 of the Tax Code, distilled spirits produced from the following raw materials are subject to an excise tax of P13.59/proof liter: sap of nipa, coconut, cassava, camote, or buri palm or the juice, syrup or sugar of the cane, provided, that such materials are produced commercially in the country where they are processed into distilled spirits.

Under paragraph (b) of the same section, distilled spirits that are produced from raw materials other than those enumerated in paragraph (a) are subject to an excise tax according to a three-tiered system based on net retail price (NRP):

1. NRP less than P250/proof liter taxed at P146.97

2. NRP P250-P675 taxed at P293.93/proof liter

3. NRP over P675 taxed at P587.87/proof liter.

On December 10, 2009, the EC requested the WTO DSB to establish a panel to examine the complaints.

The DSB established a panel on January 19,2010, while the US made the same request to establish a panel on March 16, 2010.

A single panel has been established on April 20, 2010 to examine the complaint of both the EC and the US.

WTO members Australia, China, India, Mexico Thailand, Taipei and Columbia reserved their third-party rights.

The panel is composed of a chairman two members which and was formed on July 5, 2010. Both the EC and the US filed their respective first written submissions. The Philippines filed its first written submission in Geneva on October 14 after careful preparation by the legal and technical support team of the Philippine Government.

The panel will hold its first substantive meeting with representatives of the Philippines, the EC and the US in Geneva on November 17 and 18. A Philippine delegation is being formed for this purpose.

“We are busy preparing for oral hearings this mid-November. The issues that have been raised are whether imported spirits and domestic spirits are ‘like products,’ and whether the imported spirits are taxed in excess of the domestic spirits; whether imported and domestic spirits are directly competitive and substitutable products, not similarly taxed; and whether the dissimilar taxation is applied so as to afford protection to domestic production,” Cadiz said.

Cristobal said while the oral arguments will focus mainly on the different parties’ interpretations of WTO provisions, the Philippine panel will also try to underscore the possible ill effects to the different domestic sectors in the event the country loses the case and is forced to revise its excise-tax laws.

Max V. de Leon


http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/economy/3403-rp-confident-vs-eu-us-claims-in-wto

A globalized world-with US, EU's economy faltering and Asian nations' economy still zooming....

Philippines should stop mimicking the US and instead mimic the nationalistic economies of China, Japan, South Korea and our ASEAN neighbors (except Singapore).

20 Companies That Cratered in 2010 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/20-Companies-That-Cratered-in-usnews-3358422380.html?x=0)

Rick Newman, On Thursday December 16, 2010, 3:29 pm EST

Call it the year of the stealth bankruptcy.

After two years of colossal corporate meltdowns--the liquidations of Lehman Brothers and Circuit City, the General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcies, the near failures of AIG and Citigroup--2010 seemed like a year of convalescence. The default rate on corporate debt, according to Moody's, plummeted from the peak levels of 2009 and headed back toward pre-recession levels. The biggest bankruptcy of the year was a company most Americans have never heard of--bond insurer Ambac--and investors saw it coming so far in advance that the markets barely reacted. And overall corporate profits reached stratospheric levels, signaling boom times for companies that endured the Great Recession and lived to tell the tale.

[See 20 industries where jobs are coming back.]

Yet even though it officially ended in 2009, the recession cast a long shadow over 2010, claiming many companies that took on too much debt in earlier years and simply couldn't generate enough cash flow to pay their bills in today's frugal economy. Many of those companies were able to stay in business as they worked through bankruptcy and restructured their debts, with customers barely noticing. That's a sign that lending is returning to normal and banks are willing to take more risks on companies with good prospects. A few brands, particularly in the auto industry, disappeared simply because their relevance faded. And some corporate flops occurred as newer, more aggressive companies displaced older, outdated ones--a constant in a capitalist economy. Here are the biggest corporate casualties of 2010:

A&P. This grocery chain, with about 400 East Coast outlets, struggled during the recession, and also took on lots of debt when it acquired competitor Pathmark in 2007. The financial strains became unbearable, forcing A&P to declare bankruptcy in December. The company plans to keep operating its stores, which include the Super Fresh, Waldbaum, and Food Emporium chains, while it restructures. It may also merge with another retailer, to broaden its scale and appeal.

Affiliated Media. Newspapers used to be nicely profitable--until the Internet became a ubiquitous source of free news, rupturing a decades-old business model. When this company, which publishes the San Jose Mercury News, Denver Post, and about 50 other newspapers, declared bankruptcy in January, it followed at least a dozen other newspaper publishers into Chapter 11. The good news is that Affiliated emerged from bankruptcy less than two months after filing, with a lot less debt, some new owners, and its papers intact.

[See how the middle class is shrinking.]

Ambac. The main subsidiary of this bond insurer sold protection on mortgage-backed securities, which became the "toxic assets" that helped trigger the financial panic of 2008. Ambac has been trying to restructure its business since 2007, when the housing bust began to intensify, by expanding its more conservative municipal-bond business. But it finally succumbed to bankruptcy in November 2010--the biggest filing of the year, according to BankruptcyData.com. The firm is also dickering with the IRS over $700 million in tax refunds from prior years that it may not deserve.

American Media. Here's a tabloid shocker--dirt doesn't sell the way it used to. That's because the type of tawdry gossip peddled by Star and National Enquirer, this company's franchise publications, is available faster and cheaper on the Web, at sites like TMZ and Gawker. Other American Media titles, like Shape, Men's Fitness, and Natural Health, are also struggling to hold onto advertising revenue as publishing migrates to the Web. By November 2010, American Media had a debt load seven times the value of the company, which drove it into bankruptcy. It hopes to emerge soon, with less debt and most of its businesses intact.

Blockbuster. This movie-rental chain failed to notice the future happening all around it. While Blockbuster was doubling down on retail stores and dunning its customers with loathsome late fees, Netflix wooed millions of movie fans by mailing them DVDs and offering streaming video over the Web, and Redbox set up convenient kiosks offering overnight movies for a buck. No wonder Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in September. It hopes to emerge from bankruptcy and fight back, but the company is now way behind.

[See why a double-dip recession hasn't happened.]

Hummer. Its audacious off-roaders captured the fin de siecle, faux-rugged ethos of the early 2000s. But Hummer sales tanked during the 2008 oil-price spike, and Hummers ended up on the wrong side of the "new frugality" that followed the Great Recession. The end came after parent firm General Motors declared bankruptcy in 2009, and thinned its divisions from eight to four as part of its restructuring. For a while it looked as if a Chinese company would buy Hummer from GM, but when that deal fell through, Hummer was put out to pasture.

Innkeepers USA. This commercial-property company--which owns about 70 hotels that operate under brands like Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Summerfield Suites, Hilton, and Hyatt--followed a familiar path toward bankruptcy. A private-equity firm bought the company in 2007, near the peak of the real-estate bubble, taking on a lot of debt to finance the purchase. As property values fell and business dried up during the recession, the company came up short on the cash flow needed to pay down its loans. It's now working its way through a "prepackaged" bankruptcy that has left most of its properties operating normally.

Jennifer Convertibles. Furniture sales sank during the recession, and this sofabed seller closed about 50 stores to stanch the red ink. But that wasn't enough to prevent a bankruptcy filing in July. The company has been able to keep more than 300 stores open while it restructures, half of them under its Ashley Furniture brand. A Chinese firm that's one of Jennifer's biggest suppliers will end up owning a big chunk of the company.

[See 4 reasons jobs remain so scarce.]

Loehmann's. Retail sales began a tepid recovery in 2010, but it was too late for this chain that sells discount designer clothing. The November bankruptcy filing was the second for Loehmann's, which also declared Chapter 11 in 1999 and emerged a year later. A Dubai-based investing firm bought Loehmann's in 2006, taking on more debt than it could manage as sales tumbled during the recession. Loehmann's hopes to write off debt and be solvent once again in 2011, with most of its 46 stores operating as normal.

Mesa Air. Airline bankruptcies have become so routine that few fliers noticed when this small carrier--which operates regional "express" flights for United, US Airways, and Delta--filed Chapter 11 last January. Mesa described the filing as a "voluntary" action that would allow it to rapidly streamline while continuing normal operations, and so far the airline has slashed its fleet from about 180 aircraft to fewer than 80, while still serving 130 cities. US Airways could emerge as a part owner of the company.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This studio's archives include classics like The Wizard of Oz, Dr. Zhivago, and Rocky, but a dearth of recent hits--plus debt piled on when a group of private investors bought the studio in 2005--led to a much-anticipated bankruptcy filing in November. MGM should be back on its feet by early 2011, with a much lower debt load and new owners eager to move forward on big projects like two new Hobbit films and the 23rd James Bond flick.

Mercury. Parent company Ford Motor has turned itself around and become nicely profitable, but it's not bringing the middling Mercury brand along with it. The aging Mercury got sandwiched between the mainstream Ford lineup and the Lincoln luxury division, with Ford deciding two nameplates was enough. Since most Mercury models were glorified Fords anyway, few car buffs will miss it.

[See 15 cars fueling Detroit's revival.]

Movie Gallery. Haven't we seen this movie before? Movie Gallery, which ran Hollywood Video and was once the second-largest video-rental chain in America, first filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2008, then filed again in February 2010 when its restructuring plan failed to gain traction. The firm tried to keep some stores open, but eventually went to black and closed all of its 2,400 U.S. outlets, cashiering 19,000 workers.

Newsweek. The Washington Post, which had long owned Newsweek--and lost millions on it in recent years--sold the venerable title for one dollar to 91-year-old billionaire Sidney Harman in August. Since the magazine had millions in debt, the deal seemed like a sympathy purchase that would merely delay Newsweek's demise. Then Newsweek merged with The Daily Beast, the website run by publishing titan Tina Brown, creating a strange amalgam of two money-losing properties that might, um, lose less money together. Critics will spend 2011 either snickering over synergy that's never going to happen, or eating their words.

Oriental Trading Company. A little bankruptcy. No big deal. That's the message this crafts, novelties, and party-supply retailer conveyed after declaring bankruptcy in August, saying on its website that it plans to continue with "business as usual" and that writing off more than $400 million in debt "will enable us to pursue our growth strategy more effectively." The company, owned by private-equity firms, is shifting more of its business from catalogs to its website as it tries to shed costs and reach more consumers.

[See why "recession-proof" jobs are a myth.]

Penton Media. Trade publications like Air Transport World, Nation's Restaurant News, and Farm Press face the same challenge as consumer periodicals: staying profitable while ad revenue migrates from traditional media to the digital world. With a stable of such titles, business publisher Penton battled a steep decline in sales that led to bankruptcy in early 2010. But Penton emerged in less than a month, and is now revamping its websites and focusing on mobile apps and other digital initiatives.

Pontiac. It was once one of GM's marquis divisions, with must-have muscle cars like the GTO and the Trans Am. But GM could never revive Pontiac's faded glory, and when the automaker was forced to shrink following its 2009 bankruptcy, Pontiac got the boot. The last dealerships closed in October. Saturn, a newer GM division, closed as well.

Swoozie's. This Georgia-based gift and stationery chain expanded into the Northeast just as the recession was gathering steam, and never reached sales levels that would have made it profitable. The company declared bankruptcy in March. A private firm bought it out of bankruptcy and downsized its footprint. The company now runs seven stores, down from a peak of 43.

[See 10 companies back from the brink.]

Uno Restaurant Holdings. The debt was deeper than the pizza, and when the recession cut into cash flow, the parent firm of Pizzeria Uno had no choice but to file bankruptcy. It emerged in July, after shedding debt and closing about 25 stores. The company still operates 160 restaurants in 24 states, plus a few overseas locations.

Urban Brands. The parent firm of the Ashley Stewart brand, which caters to young and middle-aged plus-size women, began to struggle in 2007, and finally declared bankruptcy in September 2010. Shoppers may barely notice, however, since its 210 stores are operating normally while the company fixes its finances.

Source (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/20-Companies-That-Cratered-in-usnews-3358422380.html?x=0)

A globalized world-with US, EU's economy faltering and Asian nations' economy still zooming....

Philippines should stop mimicking the US and instead mimic the nationalistic economies of China, Japan, South Korea and our ASEAN neighbors (except Singapore).

^^I truly believed in you sir .... Japan for example, once destroy by the WW2... South Korea, once destroyed by Korean War... China of course because of communism and strong influence of Mao Zedong... Look at these countries now, so rich and powerful and even taking lead all over the world in terms of economic performance. They are selling there own products like Automobile, electronics and many more...... Singapore Companies are relatively owned by the foreign businessman.

^^I truly believed in you sir .... Japan for example, once destroy by the WW2... South Korea, once destroyed by Korean War... China of course because of communism and strong influence of Mao Zedong... Look at these countries now, so rich and powerful and even taking lead all over the world in terms of economic performance. They are selling there own products like Automobile, electronics and many more...... Singapore Companies are relatively owned by the foreign businessman.

My take on Japan and South Korea:

Japan, was under the administration of the US right after the war, specifically under Gen MacArthur's good administration skills.
South Korea, also was very much devastated after the truce. South Korea progressed because of:


Good governance, this includes strong focus in education and infrastructure.
Help from Japan and US
Focussing on technology for industrialization, like Japan
A few world-beater private companies

If you can see, the common denominator is the US. When Japan recovered with the help of Uncle Sam, it was normal for them to help South Korea since Japan wanted to make amends with South Korea. It just needs good intentions way back then!

Rising food costs will hit Asia hard in 2011, to spur inflation, Nomura says
Sunday, 26 December 2010 20:19 Bloomberg News
E-mail Print PDF
INCREASED demand for food in Asia will help to boost prices next year, fueling faster consumer inflation, according to Yougesh Khatri at Nomura Holdings Inc., who flagged rising costs as a “key theme” for 2011.

Costlier food was likely to hit Asia hard as edible goods account for “a fairly large chunk” of the baskets that governments use to calculate the pace of price changes, said Khatri, a Singapore-based senior economist.

“That is likely to show up as particularly severely impacting CPI next year,” Khatri said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Khatri’s comments add to forecasts from Deutsche Bank AG and Rabobank Groep NV that farm-goods prices may rally in 2011.

Food inflation in India gained to a six-week high this month. China needs to be prepared for a long fight against inflation, the National Development and Reform Commission has said.

Inflationary pressures in Asia are coming both from inflows of capital to the region and rising food prices, Khatri said, without identifying specific foodstuffs. Inflation is “our key theme for next year,” he said.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index of 55 commodities surged for a fifth month in November to the highest level in more than two years. Soybeans rallied to $13.6575 a bushel on Saturday, a 28-month high, on demand from China. Palm oil has surged 37 percent in 2010, while raw sugar in New York has gained to the highest level in 30 years.



‘Still cheap’

Farm-commodity prices including corn will extend rallies next year driven by increased demand and higher energy costs, according to a report from Rabobank this week. A lot of agricultural commodities including corn, soybeans and wheat are “still cheap” even after recent rallies and may extend gains, Deutsche Bank’s Michael Lewis said last month.

The consumer price index in China grew by 5.1 percent last month, the fastest pace in 28 months. Gains have been caused by factors including global commodity prices and excess liquidity, China Central Television said on December 21, citing Peng Sen, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.

India’s Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar said on Saturday the government will take measures to cool food-price inflation. An index measuring wholesale prices of farm products including rice and vegetables compiled by the commerce ministry rose 12.13 percent in the week to December 11 from a year earlier.

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My take on Japan and South Korea:

Japan, was under the administration of the US right after the war, specifically under Gen MacArthur's good administration skills.
South Korea, also was very much devastated after the truce. South Korea progressed because of:


Good governance, this includes strong focus in education and infrastructure.
Help from Japan and US
Focussing on technology for industrialization, like Japan
A few world-beater private companies


If you can see, the common denominator is the US. When Japan recovered with the help of Uncle Sam, it was normal for them to help South Korea since Japan wanted to make amends with South Korea. It just needs good intentions way back then!

Maybe a much deeper explanation why China, Japan and Korea became prosperous is watching this video. This is a better version of history than what they normally teach in our schools.

The Jesuit Influence in the Far East - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifk-3A0h8r8

The Jesuit Influence in the Far East - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfylkoa0r1U&feature=related

The Jesuit Influence in the Far East - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSEzTksPro&feature=related

Goldman Sachs Secretly Believes an Economic Collapse is Coming

Goldman Sachs is doing it again. Goldman is telling the public that everything is going to be just fine, but meanwhile they are advising their top clients to bet on a huge financial collapse. On August 16th, a 54 page report authored by Goldman strategist Alan Brazil was distributed to institutional clients.

The general public was not intended to see this report. Fortunately, some folks over at the Wall Street Journal got their hands on a copy and they have filled us in on some of the details. It turns out that Goldman Sachs secretly believes that an economic collapse is coming, and they have some very interesting ideas about how to make money in the turbulent financial environment that we will soon be entering.

In the report, Brazil says that the U.S. debt problem cannot be solved with more debt, that the European sovereign debt crisis is going to get even worse and that there are large numbers of financial institutions in Europe that are on the verge of collapse. If this is what people at the highest levels of the financial world are talking about, perhaps we should all start paying attention.

There is a tremendous amount of fear in the global financial community right now. As I wrote about the other day, the financial world is about to hit the panic button. Things could start falling apart at any time. Most of these big banks will not admit how bad things are publicly, but privately there is a whole lot of freaking out going on.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Brazil believes that "as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China's growth may not be sustainable.”

Perhaps most startling of all is what the report has to say about the debt problems of the United States and Europe.

For example, this following excerpt from the report sounds like it could have come straight from The Economic Collapse Blog....

“Solving a debt problem with more debt has not solved the underlying problem. In the US, Treasury debt growth financed the US consumer but has not had enough of an impact on job growth. Can the US continue to depreciate the world's base currency?”

Remember, this statement was not written by some guy on the Internet. A top Goldman Sachs analyst put it into a report for institutional investors.

The report also goes into great detail about the financial crisis in Europe. Brazil writes about how the euro is headed for trouble and about how dozens of financial institutions in Europe could potentially be in danger of collapse.

But in any environment Goldman Sachs thinks that it can make money. The following is how Business Insider summarized the advice that Brazil gave in the report regarding how to make money off of the impending collapse in Europe....

* Buy a six-month put option on the Euro versus the Swiss Franc, thus betting the Euro will drop against the Franc (the Franc being the currency that an official Goldman report recently referred to as the most overvalued in the world).

* Buy a five-year credit default swap on an index of European corporate debt-the iTraxx 9. This is a bet that some of these companies will default, and your insurance policy, the CDS, will pay off.

This is so typical of Goldman Sachs. They will say one thing publicly and then turn around and do the total opposite privately.

For example, prior to the financial crisis of 2008, Goldman Sachs was putting together mortgage-backed securities that they knew were garbage and marketing them to investors as AAA-rated investments. On top of that, Goldman then often privately bet against those exact same securities.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs has even acknowledged that the investment bank engaged in "improper" behavior during 2006 and 2007.

For much more on the history of all this, please see this article: "How Goldman Sachs Made Tens Of Billions Of Dollars From The Economic Collapse Of America In Four Easy Steps".

So will Goldman Sachs ever get into serious trouble for any of this?

No, of course not.

Yeah, they will get a slap on the wrist from time to time, but the reality is that the top levels of the federal government are absolutely littered with ex-employees of Goldman Sachs. Goldman is one of the "too big to fail" banks and they are going to continue to do pretty much whatever they feel like doing.

Sadly, the power of the "too big to fail" banks just continues to grow. At this point, the "big six" U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) now possess assets equivalent to approximately 60 percent of America's gross national product.

Goldman Sachs was the second biggest donor to Barack Obama's campaign in 2008, so don't expect Obama to do anything about any of this.

We have a financial system that is deeply, deeply corrupt and all of that corruption is a big reason why things are falling apart.

Sadly, the 54 page report mentioned above is right - we really are facing a global debt meltdown and we really are heading for an economic collapse.

You aren't going to hear the truth from the mainstream media or from our politicians because "keeping people calm" is much more of a priority to them than telling the truth is.

The debt crisis in the United States is unsustainable and the debt crisis in Europe is unsustainable. Right now we are in the calm before the storm, and nobody knows exactly when the storm is going to strike.

But let there be no doubt - it is coming.

The amazing prosperity that we have enjoyed for the last several decades has largely been a debt-fueled illusion. It was a great party while it lasted, but now it is coming to an end and the aftermath of the coming crash is going to be absolutely horrific.

Keep watch and get prepared. We don't know exactly when the collapse is going to happen, but it is definitely on the way and now even Goldman Sachs is admitting that.

ASEAN: Strength in numbers
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/perspective/16964-strength-in-numbers

THE Philippines could become the ninth-largest economy in the world—but only if it integrates with the rest of the 10 countries—Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean.

United, the Asean economy is valued at at least $1.8 trillion—a little smaller than Brazil but larger than Russia, according Dato Timothy Ong, founder and chairman of Asia Inc. Forum and the convener of the Asean 100 forum.

Ong believes it is high time for the Asean to be integrated as an economic unit to become a more potent and stronger force in the global economic arena.

“In a globalizing world and with the rise of India and China, can Asean afford to be fragmented,” he said at a recent interview in Makati City. “If Asean is one, it’s going to be a more significant market and, at the same time, will be a force to reckon with.”

Indeed, economic integration is one of the hottest buzzwords of the global economy today.

The Asean has become a prominent figure in promoting bilateral and regional trading arrangements since 1997, starting with the Asean Plus Three process linking the 10-member bloc with China, South Korea and Japan.

Haruhiko Kuroda, president of Asian Development Bank, pointed out the importance of Asean in the global trading arena.

“Asean has become a manufacturing network for a wide range of products—from pharmaceuticals, automobiles and electronics to information-technology goods—and also produces high-end intermediate goods for final assembly elsewhere. Asean members have been major participants in the rapid expansion of free-trade agreements [FTAs] across Asia and the Pacific,” Kuroda said in one of his speeches.

Given its experience as a collegial body addressing common issues and concerns, the Asean can become an important vehicle for working toward a consolidation of FTAs into regionwide agreements. As synergies develop, it stands to gain as a community—as a center for expanding regionalism.


Asean 100

To push the momentum in promoting economic integration, the Asia Forum Inc. is organizing its Asean 100 Leadership Forum on September 28 and 29 in Makati City. Ong, a Brunei businessman, said the Asean 100 is a highly interactive meeting of minds of the most promising Southeast Asian next-generation leaders from business, government and civil society.

The forum will begin with a dinner address and dialogue with President Aquino, followed on the next day by thought-provoking discussions around a central theme of “One Asean,” led by key figures from the region and other parts of the world, including Federico Lopez, chief executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp., and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and chief executive of Ayala Corp.

Ong said some homegrown businesses will find the forum a useful platform for relationship building and regional outreach. This is manifested by the attendance of CEOs of highly respected corporations to at least two of the prior forums. The list includes AirAsia, the region’s largest low-cost airline; the Para Group, a top Indonesian diversified group; Top Glove Corp., a Malaysian rubber-glove manufacturer that produces 22 percent of the world’s rubber gloves; First Philippine Holdings Corp., a leading energy player in the country; Ayala Corp., one of the Philippines’ largest and oldest business houses; Ascendas, a regional provider of office-space solutions headquartered in Singapore; the Wangkanai Group, a Thai sugar conglomerate; and the Adinin Group, a leading oil-and-gas engineering company in Brunei, to name only a few.

As far as the Philippines is concerned, Ong said the Philippines has a very good potential to become a player in the economic integration of Asean.

“The Philippines has a sufficient corporate sector which can be classified as world-class like SM, Ayala, Jollibee and ICTSI [International Container Terminal Services Inc.]. I am happy to tell you that Jollibee is No. 1 in Brunei,” he said.

Furthermore, Ong said the Philippines has excellent human capital as proven by the deployment of millions of Filipino professionals around the world.

“However, the sad thing is that many Filipinos are forced to work abroad because of lack of opportunities in the Philippine economy,” he said.


Europe’s experience

According to Dr. Myrna Austria, vice chancellor for academics and full-time professor in economics at De La University-Manila, FTAs or regional trade agreements spur economic growth through increased specialization, greater trade, and the inclusion in a global value chain.

In her paper “Asean’s Extra Regional Linkages: Implications for an East Asian Economic Community,” Austria pointed out that it would be an advantage for the Asean to enter into formal arrangements because this also strengthens regional peace and security—which she said was the driving force behind the European integration.

Being at the center of two world wars, the Europeans know of their devastating effects such that after World War II the Europeans pushed with greater effort the formation of the Pan-Europa movement.

Austria believes that the China-Asean FTA should open the way of settling the current dispute over the Spratlys.

“In this regard, the insistence by Asean on accession by prospective partners to its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation is an important cornerstone in improving peace and security in the region,” Austria said.

“A formal arrangement should help countries either lock in domestic reforms or accelerate implementation of proposed reforms. International agreements can act as commitment mechanisms, providing policy-makers with the needed leverage to overcome domestic resistance to reforms. An FTA can also provide a government with credibility, thereby boosting domestic and foreign investment in the country,” added Austria.

An East Asian FTA will also make member-countries more conscious of the development gap in the region and might be the key to help neighboring countries stabilize and prosper for “altruistic purposes and get away from the effects of spillovers of unrest and population.” Austria said reducing the development gap will enhance the Asean, making it a more effective link between countries of Northeast Asia.

More important, Austria said an FTA will give the bloc a stronger political bargaining power because they’re sending the message they have banded together to pursue common interests.

And it is important for the Asean to ally with China, she stressed.

“Having China on its side will definitely enhance the political stature of Asean and vice-versa. One area that can be revived through advocacy by a China-Asean front is the reform of the international financial architecture. Efforts toward such measures were sidelined by indifference of the US Treasury,” she said.


The Philippine challenge

The Chinese experience, however, also proves that one can achieve economic growth without FTAs.

“The simple fact is that countries in East Asia which experienced high rates of economic growth did so without the benefit of an FTA. China was not even a signatory of GATT or an original member of the WTO. In other words, an FTA is not crucial to economic growth,” said Austria.

As such, Dr. Josef Yap, president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, said the Philippines must first address its own development so it can be a formidable partner in any economic merger.

In his paper “Economic Integration and Regional Cooperation in East Asia: A Pragmatic View,” Yap said the Philippines has to shape up its economy.

“It should be emphasized that the impediments to faster economic growth are largely internal. For example, the study of the East Asian miracle points to four main factors: outward orientation, a modernized agriculture sector, bureaucratic efficiency and a relatively equitable distribution of income. Moreover, outward orientation by these countries was not achieved through joining an FTA,” Yap said.

“The Philippines is a clear example where unimpressive economic growth is largely due to internal factors. The disparity is largest when all 10 Asean member-countries are compared as a group. It can be observed that the disparity of the Asean+3 is lower than the Asean 10 and the coefficient of variation declines further when the lower income countries are not included,” he said.

Yap pointed out that developing economies, such as the Philippines, need to beef up their own capabilities—in terms of infrastructure technology and human-resource development—to maintain a competitive business environment and economic and social stability in order to capitalize on the benefits of liberalization.

Right now, he said, there’s much to be desired in the capabilities of the country. For instance, the poor quality of infrastructure of the country has been cited frequently by several business groups and think tanks as one of the main reasons investors shy away from the country.

On resource development, the Philippines has a lot of catching up to do as its educational system has experienced a drastic decline in standards, resulting in a large number of graduates who don’t have sufficient skills.

So while it is important to strengthen Asean, a special focus must be placed on narrowing the development gap among the member-countries—which will not be achieved by merely deepening regional economic integration.

“Direct interventions at the regional level are necessary and this will be difficult to accomplish without East Asian countries establishing political rapprochement,” Yap said.

On her part, Austria said developing a common framework is a challenge itself for the Asean given the different levels of development of the member- economies.

She said Asean must review its approach and position as the hub of bilateral trade deals in East Asia if it wants to play a major role in building the whole process toward the formation of the East Asian community.

“An ideal framework would be one that strengthens, rather than contradicts, the market forces known to drive economic integration of the region,” she said.

I'm not for economic integration due to the great disparity in development among ASEAN's member countries. The EU for example, first implemented some sort of prerequisite minimum economic standards before they accepted a member country into their bloc. AFAIK, things like Debt to GDP ratios, inflation and unemployment rate etc. were taken into consideration when assssing a country's elegibility to join the club so to speak. They were designed primarily to even out out the risks to potential investors seeking to take advantage of opportunities in the new member country. And yet inspite of it, Europe is now on the brink of collapse itself -- as some of their analysts put it, triggered primarily by the fiscal indiscipline among other things, of the economically less developed nations in the union such as Greece etc.

If ever an economic integration were really necessary to better compete with the BRIC nations then it would be more prudent and advisable to limit membership to the original ASEAN five -- which includes the Philippines for starters, and then gradually add the other countries subject to similar eligibility requirements done in the EU. But for such a plan to succeed, checks and balances should be adopted i.e. creating a monitoring committee that will review all member countries' critical economic and other indicators on a quarterly basis to preempt or mitigate risks before they turn into crisis proportions that would seriously undermine the viability of such an economic bloc. They can also add disciplinary and other such measures or even outright expulsion in worst case scenarios if agreed upon standards and policies are not being met. :cheers:

ASEAN: Strength in numbers
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/perspective/16964-strength-in-numbers

THE Philippines could become the ninth-largest economy in the world—but only if it integrates with the rest of the 10 countries—Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean.

United, the Asean economy is valued at at least $1.8 trillion—a little smaller than Brazil but larger than Russia, according Dato Timothy Ong, founder and chairman of Asia Inc. Forum and the convener of the Asean 100 forum.

Ong believes it is high time for the Asean to be integrated as an economic unit to become a more potent and stronger force in the global economic arena.

“In a globalizing world and with the rise of India and China, can Asean afford to be fragmented,” he said at a recent interview in Makati City. “If Asean is one, it’s going to be a more significant market and, at the same time, will be a force to reckon with.”

Indeed, economic integration is one of the hottest buzzwords of the global economy today.

The Asean has become a prominent figure in promoting bilateral and regional trading arrangements since 1997, starting with the Asean Plus Three process linking the 10-member bloc with China, South Korea and Japan.

Haruhiko Kuroda, president of Asian Development Bank, pointed out the importance of Asean in the global trading arena.

“Asean has become a manufacturing network for a wide range of products—from pharmaceuticals, automobiles and electronics to information-technology goods—and also produces high-end intermediate goods for final assembly elsewhere. Asean members have been major participants in the rapid expansion of free-trade agreements [FTAs] across Asia and the Pacific,” Kuroda said in one of his speeches.

Given its experience as a collegial body addressing common issues and concerns, the Asean can become an important vehicle for working toward a consolidation of FTAs into regionwide agreements. As synergies develop, it stands to gain as a community—as a center for expanding regionalism.


Asean 100

To push the momentum in promoting economic integration, the Asia Forum Inc. is organizing its Asean 100 Leadership Forum on September 28 and 29 in Makati City. Ong, a Brunei businessman, said the Asean 100 is a highly interactive meeting of minds of the most promising Southeast Asian next-generation leaders from business, government and civil society.

The forum will begin with a dinner address and dialogue with President Aquino, followed on the next day by thought-provoking discussions around a central theme of “One Asean,” led by key figures from the region and other parts of the world, including Federico Lopez, chief executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp., and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and chief executive of Ayala Corp.

Ong said some homegrown businesses will find the forum a useful platform for relationship building and regional outreach. This is manifested by the attendance of CEOs of highly respected corporations to at least two of the prior forums. The list includes AirAsia, the region’s largest low-cost airline; the Para Group, a top Indonesian diversified group; Top Glove Corp., a Malaysian rubber-glove manufacturer that produces 22 percent of the world’s rubber gloves; First Philippine Holdings Corp., a leading energy player in the country; Ayala Corp., one of the Philippines’ largest and oldest business houses; Ascendas, a regional provider of office-space solutions headquartered in Singapore; the Wangkanai Group, a Thai sugar conglomerate; and the Adinin Group, a leading oil-and-gas engineering company in Brunei, to name only a few.

As far as the Philippines is concerned, Ong said the Philippines has a very good potential to become a player in the economic integration of Asean.

“The Philippines has a sufficient corporate sector which can be classified as world-class like SM, Ayala, Jollibee and ICTSI [International Container Terminal Services Inc.]. I am happy to tell you that Jollibee is No. 1 in Brunei,” he said.

Furthermore, Ong said the Philippines has excellent human capital as proven by the deployment of millions of Filipino professionals around the world.

“However, the sad thing is that many Filipinos are forced to work abroad because of lack of opportunities in the Philippine economy,” he said.


Europe’s experience

According to Dr. Myrna Austria, vice chancellor for academics and full-time professor in economics at De La University-Manila, FTAs or regional trade agreements spur economic growth through increased specialization, greater trade, and the inclusion in a global value chain.

In her paper “Asean’s Extra Regional Linkages: Implications for an East Asian Economic Community,” Austria pointed out that it would be an advantage for the Asean to enter into formal arrangements because this also strengthens regional peace and security—which she said was the driving force behind the European integration.

Being at the center of two world wars, the Europeans know of their devastating effects such that after World War II the Europeans pushed with greater effort the formation of the Pan-Europa movement.

Austria believes that the China-Asean FTA should open the way of settling the current dispute over the Spratlys.

“In this regard, the insistence by Asean on accession by prospective partners to its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation is an important cornerstone in improving peace and security in the region,” Austria said.

“A formal arrangement should help countries either lock in domestic reforms or accelerate implementation of proposed reforms. International agreements can act as commitment mechanisms, providing policy-makers with the needed leverage to overcome domestic resistance to reforms. An FTA can also provide a government with credibility, thereby boosting domestic and foreign investment in the country,” added Austria.

An East Asian FTA will also make member-countries more conscious of the development gap in the region and might be the key to help neighboring countries stabilize and prosper for “altruistic purposes and get away from the effects of spillovers of unrest and population.” Austria said reducing the development gap will enhance the Asean, making it a more effective link between countries of Northeast Asia.

More important, Austria said an FTA will give the bloc a stronger political bargaining power because they’re sending the message they have banded together to pursue common interests.

And it is important for the Asean to ally with China, she stressed.

“Having China on its side will definitely enhance the political stature of Asean and vice-versa. One area that can be revived through advocacy by a China-Asean front is the reform of the international financial architecture. Efforts toward such measures were sidelined by indifference of the US Treasury,” she said.


The Philippine challenge

The Chinese experience, however, also proves that one can achieve economic growth without FTAs.

“The simple fact is that countries in East Asia which experienced high rates of economic growth did so without the benefit of an FTA. China was not even a signatory of GATT or an original member of the WTO. In other words, an FTA is not crucial to economic growth,” said Austria.

As such, Dr. Josef Yap, president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, said the Philippines must first address its own development so it can be a formidable partner in any economic merger.

In his paper “Economic Integration and Regional Cooperation in East Asia: A Pragmatic View,” Yap said the Philippines has to shape up its economy.

“It should be emphasized that the impediments to faster economic growth are largely internal. For example, the study of the East Asian miracle points to four main factors: outward orientation, a modernized agriculture sector, bureaucratic efficiency and a relatively equitable distribution of income. Moreover, outward orientation by these countries was not achieved through joining an FTA,” Yap said.

“The Philippines is a clear example where unimpressive economic growth is largely due to internal factors. The disparity is largest when all 10 Asean member-countries are compared as a group. It can be observed that the disparity of the Asean+3 is lower than the Asean 10 and the coefficient of variation declines further when the lower income countries are not included,” he said.

Yap pointed out that developing economies, such as the Philippines, need to beef up their own capabilities—in terms of infrastructure technology and human-resource development—to maintain a competitive business environment and economic and social stability in order to capitalize on the benefits of liberalization.

Right now, he said, there’s much to be desired in the capabilities of the country. For instance, the poor quality of infrastructure of the country has been cited frequently by several business groups and think tanks as one of the main reasons investors shy away from the country.

On resource development, the Philippines has a lot of catching up to do as its educational system has experienced a drastic decline in standards, resulting in a large number of graduates who don’t have sufficient skills.

So while it is important to strengthen Asean, a special focus must be placed on narrowing the development gap among the member-countries—which will not be achieved by merely deepening regional economic integration.

“Direct interventions at the regional level are necessary and this will be difficult to accomplish without East Asian countries establishing political rapprochement,” Yap said.

On her part, Austria said developing a common framework is a challenge itself for the Asean given the different levels of development of the member- economies.

She said Asean must review its approach and position as the hub of bilateral trade deals in East Asia if it wants to play a major role in building the whole process toward the formation of the East Asian community.

“An ideal framework would be one that strengthens, rather than contradicts, the market forces known to drive economic integration of the region,” she said.

Some good points. However, I'm not sure how much this will work seeing as how the Eurozone hasn't really been holding up well lately.
Philippines just needs to: Weed out corruption, Improve education, Improve law enforcement, subsidize research and development, and go through intense industrialization.

Liberalization has killed Phl manufacturing sector, says Villar




By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
(The Philippine Star)
Updated October 27, 2011
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=741597&publicationSubCategoryId=66


MANILA, Philippines - The move of Philippine negotiators to open the domestic market rapidly has killed local manufacturers, a senior member of the Senate said.

“We (the Philippines ) were fascinated with liberalization and the WTO that we opened the country too fast, ahead of China and India ,” Sen. Manuel Villar said. “Now we want to level the playing field, but there are no more players. They (local manufacturers) are all dead,” he added.:ohno::ohno::ohno:
He noted that Philippine trade negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) bungled in the job and betrayed the interest of local industries.

According to Villar, the interest of the Filipino manufacturers have been left out and waylaid in the rush towards globalization that there are now only a few of them standing. .




No wonder the available jobs here are in the services sector that offer not so permanent employment status (i.e. contractual) . We are now becoming a nation of call center agents and salesmen and massive trade deficits, unemployment and underemployment as a norm.

A country cannot progress without a vibrant manufacturing sector and Im sure our stupid trade negotiators sent to the WTO know this but they opted to be dumb.

Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia and Thailand turned to manufacturing to fuel their spectacular growth and now even fast rising Vietnam is going into manufacturing to build its economy.:cheers:

Yet this country and its moronic experts think we can leaf frog to developed status by turning the country into a land of sales rep, GROs, BPO agents and nurses.:bash:

Gising Pilipinas!:bash::bash::bash:

It won't work in the Philippines with a individualistic mindset unlike them with a conformist one so the only way is really through competition.

What's needed is to really open up the country for competition and allow the industries (both foreign and locals) to grow by how the market behaves - not force it through our uber nationalistic policies that ends up becoming a big failure. Make the country competitive by attracting as many businesses as possible whether local or foreign so more opportunities will open up for everybody.

Also along that line, the government should put more money in education as well as R&D which is seriously lacking to make the country more competitive.