With regards to our economy. why are we not being hit? Simple, our economy is a peanut economy. we do not belong to the real world economy per se. Ours is a consumer economy being propped up by OFW remittances and debts. Our budgets are being balanced through the sale of government assets (privatizations) and foreign and domestic debt (cp, bonds, ODA loan, imf loans, wb loans, chines loans (biggest creditor),etc..). If gloria really reduced our foreign debt how come it increased by more than 1 trillion this year alone from 3.82 trillion as of may 2007 and they are still borrowing.

Gloria’s tax collection record is worst. so, where does she get the money to fund the country’s expenses, projects, etc..? eh di utang.

And the social cost of this is deadly. according to some reports, kada piso na kita ng gobyerno, .80 sentimos pumupunta sa debt servicing or payment, 0.20 sa mga pinoy for social services, etc.. So now you would not wonder why walang pera lagi ang sagot para sa edukasyon, sa health care, at kung ano ano pa. samahan mo pa ng kurakot, ano pa ang natitira?

After the asian crisis, our neighboring countries and us fell flat but after more than a year, their economies shoot up and where were we? sa kankungan. mauunahan pa tayo ng vietnam.

the bottom line is are we better-off today than 8 or 9 years ago?

i am not an economist but in my line of work, i always encounter (sometimes i need to analyze) these kinds of information at kung ano ano pang economic datas and figures kaya kahit konti naka comment ako ng ganito. ha ha ha

marami pa pero dito na lang muna. masyado na akong nagigiging matalino. haha ha. btw, in my blog, i posted about gloria’s sona noong 2007, titled debt that sounds like death.

geez I need a grammar check… that’s supposedly “shorter than I already am!!!” I’m such a “moronic ignoramus” sometimes geez >.<

Yeah.. so sad when they tried to solve a debt problem around 2005 (the increased tax rates to pay debt ASAP, thus reducing interest cost & taking advantage of the increasing Peso value against US Dollars, but we know these rates are supposed to be reduced also in 2009), the subprime/mortgage crisis wasn't surfacing or wasn't even talked about much this year. By this year people talked about derivatives & hedging and exotic investments were the "in."

I don't know what model they use in computing their expected effective interest rates, but I'm pretty sure that this subprime downfall wasn't expected in their computations.

Sad to say this this inflation, caused by a "Global" crisis and it's everybody's problem already. Still, try to imagine GMA being goody-goody and say, the government will waive VAT temporarily for a month… What will people do… panic-buying I guess… and we all know that petrol supplies are being "rationed" already… meaning if not properly distributed and taken cared of… we will loose supply since petrol companies only sell us gas with a limit.

Still, lowering VAT has a cost (i.e., our debt once again will not be paid at once or worse we might get indebted again)…

It's like the Philippines is so tight on credit already. Like we're on a very troublesome "credit card debt."

Sigh, if I were president I think I'd be shorter than I already are… lolz…

Though I believe the solution is simple, the varying factor still is people. If people also evade taxes then there's a consequence to the economy as a whole. (solution: strict audit by BIR)

Government officials are corrupt (probably solution: Lifestyle check, and oh if there's such a thing as corporate governance I think there should be a "Government governance" 😉 and the COA… must do their job.

Filipino Citizen – caused the problem and still prevents the solution to happen. Already too selfish and think only of oneself 🙁 Where the only solution is to believe in one goal, have a solution and support it. Nothing is impossible but this attitude problem is already reaching the limits.

So sad…

and the colorum thing… Just imagine if they would try to stop monitoring that too…

Oh but heck, these are just my opinions and my thoughts… Now we need an economist to enlighten us 😛 A very unbiased one… :$

Yep, it’s indeed important because it’s supposed to distribute the money all over the country thus bridging the gap of the rich and the poor. The problem is, this is not happening. The poor becomes even poorer and I think this is because of inflation (which I heard is 12% for this month alone! Exagg!). How about a compromise on the VAT that’s being added in the gas prices? It’s not only the middle or the upper class who’s affected by this. All people consume goods and when gas prices are up (you already know this =P), all goods rise their prices as well.

So, I think, though I don’t have any kind of computations, VAT should be lowered down a bit. Say, 8%? I’m not really sure. But it would be really good to come up with a compromise.

Also, about the driver who was earning P200 and now earning P500, Pres. Arroyo is not speaking as an economist. She knows that it is possible that the value of that P200 before is the same value of the P500 now. Again, inflation :\ So this example is not really a valid case for her to show off.

Just my two cents =P