makakarating!

here’s what i said:

“Investors will no longer look at the story behind the figures, just at the figures themselves”

did i limit ‘investors’ to ‘lechon-manok businessmen?’

And my mention of ‘businessmen friends’ is on showing increased business activity, which include some people investing in modest businesses such as lechon manok and food carts.

yes, thats the reality – that many people are still basing investment decisions on GDP/GNP. superstition or not, right or wrong, many people still cling to GDP figures.

since you’re no longer bound by ’superstition’ lets see you convince investors such as Temasek to put a billion dollars in FDI here without looking at GDP figures, and persuade them that GDP isn’t a good measurement of the investment climate here. best wishes. if you’re able to do so, you’ve proven your point, i salute you (you might as well do the same to other deep-pocketed investors)

maybe you’ve met a Pinoy lechon-manok businessman who told you he’s dependent on GDP figures in making decisions. such sophisticated businessman!

my goodness, can’t you make the distinction? I am not saying that GDP is a great measurement, but i have to put myself in the shoes of those investors who do!

“i did not make any normative judgment as to their livelihoods one way or the other.”

ah no sir, you just did. why single out ‘lechon-manok businessmen’?

“You just read too much into my comment,”

wrong again sir. the text of your comment is plain and simple and readily understood, no need to construe it. again, why use ‘lechon-manok businessmen’?

why do you have to say i associate with ‘lechon-manok businessmen’ and other businessmen in similar modest businesses? so what!? do you have their same guts to invest hard-earned money here?

and you’re the one who read too much into my use of ‘investor’ in my comment “Investors will no longer look at the story behind the figures, just at the figures themselves”

“…perhaps reflecting your own latent attitudes.”

in a manner of speaking, yes its a reflection of my own latent attitude –

- in appreciating the capacity of the Filipino to uplift himself without migrating to a first world country or becoming an OFW

- in appreciating any legal and modest means of livelihood

- in appreciating the fact that the Filipino has finally realized that ‘patalsikin na now na’ does not create jobs

Well what you wrote just shows you just let a lot of Singapore in you already

And how do we measure if job creation efforts are bearing fruit – GDP.

the downside to this is when the gdp begins to heat up, the foreign investors will be the first to pack up as labour cost is perceived to rise also in temperature.

we shouldn’t be overly reliant on foreign investments but rather on the sustainability of our own productive activities, providinf us with greater incentives to compete on our own merits globally.

FDIs, not ‘hot money’.

FDIs produce the jobs. ‘Hot money’ just enriches the owners of PSE members.

For all you know, Temasek could be holders of those glorified IOUs in the US subprime mess

“Whatever happened to “extreme due diligence”? Now we know why America is in recession. We’ve explained in one thread what Wall Street cannot, in the past weeks. Amazing, how brilliant we Filipinos are!”

the objects of ‘extreme due diligence’ are all in the US. judging from the subprime mess in the US, its either ‘extreme due diligence’ wasn’t done or ‘extreme due diligence’ wasn’t good enough. It can also mean that ‘extreme due diligence’ cannot predict the future.

when i talk about investors using GDP, im talking about the making of foreign direct investments (FDI) not ‘hot money’ (investments in stocks, IOUs etc)

What is primarily affected by the crisis in the US is our stock market, as ‘hot money’ had to monetize their gains here to compensate for losses in the US.

(sorry but whats the thread you mentioned about Wall Street cannot…)

I don’t pretend to know how GDP and other similar measurements should be computed. So ill better ask you na lang some questions:

1. GDP can mean thousands of previously jobless people are getting employed, right? hence, even though family income may not increase, the fact that households with incomes have increased (due to rise in employment) is an improvement in itself.

2. i still can’t fathom the reason for devaluing the peso – the guys at UPSE say it will attract more foreign investments as foreign investors can stretch their dollars here.

i’ve been hearing that argument since the peso was still P23 to the US dollar. The peso has gone up to 55 then down to 40-41. Yet im still hearing that familiar refrain today.