SOMEBODY asked me that with the global economy bottomed out, how could I see recovery in light of the easing of oil and commodity prices?
I responded that it is too early to say that the global economy is improving. Just look at the subprime problem in the United States, which triggered the worldwide credit crunch. […]

THE double-digit drop in earnings of major players in the banking industry in this year’s first semester was not unexpected. It was caused by the global credit crunch triggered by the subprime crisis in the United States. And this impact continues to be felt today.
When the subprime crisis hit, I remember the immediate reaction of […]

THE recent Supreme Court decision that allowed foreign ownership of mining projects has sparked renewed interest in the Philippine mining industry. Before this, the industry was in the doldrums because of ownership restrictions and low mineral prices in the global markets.
With the tribunal’s ruling, both the government and the mining companies immediately went into […]

WE shouldn’t worry too much over the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’(BSP) report saying the inflation rate reached 12.2 percent in July. We seem to have exaggerated the seriousness of this development when it described the figure as the highest in 14 years.
Sure, 12.2 percent is high, especially when we recall that our average inflation […]

SINCE I started this series of columns on the need for a comprehensive and long-term renaissance program for agriculture, I have discussed several components of a grand strategy to implement that program, namely, conducting an inventory of agricultural resources, corporate farming, agricultural education and revisiting the carabao.
These are just a few possible components of the […]

EXTRAORDINARY events such as the global fuel and food crises have prompted governments to take high-profile, costly measures in a near-panic or panic mode.
In the process, it is not unusual for those who are quick to declare the release of billions of pesos for this or that emergency measure to forget about less costly, longer-lasting […]

IT’S heartening to read reports about two giant business organizations engaging in agricultural production amid the food crisis affecting all countries of the world today.
San Miguel Corp. and the Hong Kong-based Kuok Group of Companies, two of Southeast Asia’s biggest food companies, have just launched a P1-billion joint project to cultivate 1 million hectares of […]

WHEN the Philippines joined the race to become industrialized several decades ago, it was at the expense of agriculture. The thinking then was that progressive countries must be industrialized, and that being an agricultural economy was being backward.
We now know that was a mistake. We forgot that the United States, one of the most industrial […]

WHEN the President presents her State of the Nation Address (Sona) before the joint session of Congress and the people a few weeks from now, I sense a dilemma confronting the Chief Executive in the light of our current situation.
Politicians in the past like to downplay the setbacks and the gloomy part of the country’s […]

THE SLOWDOWN in the growth of the economy to 5.2 percent in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first three months of 2008 shows our vulnerability to developments in the Middle East, where our oil comes from, and the United States, where a large part of our products are exported; in addition the […]