Weekend Business Links
The fear, uncetainty, and doubt (FUD) that has infected the US economy as a result of its subprime mortgage crisis has reached Philippine businessmen and has dampened their optimism somewhat: Businesses turn cautious for third quarter.
“”The slightly more cautious business outlook in the third quarter relative to the second quarter was attributed by respondent firms to the following factors: the slackening of production for the third quarter due to seasonality, possible slowdown in the US economy due to problems in the housing market, and competition of cheap imports, mostly from China,” [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] director Teresita Deveza told a briefing.”
The Philippine stock market has been unable to shake off the subprime jitters as well, but experts say Asia should be able to weather the storm well: Asia appears poised to escape major fallout from subprime crisis.
Two Chinese banks, however, have fallen victim to the crisis:
“Investors punished China’s flagship lender, Bank of China, after it disclosed the biggest exposure revealed so far of any bank in Asia to this segment of the U.S. mortgage market.
“Shares in the bank, the second-largest in China, fell 5.4 percent to close at 3.87 Hong Kong dollars, or 50 U.S. cents, after it reported holding almost $9.7 billion in securities backed by subprime mortgages.
“That is about 3.5 percent of its total securities portfolio.”
At least one banker has expressed support for a proposal to fix the exchange rate for the benefit of overseas Filipino workers, involving the use of a buffer fund underwritten by taxpayer’s money. Speaking of wish lists, Philippine businessmen are ready to present the President with their own:
“Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., honorary chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and president of the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation, said the list would likely include the resolution of the Mindanao conflict, electoral reforms, a stop to smuggling, cheaper power, limited open skies, the adoption of measures identified by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and the Magna Carta for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).”
Expect higher bread prices in the near future: Wheat prices rise to record levels.
Until I came across this Wall Street Journal article, I never quite understood why are Philippine officials pinning their hopes on the jatropha plant, also known as tuba-tuba, tubang bakod, or talantangan:
“With oil trading at roughly $70 a barrel, this lowly forest plant is suddenly an unlikely star on the world’s alternative-energy stage. The seeds from jatropha’s golf-ball-size fruit contain a yellowish liquid similar to palm oil that can be made into biodiesel … But unlike other biodiesel crops, jatropha can be grown almost anywhere — including deserts, trash dumps, and rock piles. It doesn’t need much water or fertilizer, and it isn’t edible. That means environmentalists and policy makers don’t have to worry about whether jatropha diverts resources away from crops that could be used to feed people.”
Open mouth, insert foot: The Philippine blogosphere rejoices at forcing the ouster of writer Malu Fernandez from People Asia and the Manila Standard Today for making ill-considered remarks that made fun of overseas Filipino workers. Not everybody, however, is pleased at the result and mind you, neither writer suggested giving Ms. Fernandez any quarter. Rather, both are disappointed at the limited impact of this mass action, if you may, against the hapless writer.
Had Ms. Fernandez been a blogger and published her remarks in her blog, would the reactions been the same? In real life, many demanded – and indeed got – her head on a silver platter, but how do you achieve that with a self-published writer?
