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Nepal 5: Building Quality, Construction Permits and Earthquake
The strong earthquake that hit Nepal last Saturday has affected so many people. This BBC news today quotes a huge figure from the UN.When I was in Nepal last January, I took some photos of Kathmandu...
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PH Travell Tax Should be Abolished
The Philippine travel tax is one of those envy-driven taxes. Just get the money by force, no need to explain where it is spent. This applies to Filipinos who travel abroad for pleasure/tourism,...
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Inequality 25: On High CEOs Pay and Legislated Minimum Wages
What is wrong with this illustration? ....Well, if the $10,000 an hour CEO is able to expand the company, retain existing jobs with bonuses at year end, and hiring more, then his rate is justified. In...
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Labor Econ 15: Wages in Asia, Robots and OFWs
International Labor Day tomorow, various labor issues will be highlighted once again. In this chart from a Bloomberg article, China Is Set to Lose Manufacturing Crown, April 29, 2015, the cost of labor...
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Agri Econ 19: Charcoal Supply and Demand
An economist friend, Joey, made this cool observation about charcoal supply and demand.... the bulk of users are the rural poor and not-so-poor in the urban centers. Most of the studies on charcoal and...
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Nepal 6: Nepal Government Wants to Monopolize All Donations
One ugly characteristic of many governments is their tendency to centralize many things, consistent with their central planning thinking. Like centralizing even private money and donations meant for...
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Demography 23: The UN, Depopulation and Climate
This is one more proof that the UN is the springboard of Malthusian eco-socialism and global central planning. This lady is the Exec. Secretary of the UN FCCC, the club of governments to "save the...
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Abolish Income Tax 10: Presentation in March 2007
This is the paper I presented in forum on “In Search of a National Consensus”, sponsored by the Barangay San Lorenzo Business Association (BSLBA) Makati, at My Cinema, Greenbelt 3, Makati City, March...
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The 1st PRPX, May 2007 in Hawaii, Photos
I just discovered these photos in my old emails, during the 1st Pacific Rim Policy Exchange (PRPX) held in Sheraton Waikiki, Hawaii, May 2007. It was mainly sponsored by the Americans for Tax Reforms...
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Why are Interest Rates so Low?
That is the question that Ben Bernanke, former US Fed Chairman, tackled in his blog at Brookings. Here are the papers:Why are interest rates so low? March 30, 2015Why are interest rates so low, Part 2:...
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The 2nd PRPX, June 2008 in Hong Kong
These are my notes after the 2nd Pacific Rim Policy Exchange (PRPX), held in June 4-5,2008, at JW Marriott Hotel, Hong Kong. It was sponsored by four free market-oriented think tanks: Americans for...
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Career in Free Market Think Tanks
Yesterday, I was of four UP ETC alumni-speakers in the student organization's "Career Workshop". The purpose of the forum was to give the members who are undergrad students, additional ideas how alumni...
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EFN Asia 47: Participation in Jeju Forum 2015
The Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) will participate once again in the big annual international conference in Korea, the (10th) Jeju Forum for...
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UK Election and Energy Policies
I am not following closely UK politics, but the huge victory of the Conservatives means partly a backlash against avid Greenism? One example is the defeat of UK's climate change Secretary Ed Davey....
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Tax Cut 23: Tax Competition in Asia, Hikes in Europe
This is the continuation of my essay almost eight years ago, Retreat of High Income Tax Philosophy (September 19, 2007). Here are the numbers, and notice the significant drop in tax rates from 1980 to...
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Free Trade 47: TPP, RCEP and IPR
The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) and South East Asia Network for Development (SEANET) hosted a forum on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) last May 7, 2015 in Kuala...
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Migration 24: Rohingya Boat People to SE Asia
I noticed today a big number of news reports about the boat people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya people, landing or detained or turned away, by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Tens of...
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Blog Stats, Hawaii Pics
This is a follow up to my previous post, Blog Stats this Month (April 19, 2015). This site is able to sustain nearly 500 pageviews a day, higher than the previous <400 a day, January-March this...
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BWorld 2, Benefits of Trade Liberalization for the Philippines
* This is my article for BusinessWorld Weekender, May 14, 2015.TRADE LIBERALIZATION means giving the consumers of the importing country more choices, more freedom, where to buy different goods and...
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Agri Econ 20, On NFA-BOC Campaign for Expensive Rice
For consumers, cheap is preferred to expensive, more is preferred to less, it's a no brainer. For many Filipinos, they want cheap rice. And cheap rice is readily available from our neighbors Vietnam...
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