Do nothing, don’t intervene
Many stock traders and fund managers, who benefited from the exuberant stock exchange and who bet that the peso would continue to appreciate, are pressuring monetary authorities to do something to reverse the depreciating peso. Doing so would be a monumental mistake.
Investment grade: boon or bane?
The annals of underdevelopment are filled with chapters on failures due to wasted opportunities, with hardly any account of failure due to scarcity of resources.
Currency wars
The growing strength of the euro, accompanied by Japanese authorities’ moves to push down the yen, has rekindled talk of "currency wars." With Europe still in search for new sources of growth, a strong euro could make euro zone exports look more expensive and unattractive. A weaker yen may provide relief for Japanese exporters...
A call to paranoia
2012 should go down in Philippine history as a magical year. But a year -- however kissed by fortune -- does not make an era. And we need at least an era of persistent good news to bend the arc of our history.
The peso appreciation and monetary-fiscal coordination
The paper tracks the exchange rate experience of the Philippines with four other East Asian neighbors and finds that the Philippine appreciation is most severe. The paper asserts that exchange rate policy is a matter of policy discretion even under the regime of market-based exchange rates.
Peso appreciation and the economy (once again)
The peso appreciation is unjustifiable from the viewpoint of the economy’s high unemployment and poverty situation. The outcome is not founded on market fundamentals but on aberrations arising from the bounty that we experience from recent positive economic news and continued high level of remittances.
Exporters hurting badly
"Hunker down," that’s what President Aquino told exporters last Tuesday, during the 20th anniversary of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. He assured them that they can count on his administration’s support when the world recovers from the recession. But how much longer would exporters have to suffer? And what should the government do in the...
Inquirer quotes Fabella on the exchange rate
The 5 November 2012 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer features the views of Raul V. Fabella on the urgent need for government action on the appreciation of the peso.
Collective impotence and the peso
The resolution submitted by the PCCI to Pres. Aquino at the closing of the just-concluded Philippine Business Conference is notable. It called for the arrest of the continuing appreciation of the Philippine peso to safeguard our dollar earning industries.
Bernanke, Volcker, and Marcos
Last week we commemorated, with a view to averting the same nightmare in future, the sufferings of the heroes who fought the Marcos dictatorship. Few recall that the seed of the collapse of the Marcos regime was partly sown by the triumph of one monetary world view championed by the Milton Friedman over another championed...
Peso exchange rate: alternative paths
Why should the peso keep appreciating? Many Philippine export industries have been complaining that they could lose their market position. Some might even be forced to quit. This would be injurious to the nation given the high level of unemployment and underemployment and the widespread incidence of poverty.
The central bank’s offer the NG should not refuse
The Bangko Sentral has offered to sell to the government all the dollars it needs to service its foreign loans. It’s a triple win situation: it minimizes the national government’s foreign exchange risks, it reduces the BSP’s costs of siphoning excess liquidity in the system, and it eases the economic misery of exporters. ...
