- “More unequal countries have worse social indicators, a poorer human development record, and higher degrees of economic insecurity and anxiety. In too many countries, inequality increased and real wages stagnated—failing to keep up with productivity—over the past few decades. Ominously, inequality in the United States was back at its pre-Great Depression levels on the eve of the crisis.” Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has allowed Philippine Airlines’ planned mass layoff of some 3,000 employees when she affirmed the previous order of then acting labor secretary Romeo Lagman denying the motion for reconsideration of the ground crew union at the national flag carrier. Read the rest of this entry »

The next few days, analysts say, will make or break French President Nicolas Sarkozy. I hasten to add that the next few days will make or break the French economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Prices of commodities including petroleum are beginning to spike upward again, which could derail global economic recovery and affect growth in the Philippines, according to economists. Read the rest of this entry »

The combined net income of listed firms grew a fifth in the first six months because of the strong performance of the economy, according to the local bourse. In a statement, the Philippine Stock Exchange(PSE) said the combined earnings of listed companies jumped 20.1 percent to P232.2 billion from P193.36 billion during the same six-month period last year. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is lukewarm to the proposal of legislators to regulate the interest rates imposed by credit card companies as this could unduly weaken the credit transmission power of monetary policy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is convinced that loose-credit standards rather than the absence of a credit-rating agency are the driving force behind the high incidence of loan defaults among credit-card borrowers. Read the rest of this entry »

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest trade group, is supporting a proposal for a 12-year primary and secondary schooling for children under the K-12 program of the Aquino administration. Read the rest of this entry »

“Innovation is a new way of doing things that results in positive change,” writes Carmine Gallo, author of a new book called The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success (McGraw-Hill). Innovative businesses and entrepreneurs drive the kind of job creation needed to power us out of the lingering economic doldrums. And nobody does innovation better than Apple in the second Jobs era. Yet his methods have been difficult to reduce to a simple formula. As Jobs himself once told an interviewer, imitators often end up being “like someone who’s not cool trying to be cool. It’s painful to watch.” Gallo says the key is to think more broadly than a reductive, step-by-step process would allow. “Innovation is often confused with invention,” he writes. “Not everyone can be an inventor, but anyone can be an innovator.” See also our slideshow based on Gallo’s previous best-seller, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and don’t miss our brief history of Apple. Read the rest of this entry »

Nonetheless, call-center agent Jerson Beltran, who said that he neither smokes nor uses any prohibited substances and hardly drinks (except on special occasions), stressed that having vices depends entirely on an individual’s personal choices. Another business process outsourcing (bpo) employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, ranted on the findings, saying: “[Many] call-center workers do smoke, get sick” and indulge in a lot of vices, “but that’s not even half of us.” Read the rest of this entry »