Real vs. "hot money" economics

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/14/2005



“Hello Philippines, hello world”, we are back. After a week of mental and emotional purgatory I have rebounded, stronger. Nietzche first said it “What does not kill you, strengthens you.” I recall Bush’s beleaguered political consiglieri Carl Rove say that about the Plame-leak case that threatens to bring down their cabinet, and Bobbie Tiglao saying the same about the “Hello Garci” and impeachment episodes on Gloria. Yet, I argue that their claims are cover-ups of more weakening while I genuinely am reinvigorated.

I have had a renewal of the spirit. Not in a religious sense, although talks with my Christian and Buddhist friends have helped immensely. The crises I have faced made me understand that only love – rationally inexplicable but spiritually so real – is the real strength. I am not being melodramatic about this. The change is reflected in my praxis, pledging to make my each and every act to be one of assistance to each and every living being that I encounter despite the crises I face myself. The synergy with the people I work with to help, opens up hope and progress.

One morally upright former politician, who’s now devoted to the work of the Couples for Christ, has been facing the same crisis as the biblical Job. Despite his crises he has been with me at my mother’s wake almost every night, what is this if not an expression of fraternal love for a fellow human being. How can I not change in response, and now without solicitation from my friend I have tried to link him to a project I came across with some kin. Synergy creates hope and power when people in crisis come together.

For five years now I have advocated the massive promotion and use of virgin coconut oil, long before it was popular. Yet, it is some big businessmen and fly-by-night operations cashing in with poor quality products. I have so many hard-up people coming to me asking when we will produce and market our own brand so our network of activists, workers and urban poor can sell them to augment their meager incomes. For a long time and in a selfish way I have insisted to use only my own capital to start this, now we will invite capital to jump start it.

These may seem too small in the face of the gargantuan crisis today, but to the taxi driver who calls me asking if we have the one liter coco virgin oil (I often have some in stock) which sells to add P 100 a day to his dwindling income (P200 taken by the new oil prices from normal P 500 daily earnings) it is a huge matter. The same for some activist friends who also help sell the products, or develop new projects. These may look like a simple matter but there’s an entire political-economy behind it – taking the money away from the malls and big business, and putting it into the small people’s pockets.

An item in yesterday papers reports, “rental income raises mall developer’s net”, I won’t mention the company. Interview the mall tenants and you’ll hear wails of woes - ever increasing rent, mall owners’ generic brands imposed on the restaurants (ex. mineral water), huge rental deposits (practically finances their constructions), etc. In yesterday’s papers you will find another headline, “Ayala Corp. profit up by nearly half. Last week we all read how PLDT’s profit rose by 600% (90% from Smart that refuses to be taxed). Its boom times for Big Business, but a bane for the people.

The truth is more complex; many of these corporations are in hock to foreign finance oligarchs. They’re on a treadmill too, but they pass on the sweating to the small and medium scale enterprises in the malls. One of these global financial oligarchs just visited Gloria Arroyo, although this visitor named Maurice “Hank” Greenberg has been indicted in the U.S. for nineteen counts of fraud. Greenberg promised Gloria more investments. Good news? Just make sure you look at the fine print, they’ll all be covered by “sovereign guarantee”.

Gloria wants us to believe that by working with Greenberg and the diktats of the IMF-WB on EVAT, privatization, etc. she is on the right track – and she is crowing about it. The Gloria mainstream propaganda sheet reports that the Peso surges to a 5-month high of P 54.42 to $1, and headlines on the front page “Arroyo on VAT: I told you so” gloating over the Peso rebound and fall in fuel prices. Prevarications and consummate lies. Right below the report on the Peso rebound is this news: “’Hot money’ inflows surge to $2.05”, more that eight times the $ 254-M recorded in the same month last year. It is this same kind of “hot money” that created the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Isn’t the manipulation obvious, just to make people swallow the EVAT swindle of the nation? That’s why Gloria’s rebound is fake, and the issues will eventually kill her regime. There are eighty-four million Filipinos facing personal crisis today. They need

the help and boost in incomes, not the big corporations. This is the crux of the matter today – take back and give the nation’s wealth, the economy, back to the people!

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