“Money cannot call forth goods, but goods can call forth money…” -- David Ricardo,
on the “mere increase of money” (1809)

THE CHORUS of lawmakers and various groups calling for the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN)’s suspension amidst inflation rates peaking to four-year highs has only grown louder. The chief architects of the law have been put on the defensive, vehemently explaining that the rise in prices was predominantly driven by external factors. Even the president himself, who usually refrains from talking about economic issues, has offered his two cents on the debate. While he acknowledged that TRAIN is one of the factors driving up inflation, he emphasized that he needed money to run the country.

IN 2016, we witnessed power shifts around the world with the rise of populist, nativist, or nationalist politics on a global scale. Rebalancing themselves between change and continuity, the demands for radical social change have gotten more pronounced due to rising inequality amidst wealth, economic growth, and disruptive social forces. In 2017, we welcomed a new world order or disorder: where societies continue to face a state of political uncertainty, unpredictability and international factors beyond the control of national governments and economies. In 2018, more uncertainties have unfolded that characterize an ever-changing political dynamics and political economy of societies. In this post-factual world, we are simply caught in a tug-of-war between change and continuity.

AFTER ATTEMPTS by the past administrations to overhaul the 1987 Constitution, is the government’s bid, on President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s watch, toward federalism likely to succeed this time?

IN THE SECOND of three presidential debates in 2016, then-candidate Rodrigo R. Duterte asked contender Grace Poe, by way of testing her relative inexperience in her five-plus years in public office, what she would do in a Chinese attack on the Philippine Coast Guard.

PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. Duterte’s two years in office in the Philippines have been marred by controversy, but with one big success: a booming economy. The jury is still out if that’s because, or in spite, of him.

IN THE 21^ST CENTURY, infrastructure development has become the new pivot of geopolitics. Power and influence are no longer measured by military prowess or economic size alone but also the ability of international actors to provide the necessary capital and technology to overhaul decaying or underdeveloped public infrastructure around the world.

SEVERAL PROJECTS at different stages of development are in the process of making use of waste to come up with a useful output, the most ambitious of which is energy, either for the proponent’s own use or to serve a small surrounding community.
Holcim Philippines, Inc., through its co-processing brand Geocycle, is among those that have hurdled the strict permitting process, as well as safety and environmental requirements to make a productive use of waste.

AGRICULTURE in the Philippines has always been associated with manual labor and backward traditional farming methods. For the Department of Agriculture (DA), the stigma of farming being a poor man’s job doesn’t make it easier to fulfill its mandate of reaching food security or attracting more people to join the sector. However, progress is already creeping into the sector slowly but surely.

USUALLY the story goes like this: businesses are taking advantage of loopholes to increase profits at the expense of the environment and local communities, and the policy makers are scrambling to close these loopholes. However, more and more, we’re seeing evidence of the opposite: businesses are taking advantage of the market demand for sustainable and ethical products, and policy makers are trying to regulate to incentivize and replicate these behaviors.

Since May 2017, SparkUp, BusinessWorld’s multimedia platform for the business-minded youth, has been covering millennial-led start-ups and small and medium enterprises.

LIKE MANY Filipino-Chinese boys, 29-year-old Joshua Aragon, CEO and co-founder of online grocery platform Pushkart.ph, grew up as if he were destined to become a businessman.