Buying Local

 This morning, I found this article from Inquirer.net by Dr. Cielito Habito.  For quite sometime, I’ve been reading his articles from PDI and surely, it always gives me this gem of wisdom at the end of the day.  

We’ve been hearing the term “Buy Filipino Products”, “Buy Local Goods”, etc-etc., but still misses the significance of it.  In this article of his, Prof.Habito gives us another example of how buying local products could also help our neighborhood economy.  Enjoy the article and Happy and Prosperous New Year to all. 

No Free Lunch

Looking forward, looking inward

By Cielito Habito

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 17:57:00 01/04/2009

THE MONTH OF JANUARY was named by the Romans after Janus, the mythological god of doors and gates. What distinguished him was his ability to see both the past and the future, and was thus depicted as having two faces, one facing forward and the other backward. The first month of the year is indeed a time when we all look behind at the year just past, and anticipate what lies ahead. As usual, the economy dominates the picture in any such assessment, and as in any aspect of our lives, the way forward is always informed by lessons and experiences of the past.

Everyone knows by now that it has been a challenging year on the economic front, and the general outlook is a potentially even more challenging one in the year ahead. The constructive thing to do is to think of what we can do to minimize, if not avert, the difficulties to be brought upon us by the expected worsening of the economic downturn now afflicting the biggest economies of the world.

Looking inward
Many see the current challenges as being closely associated with, if not caused outright by that big bad G word, globalization.

Globalization is indeed a two-bladed sword. On one hand, we have benefited in past years from positive economic developments abroad, especially the rise of China and India as major economic powerhouses and how this also helped the traditional major economies of North America, Western Europe and Japan.
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Money Tips from Inquirer

Top tips on how to handle money in 2009
INQUIRER.net

First Posted 17:55:00 01/04/2009

MANILA, Philippines–The year 2008 has been a challenging year. Oil soared high triggering an increase in prices of commodities from rice and sugar to canned goods and bread.

But it also slumped, resulting in rollback of prices at the gas pump and in transportation fares.

Inflation reached double-digit levels but recorded its lowest low as well. It was this year that the world felt the effects of a global financial crisis.

Thousands of workers in many countries have lost their jobs and homes as corporations and financial institutions buckled under the financial crisis.

Filipinos are not exempted. Crisis is in the air and many are taking stock and preparing for what may lie ahead. That includes managing finances better.

Some finance-savvy people share below how they are handling their finances in the midst of a global financial crunch:

Question: What have you done this year to manage your finances better?
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