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The global financial center has shifted around the world for several thousand years, usually in a westward direction. There were two common denominators to the movement regardless if it was short or long geographic spurts or how long that financial center lasted.
AS I pass another “timeline” milestone this week, I will admit that 40 years ago I genuinely thought that by this time I would be “mellow.” The word comes from the Late Middle English period from the 14th century and until the 15th century and meant “ripe, sweet, and juicy.”
The trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday was one for the books. The peso volume was under one billion all day with the final amount of P1.29 billion only achieved in the run-off period.
“War” was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1969. The lyrics read, “War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, listen to me, It ain’t nothing but a heart-breaker, It’s got one friend that’s The Undertaker.”
About a month ago on ANC Market Edge, I said that I expected the price of Brent crude oil to be about $107 per barrel by the end of the year, even with all the “wars and rumors of wars” going on. That predicted price seems foolish with Brent now at the $85 level.
There are more than enough geopolitical press/social media experts out there to twist public opinion any way the warmongers wish. I will stay in my lane to protect my family and maybe yours from financial ruin as I did in 2019 and 2020 and beyond.
From the 1993 American Western movie “Tombstone.” Doc Holliday, seeing the fear in the eyes of his nemesis, says: “Why, Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.”
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone. Stand in the desert…. And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Donald Rumsfeld served from 1975 to 1977 and again from 2001 to 2006, being both the youngest and the oldest US Secretary of Defense.
The Sun.com is a US online edition of The Sun, Britain’s largest newspaper. Its headline on October 13 read: “US warns Starlink satellites will start killing people and chance of hitting a human will soon be 61 percent each year.”
For half a century Bernard Baruch, who died in 1965 at age 94, was one of the USA’s richest and most powerful men both as a stock market trader/broker and as a close trusted presidential adviser during both world wars. Baruch once said, “The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.”
IT is Sunday morning—October 8th—in Manila as I put fingers to keyboard, so as you read this, what has transpired in the past 48 hours in anyone’s guess. Nonetheless, the events of Saturday morning in the Middle East marks a defining point between “before” and “after” not unlike similar crossroads after the German invasion of Poland, the 9/11 attack, and domestically, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino.
Back in the day, we called them “Old Wives’ (Woman’s) Tales” or the formal term cliché, for a phrase expressing an idea that everyone knew to be true. We did not need any personal or even empirical knowledge of it being a fact, just that it was a passed down “generational truth” or “conventional wisdom” that “everyone knows.”
IN 650 BC, the Babylonians predicted the weather from cloud patterns. Chinese weather prediction extends at least as far back as 300 BC, around the same time ancient Indian astronomers developed weather-prediction methods.
The first transaction I made in the Philippine stock market was buying shares of San Miguel Corp. on the Makati Stock Exchange 34 years ago, one week before the 1989 coup attempt. Timing is everything.
WE have been conditioned to think that “hard work” is the secret to success and wealth. That is not true. The secret is diligence and determination, which is to do whatever needs to be done for as long as it takes to reach success.
One of the significant lessons that I learned about “The Market” came from being involved in the oil business.
Yesterday marked the 22nd anniversary of the airline hijackings committed in 2001 against the United States. The significance of that event has naturally been diminished over time, but in retrospect it was a turning point for the US and therefore the world.
The most iconic photograph of the 20th century was taken in February 1945 at Yalta, a resort city on the Crimean Peninsula. At the “Yalta Conference,” three men—US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin—discussed the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe.
One fundamental tenet I consider of highest importance is to see the historical perspective of whatever subject you are talking about. “Historical perspective is understanding a subject in light of its early phases and subsequent evolution.” Everything must be put in context and the one that matters is “The History.”
“Sunset Boulevard” is a 1950 film about an aging, forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond, who dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Desmond refuses to accept that her fame has evaporated and is unaware that her butler secretly writes the fan letters she receives.
The recently concluded BRICS summit gave no surprises but did have a bit of the feel of a beauty contest. The major announcement was that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have been invited to join, and that their membership would begin in January.
The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC general states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009.
The 1976 song written by Peter Yarrow and Phillip Jarrell may approximate the Philippines’ foreign relations with the US and China.
This person is the 52-year-old son of a bus driver who holds a Licentiate in Economics and two master’s degrees in economics. For more than 20 years, he has been a University Professor of Macroeconomics, having written over 50 academic papers and nine books.
A most important development in personal banking occurred in 1967 when a cash machine was put into use by Barclays Bank, Enfield, in the United Kingdom—the world’s first ATM. By 1968, ATMs had been installed in Australia, West Germany, and Spain. BPI was the first bank in the Philippines to deploy an ATM in 1981.
I have always assumed that the only place to find “life” is on planet earth. I believe this because from the simplest single cell bacterium to the epitome of complex life forms (humans) staying alive is a lot of work. Survival is a constant, never-ending battle and eventually everything loses the war against becoming individually extinct. Why bother?
Writing in December 1776, at a time when the American war for independence seemed a total failure, Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” The same might be said for the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2023.
The headlines last week read: “Bolivia is now using China’s Yuan for trade, challenging global dominance of US Dollar”; and the “Dollar is dying!” Folks raised their glasses in a toast.”
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