Dead-end economics
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
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| Ken Fuller |
Dr. Bernardo Villegas, one of the high priests of dead-end economics, on March 24 pronounced himself “more bullish than the government in forecasting a GDP growth of 6 to 7 percent for 2012” (Manila Times, “Geared toward faster growth”).
This is not an entirely new phenomenon, he says, as the years 2007 and 2010 saw growth of 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively. By pointing out that the former year was when the subprime crisis broke and that the latter saw “the global economy still gripped by the financial crisis,” Villegas gives the impression that the Philippine economy is able to stride confidently ahead while greater powers stumble backwards. What he neglects to remind us is that 2007 and 2010 were election years, when politicians throw vast sums at their constituents, artificially inflating the growth statistics..
Villegas then goes further, expressing the view that, now matter what the problems suffered elsewhere, the Philippine economy “can grow at seven percent or more in the coming 5 to 10 years…” In the absence of convincing evidence, on what does the bold academic base this prediction? Faith? Not quite, but he comes close..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120403com5.html
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