BWorld 238, Trademark ban and health alarmism

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last Wednesday, August 01, 2018.

Health alarmism is the practice of frequently looking at health conditions pessimistically and then calling for more government regulations, taxation, and prohibitions supposedly to ameliorate the perceived pessimism.

Smoking is something that many people indulge in despite awareness of its dangers. The reason is that people own their body, not the government or doctors or NGOs. That is why many people also engage in dangerous activities like rock climbing, sky jumping, downhill bicycle racing, deep sea diving, full contact sports like boxing and UFC, and so on.

So aside from high and ever-rising tobacco taxes, advertising ban, smoking ban in public places, graphic warning in packs, the most extreme perhaps is mandatory plain packaging — no more branding and logos, only graphic warnings, pictures of damaged lungs, throat, tongue, etc. Their purpose is to further discourage people from smoking on top of existing measures mentioned.

One thing noticeable in the health alarmism of “more deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to smoking” is its inconsistency with data on rising life expectancy. From developing to developed coun- tries, people are living longer and healthier.

In addition, smoking prevalence among adults has been declining in many countries all these years even without plain packaging and related extremist measures.

When people have rising incomes, they also increase their appetite for travel, to live longer and naturally reduce substance abuse. Rising tobacco taxes and similar restrictions of course have also contributed to such reductions.

Based on the numbers, there seems to be little correlation between smoking prevalence and life expectancy. Japan has high smoking prevalence of 34% or twice of Australia’s 17% and yet Japan has higher life expectancy of 84 years compared to Australia’s 82.5 years. South Korea has smoking prevalence of 50% or three times that of Australia and yet they have similar life expectancy.

Australia is the first country in the world to legislate plain packaging in December 2012. Several tobacco-exporting countries like Indonesia and Honduras went to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to complain the measure as non-tariff barrier to trade. In late June 2018, WTO made a ruling that Australia’s law is valid.

If we bring in the above numbers to this case, it is clear that the plain packaging law is not really a health measure but a political measure to shut out some legitimate businesses while unintentionally aiding illegitimate businesses including criminal and terrorist groups whose main fund-raising activity is smuggling and illicit trade.

The decline in smoking prevalence/incidence in many countries all these years can be explained by (a) people’s awareness of the dangers of smoking, (b) effects of high cigarette taxes, smoking bans in public places, etc.

Another possible explanation is (c) people are smoking fewer products from legitimate manufacturers but actually smoking more products from smugglers and illegal sources as the latter’s prices are much cheaper.

In the case of Australia, a KPMG study last year showed that after the plain packaging law in 2012, the estimated share of illicit and smuggled tobacco rose from 11.5% of total tobacco consumption in 2012 to 13.5% in 2013 and since then stayed at around 14.2% average from 2014-2016 (source: KPMG, “Illicit Tobacco in Australia, 2016 Full Year Report,” March 2017.)

The Philippines has no plain packaging law or legislative proposal yet but only rising tobacco taxes: P30/pack under the Sin Tax law of 2012 (RA 10351), became P35/pack this year and P40/pack in 2020 under the TRAIN law of 2017 (RA 10963), then another push towards P90/pack as proposed by Sen. JV Ejercito and many health NGOs.

The impact on cigarette smuggling seems to be big. See for instance a BusinessWorld report on May 01, 2018, “DoF warns cigarette smuggling may be helping finance terrorism.” The report quoted DoF Secretary Sonny Dominguez as saying that “Illegal money can end up funding terrorist activities” while Customs Commissioner Caesar Dulay said that “smuggled cigarettes are currently flooding the market.”

The twin measures of more tobacco taxes and plain packaging policy are perfect formula to encourage more tobacco smuggling, more fake products that are cheap and can encourage more smoking and more smokers. And more money to criminal and terrorist groups that are engaged in illicit trade.

Newton’s third law of motion (“for every action there is an equal opposite reaction”) can also apply in economics and trade policy: For every taxation and prohibition, there is an equal and opposite distortion.

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is President of Minimal Government Thinkers, a member-institute of Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia.

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See also:

BWorld 218, Tobacco taxation, smuggling and plain packaging, June 07, 2018

BWorld 235, Inflation worldwide is declining, no special credit to Dutertenomics, July 27, 2018 

BWorld 236, Two years of Duterte energy policies, August 02, 2018 

BWorld 237, The sharing economy index, August 03, 2018

US-CN 'trade war' pummels CN the protectionist

With renewed US-CN 'trade war' stories, CN markets and investments are heavily rattled, this week's stockmarkets close, Shenzhen is -21.8% year to date (ytd), Shanghai is -17.1% ytd. As the rhetorics linger, CN markets get deeper into the hole. Which shows how protectionist, how stealth CN is in doing intl business that people cringe at the fear of being discovered.

CN remains the worst performing stockmarket in the world this year for several weeks now, Turkey 2nd, KR 3rd, PH 4th, Hungary 5th.

See these related stories:

Tim Cook Rescues US Stocks As Trump Crushes China, Turkey

by Tyler Durden  Thu, 08/02/2018 - 16:01

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-02/tim-cook-rescues-us-stocks-trump-crushes-china-turkey

Trump zeroes in on China after trade truce with Europe

Demetri Sevastopulo and Shawn Donnan in Washington

US president moves to resolve other disputes but ups ante in battle with Beijing

https://www.ft.com/content/425448b8-9674-11e8-b747-fb1e803ee64e

Hit hard by trade rhetoric, China ‘likely to do deal with US’

By ASIA TIMES STAFF AUGUST 2, 2018 5:31 PM (UTC+8)

www.atimes.com/article/hit-hard-by-trade-rhetoric-china-likely-to-do-deal-with-us/

Hong Kong analyst tips a compromise between Beijing and Washington to prevent full-on trade war between the two countries, with Chinese markets shaky

“The Chinese [stock] market has really suffered from all the back and forth, and certainly the uncertainty. As we all know, markets don’t like uncertainty. They have a really hard time pricing it in and they normally overprice uncertainty to the downside, which I think you’ve seen in Shanghai.”

China caught off guard as US trade war highlights Beijing’s dilemma

By GORDON WATTS JULY 31, 2018 3:36 PM (UTC+8)

http://www.atimes.com/article/china-caught-off-guard-as-us-trade-war-highlights-beijings-dilemma/

Grappling with this new reality has forced China to reevaluate its Washington relationship and its economic policy

'“China’s Communist Party hasn’t been tamed by commerce. The Party-State still has firm control over the commanding heights of China’s economy – both directly, and indirectly, through its influence on large “private” companies (who can only remain both successful and private with the support of the Party),” Setser concluded on the website of the nonprofit think tank based in New York.'

BWorld 237, The sharing economy index

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last July 30, 2018.

The “sharing economy” involves strangers sharing several services among themselves without being forced or mandated by a government to do so. They do so voluntarily, allowing suppliers to earn income for services they are willing to provide to consumers who are willing to avail of them at a price both have agreed upon.

A new report, the first edition of the Timbro Sharing Economy Index (TSEI) 2018, was published last week by several free market think tanks in the world. It was produced by Timbro, the biggest free market think tank in Sweden and the Nordic countries, co-sponsored by other free market institutes like the Americans for Tax Reforms (ATR), Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) and the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS, Malaysia).

Timbro defines the sharing economy service (SES) as “a platform that facilitates agreements between identifiable suppliers of marketable services and identifiable customers demanding said services. The transaction may not involve any transfer of ownership and is conducted on a case-by-case basis, where neither party is bound to engage in future transactions. The SES activity must lower the costs of transactions beyond merely providing advertisement.”

The index is compiled using traffic volume data and scraped data and some 286 worldwide were classified as SES. Monthly traffic data was collected for the services in 213 countries. The largest company in their data set is Airbnb with almost 1.5 million suppliers judged as active in an average week.

Of these 286 SES companies, one-third supply housing and one-half fall into the broad category of business services.

One drawback of the construction of their index though is that the database is not shown and it underestimates app-centric services. Thus, ride-sharing services like Uber and Grab have not contributed much to the ranking and scoring.

The index scoring seems suspect so I add a factor, individuals using the internet as % of population from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database 2018 since SES is highly dependent on internet connectivity and use. This somehow reduces the pessimism implied by TSEI (see table).

We go back to SES in public transportation in the Philippines and other Asian countries. Buses and taxi are also part of SES but they are not internet-based and hence, lack the transparency and safety that are available in internet-based companies like Grab and Uber. In the latter, even before the car arrives, the passengers already knows the name of the driver, the car model, and plate number. The driver also knows the name/s of the passenger/s even before they meet. This helps establish trust between driver and passenger.

Enter government regulators like the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) regulating and restricting new internet-based SES, the transport network vehicle service (TNVS) and Transport Network Companies (TNCs).

Since SES is a voluntary arrangement between service providers and customers, the providers should be free to expand or reduce their services/vehicles, and free to set its pricing and the customers are free to agree or decline the pricing offered by the providers.

The three levels of control and restrictions practiced by LTFRB — (1) franchise control or limited number of accredited TNVS, (2) surge price control, and (3) abolition of per minute pricing in heavy traffic or flooded areas — are policies that distort the incentives system in a sharing economy.

The agency’s intervention diseconomy can only result in (a) less TNVS supply when demand for them is high and hence, (b) more people stranded in streets and offices unable to go home or their next destinations earlier.

Does LTFRB derive pleasure and contentment seeing thousands of people unable to get safe and comfortable rides daily?

Perhaps.

After all, it continues to implement its irrational intervention diseconomy policies. Of course it will not admit this, always providing the alibi that it is “protecting public welfare” even if its policies result in the opposite effect.

A regional player in ride-sharing, Go-Jek, plans to enter the Philippine market.

This is good news on several levels — good for customers because it strengthens competition and expands choices, good for the dominant player Grab because it will deflect or disprove accusations of being a monopoly, and good for new small players because an opportunity for merger with a new regional multinational will allow them to learn more about the sector.

There should be more multinationals from abroad coming into the Philippines and there should be more local companies becoming multinationals and going abroad. Government regulators like LTFRB should simply reduce their appetite for intervention diseconomy and distortion.

--------------

See also:

BWorld 232, Effects of fare control, July 21, 2018

BWorld 234, SONA 2018: Dutertenomics performance is fair to poor, July 26, 2018 

BWorld 235, Inflation worldwide is declining, no special credit to Dutertenomics, July 27, 2018 

BWorld 236, Two years of Duterte energy policies, August 02, 2018

US GDP growth the past 25 years

Here are the numbers. The most dynamic were 8 years of the Bill (5 yrs of 4% or higher growth), the most pathetic were 8 years of "hope and change" (zero year of 3% or higher growth).

Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Bush Jr. 1 started with 9/11 attacks in 2001, then ended with the start of US finance turmoil in 2008. Still it has 2 years of above 3% growth.

Obama inherited only the 2009 continuation of US financial turmoil. 2010-2011 were already recovery years and Obama blew it, normally recovery yrs are 3%+ even 4%+ growth. 8 yrs of "hope and change" were actually 8 yrs of high bureaucracies, high energy taxes.

If Hillary! Hillary! Hillaaarrrryyyyy! became President, the pathetic growth of "hope and change" would have continued.

People should distinguish between personality and public policy. Hate or love the person but focus on policy -- tax cut or retain high taxes? zero tariff or high tariffs? strictly control illegal immigration or be lax on it? support coal power or kill it? send more money to UN climate journey or stop it? 

These are clear policy debates answerable by Yes or No depending on one's belief in markets or not.

Meanwhile, these news reports would give more context to the above numbers.

Facing Historic Labor Shortages, Companies Snap Up Teenagers

By Jennifer Levitz and Eric Morath

April 16, 2018 12:22 p.m. ET

The U.S. is facing a severe worker shortage, forcing employers big and small to explore the labor market’s youngest echelon, which is piling into the workforce

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facing-historic-labor-shortages-companies-snap-up-teenagers-1523895726?mod=article_inline

Employers Eager to Hire Try a New Policy: ‘No Experience Necessary’

By Kelsey Gee    Updated July 29, 2018 1:14 p.m. ET

Inexperienced job applicants face better odds in the labor market as more companies drop work-history and degree requirements

https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-eager-to-hire-try-a-new-policy-no-experience-necessary-1532862000?mod=hp_lead_pos5

"No Experience Necessary": Employers Slash Job Requirements Amid Worker Shortage

by Tyler Durden   Sun, 07/29/2018 - 18:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-29/no-experience-necessary-employers-relax-job-requirements-amid-low-unemployment

See also: Comparative quarterly growth of China, Germany and US, July 21, 2018

BWorld 236, Two years of Duterte energy policies

* This is my column in BusinessWorld on July 26, 2018.

For the past two years, the Duterte administration has produced a mix of bad and good policies from the perspective of market-oriented reforms envisioned in the EPIRA law of 2001.

Four recent stories in BusinessWorld would serve as jump-off points of this assessment:

1. Finance dep’t studying carbon-emissions tax (July 20).

2. Flawed DoE assumption results in baseload bloat (July 16) By Roberto Verzola.

3. More flaws in the DoE plan raise baseload bloat to 103% (July 23) By Roberto Verzola.

4. Our looming electricity shortage (July 23) By Ramon L. Clarete.

From #1: DoF Usec Karl Chua said “such taxes are in force in places like the UK, where the tax on diesel represents about 70-80% of the fuel’s retail price. In the Philippines, the tax is equivalent to 5% of retail.”

From #2: “This baseload bloat will lead to stranded assets in the future because those recently constructed coal and nuclear plants will be unable to sell half of their output.”

From #3: “Steadily dropping solar prices will make market-driven solar penetration inevitable. The rising solar share in the capacity mix will initially displace peaking and midrange flexible plants.”

From #4: “Currently, power reserves are at their lowest level, which is 10% of peak demand. The level used to be twice that but even at the higher level, reserves are even lower compared to those in neighboring countries… the prices of coal and petroleum are high… There is big appetite of private investors to invest in LNG-related infrastructure.”

First of all, adding a new “carbon emissions tax” will further distort the energy market because the higher energy taxation under TRAIN law is already wrong. The tax hikes in oil, LPG, and coal have significantly contributed to the country’s current high inflation rate. And that’s just the first round.

The second and third round of the tax increases will be imposed on January 2019 and January 2020, respectively.

Second, there is no “baseload bloat” as claimed by Verzola. The Philippines actually has a “baseload lack” so the current DoE approval of adding more coal plants to the grid is a good policy.

Philippine coal use of only 13 million tons oil equivalent (mtoe) in 2017 is small compared to our neighbors. Malaysia with a population less than 1/3 of the Philippines has coal consumption of 20 mtoe, Vietnam has more than 2x with 28 mtoe, South Korea with one-half of the Philippines’ population has uses coal seven times more than we do, on top of having substantial nuclear power capacity.

Thus, there will never be coal “stranded assets in the future,” even for countries with plans to shift away from coal like South Korea and Japan.

From 2010 to 2017, South Korea’s coal use increased from 76 to 86 mtoe while Japan’s increased from 116 to 121 mtoe over the same period.

Three, “steadily dropping solar prices” have not resulted in cheaper solar energy as evidenced by the continued rise in feed-in-tariff (FIT) rates per kWh for solar 1st batch (granted in 2015): P9.68 in 2015, 9.91 in 2016, P10.26 in 2017, 10.68 in 2018, or 2x the average WESM prices of P5+/kWh in first half of 2018. So the Duterte/DoE policy of not adding more MW capacity for expensive solar-wind energy is good.

Four, Dr. Clarete’s observation on limited reserves is correct and further contradicts the assertion of Mr. Verzola. But Clarete’s “prices of coal and petroleum are high” is not true all the time, prices go up and down and up and hence, are generally temporary. For instance, coal Asian Marker Price (AMP) was $125/ton in 2011 and down to half in 2015, and then rose again to nearly $100/ton in 2017 (see table).

Inviting private investments, not government, in LNG terminal is a welcome development. DoE should shy away from committing huge taxpayers’ money to develop expensive infrastructure for private power players.

Five, not in recent news but the transition of WESM operation to an Independent Market Operator (IMO) has materialized under the current administration, 17 years after the EPIRA law, a milestone.

I have attended the official announcement by DoE Sec. Cusi last June 25, 2018 at Crowne Plaza Galleria where Atty. Saturnino Juan has been elected as the first President of IMO.

Six, continued bottlenecks in electricity transmission continues until today and this is bad news.

During the Energy Policy and Development Program (EPDP) book launching and sort of “farewell lecture” last week July 19 at the UP School of Statistics, the problem of transmission bottlenecks was among the issues discussed.

As a result, even if investors put up several power plants, their electricity output will never reach the distribution utilities and end-users because of the lack of transmission lines.

As I mentioned earlier, two years under the Duterte administration has resulted in both good and bad energy policies for the country.

We should continue to support the first and rectify the second.

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See also:

BWorld 231, Lessons from the Energy Policy Development Program, July 20, 2018

BWorld 233, Federalism, Cha-cha, and more government, July 23, 2018 

BWorld 234, SONA 2018: Dutertenomics performance is fair to poor, July 26, 2018 

BWorld 235, Inflation worldwide is declining, no special credit to Dutertenomics, July 27, 2018

Climate Tricks 69, Junkets to 'save the planet' limited by Duterte

This is among the very few instances where I clap and support President Duterte :-)

Duterte to send only one representative to climate change meetings abroad

July 26, 2018 | 8:22 pm

http://www.bworldonline.com/duterte-to-send-only-one-representative-to-climate-change-meetings-abroad/

'He added: “There’s a climate change in Africa and they are there. There’s a climate change in New Zealand and they are there en masse. Then there’s a climate change in Tokyo, they are there.”

“Every department sends somebody who does not even know the definition of a climate and how it changes. How is the process done to create a problem for the ecosystem and environment?”

“So all of them. And when I saw the list of 11 travels, climate change conferences all over the world and it has nothing. Nothing good has come to my country except the expenses of going out and seeing the cities.”

“To hell with climate change because whether you like it or not, the typhoon is coming from….The Philippines is the window of the Pacific Ocean. So that is how you b___s___ with the money. You go.”'

Those "planet saviors" who hate fossil fuels a lot then use lots of fossil fuels as they fly from one big city to another worldwide, hahaha. Joker-hypocrites.

On average, the big annual UN FCCC conference attracts about 20,000 climate negotiators, climate lenders, planet saviors, environmental do-gooders, watermelon activists (green outside, red inside) outright socialists and communists, etc.

Meanwhile, here's a funny story and reality:

MSNBC's Chris Hayes fuels outcry by describing climate change as 'ratings killer'

By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 26, 2018

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/26/msnbcs-chris-hayes-fuels-outcry-describing-climate/

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes’ admission that climate change is a “ratings killer” has infuriated environmentalists who accused the liberal network of being more concerned about its bottom line than with fighting global warming.

Asked about his network’s lack of climate-change coverage, Mr. Hayes tweeted Tuesday that “almost without exception. every single time we’ve covered it’s been a palpable ratings killer. so incentives are not great.”

And this story from an Asian scientist.

http://notrickszone.com/2018/07/14/japanese-scientists-ipcc-models-sloppy-and-lopsided-major-factors-not-adequately-represented/

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1807/1807.03976.pdf

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See also:
Climate Tricks 66, Ignoring the implications of worsening cosmic rays situation, March 18, 2018 
Climate Tricks 67, Alarmists with deep-seated intolerance, May 26, 2018 
Climate Tricks 68, High demand for climate money, June 03, 2018

BWorld 235, Inflation worldwide is declining, no special credit to Dutertenomics

* This is my article in today's BusinessWorld 31st Anniversary special issue, "The Changing Game", S7 page 2.

“Money cannot call forth goods, but goods can call forth money…”

-- David Ricardo, on the “mere increase of money” (1809)

That statement from one of the world’s famous classical liberals is the early seed of monetary explanation for inflation. David Ricardo, known for his free trade theory of comparative advantage and the labor theory of value, argued that greater output can only come from  greater savings and investment, not from greater quantity of money being put into circulation by governments.

Fast forward two centuries, monetary policies by many governments to tweak their local interest rate, exchange rate and inflation rate are done more often.

The Philippines experienced high inflation in January 2018 (4.0%) vs December 2017 (3.3%). TRAIN bill became a law in December 2017. And the inflation rate kept rising until May 2018 and public dissatisfaction keeps rising too.

On June 7, 2018, the Department of Finance (DOF) produced a chart and posted in its social media accounts with this note:

“With a running average of 2.8%, the Duterte Administration’s inflation rate is well below the 6.3 % average of the past five administrations.

According to the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the average inflation rates during the respective terms of the past five presidents are: (1) Aquino, C.  10.2%; (2) Ramos - 7.8%; (3) Estrada - 6.5%; (4) Arroyo - 5.2%; and (5) Aquino, B. - 2.8%.”

That is a deceptive campaign by the DOF and give high credit to Dutertenomics.  Asiawide or worldwide, inflation rates are declining in many countries from the 70s and 80s. Interest rates too are declining, GDP size of countries are rising.

So almost all recent administrations in many countries can claim or grab credit for themselves what are actually global phenomenon.

Canada’s Trudeau, USA’s Trump, Australia’s Turnbull, UK’s May, Germany’s Merkel, Japan’s Abe, Taiwan’s Tsai, South Korea’s Moon, China’s Xi and HK’s Lam can also brag that inflation in their administration is lowest compared to many or all previous administrations’ record over the past 30+ years.

Also Thailand’s Prayut, Singapore’s Lee, Cambodia’s Hun Sen, Indonesia’s Widodo, and Vietnam’s Nguyen (see table).

Inflation rate, average for period, in %

(Country groups are arranged based on their numbers in 2010-2015 period)

Country (PH admin)	1980-85 FM	1986-91 CA	1992-97 FR	1998-00 JE	2001-09 GA	2010-15 BA	2016-17 RD
Germany	4.1	1.7	2.8	0.9	1.9	1.4	1.0
Canada	7.9	4.7	1.5	1.8	2.3	1.7	1.5
USA	6.8	4.0	2.8	2.4	2.8	1.7	1.7
Australia	8.6	7.2	2.0	2.2	3.2	2.4	1.6
UK	8.7	5.3	2.6	1.2	1.9	2.4	1.7
Japan	3.6	1.7	0.9	-0.1	-0.1	0.5	0.2
Taiwan	6.6	2.4	3.2	1.0	1.2	1.0	1.0
Korea	10.9	6.1	5.2	3.5	3.3	2.1	1.5
China	3.7	9.5	12.2	-0.6	2.4	2.9	1.8
Hong Kong	7.8	8.1	8.1	-1.6	0.2	3.9	1.9
Brunei	2.2	1.5	2.9	0.2	0.5	0.0	-0.4
Thailand	7.4	4.2	5.0	3.3	3.0	2.2	0.4
Malaysia	5.4	1.9	3.6	3.2	2.5	2.3	2.9
Singapore	4.1	1.6	2.1	0.4	1.6	2.6	0.0
Philippines	19.2	9.8	7.8	7.4	4.8	3.4	2.5
Cambodia	--	77.7	37.9	4.7	6.2	3.4	3.0
Laos	82.9	17.1	13.5	75.6	8.8	4.9	1.2
Indonesia	11.1	7.8	8.3	27.5	9.5	5.6	3.7
Myanmar	--	--	--	19.4	25.1	5.8	5.9
Vietnam	66.0	233.6	13.5	3.5	7.8	8.0	3.1

Source: IMF, WEO April 2018 database

The acronyms for Philippine administrations are: Ferdinand Marcos (FM), Cory Aquino (CA), Fidel Ramos (FR), Joseph Estrada (JE), Gloria Arroyo (GA), Benigno Aquino III (BA), Rodrigo Duterte (RD).

The proper comparison should be the inflation rate of the Philippines vs other countries over the same period and years, say from 2016 to 2018. Many countries’ inflation rates declined in 2018 despite the rise in world oil prices, except the Philippines and few other countries.

Aside from credit grabbing of Dutertenomics, notice also its cherry picking of years. Why compare inflation under Du30 vs past five administrations only, why not six? Why did they skip the last six years of Marcos where inflation rate was nearly 20%? So that the Duterte idol of Marcos family won’t be upset?

A few groups and former NEDA, DOF, DBM, BSP officials are producing statements blaming many factors for the high inflation rate – world oil prices, peso depreciation, “profiteering” by the private sector, "our own worst enemies" self-infliction, etc – but not TRAIN tax hikes.

So long as Dutertenomics will not have the humility to admit that (1) series of tax hikes in TRAIN 1 has unleashed high inflationary pressure, (2) fare hikes and limited wage hike adjustments must be done before January 2019 or part 2 of oil/lpg/coal tax hikes will be implemented, the ills of TRAIN 1 will only be replicated in TRAIN 2 bill that will soon become a law.

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See also:

BWorld 227, Inflation, taxation, and protectionism, July 14, 2018

BWorld 232, Effects of fare control, July 21, 2018 

BWorld 233, Federalism, Cha-cha, and more government, July 23, 2018 

BWorld 234, SONA 2018: Dutertenomics performance is fair to poor, July 26, 2018