More hints of hardship

TWO topics of the World Bank’s recent report titled “Global Economic Prospects 2021” that I didn’t address in my previous column on Sunday were trade and debt. The omission on my part was noted by a couple of readers; thank you, I appreciate people paying attention, but I left those matters out of the earlier discussion on purpose.

Apart from the practical consideration that this is supposed to be a newspaper column and not a dissertation, the main reason for bypassing these subjects earlier is that almost any attempt to discuss trade or debt, particularly the latter, in the context of the Philippine economy is an exercise in futility. The belief that the Philippines is more than adequately insulated from negative effects arising from trade or debt is hard-wired into economic policy with the force of scripture, and any questions are always met with the same confident answers.