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I have browse one article courtesy of John Mangun worth sharing, it tackles that systems and processes which once criticised as absurb could well be the most reliable one in the long run without prejudice to experts of other nations. Here it goes:

Everything is connected to everything else. Push the balloon in on one side and it bulges on the other side. The problem is that as we grow more educated, sophisticated and become “experts,” we almost entirely forget about this concept.

Go to your calendar and put a big circle around the date July 15. Note this day as the turning point for 2008.No, this is not the date that prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange started up. No, this is not the date that gasoline prices went back to P40 a liter. No, this is not the date that saw inflation drop and economic growth go to 7 percent. But that date marks the start of all those favorable events.This has been a tough week to be part of the US and European economies. The United States experienced its third-largest bank failure in history. Inflation rose to levels not seen in 27 years. The quasigovernment-owned mortgage lending institutions, Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.), went bankrupt. The US dollar hit a historic low against the euro. European industrial production fell the most in almost 16 years, with France alone down 2.6 percent. In Spain, new-car sales decreased by 31 percent in June, retail sales fell 5.3 percent while unemployment hit 9.9 percent.There are several reasons you should be glad you are part of this economy.The Philippine banking system is strong for the times the world is facing.Much criticism, including from me, has been leveled at Filipino banks. It is a tightly controlled industry dominated by only a few banks. Bank-lending habits have been severe, particularly since 1997, and that has constrained the country’s economic growth at times.Yet those factors are exactly why we will not face the situation that occurred in Thailand in 1997 and is occurring in the United States and Europe today. Smaller and potentially less solvent banks have been swallowed up by the giants. The failures in the Philippine banking system in the last decades are almost impossible now, given the size of the remaining banks. Further, the government does not have the same type of financial safeguards in place as in the United States that can provide a bailout and cushion for bad banking practices.

Our banks ratio and actual peso amount of nonperforming loans is very low and controlled due in large part to banks being very tight with their lending. The “pawn-shop” mentality of requiring very high collateral is a blessing is disguise. Our banks can weather these global financial storms better than in most nations.The United States and, to a degree, the European financial problems, are caused by a bloated and unrealistic real-estate market. Property developers built too many units that went unsold, dragging down prices. Too much supply. Further, in consort with the banks, loans for property purchases were too easy, creating artificial buyers. Too little genuine demand.Unlike in the West, Filipino property developers rarely break ground for a project until a substantial number of units are presold. This eliminates empty villages and empty towers of unsold units creating an oversupply. Thailand faced a glut of thousands of unsold condos when the crisis hit in 1997.You cannot buy property in the Philippines with just a big smile and your signature, as in the United States. Philippine real-estate lenders require something uncommon in the West over the last few years: reasonable cash up-front. Yes, this type of tight lending does limit access to new and better housing to many Filipinos. But it helps keeps the financial system sound and solvent. Much better not to be able to afford a new house today than to lose everything buying something you cannot afford
The collapse of the real-estate market in both the United States and Europe triggered much of the financial disaster that we are seeing now.

This kind of scenario will not happen in the Philippines.

Crude-oil prices are turning downward. Poor economic conditions are killing demand and oil prices will plummet. And that is the best reason to be glad you are a part of the Philippine economy. Our current high inflation and slower growth is due only to high oil prices. Our economy is otherwise strong and stable. Overseas remittances reach new records every month because no one wants to spend money in the West. Outsourcing continues to grow as the West looks for more cost-efficient locations to service their companies. Our exports are growing at a slower rate but still growing. In fact, receipts from exports to the United States actually increased by 2.7 percent to $657.6 million. Even with a large drop in electronic exports, the Philippines is still expected to show a balance-of-payments surplus of $2.5 billion for the year.Don’t let the “gloom-and-doomers” get you down and affect your business plans. They are wrong. They either cannot understand the data or ignore the facts because these do not fit into their negative mindset.
And by Christmastime, you won’t be hearing a word from them.

Courtesy of John Mangun Outside the Box-views and analysis dated July 17,2008 ABS-CBN News On line

Nice article to ponder and will bring you a sigh and be glad we are filipinos..