Nograles should heed the 'blinking red lights'

Per Speaker Nograles' logic, the only way to attract foreign investors is to change the restrictive economic provision of the Constitution---a move that obviously calls for Charter Change.

But these are no halcyon days on the economic front. The world is suffering from a global financial meltdown. And experts say, the more exposed a country's economy is to "international capital flows", the more likely it will be affected by crisis that is gripping the world.

"As globalization spread in recent decades, the pace of world economic growth picked up. Open economies, it turns out, can grow faster than closed ones," New York Times noted. "But now, as the financial crisis has turned to an economic one, it appears that those running a closed economy may be in better shape to weather the storm."

The Times added: "Kenneth S. Rogoff, the Harvard economist, noted at the International Monetary Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that India, which has “comparatively stringent restrictions on international capital flows,” also seemed to have the most optimists and seemed to be in line for economic growth in a year when few countries are.

“Thank heavens for the strong regulatory framework we have in our financial system,” he quoted one Indian corporate executive as saying."


Lest his cure might prove to be worse than the disease, Speaker Nograles should heed the "blinking red lights," as Mr. Rogoff put it.