US-Asean Business Council upbeat on Philippine Economic Prospects

In Photo: Members of the US-Asean Business Council (US-ABC) hosted a roundtable for Trade Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado on February 22 in Washington, D.C.Photo: Business Mirror

‘FOR the first time in three years, the Philippines made it to the worldwide list of top 20 investment destinations of multinational enterprises,” Trade Undersecretary for Industry Promotion Group Nora K. Terrado told participants in a roundtable organized by the US-Asean Business Council (US-ABC) on February 22 in Washington, D.C.

Terrado said with the country’s 6.8-percent GDP growth in 2016, the Philippines continues to be one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, exhibiting resilience amid external shocks.

This message highlighted Terrado’s presentation about the country’s improving global competitiveness ranking.

Terrado discussed the current administration’s 10-point socio-economic agenda, which aims to sustain improvements in the Philippine investment climate, support rural development, and further enhance the country’s infrastructure, human capital and social-protection programs.

“The whole government is tasked to continue to improve the ease of doing business in the Philippines,” Terrado said.

As chair for Asean 2017 Summit, the Philippines is poised to highlight the region’s strengths by engaging the international business community, foreign governments and investors through the Asean Business and Investment Program (Abip).

As chairman for the Asean Committee on Business and Investment Promotion, Terrado urged the US-ABC and its members to participate in the business activities to be held in the Philippines, focusing on themes, such as regulatory coherence, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), women and youth entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Marc Mealy, vice president for policy of the US-ABC, expressed positive feedback after the dialogue with Terrado.

“With the Philippines serving as the current Asean chairman and having one of the highest GDP growth rates in Asia, the representatives from the 13 American multinational companies who participated were keen to receive the undersecretary’s update on current business trends in the Philippines and the economic priorities of the Duterte administration,” Mealy said. “The Council looks forward to conducting our 2017 senior executives business mission to the Philippines later this year.”

The US-ABC members that participated in the dialogue were Coca-Cola, Fluor, Citi and Philip Morris, among others. - BUSINESS MIRROR

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1 BTC - USD Hits 1,120 and Continue Rising for the coming USA SEC ETF Decision March 11

Bitcoin hit 1,120 USD. Source: Blockchain

Friday, February 24, 2017 11:30 PM UTC +8GMT

BTC/USD hit an all-time high of 1220 level on Friday and is currently trading at 1209 levels at the time of writing (Bitstamp).

Philippine Peso - BTC Exchange rates : ₱60,277.64

Coins.ph exchange rate:  Buy: ₱60,737 PHP | Sell: ₱58,875 PHP

Buybitcoin  rate:  Buy: ₱61,581 PHP | Sell: ₱58,529 PHP

The recent upswing is possibly being driven by the upcoming decision on bitcoin ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Traders seem to be largely bullish on the bitcoin ETF getting the approval, CoinDesk reported. The SEC has until March 11,2017 to approve or disapprove the ETF.

According to Bloomberg, President Trump’s policy uncertainties might be the reason behind the recent rally. It explains that investors are looking to hedge against potential global uncertainty in the wake of President Trump’s policies and are speculating relaxation of digital currency regulations under his leadership.

On the upside, the pair will now run into resistance at 1245 (127.2% retracement of 1139.89 and 751.34) and a break above would see it testing 1280 (113% extension of 751.34 and 12.20)/1347.

Momentum studies remain bullish. Any dips could be taken as an opportunity to go long. However, caution is advised as RSI and stochs are in the overbought zone.

On the flipside, support is seen at 1200 (psychological) any violation would drag it to 1140 (trend line joining 941.81 and 1074.69)/ 1115 (5-DMA). A break below 5-DMA could see further weakness in the pair.

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DO YOU WANT TO START EARNING BITCOIN WITHOUT SPENDING EVEN A CENT? 
   
STEP 1: 

FOR PHILIPPINE CUSTOMERS (INCLUDING OFW ABROAD): 
You must download the Coins.ph App below and register. This app would serve as your wallet to store your collected bitcoins.

FOR OUTSIDE PHILIPPINE CUSTOMERS OR FOR NON-FILIPINO CUSTOMERS

You must have a bitcoin wallet and bitcoin address through blockhain or at  Coinbase.com  You may download the Coinbase.com App below to begin.

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STEP 2: 
FOR Coins.ph Follow the steps 1 to 3 to get the Bitcoin address and save this as you need this address.

In order for you to have a new Bitcoin address using the Coins.ph , You must follow the 3 steps above as shown in the screen captured photo. 3DkAZ2o2pypqs7KgZq5LbtEQEhgovg9iy8 is a sample of a bitcoin address.

Note: Coins.ph would ask you to download aswell the Google Authenticator as the second security verification to make sure that you are the owner logging into the account. Every time that the Coins.ph app would ask for verification, you must open the Google Authenticator as it would display a new code. Such code would change everytime you make a new transaction.

FOR  Coinbase.com if you could not find the button that would provide a new bitcoin address then proceed to  blockhain, register and get your new Bitcoin address.

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STEP 3: 

With your bitcoin in your wallet, now you could start trading  at live trading platform by joining the fast and easy simpleFX Bitcoin trading platform.  . It is risky but if you want to take the risk and know how to see the trend up and down then you could make your $100 USD into $1,000 USD in just a day. The platform will provide you educational video tutorial if you are a n00b in currency and stocks trading.

Current exchange rate for 1 BTC to USD is $1,1888 or check Google echange rate for updates

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Why Krugman’s “Bitcoin is Antisocial and Impractical” Argument is Flawed

Paul Krugman, “economist” and University of New York professor, Photo: The Coin Telegraph

Over the past few years, Paul Krugman, “economist” and University of New York professor, continuously criticized Bitcoin and its decentralized nature, describing it as an anti-social network because it does not depend on a state-owned or controlled money supply.

To start with, Bitcoin can be perceived as an abstract financial and technological concept within the traditional frame of Economics and Finance. The Bitcoin network represents the potential of peer-to-peer and open financial networks that eliminate the necessity of the third party institutions or governing entities in order to efficiently facilitate payments between users in a practical ecosystem.

Conventional “economists” such as Krugman have been introduced to state-owned, controlled and manipulated currencies, assets and stores of value for an immense period of time that they often struggle to understand the necessity of digital currencies like Bitcoin.

In his blog he writes:

“At the end of 2013, I wrote a post titled “Bitcoin is evil,” riffing off Charlie Stross’s “Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire.” Charlie and I both keyed in on the obvious ideological agenda: Bitcoin fever was and is intimately tied up with libertarian anti-government fantasies.”

“Bitcoin is antisocial” because “it is not state-owned” - wait, what?

The “Bitcoin is antisocial” argument has been the core of Krugman’s criticisms against the cryptocurrency. Ironically, however, Bitcoin has demonstrated the highest level of user freedom, as it relies on a peer-to-peer protocol as its foundation.

Another ridiculous statement of Krugman that he frequently pushes in mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, for example, is that “Bitcoin is not state-owned,” which misleads users and investors on the primary purpose of Bitcoin. Basically, he says that Bitcoin was created to weaken the global banking system.

Well, seriously? In 2009, Bitcoin was introduced with the sole purpose of providing financial freedom, sovereignty and independence to users. So far, it has succeeded in offering an unprecedented level of financial freedom to the general population, proving that financial networks can exist without the involvement of governments and the existence of authority.

Governments abuse the power over the cash-based monetary system

Bitcoin serves as evidence that peer-to-peer networks can exist and that users are responsible enough to lead a peer-to-peer protocol in a civilized manner.

The global financial system utilizes cash as its basis. Banking systems and financial services are deployed on top of the monetary framework, offering digitalized methods of transacting cash. The role of the government within a cash-based monetary system is to provide enough supply of physical cash to support the economy.

Governments have abused this power over the cash-based monetary system to print fiat money at their demand. Termed as “quantitative easing,” central banks print a certain amount of cash and distribute that among banks. While governments claim that this new set of printed money ends up at the bottom of the economy, in actuality, billions of dollars created on an annual basis are sprinkled on top of the economy for top-tier organizations and financial institutions.

Bitcoin has proved that a state-owned money supply is redundant and unnecessary. In a social network, a peer-to-peer protocol like Bitcoin, each individual plays a role in maintaining an autonomous financial network.

Paul Krugman, “economist” and University of New York professor is wrong.  Illustration: The Coin Telegraph

Source: - The Coin Telegraph 

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