GRPundit

All that goes up must come down at some point... Our stocks have become one of the most expensive in Asia, trading at over 20 times their price-earnings ratio. One luxury condominium developer reportedly paid celebrities like Paris Hilton and Donald Trump $5 million each just for using their names in his projects. That developer’s 36-year old son is reported in a Vanity Fair article that he commissioned a renowned Dutch architect to build another residence for him that would cost $15 million (P645 million). The house is especially designed to also be his very own art museum in his honor, as it would be filled with two dozen portraits—of him—he has commissioned to be done by famous US and European artists costing $3 million. Makati condominiums—even before the first brick is laid down—are selling at P150,000 per square meter, as expensive as a Manhattan flat. Stock market brokers have been the biggest buyers of Audis and BMWs, while their bosses not to be outdone, are now inquiri...

But that economic growth only looks great on paper. The slums of Manila and Cebu are as bleak as they always were, and on the ground, average Filipinos aren't feeling so optimistic. The economic boom appears to have only benefited a tiny minority of elite families; meanwhile, a huge segment of citizens remain vulnerable to poverty, malnutrition, and other grim development indicators that belie the country's apparent growth. Despite the stated goal of President Aquino's Philippine Development Plan to oversee a period of "inclusive growth," income inequality in the Philippines continues to stand out. [ Above excerpt taken from " The Grim Reality Behind the Philippines' Economic Growth " published on The Atlantic.]