Business
Ray S. Eñano, Editor business@manilastandardtoday.com extrastory2000@gmail.com
B4
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2017
Fed to stand pat despite Trump By Douglas Gillison
W
ASHINGTON―President Donald Trump’s plans to upend US trade policy with import tariffs and new negotiations, slash taxes, and spend on infrastructure makes the Federal Reserve’s work more challenging this week. Since his election in November, certainty” for monetary policy unTrump’s pronouncements have til they turn into specific policies. left US central bankers guessing Fed members have raised the and citing the “considerable un- possibility they may have to
Women and ad ethics in PH NIKE, Adidas and other sports brands portray their MICHELLE women endorsers as strong RONDARIO and fit women. This has probably evolved from 1980’s REEN IGHT and earlier years wherein the sports advertisements are mostly endorsed by men athletes. As a woman, it is flattering that the market is now less genderdiscriminating, and is now recognizing and widely accepting women as sports endorsers. However, it is also disappointing to know that some advertisers don’t respect the sacredness of women’s body. Using women as sex objects Some companies are using women as sex objects, and not as endorsers per se. There are also instances wherein the use of women as endorsers does not have any connection with the product, for instance, women endorsers and alcohol products. The 2003 World Health Survey (Philippines) showed that 1.7 percent and 0.5 percent of the survey population are male and female heavy/hazardous drinkers, respectively; 13.2 percent and 1.6 percent are male and female episodic drinkers, respectively; and that out of 41.6 percent youth drinkers, 61.2 percent are males, while 23.9 percent are females. Given these statistics, men in general, are the target market of alcohol companies. However, in their advertisements, women are more often used as alcohol endorsers, which they traditionally call as “calendar girls.” And if you were to assess these women, they don’t like they are heavy drinkers either. These women are more likely used as sex objects than actual endorsers of their products. As a mother, I think I would be struggling if my son would ask me why are those sexy women used for calendars. How would I explain the rationale behind it to a six-year-old boy? As much as I want to shield my sons from some photos or advertisements that would possibly pollute their minds, it is really inevitable since they always pass by Edsa and C5, crowded with a lot of these materials. Distorting reality Aside from using women as sex objects in advertisements, other advertisers excessively manipulate the image of a woman and her body. In Vatican’s paper on ethics in advertising, the first moral principle mentioned was the “truthfulness in advertising.” Advertisements, magazines, social media and other publication do a lot of fabrication of women’s images, and most often, an exaggerated one. As influenced by these advertisements, women tend to be too idealistic, and sometimes lead to lower self-esteem, anxiety, eating disorders and living beyond their means. There’s nothing wrong celebrating the beauty of women, but what’s wrong with some advertisements is when they deliberately distort the reality and mislead the audience. Pope John Paul II noted that advertising can be a tool of the “phenomenon of consumerism” and that “it is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward “having” rather than “being.” Instead of appreciating God’s natural gift of beauty, some women tend to become someone that they are not. Women, even the young girls, are pressuring themselves to look better and become thinner, as they compare their bodies with the models appearing in advertisements and magazines. It’s good that some organizations are driving some changes in how media portrays its endorsers. Creating positive change Change.Org for instance, started a campaign to “create positive change for young women by reducing photoshop in magazines.” According to the organization, the extreme post-production editing of images elevate the problem especially for young women. Post-production edits portray too ideal bodies, which create high insecurities among women. In one study for instance, “75 percent of ‘normal’ weight women think they are overweight and 90 percent of women overestimate their body size.” Some women resort to excessive weight reduction and worse, health problems. I do hope Change.Org’s campaign will become more popular, and that more celebrities will be ambassadors for these changes. One good example was Kate Winslet, the famous “Rose” in the movie Titanic. Before she turned 40 last year, she posted a make-up free picture in Facebook, urging her followers to “embrace who they are, including their perceived flaws.” If celebrities were used to influence the public to look flawless, celebrities can also be used to change mindset of the public, on how to perceive the real beauty and embracing their flaws. Respecting dignity More than the celebrity endorsers, the main responsibility lies with the companies, followed by the advertisers and regulating bodies. The companies and their contracted advertisers should respect the dignity of the endorsers, their target market as well as the general public. The regulating bodies on the other hand, particularly here in the Philippines, should revisit their guidelines when it comes to advertising ethics. Lastly, the public audience should take active participation in communicating to the government or regulatory bodies if some advertisements are offensive.
G
increase interest rates faster than they had planned before Trump’s surprise election victory, and have said they will be watching for the new administration’s policies. But meanwhile, economists say that when the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee gathers in Washington Tuesday and Wednesday to review monetary policy, it is likely to stand pat, as the outcome of any new Trump fiscal and trade moves remains far off. “My guess is there won’t be any action,” said Edwin Truman, a former FOMC staff economist now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in
Washington. “The outlook looks a bit stronger, both in the United States and the world,” he told AFP. “But as for the shape of fiscal policy... we don’t really know a lot more than we did in December.” The Fed in December raised rates for only the second time in a decade, increasing the target range by a quarter point to 0.50.75 percent to help head off inflation as the somewhat sluggish recovery from the Great Recession continues. The odds of another increase remain below 40 percent until the third meeting of the year in May, according to Fed fund futures markets.
US central bankers have made clear that despite the fairly tepid recovery, the economy appears to be on track to achieve its primary goals of full employment and two percent inflation. The unemployment rate has remained under five percent and job creation has been steady at an average of 165,000 new positions a month. Despite years of low inflation, the Fed’s favored price measure, the personal consumption expenditures index, has been trending up slowly. However, economic growth slowed sharply in the final quarter of last year, pulling 2016 growth down to 1.6 percent, the lowest since 2011.
Adding another wrinkle to the attempts to gauge how the Fed will react, the composition of the Federal Open Market Committee will change as it always does at the first meeting of the year, and this time will include three firsttime voters. The change might mean the committee could become less hawkish than it was in 2016, when Esther George of the Kansas City Fed dissented at six of last year’s eight Fed meetings to vote in favor of rate hikes. The Boston Fed’s Eric Rosengren dissented in September, while Cleveland’s Loretta Mester dissented in September and November. AFP
L
The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. This essay is part of a journal she kept in fulfillment of the requirements of the course, LasallianBusiness Leadership with Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics. Visit her blog at http://momrathoner.blogspot.com/.
SOUTHERN EU SUMMIT. (Left to right) Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Spanish Prime Minister Maiano Rajoy, French President
Francois Hollande, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Cupriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni pose for a group photo at Belem cultural center in Lisbon on January 28, 2017, during the Southern EU Country Summit. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa meets with the leaders of six other southern European nations including France and Italy in a summit that is expected to push for action to boost flagging growth in the bloc and fight the ongoing migration crisis. AFP
Taiwan’s convenience stores serve as one-stop shop By Michelle Yun TAIPEI, Taiwan―Borrow library books, buy train tickets, pick up online orders or even eat dinner with friends―Taiwan’s expansive network of convenience stores takes the concept to a whole new level. The island of 23 million people is home to the highest density of convenience stores in the world, with more than 10,000 in total―one per 2,300 people. But as the number of physical shops plateaus, the retail chains are turning to alternative ways to keep money rolling in. As well as selling standard snacks and toiletries, Taiwan’s plethora of 7-Elevens and FamilyMarts then moved to serve up hot meals, from steamed buns to soups and stews, day and night. Now they are revamping their dining areas and adding fancier meals to the menu―Japanese ramen, Korean kimchi stew, pesto pasta―complete with calorie labels. FamilyMart, a Japanese chain, has even introduced crossover stores with Taiwanese organic produce vendor Tanhou, selling frozen fish and naturally yeasted breads. But it is by tapping into the island’s thriving online retail culture that the ubiquitous stores hope to become the ultimate onestop shop. Taiwan’s e-commerce market is worth Tw$1.1 trillion ($35 billion) and is set to grow another 11 percent this year. However, cash is still most online customers’ preferred form of payment and many choose to have their internet orders delivered to convenience stores where they then pay for them. Morning Shop, a popular new online vendor of imported breakfast cereals and granola bars says 85 percent of its sales are settled at convenience stores rather than paid for online. “Doubts over the safety of online payments are still quite high and seen as more troublesome,” said the firm’s product manager
Chris Chen. The firm has seen its monthly sales surge from Tw$620,000 ($19,739) in 2015 to an expected Tw$30 million within the first quarter this year. Convenience stores are also reaping benefits from the arrangement. They make a slim profit from each transaction and are hoping volume will turn it into a money spinner.
delivery network, enabling residents to send belongings from one part of the island to the other. Student Lee Yun-hsuan uses them as a postal service when she needs to haul books to and from university. Lee, 20, sends a box of books from a convenience store near her university on Taiwan’s east coast to the closest outlet near her home in Taipei. “Post offices aren’t every-
or paying parking fines. Taiwanese franchise owner PCSC is working on expanding iBon’s reach by turning it into a mobile application. “We want to get to the point where everyone can have an iBon in their pocket,” it said. As they ratchet up their tech credentials, residents are increasingly using convenience stores as a catch-all. Taipei resident Serena Chen,
This picture taken on January 24, 2017 shows a customer choosing a box of noodles at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Taipei. Borrow library books, buy train tickets, pick up online orders or even eat dinner with friends—Taiwan’s expansive network of convenience stores takes the concept to a whole new level. AFP
FamilyMart aims to up e-commerce to 10 percent of its revenue in five years. President Chain Store Corp., which owns the Taiwan franchise of US chain 7-Eleven, says cash payments for online purchases “abolish the non-trust issue.” “Taiwan can do this while other countries can’t because we’re a relatively small island,” it said in a statement to AFP. Plugged in Convenience stores are also finding a place in the logistics of daily life. The shop chains double as a
where and they’re not always open,” she told AFP. They have even linked up with libraries in Taipei so readers can pick up borrowed books at a convenience store of their choice. Now they want to take things to the next level so shoppers can access their services on smartphones. 7-Eleven has introduced the ‘iBon’ system, with machines installed in most of its shops performing a myriad of functions, including photo printing, purchasing train and concert tickets,
40, says she goes to a local store at least twice a week, paying her bills over the counter and using photocopying and scanning services. She also has books and magazines ordered online delivered to the stores for pick-up and payment. But Chen says the shops’ more basic offerings―from sugary treats to potato chips―still play their part. “When I was stressed out at my last job I went every day,” Chen told AFP. “I needed snacks!” AFP