The Supreme Court absolving one of their own from a case of plagiarism. And even saw it fit to censure critics. Congress censuring a government official, no less, for a possibly imaginary insult of one of their own. The president is said to be standing by the government official. But then maybe he’s simply standing by for one of his own as he did before for another who in some places would have resigned, if not committed seppuko, already. The tops of the three branches of the government have shown their propriety or rather lack of it. It sure is a dismal state of affairs.
You probably have seen this video:
Michelle has found where this particular Jollibee mascot is: Balaoan, La Union.
Here’s a crazy thought: For Jeanne’s 1st birthday, book a birthday party at Jollibee Balaoan and have a road trip! I would do it! Haha! But I wonder who else is going to attend.
I was sitting on the sofa practicing the first few notes of Spanish Romance on the guitar when I noticed Jeanne, who was with Michelle at the dining table, looking at me. Then suddenly she started clapping! Beat that Justin Bieber!
Read an article in Time about the book Stalling For Time. The book was written by Gary Noesner, an FBI hostage negotiator for almost 30 years. In the article, he was asked about the recent tourist bus hostage-taking disaster. Part of what he said:
“I would have thought there would have been a lot of opportunity to pursue meaningful negotiations with this guy.”
That’s what happened with Mendoza. Instead of meaningful negotiations and defusing the tension, people were bullshitting him and practically pressuring him even more. He was aggravated to the point of snapping. If not by the so-called hostage negotiators then by the reporters or the other people who were allowed to talk to him directly.
If you are handling a ticking bomb, wouldn’t you be careful and handle it gingerly? If If you are dealing with someone crazy, unhinged, or downright psychotic, wouldn’t you be careful not to aggravate that person? If you don’t, you are practically asking for it.
The result was deadly. Too bad nobody had read Noesner’s book back then.
DigiTel, who owns Sun Cellular, seems to be a gaining a lot of interest. P/E at 40.5 is quite high compared to its competitors Globe at 9.4 and PLDT (who owns Smart) at 12.6. Apparently, quite a few people believe that the company is worth a lot.
But one thing that’s holding others back, is that DigiTel has loads of debt. Debt can actually be good especially if you’re setting up infrastructure which takes time to mature and start earning. Allow me to illustrate:
- DGTL has 87B in assets mainly in infrastructure. Say D is 85.5B, E is 1.5B, D/E is 57. If income is 145M, ROA is 0.17%, ROE is 9.67%.
- Now if say D and E is evenly 43.5B each and income is 145M, ROA is still 0.17%, but ROE is a dismal 0.33%.
Remembering that your share of stock is equity, which would you rather have?
Another thing is if DGTL goes belly up, how much do stockholders lose? Is it better to lose 1.5B vs 43.5B? I guess that sufficiently settles it: Debt can actually be good.
A high D/E does seems alarming, but does it look like DGTL is alarmed? Are creditors and suppliers alarmed? Or are there still creditors and suppliers willing to lend and sell? Maybe someone can tell me.