soalbundy

Errrrr, the description is accurate though the way your avatar is presented he could have said blackhead.

close my eyes and pretend it was a bad dream

Yes I admit it is gloomy. In the past only one or two major countries got into economic difficulties and there was always a saviour on the horizon be it America, China or the IMF but now there is no saviour coming to the rescue, both the big players, the USA and China have economic problems, the mighty Dollar is being challenged as a reserve currency (only talk at the moment) because the Saudis are considering taking the Yuan as payment for oil which would open the flood gates, the US would lose their reserve status and the Dollar would collapse, Americans would have to live within their means and this would have a disastrous effect on Europe. The Chinese are balancing a tight rope with housing debt and massive corruption. QE is no longer an option for central banks, it was the substratum of our problems today so what do they do, raise interest rates every three months to get inflation under control (see Argentina with rates of 75%) but this strangles industry and companies are already over leveraged as it is. One option is now being considered, a world wide digital economy which would give governments total control of your money. There are are also whispers of going back to the gold standard (perhaps why many countries have been buying up gold recently) Whatever, it is now generally recognized that just tweaking the system as before wont do it any more, the system is broken, it can limp on for a few more years to give the technocrats time to build a new system, I have the sneaking feeling that it wont be to the advantage of Mr and Mrs Smith.

Yes, the golden years are over, at least for the next two or three years (probably longer) but it has nothing to do with visa lengths or general Thai incompetence and corruption. The world economic system is breaking down,, the central banks world wide are out of money and out of ideas while all nations are awash with debt and inflation, it's what happens when you print 7 trillion dollars of QE. Potential tourists have no discretionary spending money to go on holiday, they can't even pay their electricity and gas bills without government (borrowed) money. The pandemic, QE and the Ukraine/Russian war has shown up the vulnerability of FIAT currencies, Governments no longer steer the ship, central banks and the stock markets have all the power ( Liz Truss in the UK) and now they too are coming apart at the seams, scary times! There is no chance for Thailand, or anywhere else, to attract hoards of tourist willing to upload their Dollars, Euros, Rubles or Yuan, the era of funny money is collapsing.

Well in Isan there are loads of kids from toddlers to 16 year old's, after that it gets a bit bleak, then tho 50 to 80 year old's take over, many of the 20 to 40 year old's are all working in Bangkok and the kids are left with the grandparents.

L at the end of a Thai word is pronounced N

Surely there are laws regarding keeping an animal in unsuitable conditions, aka animal cruelty, alternatively people could protest by not going to the shopping center. I wonder how many ways the 30 million is to be split, such a lot of money can confuse some authorities about moral duty.

I'm told that these watches have registration numbers, why not check with the manufacturer as to who bought the watches.

I thought that was rather amusing, talk about adding insult to injury......"I have a complaint to make", pow!

Well I can agree to certain extent, the USA couldn't care less about freedom and democracy anywhere not even in America but considering the economic state of Ukraine and the vast amount of weapons debt, not only to the US but to Europe as well, it is unlikely that this debt will ever be repaid, it will be written off as will the enormous amount of debt needed to rebuild the Ukraine after the war. There are several plus points however, future good will from Ukraine towards the west, a new NATO member which like Finland is on Russia's door step, an ideal testing ground for their latest weapons and good strategic training for NATO's officers (I assume that Ukraine has a lot of western military advisors guiding military strategy) and last but not least, a severe weakening of Russia both militarily and economically and a probable break up of the Russian federation which could serve as a warning to China. All in all NATO is going to come out stronger from this war and the west will gain more influence in Asia as China and Russia's influence weakens, it's money well spent.

Pragmatic, which is why Thailand is Teflon coated, they don't have a dog in this fight so why go out on a limb. Thailand is a backwater country with a lot of Chinese influence within and a neighbour heavily reliant on Chinese investment so why take sides and antagonize. Thailand is a softly treading Nightingale that has seen its best course of action is not to sing to loudly.

The world is in a mess right now, in China the economy seems to be imploding, in the west people are barely managing to pay rents/mortgages, gas, electricity, food etc. I doubt that a holiday is high on the agenda, especially not one involving high air fares. With a recession looming most will be worried about job security and inflation. My brother is/was a millionaire providing food for high end restaurants in London, he is watching in despair as his business is collapsing around him, it seems as if even the wealthy have cut down on eating out so a large influx of tourists to Thailand, or anywhere, seems unlikely for this year or the next year for that matter.

Since the prevailing winds are from west to east Russia would reap what it sowed, Putin would have a bullet in his head and Russia would be lonelier than a beggar with leprosy and poorer than a church mouse as the world would make sure they paid for all the damage. The west wouldn't retaliate with a nuclear strike but would send NATO forces into Ukraine, the Russian forces would have flown to Russia in panic, something I'm sure that the Russian high command is aware of.

Like marshmallows growing on trees.

I'm not going to argue with you on this but consider the Cuban crisis, if ever there was to have been a nuclear missile exchange it would have been then, the set up was perfect but in the end cool heads prevailed and a compromise was found, Russia withdrew its nukes from Cuba and the USA withdrew theirs from Turkey. Nobody sits with quivering fingers hovering over the red button.

There is no sensible 'if' which is why I replied the way I did.

No, Putin's hold on power has become precarious of late, even if he gave the order to use a nuke (a low yield would be the size of a Hiroshima bomb) it is the military commanders who would actually initiate the strike and I doubt that they would do so, they better than anyone would know the consequences for themselves and their families. This isn't a scenario where hundreds of american missiles heading for Russia have been detected on radar and a well oiled machine is set in motion to counter strike, a commander would be told from a failing dictator to send a nuke to a country on the border with Russia for no rational purpose. It would be Putin's last order.