Dogmatix

Although he was promoted like Trump as a businessman who understands economic management, it has become very apparent this time that he either no longer understands anything about economics, or that he never did but had much better advisors to cover up his ignorance in the past. His economic policies including handouts, land bridges and other utter nonsense have all turned out to be total flops.

This government had plenty of opportunities to introduce regulation for the cannabis industry but did nothing until they felt the need to get revenge on Anutin. Taking down a 40 billion baht industry, causing huge losses to those who have made legal investments is pointless. People lose jobs. Farmers lose livelihoods and the government loses tax revenue from a business that was paying VAT and other taxes. Now it all goes underground. Regulation yes but destruction motivated by political spite no. It all shows how pathetic this Thaksin government is.

Thaksin getting desperate seeing his power and influence crumbling away again. His much vaunted 'signature policy" of hand outs was a complete failure along with his land bridge, casinos and oil and gas deal with Hun Sen. His half half travel hand out has collapsed too. Now he wants to re-run his war against drugs that played well a quarter of a century ago. That was all for show, as police just murdered small dealers from drug gangs in competition with the police and many complete innocents. Drugs didn't go away because they protected all the big fish.

See gangs of subcontinental men on Walking Street bargaining the price with katoeys. Most just laugh at them and don't do a deal but some do.

How to be vigilant, other than avoiding Thailand?

These will be a great attraction on Childrens' Day moored next to the aircraft carrier that has no planes and is too expensive to take out in the bay for a spin. It would be much cheaper for the taxpayer, if the bribes were just paid to the corrupt military and ;politicians without having to buy the useless junk.

Thai customs has a room full of suitcases confiscated from tourists, mainly Brits, who were caught trying to smuggle cannabis out of Thailand. Since it it not currently a serious offence in Thailand, they are either released without charge and minus the dope and luggage or get a modest fine. Unlucky for her and the British girl in Dubai they were caught there and not here. Still gotta be a bit intellectually challenged to take the risk of smuggling drugs, specially to countries like Georgia and Dubai where penalties are strict, prisons awful and the justice system dubious, Before legalisation the story was about Brits smuggling cigarettes back to the UK from duty free shops in the Mid East.

Thaksin's grandchildren or great grandchildren will be queuing up to take their turn at being PM to do nothing about flooding or anything else constructive by then.

The OP forget to mention the first day of his trial for LM coming up in July in a case brought by the Thai military, based on the accusation that he defamed the monarchy in an interview given to Korean newspaper. Given that he is a known flight risk, it would be advisable for the court to place him on remand during the trial.

...to jail.

It is very unclear but the announcements made so far could easily be interpreted to mean that overseas income is taxable in Thailand, unless remitted to Thailand in the tax year it arose or the following year. That would be effectively global taxation which they claim (falsely) is required by the OECD but with exemptions money remitted in the stipulated period. It seems the latest regulation allowing exemption for income earned before 2024 will be wiped out which is tough luck for anyone who sold investments in Dec 2023 to create a long term stock of money that can be remitted to Thailand. If it is indeed a global tax, there would be a loophole, unless it has to remain in Thailand for a certain period, in that investors could remit the money out again immediately. It also seems simple enough to create a transaction on even earn interest on a bank deposit to able to remit the income tax free. The RD clarified last time that principle could be remitted tax free. If still true, anything can be remitted tax free. If not true and only the income can remitted tax free, they will not attract the trillions they hope for because the principle will be left overseas.

The article says prostitution is illegal in Thailand but is not really true. The 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act only makes prostitution illegal in certain circumstances. Soliciting in public so as to cause a nuisance is prohibited. Operating or managing a prostitution business is illegal. Profiting from the prostitution of others (e.g., pimping, brothel-keeping) is a criminal offense. The VN hookers may well be bothering people in the street which is clearly illegal but It is a hassle for cops to get good enough for that. Passers by will not give evidence. So the cops have to do it. In the past to prove the girls (East Europeans in those days) were really soliciting for sexual services, cops actually had sex with them, arested the girls when they had finished and knotted up the used condoms to present as evidence. (I think there was a queue of cops at Lumpini police station volunteering for this dangerous mission confronting violent criminals.) There was a big outcry from Thai women's groups arguing the cops had created the crimes themselves as agents provocateurs. There was also an outcry from the wives of the arresting officers who were named in the media. Ha ha. So the cops were forced to abandon these fun crime busting missions. Nowadays, if they take action against foreign hookers at all, it is most likely to be for visa violations. The cops don't like to admit prostitution is not really illegal in any meaningful sense the same way as they pretend smoking weed in public is specifically illegal. It is not but smoking anything in public is illegal under the Public Health Act, if it causes a nuisance and someone complains. So it is actually a fairly similar concept of illegality that makes it hard to get convictions. So cops don't usually try in either case.

I remember visiting Pnom Penh many years ago and hundreds of VN hookers had moved in the years following Wun Sen's takeover at the head of a VN army.

My question too. For public safety the article should be specific about areas and bars VN prostitutes are operating, so we can avoid falling prey to their siren calls.

Exactly. Charlotte Leek came back to England from a trip to Thailand then flew back saying she had been offered a job in Thailand with flight and expenses paid. The job involved flying off again a few days later carrying 46kg of weed to Sri Lanka, presumably on route to the UK or somewhere else in Europe, since weed is widely cultivated in Sri Lanka and must be a lot cheaper there than in Thailand. So she set off with an extra two suitcases packed by someone else and was given cash to pay for the excess baggage at Suvarnabhumi. Pretty obvious that she knew she was smuggling something illegal but thought the money was worth it. She had been an air hostess for TUI and was a part time beautician in nail bar. So probably not very bright but, even so, it must have been obvious that something was wrong, even if she didn't look inside the suitcase. Weed is fairly bulky and has a strong aroma which sniffer dogs can't miss. The other English girl in Georgia is only 18 and pregnant. She was going to start a nursing course but that will have to wait for for a decade or more probably now. Not sure of the details of her case but it sounds like she had 14kg of dope and may well have known what it was. The extra bags may have been a red flag to Sri Lanka customs but what these kids don't understand is that the drug networks often grass on some of their own mules as part of a deal with authorities to let most through. Also very young travellers with odd itineraries are often a red flag. Doing two trips to Thailand in quick succession and flying to Sir Lanka or Georgia afterwards, particularly, if full fare, may look suspicious. Years ago two English girls were busted smuggling heroin out of Thailand. Thai cops said they were alerted by British cops who had seen their itinerary flying full fare from Bangkok to West Africa to the UK as odd and tipped off Thai police. The British cops checked their profiles and found they were unemployed which further heightened suspicions. Having pleaded they were set up they got Royal pardons on account of their young ages and went back to England to tell the tabloids they knew all along what they were smuggling.

I assumed it was just lost in translation in the Post but looking at all the Thai media that ran the story they all just ran the same press release translated by the Post. It really does say "Thai people". It seems unlikely that it would not refer to Thailand tax residents regardless of nationality like the rest of the Revenue Code but nothing is impossible with these clowns. It sounds like turning the old regulations on their head after trying a ridiculous tweak that obviously didn't work. Doesn't seem very likely this will work either. There always tell the same old lie that whatever change they are making is dictated by OECD which they fantasise about one day being allowed to join in spite of protectionist laws that are anathema to OECD. Next stop scrap the forthcoming Royal decree and introduce global taxation, again pretending that is required by OECD.

Restricted on govt land because the seller has to sell the freehold to the government and the lease to the foreigner. A very bad idea.

More measures from the ideas bankrupt Thaksin government that will fail to move the needle like his "signature" cash handouts in the first two years which even PT know acknowledges was a failure as they plan to divert the cash prepared for the third round to some other use. There are already 10 year visas introduced by the Prayut military government and Elite cards introduced by Thaksin himself. So what difference will the Thaksin govt's own visa scheme make. Land ownership has never been a driving factor for large scale foreign direct investment. Foreign companies are driven by return on investment and compare returns with other countries they can invest in. That means they they prefer to rent land in industrial estates, if they are manufacturers, and the keep the high cost of land which can more than double the investment cost out of the equation. The only exception in property developers but foreigners are banned from that business anyway and only a very few are willing to invest with a Thai controlling partner. Most of the foreigners who want to buy land are small guys who want a residential plot and want move the needle. If you have a Thai wife, you will still buy freehold in her name rather than take a 99 year lease with limited leaseholder rights on land that reverts to the government at the end of the lease and becomes unmorgageable when only 50 years left, as in the UK. Some foreigners without Thai spouses will take the 99 year option, if offered, but it is not going to make any difference to the economy. Meanwhile Thais will protest and developers won't like it, if they have to transfer the land to the government, rather than keep it as an assets on their own balance sheets that will become more valuable as the lease runs down. This government told Thais that having Thaksin, a businessman, as leader, oops adviser, meant they will be able to fire up the economy. So far it looks like Prayut did a better job. Thaksin recruited some thinkers with clever ideas over 20 years ago has nothing left to offer except questionable casino projects and cosy oil and gas deals with Hun Sen. The thinkers abandoned him long ago and all he has left are his own crummy ideas and a Tik Tok savvy daughter.

Funny pic of a teacher wearing a plastic welder type mask that would do mothing to keep out COVID.

Not the way to reduce the trade deficit. Send it back to Mar a Lago.

Never tried magic mushrooms and no interest to either but I know that magic mushrooms cause lots bad problems for newbie tourists who take them in Amsterdam and end up in the emergency room. No one knows what is in the dosages sold and what effects to expect. It is the same with ingesting cannabis but much worse. Throw the book at this creep and the Thai government should consider tougher visa rules for Israelis to make it harder for them to hang out in Thailand for months on end doing illegal businesses. Visa rules for Thais going to Israel are quite strict for similar reasons of working illegally. Introducing reciprocal visa rules for Israelis and they can't complain, if they are unwilling to relax visa rules for Thais.

A lot of individuals at high risk of committing crimes are to be found in the cabinet office and the parliament.

Holding bullion yourself or in storage is theoretically the safest way to hold it but storage of large quantities at home is not that safe and external safe storage not that cheap. ETFs are another alternative. Many people know GLD and SLV traded in NY but not so many people know there is also a gold ETF, also GLD, on the Thai stock market for those who have Thai baht onshore. The Thai GLD is free of capital gains tax but gains on gold bullion held in Thailand are theoretically taxable. In North America Sprott in Canada has some offerings of interest and some are available on the Toronto Stock Exchange traded in USD and CAD as well as in NY. Sprott's PHYS is a gold alternative to the US GLD that claims a closer tie to the underlying gold held as collateral and charges just a smidgeon more than GLD. I like Sprott's SLVR ETF because it combines a holding in the silver ETF as well as silver mining stocks and is not too heavy n the largest silver mining stock, First Majestic, which has a lot of problems in my opinion. For gold mining stocks GDX provides exposure to the largest ones and GDXJ to the juniors. A favorite gold ETF of mine is GOAU which is an EFT of gold royalty companies. These companies buy royalty streams from mining companies on sure fire projects which is a great way for the miners to secure upfront finance to complete mining projects and for the royalties to get income from gold mining without the costs and hassles of mining themselves. Gold royalties are a great bridge between own bullion that doesn't pay any dividends and gold mining stocks, as they pay dividends and get more of the upside when gold goes up but not as much of the downside as the miners. GOAU owns all the large gold royalties companies and some smaller ones, diversifying the risk. One reason that non-Americans concerned about estate planning for their families might chose to prefer Canadian or other non-American listings is Federal Estate Tax. While Americans and US residents get an exemption of $13 million from this iniquitous tax, non-residents only get an exemption of $60,000 and a blanket rate is charged on all US situs assets above that, even US listed stocks held in a brokerage account outside the US. When a non-US client dies, the broker will freeze all their US assets until the executor can convince them that US estate tax has been paid and this may take a long time. Brokers don't tell non-US clients about this because they don't want to scare them away from investing the largest stock markets in the world. The only proven way to avoid US Federal Estate Tax is by having an account in the name of a company. BTW the UK does the same thing by charging IHT on UK stocks held non-residents. Bitcoin and other crypto ETFs abound for those who want to diversify into crypto but don't want the hassle of dealing with crypto exchanges and hardware wallets. The biggest and most liquid are of course in the US but there are also plenty of crypto ETFs in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Europe that avoid the issue of US estate tax. My favorites are the Hong Kong listed ETFs. For those who want listed ETFs or ETPs in alt coins other than Etherium which has large ETFs in the US, Europe is the place to go. Swiss company 21 Shares has issued ETPs on Solana and a number of other alt coins listed in Swiss and other Euro exchanges and so has Van Eck. Good luck and DYODD (do your own due diligence).

Just like the attempt to purchase F-35s the Thai navy and government has known all along there was no possibility that the Germans could supply the engines for use in Chinese subs on anything military of that type to a country that is so close to the Chinese. This has just been a charade.

We can count on it that Ung Ing is a person of the utmost integrity who would tell us immediately, if she suspected for a moment that her dad was not at death's door for every minute of his stay in the PGH.