ronnie50

Nope. It was Reagan, Bush(s) and Clinton that facilitated offshoring manufacturing for American companies which enthusiastically pursued a race to the bottom for wages in Asian countries, particularly China. Trump is trying to wind back the clock with sanctions - but that clearly won't work. I don't know what would work to be honest. Why would the US oligarchs and Captains of Industry spend all that money to build factories in the United States again and hire fat dimmwits to run the machines and do the paperwork? Meantime, Americans and the world will end up in a recesion through tariffs as consumers tighten their belts and only buy what they need. Has Elon built any new factories in the US?

Ever been to Bangladesh? I have.. dump. Maybe the people there are less miserable than Americans right now, but is that much of a claim?

They probably do - and probably don't know who coined the expression. BTW, did the University of Chicago get its budget slashed? 🧐

Any idea what the 2025 US CPI and COLA will be this month (this week actually)? I'm guessing around 3% but could a bit less.

Doesn't look Chinese to me. However old Mitch McConnell said the tariffs are stupid too and will just cost ordinary Americans more to buy things. Emily Ley - Simplified https://ssl-static.libsyn.com/p/assets/d/9/3/2/d932fba3586cae7f/v2_-_Simplified_Podcast_thumbnail_1400_x_1400.jpg

Yes, thanks. OK must be nationwide legal clarification then. They need to go after the fake company nominees next - I doubt they will though, or maybe they will ask for 'tea money' to ignore each home 'owner' .

I know. I mean is the Phuket ruling/clarfication country-wide? Or could some developer try to say 'oh, that was just phuket.'?

Still prefer Cathay to EVA though. I just wish HKG would use the boarding 'by seating group' approach used in many other airports. If you're not in business or premium economy class then you end up in this huge single line for economy which stretches way down the concourse. Taiwan's airport used to really suck, nothing open airside when transfering, but I think they built a new terminal? Haven't flown through there for at least 7-8 years.

You gotta empathize with people who leased thinking they'd be able to pass on the lease when they passed themselves, and at least they didn't try to form a company with Thai nominees to purchase a house with land. I wonder what effect this ruling in Phuket will have on the rest of the country? Does it need to be challenged in each province?

I read the article. It said the court couldn't find any 'precedence' for forcing the freeholders to renew the leases. Here's my question - when did Thailand's judiciary ever refer to precedence? It doesn't follow English Common Law's rules of precedence (the system used by UK, US (yes US has always followed the system of English Common Law), Canada and various other countries. Of course this isn't a 'criminal' case - it's a civil case. A Thai lawyer can better explain this - but my understanding is Thailand's judiciary can rule any way they want, regardless of previous similar rulings. Maybe in civil cases too? In any case, it was always a naive notion to believe the 30/30/30 system was lawful.

Should be at least 38-40 THB to the dollar. It's being artificially propped up and doesn't move in sync with other currencies. At some point they will be forced to let the baht float without interventions. And given the fact they will soon lose more manufacturing sales to the US, that means they will not be getting as much foreign/hard currency to add to the reserves. Tourism can only provide so much... but it's not enough.

Hmm, there were 5,500 reports of damage (varying degrees), yet in a matter of a couple of days some 29,000 existing buildings were supposedly inspected and cleared. But it could take months to find out why this one building collapsed. Is Anutin smoking the merchandise he lobbied for?

That's frustrating/worrying. I guess you must book you flight before the visa application (or after submitted)? After makes more sense of course. This nonsense about where one is staying is silly too. If you are going for 2-3 weeks, you're not likely to stay in the same place for more than a few nights. Do they expect you to list all the reservations and dates, or just the first one? So if we wanted to fly from Bangkok to Da Nang how far in advance should we plan?

So you mean peviously they weren't doing anything with the TM6 cards then. No research by manually inputing details like country, age, duration of stay? Of course they were. This just makes it easier for them and more work for the traveler.

Thanks. But I thought only certain nationalities can apply for the e-visa (e.g. British and EU), other nationalities need a visa from the embassy (and the stupid invitation letter - from an agency I guess), isn't that right?

Yeah, I've seen that one. Or how about this one: 'speak English in are country'

"Greatest country on earth" - In a word - No. But that's obvious to most and not worthy of a further reply as I'm sure it's been well-covered by others (and I'm not reading it all - again).

That's what I think too. It's just another creep, creep, toward us doing all the work - while paying for the air travel and the entry fee with no human service. In Japan, they made me do it all. No check in desks. Nice ANA ladies around at the self serve kiosks, but that's not the point. Like many (not just Japan), I had to self-check-in, scan my passport, print my boarding passes, print my baggage tags, glue them to my bags, then take my bags to the self-loading belts (hoof them up yourself of course). Before you know it, we'll be loading them directly into the belly of the aircraft ourselves with a loudspeaker playing on a loop saying 'keep moving, place the bags in the last possible spot in the rear of the aircraft'. They'll replace the flight attendants with 'safety robots'. A meal? Make it yourself in the galley's microwaves.

There is a bewildering array of websites claiming to be 'official' tourist visa sites for Vietnam. Many URL's ending with 'V.......gov.vn' (how they manage to get that domain extension, who knows). But trying to do the visa yourself is equally confusing. Unlike most ASEAN countries, the Vietnam Embassy here in Bangkok (and I guess everywhere) still wants an 'invitation' letter from a Vietnamese source. Anyone successfully done this themselves with the embassy here in Bangkok (without an agency) and what was your experience? How long, where did you get the invitation, etc.? Cheers.

No names of the condemned structures and anyway, the whole thing will disappear from the news by Songkran.

Thai baht is still way over-valued. BOT must be propping it up

Have four filters under the sink - and new - bought the new filters last year. Cooking with it is ok. But I tried washing fresh peeled fruit with it and had a weird stomach afterwards. So I'm only drinking store-purchased bottled water. As the tree huggers say, I'm paying mpre for the bottle than the water. So be it. My stomach thanks me for it.

Hmm. They didn't specifiy what he was spray painting. Was it just jibberish? Or something more substantive, like 'Boycott Trumps' US Products' (in Thai)? The only reason they got him is because he was caught on CCTV and probably the hotel/landlord ratted him out (and will keep the deposit of course). Grafitti - come on. It's everywhere (by Thais), why focus on this guy? Squeeze a bit of cash out of him before kicking him out of Thailand?

Will I stay or will I go!....