timendres

The only reason to buy a condo is if it is an exceptional place that would be difficult to find as a rental. For example, if the place has a 100 sqm terrace on the 17th floor facing west for sunsets. No one rents out a place like that, you have to buy it. Otherwise, why would you not rent? "Investing" in a cheap condo is pointless.

As would be expected. Most crimes are observed and handled by police. Only then does the prosecutor get involved. Think: drunk driver runs over and kills pedestrian. Are we really going to wait for the prosecutor's office to file charges before arresting the driver?

I am confused. In order to match a ballot to a voter, every ballot would need a unique bar/qr code. Is that the case here? I doubt it.

Until he stops wearing that ridiculous leather jacket ensemble, I cannot take him seriously.

In one article that I read some time ago, Lazada, Shopee, et.al., will add all of the "fees" to the final price. The price you see is the "final" price. In theory, the product will simply "sail through" the deliver channels, since you have already paid. Curious to see if they can make that happen.

Involving Love and Hook-3r in the same thought is a fool's game. So is believing that there is actually something out there that is a free lunch.

The USD / US / Federal Reserve are nothing like Weimar or Zimbabwe. The comparisons do not apply. The simple fact is that the EuroDollar system is awash with massive debt denominated in USD. At some point, USD will need to be acquired to service those debts. Every dollar used to pay off those debts is one less dollar in existence. At some point, the borrowers will be begging the Fed to print more dollars. Does the US government have its own untenable issues with regards to its own debt? Yes. Of course.

When everyone is on one side of a trade (USD going to zero), the resulting adjustment is usually quite impressive. This is likely what we will see regarding USD - a strong move up on strong demand. What people forget is this: Every single Dollar of USD debt is future demand for those Dollars. Further, every Dollar of debt paid off is one less Dollar in existence - when debt is paid, the currency is erased. Hence, at some point in the future, USD is virtually guaranteed to move upwards in serious fashion.

A significant percentage of landlords never report their rental income. That is one reason it was nearly impossible to get them to register my small company at the address.

Agree with @khunPer and @DrJack54 But, if some uncooperative office demands a lease, just create one with your wife's daughter.

In my experience, it is not that you speak Thai, it is how you speak Thai. The only Thai people that treat me different when I speak Thai is bar girls. Once they realize I "know too much", they will lose interest.

Those who rely on USD to exist in Thailand need to prepare for what comes next. The US has seen this level of debt only once before - after WWII. The solution to the problem was to "devalue" the dollar aggressively, generate inflation, and in turn, inflate the GDP. This is done by creating USD in quantity. This reduces the Debt-GDP ratio to something that is more manageable. The US will do the same thing again. There is no "paying down the debt". The question is, how will this affect the USDTHB exhange rate, which is what really matters to USD expats. This question cannot be answered definitively. While the USD will be "inflated", the THB will inflate as well. Predicting the relative exchange is nigh impossible. What can be predicted is that, regardless of what happens to the USDTHB exchange rate, inflation will happen in both currencies. Your cost of living in Thailand is certain to increase.

I like this thread. Thank you.

The 3% rate is not "terrible". You are likely not going to get better than 2.5% unless you have some leverage to negotiate. For instance, Shopify takes 2.4% to 2.9%, depending. PayPal takes 2.99% + $0.49. Stripe and Square take 2.9% + $0.30. There is a decent summary here: https://www.shopify.com/blog/credit-card-processing-fees

It would seem everyone using the Grap app...