Enzian

Nepos is a Latin word that started out during the Roman Republic meaning grandson but which came over time to be used more often for nephew. When Julius Caesar died (unexpected to him) his will revealed he had designated his great nephew Gaius Octavius (his nepos magnus) to be his adopted son and heir. Octavian of course, as Emperor Caesar Augustus, went on to found the Julio Claudian dynasty, thus providing the greatest example of nepotism in history.

I actually agree with you in the abstract and it leads to one of those philosophic issues, that living in the world we must act (not acting is a form of action), and we must act based on imperfect and incomplete information. We must as "as if" things will continue as they are, otherwise we're led to nihilism and an inability to do anything. Buffett knew US money is based on nothing but that didn't stop him from trying to make more, and to use it to invest in real things. So your distinction, while true, ultimately has no practical application in life--except to always use caution.

In this kind of hierarchical social system with fairly distinct classes of high and low, and a commitment to perpetuate such distinctions, it's the normal state of affairs.

You explicitly include property as "money", but an apartment building has value because, short of societal breakdown or regulatory madness, people will keep paying their rent; that's the rule of law, not faith. Not everything works on the model of gold, and the problem with gold, and raw land for example, is it doesn't produce income. People like Buffett mention this all the time.

I'm starting to lose track of the number of times I've nearly been hit in an obvious crosswalk.

We're a little off topic but I will add that getting my former Thai GF a Schengen visa to accompany me to Europe was a major task. And I never was able to get her accepted for a tourist visa to the US, despite her having assets and family here. All those Thai ladies who went to America on tourist visas and ended up in restaurants and massage shops were the reason imo. And in fact when I first met her she was contemplating the restaurant scam, and I nixed it. People going from a relatively poor to a relatively rich country, what will happen?

Price controls should be applied very carefully; the law of unintended consequences will always kick in, even on relatively modest restrictions. I saw what rent control did to the housing stock in the Bay Area in the 80s, and it's still going on.

I'll take as many as they recommend Every four months is fine by me And you can send dead flowers to my wedding and I won't forget to put roses on your grave

Above is good news, thanks everyone. I'm an American in Thailand on a "Non-O by reason of retirement". My son, his Vietnamese wife and their two kids will all be together near Hanoi during August. I will fly to Hanoi from BKK, and 30 days will be the max I'll want to stay, more like 2-3 weeks. Is there anything I should keep in mind or watch out for, besides following the leads to get a tourist visa provided in the post above by Kaoboi? Thanks! And everyone take care.

You mean you're using dollars from accounts in the US to buy baht to deposit in Thailand? Might be an ok idea, but its a "bet" like many such moves, and may not yield very much over time. I'm not diversified but my RE in CA went up 10%+ in the past 12 months, but it's all just paper gains, meaningless unless I want more debt.

Two days ago I posted on FB a picture of a man and four (four!) boys on a motorbike, moving along, no helmets. Could the man object? I have taken at least one pix of a dead person on the pavement from an accident and decided not to post it out of privacy concerns, though I believe like the dash cam disaster videos it might help make people think about the dangers out there.

It's just not a good idea for under 20s whose brains are still developing. Perhaps the government could use celebrities to promote the idea that it's "cool" not to smoke too much. But I can almost guarantee there will be cases of kids going over a cliff with the availability I see coming.

IMO if one smokes more than a very small amount every day for any length of time, they will change, and not for the better. I assume this is obvious, and the common knowledge of everyone--all the same, I have multiple friends in California who would argue this point with me, if I were an arguing man. For Thailand, there's going to be a learning curve, for the society as a whole, for while it's always been available, this new regime is a game changer for everyone.

You may not be under rent control. The Oakland rent board had made an ordinance that the annual increase would be 60% of the increase in the CPI. Then when the CPI increase just went to 8%+ they canceled it and said 3%/year would be max. No one should cry for the LL and I probably would not have gone the max allowed before, but those who say government is a scam just have new reason.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb himself, the horse's mouth, said in an interview on CNBC one time that the pandemic was not a Black Swan, but Andrew, the horse's a*s, kept calling it a Black Swan as the interview went on. Same with the Fed, if they can't prepare for something everyone knows could happen, what good are they? They've been getting it wrong ever since Greenspan started this low rate financial repression mess. Interesting times coming, in the worst way.

Good article in the way it identifies issues. Tho at one point they say heightened liquidity when I think they meant tightened liquidity--probably obvious to everyone. I'm just pizzed that Immigration pushed me to convert my FCD account to baht (at 33) in order to have a paper bank book, when the baht may eventually approach 40/dollar--but who knows? Of course those who set up their 800K at 30/dollar really have a beef--but give it a year or two and it may all come back, so little matter. At least my current credit card charges are a better deal. I have a degree in econ fwiw, and I don't see the baht manipulated to any great degree--it's mainly being pushed around by macro and systemic factors at this point. But the large issue is that things for the populace could get much worse if Thailand's policies don't catch up with the neighborhood, as the article says. We all pay for an unprofessional government, the opposite of a bunch of technocrats. But when the worldwide recession hits it will all be moot.

It never occurs to them to say this situation doesn't make sense and we're doing something about it NOW. That would be too western, not sufficiently Thai.

I'm sure this, as well as other things, happens in many cases. But for my 2 cents, I realize that every time for the past 6 years that I've gone in to renew my Non-O, I've had an articulate Thai girlfriend with me, and every time I come out thinking "I couldn't have done it without her". So to be honest, this is probably the reason I've never had recourse to the very competent agent that a friend introduced me to.

Come to the Nana area of Sukhumvit and I can give you a tour of places filled with guys whose looks will make you wish you'd never made a bad decision in your life. I hate to bad mouth my fellow westerners, but man, some of these guys look burned out and sketchy--and they are the ones providing a lot of Thais with the means to survive, so there.

I assume you mean that sometimes IOs ask directly for money instead of us going through an agent. It has happened to people I know but never to me. My post you were responding to complained that agents have access to IOs that we don't have. I want to elaborate that the real crime (if I can call it that) is that what goes on between the agent and the IO is non-transparent. I can imagine a country allowing independent businessmen to facilitate and smooth over problems if everyone in the world knows exactly what goes on, the monies accounted and the professional relationships, etc. But afaik that doesn't happen here. So yes from my western pov it's absolute corruption, and not just a "culture". Not all values are relative, if I may be so naive.

The fact that an independent businessman, an "agent", can access an immigration officer in a way that I cannot and never will, is a disgrace to the country, and totally ignored by the powers in the government.

Like the way they drive their cars? I've been running into these claims of asian communal values and consideration of others' well-being, but if those ideals exist, then how do we explain the way they drive? I just assume every car is trying to kill me, I'd be stupid not to. So do you explain it by low IQ, or how?

Well, it's not really that bad in Nana-Asoke Sukhumvit, but I know what you mean. And any walk around the area will exhibit hundreds of massage ladies eager to make your acquaintance, which might encourage a certain category of tourists. Of course all the really really beautiful ones have found sponsors and moved on, but I'm already enough off topic. The flip flopping affects everything.

Digger asking how they are collected; here’s one way a farmer’s wife in Khon Kaen does it.

I had some mashed up bees last night. She said have some honey from the cone sent us, then admitted it was the bees themselves. Not much flavor.