VegasVic

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Great news.

The tide has turned, and only Israel and its apologists seem determined to pretend it hasn't.

The world has had enough, and this is only the beginning.

Totally agree, Australia has just experienced the religion of peace, so did Pakistan .

Indeed tide is turning

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The Nation! A strong reputation! Ah! Ah!

I'm certain that no matter how inept the new owners of the Nation might be, they couldn't any more clueless than the group that is in there now alt=thumbsup.gif>

It would appear that I left out a "be" in my previous post!

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The Nation! A strong reputation! Ah! Ah!

I'm certain that no matter how inept the new owners of the Nation might be, they couldn't any more clueless than the group that is in there now

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Yingluck and the General, two bumbling morons who don't have a clue how to run a country!

At least one was good to look at!

The other difference is that one was elected and the other one is a military dictator

I am just amazed that senior military officers were not voted the most corrupt profession in Thailand, given the modern history of Thailand that would seem to be about right Oh wait, thats right they run the show so they weren't one of the choices on the list

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this writer does not have a clue how markets work. yes the Russian have just turned on there 25 billion swap agreement with China and are asking for a much bigger line , China is learning the hard way what it is like to be a reserve currency . if they get in bed with the Russians it will cost them a ton of there reserves.the Russian govenment does not have a lot of debt it is there oil companies in dollar debt, one gas company alone has 25 billion coming due in dollar debt this month. the chinese have already cut off Venezuela they loaned them 35 billion down that sinking oil producer rat hole. Saudis are cleaning house killing off all there competition , even Norway and the British are feeling it now. Chinese are next with ist hugh oil companies that have dollar based debt. lower oil prices and strong dollar all oil companies in deep trouble= no exploration, massive layoffs=less competition higher price in about 2 to 3 years. No alternative fuels innovations prefect world for the Arabs

Very well put there BCB! I have seen some really ignorant articles from the Nation over the past few years but this one takes the cake, the author must have not even taken the most elementary ECON 101 in college As for the posters here on TV, one does expect ignorance on issues like this and I have to say I am not disappointed this time around as usual The great strawman argument of "China holds all this massive U.S. debt and if they dumped it on the market they would crush the U.S. economy" I always love this one, of course the truth is that China holds about the same ammount of U.S. debt that trades on Wall Street in a weeks time, so while it might rattle the markets for a few weeks in the end it would be absorbed but then China would be absolutely screwed from that point forward Russia is between a rock and a hard place and the price of oil hasn't even dropped into the $40's (yet) , I do not know what the end game is for Vlad and Russia but I would imagine that they will be selling some of those gold reserves verrrry soon

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Let's keep in mind that the entire Chinese economy is so opaque that nobody knows what is going on. They could be bankrupt right now, and it would take a decade for anybody to figure it out.

Very true, and the real estate bubble begining to burst in China is just the first shoe to drop, the shadow banking system could begin to unravel if this real estate crisis in China were to worsen and of course there is always the possibility of a large scale uprising by the Chinese people as the economy continues to slow down and layoffs continue to mount

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Why is the USD so much stronger but the baht against the dollar stays about the same. (Compared to most of the other major FOREX)

The U.S. Dollar is stronger vs. most of the worlds currencies for a few reasons, however the primary reason is the fall in oil prices. As far as the Baht vs. U.S.Dollar goes the Baht has indeed weakened from below 28B:$1 to now 33B:$1. The Aussie dollar and Euro (as well as the YEN) will likely continue to fall vs. the U.S. Dollar in 2015 for different reasons. The Aussie will fall in value due primarily to the massive drop off in exported raw materials to China, and the Euro will continue to fall due to deflation in Europe and rising interest rates in the U.S. by mid year. I have read two different reports that see the Euro getting to par with the U.S. Dollar late in 2015-early 2016. As far as the Baht is concerned, I can remember a report that the BOT did 4-5 years ago that figured the "sweet spot" for the Baht vs. the U.S. Dollar was in the 35-38 range, my guess is that we will see the Baht gravitate towards that range during 2015

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I think you are over rating tourism.

Before they start taking drastic actions like that, they need to clean their act up and make it a country of interest again for tourism.

Tourism is indeed important to Thailand on many direct as well as ancillary levels, however the export sector is far more important, but both would greatly improve if the baht were to weaken. The BOT will likely not have to take any substantial actions to try and weaken the Baht, this will happen all on its own with the rotation out of Asian assets, as foreign investor funds in the SET sell their assets and exchange their Baht for Dollars, Yen, Euros and Pounds as they expatriate their funds. Thailand being a relatively small market in world economic terms really doesn't have as much power over where their currency trades as you would think, my guess would be that as the Baht weakens there will be a point in time perhaps a couple years from now where the BOT will once again try and tie the Baht to the U.S. Dollar for stability.

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Australian government wants to see 0.75 to the US$.

Bad for Australian tourists, great for Australian exporters.

The Aussie government will indeed get their wish and given the weakening Chinese economy the Aussie Dollar may go well below that $.75 rate

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When you are not happy with the Ugly American... What do you replace them with? Those dirty Chinese??? Hmmmmm...

I think just as you may have had the "ugly American" syndrome 30 or 40 years ago, that has been replaced in Pattaya with the ugly Russian and perhaps in Phuket with the ugly Aussie, with that said we are talking in all of these cases about a few bad apples giving their respective countrymen a bad name, however in the case with the Chinese tourists it doesn't seem to be a few bad apples but rather a larger behavioral problem with the Chinese themselves. Thailand's tourism industry is between a rock and a hard place given the economy in Europe, and the falling currency values in Russia, Australia and Japan I don't know what the answer is for the Thai tourism sector, but the Thai government needs to put their foot down on this behavioral problem that the Chinese tourists exhibit or else they may find themselves losing the few western tourists that will still come to Thailand, and then all they will be left with are the Chinese and the Koreans

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I wonder if this is in part due to the strained relationship with Russia and a chance to make some in roads while the Ruble is not doing so well?

Scott, This is calculated political move on the part of the Obama administration, just as the unilateral illegal immigration administrative action that Obama took a few weeks ago was. The Democrats were handed an absolute as$ kicking in the November elections in the States and they are now fearful that even Hillary can not win the White House in 2016. Obama had a majority in the House of Reps and a super majority in the Senate for his first two years in office and he didn't didn't do a damm thing on immigration reform nor in 6 years did he do anything in regards to Cuba, now all of a sudden with the most popular governor in recent history in the State of Florida (Jeb Bush) deciding to run for President, Obama has this sudden interest in Cuba The path to the White House in 2016 goes through 2 states, Florida and Ohio and with Jeb bush a potential candidate and Gov. John Kasich (Ohio) another potenial candidate or running mate the DNC is grasping at anything they can that might be able to sway those two states

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What happens if Russia (and China) start dumping US Treasury's on the open market?

If they bought them at 50 and sell them at 100 they would lose half of the money in the Russian Treasury. Did they hire a Thai finance minister?

A Russian dump would be material, but not catastrophic. A Chinese dump would be catastrophic. A Russian + Chinese dump would be essentially "game over" for the petrodollar.

When will a Russian "dump" of the USD$ in forex reserves occur....when will a CCP "dump" of the their forex reserves of the USD$ occur......

This wishful thinking continues in its complete disconnect from reality because the answer is never.

The reality is that if Russia "dumped" USD$ forex reserves they would have inflation on the Wiemar scale and the same is true of the CCP Boyz in Beijing. The Bricks only alternative would be to resort to a gold standard which would fail because others would not join...who wants to join an economy acting out of frantic desperation...

The post is more of the fantasy of what theoretically Putin could do but won't ever do. The fact in reality is that neither Putin nor the Boyz in Beijing can do any such thing. It would be financial and economic suicide because in the end the world markets would have to return and resort to the USD$.

Russia is not so much a national economy as it is in fact an oil exporting business, run by oligarchs. The CCP's market socialism with Chinese characteristics is exactly that and it too is on a straight and rapid line to the crapper.

There's no 'when' nor is there an 'if.'

Period.

I've got more bad news for Vlad, I talked to an old Chicago buddy of mine who works at the BOT today and the feeling in the pits is that oil is headed lower and it could remain there for quite a while Given that the Russians have a production cost of around $65/bbl it looks like they had better start selling their gold reserves and pray that they have a bumper grain crop next year

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A Russian dump would be material, but not catastrophic. A Chinese dump would be catastrophic. A Russian + Chinese dump would be essentially "game over" for the petrodollar.

You are talking absolute nonsense again, but I assume you already know that. Any sane person would know that. Russia holds about 1.7% of outstanding treasuries. We could easily absorb that and already buying back treasuries at rate to cover in 2 months anyway. China is more dependent upon our treasuries than we are on them. No one would dump anything and drive prices down because they would loose too much and China cannot afford to allow it currency to appreciate and lose exports since they are decades away from becoming a consumption economy.

Dude, I explained tis a while back but you either are too dense to get it or just ignore it to keep spreading rumors and paranoia.

Russia and China and Thailand and so many others HAVE to hold a significant amount of USD to engage in international trade. They hold them in Treasuries to back their trades because the USD is the petrodollar and the international unit of trade.

If they dumped their Treasuries they would be out of business in international trade. Almost no one will take the currency of China or Russia or Thailand in exchange for what they want to buy.

So many people misunderstand why "The US Owes Them Money" when in fact they are all broke but have to hang on to their Treasuries ($USD) to stay afloat.

N.S., Well put there my friend, the U.S. A. haters here don't have the first clue as to how important the U.S. Dollar is and why it is that way

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The odds is USA will crash faster than China is more real

China has the correct leadership to firmly deal with the shadow loans etc and have the time and the reserves to correct this and the markets will adjust slowly to a slower China. I have been talking about this since last year because they realized they have to take firm action lest they follow USA into auto destruction of their own economy

USA on the other hand while still attempting to correct themselves doesn't have any firm leadership in place and a bi partisan government that is never going to work together ever unless there is camera kiss ass time

The only time they agree is to approve budgets to keep the government afloat as they cannot bring themselves to the realities of a Greece bailout or government revamp as the politics is difficult to steer through on whose agendas is more important

Either one crashing will bring devastating results to all the pensioners here on this forum depending on that social security check

I doubt there are many here depending on the CCP handout. I being ever Chinese have gold bars as my own backup

Larry, I'm glad to hear that you have gold bars and not mainland Chinese real estate as your "backup", because the latter is in the early stages of a very large bubble bursting, and this will eventually uncover the shadow banking system in China Over the next 10-20 years the Chinese government will have their hands full dealing with massive air and water pollution as well as internal strife

Cambodia still paying 7% fixed deposit interest if you can stomach the risk ...I posted that info on the forum cambodia banking thread

Lots of great opportunity everywhere to park cash at mate ...USA is also another location with value priced properties

Diversity is the key ...good luck !

Hey Lar it looks like Vlad jumped the Russian bond rates up to 17% overnight to try and save the floundering ruble, why don't you give those Russian bonds a taste

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Guys, its hardly fair to criticize Obama for things he would never be allowed to change: the ever-present and inevitable ills of capitalism! The servile classes have always been, and ever shall be fodder to be consumed by those who own them. I was just pointing out that within the context of our miserable and iniquitous system, Obama's done a 'good job'.

I guess that we will just have to agree to disagree on Obama, given that I feel (and BTW most Americans feel) that he is no more than an empty suit and partisan political hack that can read the hell out of a telepromter This has been the slowest economic recovery in U.S. history and most Americans will tell you that they don't feel like it has been a recovery at all! The U.S. government can spew out all these numbers on how the unemployment rate has come down and all the jobs (part time) that they created, but as the old accounting saying goes liars can figure but figures don't lie and the real figure is that the labor participation rate is lower now than when Obama took office 6 years ago, and real wages are lower for those who are working The one business sector that has exploded is the petroleum business due to the fracking in the Marcellus and Bakken shale oil fields primarily, but this is in spite of Obama not because of him, he and his liberal cronies have done everything they can to tie the hands of the petroleum industry in the U.S. It has been classic case of American ingenuity, risk taking and the entrepreneurial spirit that has moved this sector ahead in spite of all the regulatory hurdles and head winds that the administration has put up. Obamacare is an abject failure and will die a painful death once the Supreme court rules this spring on the subsidy and state exchanges cases, with the death of Obamacare and Harry Reid out of control of the U.S. Senate perhaps the U.S. can really make some real improvement on the jobs and economic front

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Then why is the Thai baht so strong???

It is a major exporter. It has lots of foriegn reserves.

More importantly there is a great deal of cheap money in the world today and U.S. and European hedge funds need to spread that money around to get the returns they need, so when they invest in the SET or in other Thai investments the need to buy Thai Baht to make those investments thereby putting upward pressures on the Baht, however when the pendulum swings the other direction (some think this has already begun to happen) then they will be selling those Baht and buying Dollars, Euros and Yen .

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The odds is USA will crash faster than China is more real

China has the correct leadership to firmly deal with the shadow loans etc and have the time and the reserves to correct this and the markets will adjust slowly to a slower China. I have been talking about this since last year because they realized they have to take firm action lest they follow USA into auto destruction of their own economy

USA on the other hand while still attempting to correct themselves doesn't have any firm leadership in place and a bi partisan government that is never going to work together ever unless there is camera kiss ass time

The only time they agree is to approve budgets to keep the government afloat as they cannot bring themselves to the realities of a Greece bailout or government revamp as the politics is difficult to steer through on whose agendas is more important

Either one crashing will bring devastating results to all the pensioners here on this forum depending on that social security check

I doubt there are many here depending on the CCP handout. I being ever Chinese have gold bars as my own backup

Larry, I'm glad to hear that you have gold bars and not mainland Chinese real estate as your "backup", because the latter is in the early stages of a very large bubble bursting, and this will eventually uncover the shadow banking system in China Over the next 10-20 years the Chinese government will have their hands full dealing with massive air and water pollution as well as internal strife

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Like it or not, US will always be the world leader.

Which nation is capable to do what they do? And of those nations, which ones could be trusted globally?

Not necessarily. Usa's position is only a small period in history. The have been other empires in the past, many lasted longer than current blip that usa thinks will last forever (a dangerous form of hubris for the rest of the world - one sole superpower that uses whatever means to ensure its citizens and values rank over all others).

I think it is better not to have one sole superpower because absolute power corrupts absolutely. Who cares if it's China or Russia or some other bloc like the EU that may have ascendancy in the future. The world needs another power to counter the existing one that may or may not recover is moral compass.

"The USA's position is only a small period in history" this may be true however we are all living through that small period in history and it will not likely end in my or my childrens lifetime What happens in the world 200 hundred years from now really has no effect on me or you, and as far as this "moral compass" BS goes, it just shows your complete lack of comprehension of world history my friend If you want to be politically correct and all touchy feeley and claim the "moral" high ground that's fine go right ahead, but the problem that folks like you have is that you want to rewrite the history of mankind to fit your perfect little "moral high ground" world and it just doesn't fly my friend as much as you might want to wish it so

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46 people have retirement plans? ? According to FOX? I guess you don't want a serious conversation?

It was clearly a joke (you missed it). I don't watch FOX, it's your obsession and you can't have a serious conversation with someone who gushes over a monetized lily in a sea of financial sewage.

Choc, Ultra libs like carl don't have a sense of humor, and they don't want to face the truth no matter how many times it smacks them in the face, however you are correct when you say that they have an obsession with FOX news a very unhealthy obsession at that

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Russia is not dead, nor will it be. I look forward to about 2 years from now, (an educated guess, but still a guess), for when the ruble will find some legs and become stronger. I think at that time I will be buying rubles and just watch it come back.

The Russians are done buying any condo's in Thailand for a long time, because it simply costs them too much. They can make more getting 17% on their money in a Russian Bank. If they try to sell the condo's they do own here, they will lose about 40% of their value by selling for baht, and then changing the baht into rubles.

I am sure the developers in Thailand are very nervous on how they are going to replace all of those former Russian buyers of their condo's. I would be.

You are probably very correct, on that score. Pattaya, Samui, and Phuket are going to take a real hit from those missing Russian tourists. Last year, they were the second largest tourist group in the country, after the Chinese, from what I am told. At a price hike of nearly double, Thailand is starting to look expensive, even for the Russians. Wonder how many will miss them. Personally, I prefer the Chinese. More jovial, more fun to be around, and friendlier, in comparison.

Preferring the Chinese over the Russians, is that kind of like preferring syphilis over gonorrhea

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Who's brave enough to buy a collapsing currency and lock in a rate of almost 20% for 5 years

Only a fool Vlads days are numbered, the Rouble is basically in freefall and investors can smell the fear

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Nothing partisan about the report. Feinstein is a staunch supporter of the CIA and spy agencies, well she did get a bit ticked off when the CIA spied on her committee and lied about it. Too bad the entire report, not just the summary isn't being released. The entire report will never see the light of day. There was no need to listen to their lies, it was in the reports. Perhaps a little of their own medicine would produce the truth, right? Nor did they interview many of those tortured, well some are "unable" to be interviewed. The head of the CIA lied to Congress and not one thing was done about it. Anybody that believes a word of the likes of Cheney/Bush et al, well, I've got a bridge from LA to Bangkok I'd like to sell you. Keep GitMo open for those that really belong there, war criminals Cheney/Bush et al. For those that can stand the truth, oh by the way one of you right winger's hero's made a little speech on the Senate floor condemning torture and what the CIA did, try reading these. My apologies for everything running together, it looks correct when I paste it in, but I don't know what happens to it afterward. I'm unable to make paragraphs, edit, etc. http://www.juancole.com/2014/12/release-torture-violence.html http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350555/-John-McCain-Calls-Out-the-Torture-Apologists?detail=email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350473/-Key-takeaway-from-torture-report-Dick-Cheney-is-a-dirty-stinking-liar?detail=email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350378/-Dick-Cheney-Lied-about-torture?detail=email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350485/-Here-are-a-few-excerpts-from-the-conclusions-of-the-torture-report?detail=facebook?detail=email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350297/-Today-we-learn-more-details-of-the-villainous-behavior-of-U-S-torturers#?detail=facebook?detail=email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350553/-CIA-paid-two-ex-military-psychologists-who-helped-designed-and-run-torture-program-81-million?detail=email http://www.thenation.com/blog/192233/gut-check-moment-its-time-reject-cheneyism?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20%28NEW%29%20-%20Most%20Recent%20Content%20Feed%2020141209&newsletter=email_nation http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/juancole/ymbn/~3/0tlKK28y-3Y/founding-foundational-constitution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/12/09/3601312/17-disgraceful-facts-contained-in-the-torture-report/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=tptop3&utm_campaign=tptop3&elq=~~eloqua..type--emailfield..syntax--recipientid~~&elqCampaignId=~~eloqua..type--campaign..campaignid--0..fieldname--id~~ http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/12/09/3601209/cia-torture-report-findings/ http://www.alternet.org/print/news-amp-politics/7-things-we-learned-new-report-cia-torture http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/senate-intelligence-committee-cia-torture-report.html?_r=0 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/09/the-most-gruesome-moments-in-the-cia-torture-report.html?via=newsletter&source=CSAfternoon http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-released/print http://jonathanturley.org/2014/12/09/senate-report-u-s-torture-program-more-brutal-than-previously-disclosed-and-cia-officials-gave-false-information-to-congress/

The daily KOS Given that you seem to get your news from a radical left wing blog then I am not surprised at your unfounded and inaccurate conclusions, now go ahead and tighten down those blinders and don't forget to drink your allotment of Koolaid every day

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The article says that these tortures did damage to America's standing in the world. They didn't mention that unfortunately the US has nothing left to damage. It's all messed up already.

You may be correct, after 6 years of this empty suit in the oval office here in the U.S. there isn't much farther for the U.S. to fall

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That eliminates about most of us.

I had a dream once, about doing something artistic or maybe an intellectual. But then I arrived in Thailand.

That's a good one Rich! Perhaps the OP would feel more at home on the Left coast of the U.S. as there are plenty of self described artsy and intellectual types there They tend to congregate in the same groups and one person tends to be more close minded than the next despite the fact that they pride themselves on being open minded, these artsy-(pseudo)intellectual types are among the most closed minded people that I have ever met in m y life