mfd101

4 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Actually, it was the banks who ended up freeloading off the EU. 95 percent of the money for the bailout went to bail out the banks who recklessly lent Greece the money.

If I borrow $5,000,000 from a bank, money which I know I cannot hope ever to repay, the bank is clearly stupid for lending it to me without or despite due diligence on its part, but do I not have some moral & practical responsibility in the matter?

I just hope she got some rabies injections pretty quickly!

As the $A falls, so the price of imported goods will rise, so inflation will rise, so the RBA will raise interest rates ... some time over the next 18 months.

If you think of it in terms of likelihood + time (ie a partial concept of 'risk' - a concept unknown in Thailand as far as I can tell), then - given what the real experts tell us about tectonic plates etc, and noting that Indonesia is a good place to visit for demonstrations of nature's devastating power [earthquakes, volcanoes & tsunamis], I should think the NEXT tsunami is more likely over, say, the next 10 years (which includes tomorrow) than it is, say, 40-60 years out.

In other words, the popular belief that the likelihood is probably increasing over time so we don't need to worry today, is just the usual wishful thinking. The highest likelihood is within a shortish timeframe, with never-ceasing repeats over the same timeframes thereafter ...

Entering the final straight, lifting out of the saddle, from trot to canter ...

Why worry? We're as ready as we are every year for the monsoon.

Well, there's no perfect answer to anything in this life, but it's hard to take seriously people in authority (eg the BKK metropolitan mob) who announce in the middle of June - as the rains are pouring down - that people should be getting on with clearing the khlongs as the monsoon will be here soon ...

Well, she's nothing if not steely strong (at least in public). But of course squaring the assorted circles is beyond anyone's capacity ...

13 minutes ago, robblok said:

at leas the government has not let 2011 happen again.

I think it's unclear that anything the government has or hasn't done has achieved anything in this regard!

Just a matter of Weather, and whether it rained enough here or there or somewhere else ... And yes, the patterns do seem to be shifting. The last couple of years in south Surin the rains have started earlier & earlier - now early April - giving the impression of a Big Wet, but then it fades in the straight ...

For transfers from Oz, I use an Oz Citibank debit card. There is NO international transfer fee and, because it's a debit card, the transfer is immediate so you can easily compare the rate you get with what the midrate was at the time. I check with xe.com for the latter.

When I'm in BKK as I was last week, I withdraw cash from the Citibank atms at Asoke. There is NO atm fee. The xrate I received during the business days last week was between 0.1-0.2฿ below the midrate. Over this last weekend the rate I received was just ABOVE the weekend midrate.

When I'm in Surin here, I have to use  BKKBk atm & pay 220฿ fee and the rate I receive will always be 0.1-0.2฿ below the midrate.

So what's the secret? You have to keep a minimum of $A1000 in an interest-free account. In my case I keep minimum $A10,000 in my Citibank account which gives me a better xrate. Why do I do that? Because if I had that money earning the low interest rates of today & taking into account that I would then have to pay Oz tax on those earnings, I figure I'm way better off going the interest-free way with the immediate benefits it provides me.

3 hours ago, Kiwiken said:

A positive and Progressive South Korean leader showing strength but also allowing the free flow of Diplomacy to sooth tensions between north and South. Kim is also obviously taking a more pragmatic view. A long way to go but very good first steps.

Yes, Trump is teaching all his Pacific allies - the Sth Koreans, the Japanese and even the Australians - to grow up & take their own initiatives. About time!

Yes, careful step by careful step is what is required. Any significant - or even quite small - misstep and the whole process freezes or returns to Go.

It will be interesting to observe how the EU treats British refugees arriving at their borders. Not to mention poverty-stricken Brits seeking work and a decent health system ...

30 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

As far as I see the biggest problem is that few politicians told or tell the truth.

Almost all tell fairytales. And tabloids repeat these fairytales or make them even better/worse.

How many people look in detail at the available facts?

How many compare what they hope will happen to what is likely to happen under different scenarios?

I understand that many people are unhappy with their current situation. And many blame the EU because the UK politicians blame the EU for almost anything. The only problem is that in reality only some problems happen because of the EU. Lots of other problems happen because of the incompetent UK government.

What will happen if the UK is not in the EU anymore? Who will they blame then?

Yes, and of course the Brits - like most of the people on this website - live or did live in a democracy, and they get to vote for the politicians of their choice. Why do the pollies tell lies & fairytales? Because that's what the people want and they reward the liers & fairytale tellers by voting for them. People want simplicity: they can't cope with complexity, maybes and possibilities and multiple options.

Conclusion: When you live in the kind of free, open & wealthy societies in which most of us have passed most of our lives, it is YOU/WE who bear responsibility for the outcomes of OUR votes. Before we blame the pollies, we should really take a hard look in the mirror.

An interesting measure - of EFFICIENCY ie the ratio of resource inputs to useful outputs (& even outcomes!).

And on this measure the wealthy 'Western' countries don't do too well, Usofa least of all - too costly for mediocre outcomes.

Paranoia runs amuck on this thread, as on so many others.

There again, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there aren't conspiracies. The thing is though, most conspiracies turn out to be f ... ups.

43 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

If it were as simple and one dimensional as you your description, then currency trading would be a sure way to make money.

Um, I think it is!

2 hours ago, Esso49 said:

So we have another gripping week of posturing from both sides whilst the pound flounders.  You know if I was cynical I would say that certain people are making a killing out of the pound every time  hopes are raised on a compromise deal , and the pound gains and then May makes another statement to see it fall again. Of course that would never be the case in the UK would it ?

The currency traders every day of the year everywhere in the world make their living by buying and selling minute by minute and, these days, second by second. When a currency falls they buy, so the currency then rises, then they sell, so the currency then falls ... Nothing new or surprising in any of that.

1 hour ago, AGareth2 said:

no deal

no money

True, but not a showstopper, for either side.

3 hours ago, Aj Mick said:

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

There are of course always the issues of available funds and what the planning parameters tell us - at the time - about future trends. In this instance at least, the Thais are no different from anywhere else in the world - other than the Chinese.

On the latter, I have been in 2010 in a railway station in central China - it was brand new & huge, with hardly a train to be seen besides my one. I asked why so huge for a small city. The officials smiled and said: In 10 years there will be 10 million people living here.

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

They want money, no need to pay them.

People desperate for money are always lacking in power (unless they're prepared to take by force)

Brussels would LIKE some money just to demonstrate to everyone that you can't unilaterally walk away from treaty-status agreements without paying. Their actually NEEDING it or being prepared to SACRIFICE their own 'red lines' for the sake of a few lousy billions is hardly a realistic interpretation.