driver52

point of order judge, it's a 2 way thing, they're not necessarily 'buying USD' they are selling the trash that is Euro and Yen......so ok maybe they're 'forced buyers of USD' but the way the trade is working they rather be 'sellers'

as in SWIFT? it's on it's last legs......it'll be replaced by the blockchain........the naughty Russians and chinese are already using an alternative eh? anyway, back to crystal ball gazing PS just so I don't like a total looney lol For all these reasons, the relative decline of the US dollar as the main reserve currency is likely to occur over the next decade. The intensifying geopolitical contest between Washington and Beijing will inevitably be felt in a bipolar global reserve currency regime as well. https://www.ft.com/content/e03d277a-e697-4220-a0ca-1f8a3dbecb75

well I'm certainly interested in 'the death of the petrodollar' and the rise of CBs who peg the value of their FIAT to gold AND what the future holds in regard to CBDC.........the rest is purely speculation eh? but that in itself can be quite entertaining too.... cheers

I suggest it soared because Euro and Yen are doing good impressions of 'toilet paper' which at the end of the day, is all FIAT is oh yeah GBP is 'low value toilet paper' too and getting worse every day cos of a 'failed economy based on benefits and house prices'

I'm highly doubtful of this comment.....ALL CBs (central banks) manipulate the value of their currencies........in fact the Yankees even heavily manipulate other countries ie Japan, have you watched 'Princes of the Yen'? PS I read the rest and I generally agree that CBs 'weaken currencies' hence the expression 'race to the bottom'

Krugman always always has an agenda

that was probs shorts closing, DXY well up now interesting thread, I'll read the rest of it now lol.........are you English out of interest nigel?

OP why do you feel like you need these tests doing? Diet is a very dangerous thing these days.....so is going for a medical examination.......ever heard the stories of the mechanics who tell you your car needs thousands of dollars of work and there's actually not much wrong with it

fair point but I do understand 'contr0l freak governments' moving the goalposts all the time i'll try and find out what the current diktat is cheers

thanks for your input, could well be on a pushbike so do they think they'll 'look favourably' on me? cheers

methinks house prices are on the verge of a collapse in the west personally I'd buy something outright, with a manual gearbox and a 'conventional engine' but yeah I appreciate that's a minority view in today's 'EV consumer clown world'

doesn't exist, that's why it's called 'plug n pray' i'd love to know what linux kernel version this 'pure android' that you keep mentioning is based on lol that's why most android TVs are <deleted>, they're still based on a version 4 kernel with a 'crappy wrapper'......come on man, we're running 6.1.9 on arch now

flight not until end of month so I probably have enough time BUT do you think it might be less stressful for me if I just get the 45 day visa exemption on entry, open a bank account and apply for a 1 year retirement visa? thanks

good to see the 'community spirit' is alive and kicking! have fun comrade

don't think 'pure android' exists boss, they move the goalposts all the time eh? I have a 'network of devices' so I'm not 'plugging a stick into a box'........I download free movies and TV series from my 'supercomputer' and just copy it where the hell I like! Ideally you have 'hard wired' devices with a decent gigabit router like a ubiquiti edgerouter, I only mentioned wifi cos the OP wanted it.... PS I don't even need to copy files manually if I don't want to, I can just set up a cron job.....anyways, time for something else methinks lol

rockchip based HK1 boxes are fekkin awesome! I've got a few of them, 1 runs adguard on docker for complete house DNS filtering* it runs jocks armbian I'm coming over to thailand next month, so I'll take your box off your hands for 50 baht if you're interested *why do you need to do that? so that for example your sexy Samsung 'smart PITA' tv doesn't spy on you all the time and also deliver 'sh!tty brainwashing ads'

because by default android TV boxes are a POS and an abortion akin to windoze by installing a 'native OS' that just runs kodi, you suddenly have a cheap, fast device that runs great even with just 1gb ram! kodi is the DBs (dogs <deleted>), then it's v.easy to install a VPN, iplayer, even a torrent client if you want..... PS a lot of hardware isn't really 'outdated' it's the sh!te software on it that's making it run like a dog yah? ie stick an SSD in an older pc/laptop and install linux and the performance can be surprisingly nifty PPS bear in mind what I'm suggesting here, replaces 'over complicated dogsh!te/carp GUI operating systems' with much more efficient and simpler ones, so it's actually 'less complicated' sir!! QED

@giddyupspeaking from experience of using PCs and TV boxes for decades, I would get an android box and hack it to run kodi via libreelec I recently bought a rockchip based box off ebay for a family member for like £1 plus p&p beware of anyone who says 'pc with windows=perfect solution'......windoze is an abortion of an OS nowadays even on a powerful PC, never mind connected to a TV think of solutions that are KISS! I download movies from tpb using a proper pc with linux, then copy them to a stick hanging off the kodi box......it can be slow over wifi but once the file is there, it's there and don't need tinternet anymore the box I bought was a V88 one, not as complicated as it sounds to 'hack it', see here https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/25236-unofficial-rk3228-rk3229-libreelec-10-x-builds/ good luck! PS you want a rockchip based android box, those amlogic based ones are poo nowadays, had a few in the past and they used to be ok, but I'd say rockchip now

UK passport holder arriving next month I understand I can get a 45 day visa exemption on arrival, what's the easiest route for the rest of the stay, if I visit Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam at some stage? I qualify for a retirement visa but not sure if I want to stay forever yet Thanks!

sure it'll always be affected by mast location, buildings etc ie I've seen 4g speeds from 10mb to 200+ mb on a mobile.... the thing you need to be asking yourself is IF the 5G is good ALL THE TIME ie it's going through objects, etc then <deleted> is it doing to your body? ???? boomer alert: keep yer wig on, this is not a conspiracy theory, they always suppress the health issues ????

just looked at that AIS website, 4.5G gets up to 880mbps.......I'm sorry but if you need more than that you need to get a life lol seriously a 100mbps landline on copper is plenty fast..........if I can upgrade to a 300mbps FTTH connection next year and get a 200-300mbps mobile connection you should be happier than a farang in a girly bar.........then concentrate on other interests lol

so what's the fastest 4G speed you've experienced in Thailand? in Europe 4G+ supports 300mb soooooo are you really sure you want/need 5G OR are you getting sucked in by the marketing and consumerism? ????

fyi that router is pants ???? it's only 4g which means only up to 150meg...the 300 on the spec refers to the wifi speed soooo if it was me I'd spend a bit more and get a 4g+ router which then supports up to 300meg LTE speeds but HI 5 on the router attached to the concrete post! Can't beat a good 'lash up' lol

@Adumbration as an FYI not all routers and aerials are the same.....not trying to point out the obvious BUT some of these manufacturers are disengenuous; no surprise in this day and age ???? I've been doing some research myself (I'm in mainland europe at mo) and '4G LTE' comes mainly in cat4 and cat6 flavour, cat4 does up to 150mb, cat6 up to 300mb methinks (often called 4g+ or aggregation) dunno if cat6 is widely available in Thailand? Also see this router pic? Methinks it is only lte cat4 and the 300mb on the front is referring to the wifi speed! sneaky...... I was looking at some tp-link routers recently...one was 4g compatible BUT you needed a usb dongle to use a 4g sim, it had a single round aerial for wifi Another one had a sim slot built in......it had 2 LTE aerials! (no wifi aerials from the sounds of it) and both aerials were flat.... here's a 'dodgy router' pretending to support lte cat6....

and then top out at 90mph? cos they have the aerodynamics of a brick sh!thouse...and handle like one too