Isaan sailor

When I lived in America, I followed the advice of the book “The Millionaire Next Door”: modest house, used cars, etc. Divorce changed my life, so I moved to Thailand, Now living with my Thai wife—we have a two story house in an Isaan farming village, and we just bought a new Ranger. Can’t hide things here…

Bath stronger. It’s also holiday high season in China, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, but they don’t keep their currencies unreasonably high. Do the comparison.

Something is wrong with Thai Baht valuations. Yesterday, the USD on Tradingview reached a multi-year high of 108.40. And the Chinese Yen, Philippine Peso, Vietnam Dong, and Indonesia among most currencies responded with the related multi-year high for the USD. In Thailand, the USD could only muster a five-week high. Another way to look at it: earlier in May and June, when the USD on Tradingview slumped to 105–the USD/Thai Baht came to 35.50 Bank of Thailand claims foreign inflows push up the Baht. Who are the biggest foreign exchange customers? China, Japan and Taiwan. Sure, the Baht is not pegged to the Dollar, but they’ve suddenly set a very high bar for the USD.

Somehow, CNN got itself into US airport lounges. I hope that contract has ended.

She’s good at tearing paper…

Who keeps voting for these octogenarians?

The slow economy hurts most everyone. As long as BoT keeps taking foreign inflows, Thailand’s economy will continue to falter, while competitors like Vietnam flourish.

Maybe Kash was facetious, but he said fire the troublemakers at FBI in DC, send the rest of them out in the field to pursue criminals, and then reopen the building the next day as a Museum of the Deep State. I kinda like this guy…

No complaints here.

Recently I needed some wine for cooking my beef Bourguignonne and picked a tetra-pack of Peter Vella Red—about 500 Baht at Makro for 1.5 liters. Of course, I didn’t use it all in the stew, and shared some with the wife. A but fruity but still quite drinkable at a very reasonable price.

Thailand has more than a few economic problems. Baht slowly rising from foreign inflows. This affects tourism and exports. When you compare Baht to Vietnam Dong, you see the difference.

You got that right. Strange, the USD has hit a two year high—107.5 on Tradingview—but you’d never know it by looking at the USD/Baht…

Thai Baht valuation makes no sense. USD over 106 on Traidingview—matching the same level on April 16. Yet, April 16 USD / Baht on Wise over tb36. Today USD 34.51 on Wise. What has changed at Bank of Thailand?

Bank of Thailand should move closer to a floating peg of the USD, like Vietnam does. Baht starting to rise, and would hurt the economy even more.

Vietnam will eat Thailand’s lunch.

The pendulum has swung right. It’s about time.

Strange; from the 2020 election to this one, there few 15,000,000 million fewer ballots cast. And we were told the 2020 election was the most secure ever…

I just hope we have a fair election. No ballot harvesting, uncompromised vote counting machines, clean voter rolls and voting by American citizens only.

Kinda like the cameras watching Epstein’s cell…

Good explanation. Thanks for the link.

I would much prefer they tax tourists (and returning expats) a little, than the expats income.

So no direct correlation of Tradingview USD prices to Wise USD/Baht. That would make sense. There must be other factors at play. Thanks for responding.

Agree with your suggestions. It does seem, however that forex Tradingviews of USD don’t correlate with actual exchange rates of USD/Baht. Today we see a USD at 104.37 with a Wise price of 33.71. Yet on July 24, we saw USD at the same 104.37–and Wise showed 35.15 USD/Baht. Have the parameters changed? Or did foreign inflows buoy up the Baht this month? Not complaining here—just a bit confused

Baht valuation makes no sense. It doesn’t follow international trading trends—should be much lower than now. I think foreign currency inflows have a direct bearing on Baht valuation. Data from Bank of Thailand seems to confirm this.

If it sticks, could be the final nail in the coffin for Thailand. That, plus the crazy Baht valuation today—-DXY Tradingview shows USD at an 11-week high. The last time it hit 103.60 we had an exchange rate near 34. on the USD/Baht. Today, we have uSD at 33.14.