rikpa

Again, I give GW Bush credit for finally doing his homework. He knew nothing when he got to the White House about countless things, never having gone outside North America. He knows his world map now, six years too late. )

Thank goodness he finally finished his sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Hannity's homework assignments! I was beginning to worry!

Its climbed the ranks its now a second world country

However, Thailand definitely isn't as developed as most Western nations. Bangkok is very modern, but other areas are not. Also the rule of law here is a national disgrace. In a Western nation the insane level of corruption here, politicians murdering thousands of citizens for a boost in popularity, or gangs of thugs attacking peaceful protesters, would never be tolerated.

The "never be tolerated" part, hmmm? In the USA we have no rule of law, effectively (other than the law of money/might makes right, as our constitution was eviscerated completely over the past few years), institutionalized corruption that reaches quite possibly into the trillions of dollars, politicians going to war and murdering 100,000s of civilians for political gain (and for the financial booty as well), an incaceration rate that is greater in both absolute and per capita terms than any other place on earth, and tighteneing surveillance noose to where every last bit that goes through any wire is monitored and sniffed (Echelon and the NSA Internet trunk taps at every major Internet hub for domestic surveillance purposes), where now nearly every bank transaction reported to a central governmental agency with databases linked to every other government database. Oh, and thugs bashing in protestors' heads (when they manage to escape their "designated free speech" quaranties, that is). The UK is, for all intents and purposes even worse in many regards, and seems like the rest of the EU is tagging along quite nicely.

Whatever Thailand's flaws I can say I am so much happier to be living in a modern metropolis like Bangkok, with great infrastructure, great food, great people, and a sane cost of living. Compared to the decade I spent in the overpriced, filthy, run-down city of New York, it's a dream.

A lot of good it would do to give a bunch of Thais an English IQ test and then post the results.

Of course the tests would have been in Thai. For those that don't know, IQ tests your ability to reason and think, your ability to make abstract relationships, memory, mathematics, and intuition. They don't bloody ask you how plant rice, or how many home runs Hank Aaron hit on Tuedays. You can make an IQ test for any group in their language.

IQ measures your ability to cope and adapt to changing circumstances. How you think on your feet. Why wouldn't Som Chai's test results be as valid as Joe Sixpack's. Can't Somchai put a puzzle together?

Who gives a crap about puzzle-solving when life rotates around 2-3 cycles of plant/harvest with nothing to do in-between, except drink Sangsom and listen to Mor-Lam and living it up with friends and familiy? IQ tests measure something totally irrelevant to most of upcountry Thai culture. Why not measure "net personal happiness" instead? Tough to quantify for sure, but 100% germane here.

And I speak as someone who has lived too long in the machine, where things like abstract reasoning are important career-wise, but not a single abstract thought has ever brought me any happiness. And I envy my gf's family's lifestyle. Because all I do is work like a dog for dubious ends, like a condo and air-con.

Perhaps the lifestyle associated with "tham na" is one of the smartest lifestyle strategies for contentedness there is, all things considered.

But you say Cha-am is boring?

All that is needed to confirm or refute this can be gleaned from a walk down the Ch-am beach road on any Friday/Saturday night.

where did you stay gracelessfawn? is that ubud hanging gardens?

Yup, that's in Ubud hanging gardens. Didn't stay there for a long time though coz it was kinda far from the city. So stayed in one of the temple/hotels after 3 days of stay there.

Yeah, it is. The hanging gardens are too expensive anyway, and it's just a hotelier's dream pf paradidse, which they are happy to overcharge you for. I'd recommend Puri Saren Agung if you go to Ubud: cheap rooms (< $50 USD/day), *actually inside* the Ubud Royal Palace, though annoying Chinese tourists do mindlessly push into the inner sanctum several times a day, harshing the inevitable and deserved buzz. But it's all good and totally worth it.

I lived in Bangkok 2 years, Samson soi 3 and NYC 5 years , 20th & 8th ave. Manhattan.

The most dangerous thing in Bangkok is crossing the street. In my opinion this alone makes Bangkok more dangerous than NYC overall. That is, comparing crime + traffic hazards in Bangkok with same in NYC.

Wait, you lived in Chelsea, and you feel safer in Bangkok? I think the katoeys here would bitch-slap you for that one!

I can also say that my personal 'feelings' are that, compared to Thailand, life in Farangland is just way boring. In the U.S., you go to work, come home, and occasionally hang with your friends on the weekend or whenever you have time. In Thailand, "work", even during 'workweek days and hours' is secondary to just hanging out. Even at work (and I have worked in Thailand at a law firm), people really care more about 'hanging out' than getting things done. That is the Thai work ethic, and I am proud of it!

Just look outside the Soi's in the evening, and you just see people hanging out, talking to each other, eating and doing whatever. Every Thai has a huge network of friends and family, and everyone in the neighborhood knows each other (and each other's business). Compare that to the U.S. where I don't know my neighbors though I lived next to them for 8 years! In the U.S. everyone is so isolated, whereas in Thailand there is such a huge social network. It is really a hard sell to ask any woman to give that up.

Wow submaniac, you just nailed it! My ex-wife is Khmer, but similar circumstances. She came to live with me in NYC, 2 blocks from Central Park in a tony neighborhood, had all the trappings, but utterly hated it, for exactly the reasons you just enumerated. And frankly, I hated it too, which is why I am so happy to be back in LOS (and Cambodia) and just getting on with life.

As you related, I never saw my neighbors (they were all too busy working just to keep their apartments), there was no sort of community, and no concept whatsoever of sanook. I am so happy to be back here!

I don't speak Thai so it's a bit harder for me when I'm in Thailand, but in Cambodia I can plop down and shoot the shit with anyone and the aspect of hanging out is so sublime, from a human perspective, that I can't imagine how folks in the USA ever manage to get on without this. Oh, I forgot, they DON'T! They, mostly, seem utterly miserable, net-net (compared to the Khmers I know, based on living in NYC among the so-called elite). All the psychiological "dysfunction", the Prozac, the therapy. It's astonishing what lacking deep roots and social connections (and sanook) can do to people!

This observation has been borne out in so many ways, and I am happy my luuk-kreung daughter is now living in Cambodia vs. the Upper West Side of Manhattan, because she is so much bloody happier, plugged into her family network and culture. She has told me she has no wish to abandon Angkor and "apsaras" and all her cultural heritage for strip-malls and McDonald's, and loves playing in her grandmom's rural village with all the kids and just living, as kids should.

Things here operate at a human scale (well, outside of Bangkok), not at some insane pace where the only goal is accumulation of status and chits on a computer screen, at the expense of the enjoyment of day-to-day life and family and friends. My ex wife completely tired of the USA after 4 years and recently returned to her village near Siem Reap (and only just returned to the USA for a bit to maintain her green card status to keep her options open), and fully intends on staying in Cambo for life.

"Do Buddhist monks control their flocks as mullahs do their Muslims followers?"

I would say no not generally in any tradition of Buddhism with the exception of Tibetan Buddhism. However, just like with everything else there is alway someone who is the least bit tempted for power and fame and might be a threat. When I was a monk none of my fellow monks were the least bit interested in politics, power, money or even world affairs we lived where we were strictly in the moment and governed each other equally and fairly but did not interfere or try to influence our followers in these matters.

I think you paint too dim a view of the Tibetans and too generous a view of the Thais in this regard. I believe the truth, as it were, lies someplace in between. If you look at the history of the Thai sangha, it has always been deeply entwined with the government in one way or another. The founding of the Thammayut sect, the anointing of the leader of the Thai sangha, all very political moves. There is a long-standing connection between the Thai sangha and the government and monarchy as I am sure you are aware. I don't want to add more as it is against forum rules, but it is less savory than may be imagined.

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies & the Truth about Reality

by Brad Warner

Hi Sabaijai, I read this a couple of years ago, and while I generaly liked it, I also feel he didn't leave his experience of satori in the oven long enough to fully bake. Had he waited another decade to write it, I would have found it more interesting. Then again, it could inspire folks with the idea that comprehending the Dhamma is not impossible in this day and age, even for miscreants!

I suppose I am fortunate in the respect my daughter was born and thus far raised in a Buddhist country, although she is only 5 she does come up with some deep questions mostly because her school follows all the Christian and Buddhist holidays and traditions. I get hit with the Santa Clause and Easter Bunny questions and I don't know the answer myself so I just explain it is an idea of goodness, kindness and giving but not literal truth and I liken it to giving alms to the monks. The question I have a problem answering is why I am not a monk any longer (I was a monk for 12 years) the only answer I can give is "because I wanted to be with you and mommy".

Hi DrFisher, you were a monk for 10 or 12 years? And in China? A full vinaya-following monk or more like the Japanese style "priests"? Just curious.

Anyway, this thread is interesting, to a degree. If my four-year-old daughter ever asks me where she came from, I'll tell her "me and your mommy." And if she insists, I'l tell her a little bit more about biology and the birds and the bees (but she already knows she came from her mom's tummy).

Parables about arrows and eliminating suffering here & now just seem waaaay too abstract and pointless for her at her age, and I cannot imagine ever saying anything like that to her. What would I be thinking? Perhaps when she is older, in the throes of teen angst, and even then I might hesitate.

The Buddha spoke to people at their level. His strategy using "vohara vaca" makes complete sense to me. There is no point speaking about the deepest reality to someone who cannot process it. It is a waste of your time and theirs, and there is simply no lasting benefit, and quite possibly harm.

Kids will be kids, and I want to let my daughter be a kid. There is certainly time, later in life, where she may have serious questions about the nature of life and where it all leads. That is the perfect entree to me to tell her the parable of the arrow. But not a moment before.

Bankei and rikpa, you're both valued contributors here, let's not let this thread degenerate into blaming/flaming, ok?

I also don't think it's useful to paint all of Islam as an 'enemy' of Buddhism.

Hi sabaijai, I am not interested in flaming, but it is useful to point out just how inimical to Buddhism Islam really is. Islam has a long, brutal, and sordid history with relation to Buddhism, and I see no point in pussyfooting around this issue. What Islamists have done to Buddhists is documented, historical fact. It is why Buddhism no longer exists in India (apart from Ambedkar's recent revival among the dalits). The Muslim invaders targeted all monks and nuns for extermination in India, and destroyed every institution of Buddhist learning there, **as a part of their ideology**. In this effort they succeeded wildly.

It was, in short, religio-ethnic cleansing, and to not confront this reality and call it for what it is, is to assent, by silence, to the sinister, overarching agenda of Islam, which is to convert the world for rule under "dar al Islam", by sword, if necessary. Buddhists are particularly singled out by Islam as idolaters, and accorded even more brutal treatment than the theistic religions as a result. This is no aberration, it is the red thread that runs through the entire history of Islam's contact with Buddhism.

What about invasive China? Wouldn`t they have more interest in this?

I don't believe China is nearly as great a threat as Islam; the Chinese are too intrinsically capitalistic to care. And, the old Maoist philosphy has a limited shelf-life; Islam has shown itself to prosper (ideologically) in any age, and in any nation.

If you observe the demographics for Western Europe, the picure that emerges is that Islamic commmunities will begin to dominate (by birthrate alone) in 2050 or so. Consider the implications. The aim of Islam is dar Al Islam. Google that one to see what is in store for us.

annica, dukkha, anatta

everything, everyone, no exceptions

Nice and pithy, but I'd go one further and be politically incorrect and say that anything having to do with Islam is death to Buddhism. They are the fundamental enemies of the Buddha's teaching, and the reason Buddhism died out in India after the Holocaust of their merciless slaughter of monks and nuns and their wanton destruction of Buddhist institutions of learning (for example, the razing of Nalanda monastery).

As Buddhists, we may not be inclined to harbor enemies, but still must recognize a disease where it exists and do what we can to resist it, lest it kill the entire organism: that disease is Islam, and it is the scourge of humanity, and they aim to kill all of us, according to their own scriptures and modern-day teachings! To be forewarned against those who would take our lives and wilfully destroy anything having to do with the Buddha-Dharma, even in this modern age (e.g. Bamiyan, the South of Thailand) is to be forearmed.

What is your understanding of the First Noble Truth?

Erm, life sucks and then you die. And then get reborn and have to do it all over again. And again.

She said she would let me see the kids every other weekend & now we're at that weekend she wont allow me to see my children.Its hard to be nice to somebody who is being so unreasonable & unfair & basically very selfish.

This is an ugly situation--one I've had to deal with myself this past year. The best thing to do is go to a lawyer immediately, or you could very well end up losing your kids. Seriously, time is of the essence here. Also, did she abandon the marital residence? If yes, at least in the USA, it is a bad idea to be the one to abandon the residence if you want to keep your kids.

Really, this is a situation where you need a solicitor to look out for your interests. Screw your wife's feeling at this point: she has effectively declared war on you, and this is now combat, pure and simple. It is no longer a marriage, or a friendship, or anything other than a zero-sum battle where everybody loses, the only question is by how much, and do you want to be the one to never see your kids again?

That may sound very harsh and cynical, especially if you still have feelings for her, but it is 100% realistic and the most probable scenario given what you have so far said. This is the time to be as cold and calculating as possible, and to not let emotions run you (though this is much easier said than done), and most important, to remember your ex is truly your mortal enemy, who will quite likely try every deceitful and underhanded trick in the book to get what she wants. The accusations of abuse and deliberately withholding visitation with your kids are a perfect example of what I am talking about. This can and will only get worse if she thinks it in her interest, to the point she could abscond with the kids to Thailand. In the USA you can get a block put on chidren's passports that prevent them from leaving the US, not sure if you can do this in the UK, but if you can, do it immediately! Anyone who acts this way will stop at nothing to get what they want, so please be prepared for things to get worse. There is no point in being the chump here.

If I were in your shoes I'd make sure to get the woman booted for this. Lying about abuse (presuming she is) and withholding visitation from your kids is pure evil, and she deserves to be kicked not only to the curb, but out of the country.

This is coming from someone who prefers peace and harmony and all that stuff above all else too--however, this is not the time and place for feel-good nonsense, as the stakes are just too high with your two kids involved.

My God She's at it again..GF Why dont you get a hobby??and a life while your at it...

Easy there big boy. Please be nice to GF. She is obviously a very nice and intelligent person, yet able to play you all like Paganini on his Stradivarius. Mad props to anyone like GF with the soul of a true coyote.

I set up this WIKIPEDIA entry for the late Brian Cutillo. He may become one of those people more famous after his earthly demise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_cutillo

RIP

Wow, thanks for adding that. To my total surprise I have never heard of Brian Cutillo until now. I had no idea he studied with Geshe Wangyal and Robert Thurman. Geshe Wangyal was the first Tibetan Geshe to teach formally in the US--there are now three Kalmyk (Mongolian) temples in Howell, NJ, where he first landed. BTW, Robert Thurman (father of Uma) was the first American to ordain as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Interesting part of Buddhist history in the USA.

If you hook-up with someone because of love, then I think that the difference in economic status will no longer be a problem.

Maybe, I'm just a romantic....... still dreaming.......... but in a perfect world, love should be enough!

Hi GF,

What you say makes sense in a perfect world. But I don't think it really works that way in the real world. Or if it does, only rarely. There are alway problems when there is a huge class divide. Note I say class divide and don't base this on income.

Class is an attitude (and largely a function of how a person speaks and comports themself), and if the attitudes match between partners, then economics are usually not at issue.

I speak as someone who married across a class and culture chasm, and paid the price for it. There are just different expectations and ways of relating to life that can be difficult, if not impossible, to bridge.

The biggest thing I noticed was the differences in the way we treated work and money. For my ex (not a BG but traditional Khmer country-girl), the way of relating to life was not at all compatible with what most Farangs are used to.

I mean things like "planning" and "goals" and all of that. For folks who grow up in a world where there is no concept of future, or of goals (like Isaan or rural Cambodia), it can be very difficult for that person to embrace a mindset where things like getting an education and self-improvement are valuable and important.

Many of the poor folks from upcountry have a totally different way of relating to money & work, and that mindset is almost impossible to change. This makes them bad canditates for relationships with folks who have that mindset, and makes them poor canditates for transplanting to cultures where goals and the concept of a "future" holds sway.

It is like giving a poor person a $100MM lottery payout. They often end up killing themselves with excess, or end up in crazy debt even with their windfall, because they have no concept of how to apply this in relation to life goals or the future.

Just my thoughts.

Hmmm... I still recall very clearly the first time I heard mention of the Buddha, when I was in seventh grade (and our teacher mentioned that her sister was a Buddhist), and for some reason just a tangential hearing about this system of thought intrigued me. I have almost no other memories from that age, but I can still see every detail of the scene where I heard about it. For some reason just hearing this made me feel a warm vibe, whatever that means.

I didn't get into a formal practice until many years later. I had just divorced, and I was staying at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam (Japanese owned), and was waiting for the car to the airport. I had an hour or so to kill, and I looked in one of the drawers, and they had a "Buddhist Bible" right next to the Gideon bibles.

When I cracked it, the first passage I found was that "the Dharma is a raft for crossing over and not for getting ahold of." I was hooked from that passage on! It made perfect sense, and the Buddha was the only true "bootstrap" philospher I'd come across, whose system was just a strategy, not an end in itself. Huzzah!!!

On returning to my home in Rochester, NY, I went to the bookstore and picked out "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula, and what really intrigued me was "The Three Pillars of Zen", because it talked about the point of Buddhism, which is awakening. I was like all wowed by that. I consumed the Three Pillars in a single gulp, and when I got to the end of it, it said that the author roshi Kapleau had founded the Rochester Zen Center, the very first Zen Center in the USA. The Rochester thing got me--I had no idea when I bought the book! So I flipped open the phone book and it turns out the center was 3 blocks from my home, and I'd never known! What a coincidence!

Thus began my formal training in Zen. Which later led to a real appreciation of Tibetan Buddhism after I moved to NYC (especially the emphasis on logic in te Geluk-pa school), where I was lucky enough to study with a Tibetan Geshe who'd made it out of Tibet in '59, particularly the emphasis on the Madhyamika definitions of Shunyata and the Prasangika interpretations of Dignaga and Dharmakirti's treatises on logic.

But Walpola Rahula's great book had let me with a strong apreciation for the Theravada, which I never abandoned throughout my training in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. I studied the Pali Suttas alongside the Tibetan texts. And I was heavily influenced by Professor Richard Hayes all along, who I consider one of the most knowledgable Buddhist teachers in this world.

This eventually led me to Thailand (I got really interested after talking a lot about Thailand with my Thai business partner in NYC whose father, I found out later, was an ajahn for meditation, who had published a couple of books on it!).

In Thailand I inquired about studying the Abidhamma at Wat Mahatat, and where I might learn more (I had been studing the Sravastavadin Abhidharma with my Tibetan teacher before this). This led to a recommendation from one of the monks there to study with Khun Sujin. I had no idea Nina Van Gorkom was one of Khun Sujin's students at that time--I had already committed much of the basics from her book "Abhidhamma in Daily Life" of citta, cetasika, etc. to memory before going there, so it was a blast--especially to compare the Tibetan and th Pali systems. I feel very lucky to have had amazing teachers in every one of the major traditions.

And funny enough, just reading here I found out there are folks who have had the same teachers, and we even know some of the same people! I find that very amusing.

Anyway, now I am just a lazy shit who doesn't study or meditate or do anything, but that is gonna change, if I can get off my ass first!

Hi Lobsang,

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity (in fact I found this long before you posted here, and was seriously considering it). I would have been all over this a few months ago, but now conditions won't permit this for me. Oh well. Anything within the FPMT is a great bet for anyone who finds an affinity with Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Zopa and his entire organization is awesome.

Lobsang, do you study the traditional Geshe courses there? The five great texts, etc.?

Best of luck in your endeavors.

All the best.

E.

If you're interested to know more, I suggest you read "Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra who many years ago saw the similarities between Buddhist thought and Quantum Mechanics... really it's true, and a fantastic read, the Physics stuff is pretty heavy but worth it in the end.

I recall really liking that book, and having the physics shot down by my rocket-scientist friends who'd read it. Oh well.

One science book that really rocks though is James Austin's "Zen and the Brain." He is a neuroscientist and a Zen practitioner (and a serious meditator) whose book is a real landmark.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Brain-Understand...s/dp/0262011646

However, the dollar looks to be in for a big decline, now that faith in it as the world's reserve currency is ebbing very fast.

Added to that, the housing bubble deflating in the States, and stock sell-offs building up as the 'baby-boomers' start retiring and drawing their pensions, will have 'knock-on' effects that can be expected to do anything but help the dollar.

And there are fears of some of the big hedge funds 'tanking', which really would take us all 'back to basics' with a vengeance.

Martin,

It sure seems that the popping US housing bubble is going to have a major impact. I think in the next 2-3 years the full scope will become evident. This is the time-frame for a lot of the ARM lockups to expire and reset, meaning that folks paying $1,000 for their mortgate today at ridiculous "teaser" rates may find themselves out on their asses when that $1,000 mortgage payment turns into $1,500. That is obviously gloing to create problems as the reverse wealth-effect of declining property values locks folks into mortgages larger than their homes' market value and impoverishes them with high interest payments.

The hedge funds are particularly at risk. Amaranth took a $5Bn loss a few weeks ago because of stupid risk management on their part. A lot of these hedge funds have very risky bets open that could whack them big-time when the economy turns south, as is happening.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?me...1&WT.srch=1

Long Term Capital is a perfect example of the sort of hubris infecting the hedge funds, except they had Nobel-prize winning economists on their team, unlike most of the other hedge funds. The past few years being a successful hedge fund manager has been easy. That can change very quickly.

Serious question. If the dollar really is tanking, as it seems to be, does anyone have any recommendations into sound investment strategies to counter the drop, other than changing all your dollars into another currency? I have a portion of my dollars offshore in CHF, but I don't want to put everything in one basket. What other options are there? For the time being I am not looking for growth so much as just retaining the present value of my money.

Hmmm... I can't give advice on investing, but if it were my money I'd keep a big chunk allocated in ABD (anything but dollars). Investing too heavily in US stocks, for example, still exposes you to FX risk of a depreciating dollar. It is fine if you live in the USA but probably not too smart if you live elsewhere.

Commodities like oil are too volatile for my tastes--though maybe I'd allocate some of my portfolio to gold stocks.

I ain't an equities guy (my idea of pickng stocks involves a dartboard and a blindfold)--I am sure there are others who could be more helpful on that, though if it were my call I'd invest a good chunk in index funds of non-US companies.

I think the key is a rational allocation strategy across different asset classes, including stocks, bonds, and commodities, and cash. This provides enough of a hedge that no single asset class tanking will send you to the poorhouse.

I got unceremoniously cut off replying to the WWIII thread! This is a very relevant topic to Thailand! Let an economist moderator at it next time!

That said...

The Baht is one of the strongest currencies in the world at the mo. Maybe the US will go to war with Thailand!

a

As for the American economy being in trouble, you'd better tell that to the US stock market; currently trading at or about record levels.

But still, I think I'd rather believe a young girl from the PI than a bunch of highly paid economists on Wall Street.

The American economy is in huge trouble.

My dentist told me today that if I don't get my wisdom tooth pulled in the next six months I'll be in for a root canal. But it sure feels fine now. Just like the US economy.

The stronger the baht gets, the more trouble for Thailand. I can't fathom the ignorance regarding this point. A quick survey of the Bankok skyline should surely disabuse the punters who think this is not relevant! Those eyesores are from the last baht crash in '97. I know many people who lost their shirts (and a whole lot more) on that one.

If & when China starts dumping its trillion in UST's, it will mean a panic for the exits wrt the UST's from all of the other players holding treasuries, and a concomitant devaluation of the USD. This has a very direct impact on the well-being of rice-farmers living in Isaan or elsewhere. There was an article not a couple of weeks ago in a Thai publication with Thai farmers crying for tariffs because of the weakening dollar.

And forget the folks living in the LOS from the USA living on fixed incomes denominated is US dollars. They are not impacted by the weakest dollar in over a decade. Not a little bit!

This is the changing of the guard, the change from the USD as the world's reserve currency vs. the Euro. And once oil is repriced in a more sustainable currency like the Euro, the luxury of being the world's reserve currency the USA holds now will evaporate. It already is.

Once the reserve currency status flies to the Euro or other investments, the USA all of a sudden loses its cheap borrowing power. And nothing the Fed can do to sell UST's will make a difference. There will be inflation--there already is, it's just been hidden by the so-called "core" index that excludes energy and housing (which is an insane index of inflation given the impact of both energy and housing for the average consumer).

Once the USD loses its reserve currency status (a total inevitability given the profilagate spending of the US as a whole and its massive account and trade deficits), it spells big trouble for the global economy.

I am personaly bearish on the USD and the implications of the change in reserve currency from USD to Euro, and the Chinese's plan of dumping UST's. This could easily create a "black swan" event (like the Russian default that caused Long Term Capital to tank in '98 ,which required a Fed bailout sponsored by several major banks) that no one is taking into account now, since most traders foolishly adhere to the idea that the past is an accurate reflection of the future.

The USA is not "too big to fail.", regardless of the meetings the G8 holds. It is a mathematical certainty the US is headed into at least a recession very soon, if not a depression. I would be quite interested to see how the USD tanking would impact the Thai baht. This would not be a pretty scenario.

It appears from her messages* that Ms Fawn is Filippino(a), 25 years, and not Thai.

I therefore apologize.

LaoPo

Please tell me, LaoPo, that you didn't spend several hours culling the data for your post, just to sling &lt;deleted&gt; at someone who, to the best of my knowledge, has done you no ill or harm. I'd say you ought to be ashamed, if I though that someone as shameless as yourself would even care. Pathetic.