realfunster

That's life - history shows you don't need an army until you do and if you are not ready, you are screwed. In the last week alone both the UK and now Germany have committed to increase military spending. I don't think Europe should be over-relying on US to ride in and save the day (again). Robust European militaries strengthen both the individual countries and the whole NATO group. The reverse is also true, China is highly dependent on exports to the US consumer market. China is 15% of all US imports. US is 16% of all Chinese exports but makes up around 46% of their overall trade surplus. (USD 404bn/USD 877bn - WITs/Worldbank) Whilst the US consumer will notice impacts on product choice and availability, a trade war means large swathes of Chinese losing jobs and potential civil unrest. I am not convinced that China wins a blinking contest on that one.

Once in a while, you hear something so dumb, so absolutely imbecilic and lacking in any critical thinking that it makes your head hurt. This is one of those occasions. Either ban Thais entirely or come up with a sensible entrance fee and/or financial requirement for Thais to enter. Setting an arbitrary asset limit of USD 1.5m plus is ridiculous and stupid. Maybe written by the same illogical people who come up with Thai Laws that punish with either a THB 500 fine or 10 years in prison for the same offence.

The EU have already walked back a touch and have recently announced some reductions to the corporate reportings required around Sustainability/Green issues. Practical reality is this. EU can try to take the lead on carbon reduction/net zero with the risks that involves around being a first adopter but I don't see much major traction on net zero from other major economies such as US, China, Japan and India. Well, that is apart from China, who are gleefully making all the solar cells and EVs to sell to environmentally conscious Europeans & Yanks whilst they continue to generate >50% of their electricity from coal. They are playing the game very well...

You can imagine these Chinese investors being promised the earth by agents when buying these condos, they are finding reality a different experience. Low yields, high costs and limited resale options. Let’s hope the condo bubble is not too big…

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Great news. I am looking forward to retiring immediately off the back of this impressive “surge”. On second thoughts, as I unable to identify any surge with my naked eye, and we are actually around COVID level lows, maybe I will have to resign myself to another 20 years of the 9-5 grind. SET must be one of the worst global stock markets over the past decade..useless.

Thinking about it - we had that horrible Bangkok bus fire a while back - I thought they were meant to be checking all these “Frankenstein” buses for fire and safety standards. It’s too early to say but the fact the entire roof peeled off suggests this may have been a fairly shoddy bus.

Indeed. I also note the 3am crash time. There was a crash yesterday where a lady was making a long drive in the early hours, this seems to be a more prevalent habit here. Darkness and possible fatigue don’t help your chances…

We’ll probably get some victim blaming criticism but in relation to this accident, by accepting the wedding invitation in Bangkok which naturally led to a late and long drive home to Rayong/Chantaburi to make work in the morning, the poor lady (RIP) contributed to the situation. Even her family commented that she had a tendency to drive at high speeds. Fatigue, rain, darkness and speed are not a good mix.

Didn't know people took a precautionary dose of anti-parasitics, I have occasionally wondered about doing so myself as there are elevated risks here due to some of the "exotic" foodstuffs on offer and sometimes less than ideal hygiene. Any idea what the meds are ?

The banks work on a spread from the BOT base rate, so I don’t see why they would be against lowering the BOT base rates ? They will get their +3% spread whether base rates are 1%, 3% or 5%. In fact, they will prefer lower rates as that increases the amount of lending in the market = more loans to get the spread on = more revenue.

That might be part of it but lenders could/should introduce more stringent checks. No point punishing everyone with high interest rates as some people default on loans. The market will work its magic - if you lend recklessly- you shall receive your comeuppance. Anyway, the economy has been in a coma for a decade, massively underperforming regional peers. Something drastic needs to be done.

These numbers are a couple of years old but you get the picture. Whatever your political stance, one must admit there is something to be evaluated further for the US in terms of their trade/diplomatic strategy with Thailand going forward. I wonder if the average Thai is aware we are running a huge trade deficit with our friends in China. What advantages does that bring to Thailand ? High quality submarines by the year 2050 ?

Just to give the other side of the coin, I’ve only eaten it once and I suffered an extreme gut infection which put me in hospital for a night ! I’ll spare everyone the graphic details. 🤐

The Thai authorities appear to have dragged their heels on Chinese criminal gangs. There were numerous reports during COVID times of undesirables settling in, away from Chinese COVID restrictions. Here we are several years later and it's apparent that the undesirables either haven't left or have spread the word that Thailand is a comfortable base for criminal operations. It's going to take a long and concerted effort to get this under control. Wouldn't be surprised to see more Chinese authorities getting involved, bit like the Chinese Minister who recently marched into the Burmese border town with the scam operations.

In this thread's case, I'm torn between which is the most tiresome, xenophobia in Thailand or AI created news copy resembling a thesaurus.

There was a related but broader article I read somewhere today comparing Thai GDP growth to regional neighbours. Very weak performance over the 2022-24 period compared to SG/VN and Indonesia. It indicated that some are already revising down the forecast 2025 growth from 3.0% to 2.8%. This remains well below key neighbours/peers. There is a helluva lot of work to be done to get the economic growth really moving in the right direction.

Irrespective of whether Thais should or should not be allowed in Thai casinos, the Thai bureaucracy confirming (yet again) with this announcement, their complete lack of critical thinking skills.

I know where you are coming from but I do like an annual visit to Japan, I don't want to have to deal with the Chinese hordes both home & away !

Well done TAT. Outstanding. Quite amusing that Japan, having only a grudging interest in attracting tourists has overtaken Thailand's annual visitor figures already. They even attracted more Chinese for Golden Week than Thailand, despite the wintery/cold weather in many areas. Difficult one, can't say less Chinese tours in Thailand is a loss but I also like visiting Japan...

The OP prompted me, as a tea drinker, to do a little digging. Apparently, the Thai tea I regularly consume gains its famous orange hue from food colourings. No great surprise there. The label for 👍 tea (if you know, you know) shows "INS110" as an ingredient = sunset yellow additive, as mentioned in the OP. If you buy Thai tea in the EU, the sunset yellow additive is removed and so, it is a standard tea colour. This is due to some EU concerns over INS110 and the "activity and attention of children". Maybe our future will be non-orangey Thai tea...

I hadn't really considered restrictions on aircraft parts/maintenance as part of the wider Ukraine related sanctions. You might reasonably think that is an accident just waiting to happen....

Indeed, as I recall she received a 5 year ban from running any charity due to financial mismanagement. Perhaps that’s why she is now touting herself in countries where such matters are not taken so seriously and the photo-op is more important

Thank you AOT. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a smoking room in the new satellite terminal a few months back, not very well signposted at the time but it is there.

As I commented on yet another child drowning last week - just look yet again at the dangerous pond design used. Good swimmer or not, for a wet dog or person getting out of that PVC lined pool with steep and slippery sides is going to be a problem. Fatigue sets in and under you go. I wish they would launch a public service announcement with some basic (non-expensive) guidance on how not to make your water retention pond a complete deathtrap for both people and animals...put in stepped (or at least non vertical) sides when digging, have a safety line anchored somewhere etc etc.