cutter007

9:30AM this morning on Yahoo... 33.80 and stable

Yahoo is not a currency trading company, all quotes are severly delayed.

Looks like it is back to 36, and it was down about a 1.5 points

for about 12 hours:

Open High Low Close

25 Jan 07:45:00 35.81 35.81 35.8 35.8

25 Jan 08:15:00 35.79 35.79 35.79 35.79

25 Jan 09:15:00 34.16 34.16 34.16 34.16

25 Jan 10:45:00 34.15 34.15 34.15 34.15

25 Jan 11:00:00 34.15 34.15 34.05 34.05

25 Jan 11:30:00 34.15 34.15 34.15 34.15

25 Jan 11:45:00 34.1 34.1 34.1 34.1

25 Jan 12:45:00 34.15 34.15 34.15 34.15

25 Jan 15:15:00 34.15 34.15 34.15 34.15

25 Jan 16:30:00 34.1 34.1 34.1 34.1

25 Jan 17:15:00 34.13 34.13 34.13 34.13

25 Jan 17:30:00 35.83 35.83 35.83 35.83

26 Jan 00:45:00 35.87 35.87 35.87 35.87

26 Jan 01:00:00 35.89 35.91 35.89 35.89

I know two people that bought it, both were asian (not farangs) and both had enough money

that they wouldn't loss any sleep if the company went bankrupt.

These are the only people that are going to buy this, people who don't consider 1 mil baht

a lot of money, and are interested in coming to Thailand often.

Sorry to tell you TPC what you should have already figured out, there are not 1 million people in the

world in that catagory.

It will go bankrupt in a couple of years, fingers will be pointed, but in the end no one will

be punished, and it will be on to the next idiot tourism marketing idea.

Here's one for you Thailand, try clean beaches, less pollution, honest transportation,

and some decent infrastructure, for a marketing promotion.

Naaa never mind, tourists aren't interested in those things.............

This sucks, let me say it again this totally sucks.

I saw nothing wrong with Don Muang, but I understood the need to expand, but now this.

It's going to be like the subway, build only one line and of course it will lose money.

The first line loses money because it isn't used to capacity,

because customers don't find it convenient enough because it doesn't go to enough places.

So then they use the excuse of it lossing money, to delay building more lines.

Now they are going to make a complete mess of the entire aviation system in Thailand.

Nothing good will come of this, Suvarnaphum will now loss revenue, making any expansion plans

to gather dust,

I wish they had never built that new airport, Thai politicians don't have a clue about infrastucture systems,

or how to use them efficiently.

They treat them like new toys that mommy and daddy bought them, there cool to show off to their friends, and who cares if they are being used in a productive manner or not.

Aviation hub of SE Asia, yeah right!!!., They can't even make an aviation hub for Bangkok,

forget about the rest of the country or region.

I am confused wasn't it just a little while ago they were talking about what bad shape Phuket was in because of the tsunami and tourism being in the gutter. And now they are saying they have too many and they want to limit them.

What can you expect though, this guy probably plays golf with the Finance minister who is advising him on how to flip flop your stance every 90 days or so.............

Silly rabbit Tricks are for kids

i thought he was in china now?

ANyway, he'd now need visa to enter the UK.

And he'd have to prove he has funds (which he has stashed away illegaly), and that he has "ample reason" to return to thailand!!!

I wonder if he'll write a "sick buffalo" letter to Tony B.?

That post was hilarious............best post I have read in months!!!!!

Thai Finance Minister to explain amendments to foreign investors

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Pridiyathorn said he believed the amendments would bring more clarity and thereby greater confidence in Thailand's investment climate.

Bit early for the first cuckoo of Spring isn't it?

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

Since when did restricting or removing someone's control of their money, or the benefits they derive from either the money or the control of it, bring greater confidence (from the losers) in those removing the control?

Better confidence for Thai investors in Thailands investment climate.

"Why should we postpone it when we have worked on it for three months. This is Thailand,'' he added.

My idea : they simply want the foreigners to endure the "path" that was initially designed in the law : ask authorities, negociate a licence on a case by case basis.

What to gain in this process ? More control, more power ("I don't like your face and your project, piss off"). And more space for corruption and little "private negociations".

Many foreign investors will not do it (discouraged). This is the main risk for the country's economy. Other will try it, but will be rebuked by some lunatic provincial civil servants for instance.

And other will try, and will succeed.

Welcome to the new thai casino, golden land of opportunities !

Bottom line : this very thai spirit (idiotic rules that lead to dead-end situation that can be solved only with specific negociations) can work for :

-little business, mafia type

-and big business

But not for medium (normal) business.

I don't see xenophobic conspiration in such a move.

Just a pleasure dome for maniacs civil servants, infants of Kafka and Don Corleone.

If you want to see by yourself :

http://www.dbd.go.th/eng/law/fba_e1999.phtml

That suits perfectly the way of thinking of the current government : no imagination, not an ounce of real audace, just the grey universe of a certain old generation, who is dying to know that they belong to the past. A last stance for those men and women, with insane haircuts, bad suits and very, very bad shoes...

I really start to miss Thaksin !

No, I'm joking...

Excellent analysis, although I don't really think they are trying to acheive the results you are talking about,

this civil servant "super corrupt" negotiation system is what the results will be.

I don't really understand anyways what this has to do with the big foreign multinationals anyways. Most are

100% foreign owned anyways and are under BOI status.

So I don't think this even effects them.

This would effect the middle and small companies.

Thailand should get some advise from Indonesia, they can't even keep the lights on for their citizens.

Foreign capital and expertise pulled out of the energy sector over there and now they can't build enough power stations,

for there current needs.

Foreigners pulled out because the Indos were pulling crap like Thailand is trying to do right now.

I always joke with my Thai friends, be careful about Americans and business, its a deals a deal mentality.

Which means don't double cross Amercan's when it comes to business, because you

may be able to steal a dollar from their pockets today, but they won't forget it, and they will use economic strength, uncompromising determination, and scientific expertise to beat you silly dumb for the next 50 years, until you are begging to pay back the dollar with interest.

Start a war with us fine, sell weapons to our enemies, no problem, but try to screw us over in business, big mistake.

I was going to buy a condo in the 5 - 10 million baht range from a development in a resort area.

Was going to buy it at the beginning of 2006, and it was scheduled to be completed 3rd quarter of 2007.

I went back to the sales office, and they actually have more units available now then at the beginning of 2006, and they are lower in price. The sales girl told me they weren't even sure if they could complete it so many people have pulled out.

I will be glad when this real estate correction bankrupts a couple speculators, foreigner or Thai alike.

I have a good idea what it costs to develop and build some of these units, and the speculators have been driving the price up on us for a while, and I am glad its going to go the other way for a change.

if all the tourists go away then the prices will finally go down i hope. since the 13 years ive been here the prices are probably at least triple of before. while cambodia has many thing the prices are unchanged. then there is all the visa troubles crossing the border. yet ive even got free tourists visas in poi pet where the part is price its stamped gratis. why have i get free visas cause i am can speak khmer. but not as much as i like too. but they tested it already. fact is cambodia apprectialtes people coming to their country. thailand does not. perhaps this is caused from the massive numbers of tourists thaland gets which cambodia does not. so maybe the bight side of this is the thais will get off their high horses and start treating the foreigners that are here better.

Did you ever think that maybe why you don't get charged is because the

immigration officers in Cambodia are 1000% more corrupt than the Thai immigration.

Instead of charging the normal price they took it upon themselves to let you have

a free pass, because they though it was entertaining that you could speak some Khmer.

Do you think that is there official policy, speak some Khmer, no visa charge????

So could it possibily be that Thai immigration follow the orders of there superiors a bit better, and

charge everyone for a visa regardless of whether they personally like them or not.

I think maybe it is better if you stay in Cambodia, seeing as how you favor corruption

of government officers when it benefits you personally.

Most of these places are outside places:

bus terminals - open aired

MRT - you can't smoke inside them before this regulation

BTS - again you couldn't smoke inside the gates before this, and outside the gates

is open aired

bus stops - this is just a joke, this is an open air area in the middle of smoke and traffic pollution,

sitting next to a smoker there might actually improve your air quality

but of course this makes it easy if I am walking down the road smoking and happen to

walk in front of a bus stop, a police can run over and try to fine me 2,000 baht, of course letting

me go with a 500 baht fine, that will go directly into his pocket.

sports stadiums - banned already in the air conditioned closed in spaces

playgrounds - again open aired, but not enough of these in public places to even bother mentioning, it is up to the owners if

they want to ban it at the private ones.

This reminds me of Boulder, CO USA neo-liberal capital of the US, behind Berkley, CA.

They were trying to ban smoking in peoples own backyards, because some idiot women was complaining that her neigherbors smoke

was floating into her yard.

AAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thailand, I love you because you are the idiot clown, that makes us all laugh every

time you trip and fall on your face..............thanks for getting up each time, so that we can laugh in amusement as you do it once more

I was talking to a guy in Bali that has been touring around the world surfing about 200+ days a year.

He found a good break in Thailand, through a friend, that has consistent good size waves 7 - 8 months of the year

on the Phuket side of Thailand.

But of course, he wasn't really forth coming about the location, as many people are about unknown breaks.

In his defense he said if I ever wanted to join him, he would show me where it was.

My guess is in is somewhere off the coast of Koh Lanta.

That is what you get, when you allow companies like CAT to monopolize the international backbones. It is criminal intend of the Thai authorities that they do not allow organisation like NECTEC to run an backup. They will never learn however. It is too cozy being made important. On top of that CAT is one of the least important customers as they have negotiated a very low price for the least optimized service. Who cares if Thailand stays at the bottom of the food chain, certainly not the current government.

I hold a masters in telecom, and have worked on global network infrastucture in the private sector, and I think

you should know something about what you are talking about before complain about these organizations.

CAT doesn't have anything to do with a international backbone cable in Taiwan, this is owned by one of CATs upstream providers,

possibly Singtel, MCI, or another backbone provider.

Also for the others there was no fault for redundancy, people just don't understand the economy of scale when

they are commenting about this stuff.

First there are multiple cables and routes, but do you understand what happens when a backbone link

goes done, the traffic floods the other routes almost instantaneously, and you are extremely lucky if they don't crash immediately.

Comments like run one cable West and one cable East, get real, what your going to run cable through Tibet, the Middle East, and Europe, in the ground all so that you can have redundancy in case of an earthquake in the Pacific.

Do you any of you have any idea how much in costs to run a backbone fibre across the Pacific????

Take a guess, and then multiple that by 1,000 and that would be how much it would cost to run a cable across Asia over land.

Why don't we just run 5 or 6 backbone cables across the Pacific that are only used in case of emergencies, each a thousand miles apart, forget about the feasablity of it, the cost, or the geographic impossibilities................. this would be the same as your wife asking you to buy her a backup car in case she happens to get a flat tire with the primary car.

I though for a major act of nature, the response and resolution was extremely fast.

It seems like this is a criticize anything Thai web board now a days, chears to all those people that spoke up about it

on this blog.

Something wrong in Lao, blame a Thai organization, earthquake in Taiwan, blame a Thai organization,

I am definitely one for pointing out that there is plenty of room for improvement in this country,

but seriously, some people want to blame them for everything.

Come on guys, there is no way they will close suvarnubhumi, it would be as hard to reopen Don Muang as it was to open suvarnubhumi and it would cost a fortune. No other country in this region has 2 airports in one city. Suvarnubhumi is by far superior to Don Muang, the only problem I see is the arrivals hall being too small. I have flown in 6 times and never had any problems.

Perhaps no other major city in the region has two operating airports, but there aren't that many major cities in the region. Look further afar and there are many major cities that are served by more than one airport: New York, London, Los Angeles.

I have not yet visited Suvarnabhumi, but from all reports, both positive and negative, I see no mention of significant advantage over Don Muang.

Suvarnubhumi has the area to expand the terminals, and most importantly the area to add new runways. Don Muang does not.

The major limiting factor now is not the size of the airport is is the capacity of the runways at certain times of the day.

At Don Muang there was nowhere to build new runways, at Suvarnubhumi there is.................thus you have a new airport.

I was laughing at my friend the other day, he just bought a 36 million baht house in a resort area. I was taking the piss out of him, telling him he was an idiot to buy a house in Thailand for that kind of money, as the workmanship and building quality in Thailand was far below Western standards.

I suggested the most you should spend is 6 - 8 million (less oppurtunity for skimming)

He told me that I was way off base and I didn't know what I was talking about, he said one of the reasons why his house cost so much was to assure quality craftsmanship, and his project (house) was suporvised by foreigner foreman and a foreign contracting company.

I asked who the builders were, he said Thais...........I laughed.

I told him look at the new airport, it was build by lots of foreign contracting companies, with many foreman that were foreigners suporvising it. It cost hundreds of billions of baht to build (I presume some of that to assure that it was quality craftsmanship), and look at it now.............a poorly designed airport, with facilities missing or falling apart 3 months after opening.

He didn't say a word after that..................I think he was thinking about his 36 million and where it might be going.

I forgot to add that the property agent didnt put up much of an argument when I said that I was holding off transfering the money until the rules wre made clear. They initially said that they hadnt heard of it, but eventually admitted they had. So if they accept that property might be subject to the 30% witholding tax then I will hold off until I read otherwise.

I'm with you obsession, I will write off my 25% deposit that I have allready paid and walk away. On principle I would not give the Thai gov. an extra 30% so they can earn free interest for a year.

The way this government is behaving there is a very good chance they can imply further penalties for farangs owning asets in Thailand.

One thing is for sure, the juta have a lot of assets in $US, this way their ill gotten fortunes increase in value when they repatriate them back to Thailand. It's the only logical reason for this insane move.

Its not the junta, it is the BOT itself that has been buying up huge USD reserves for some time now.

It is also not a secret that they are lossing millions of dollars a day by doing this with the baht gaining in value.

These are not secrets, and it been well documented on Thai news channels, Thai newspapers, and even mention of it in the English newspapers.

But if the idea of a low down corrupt junta makes you feel better..............then go right ahead with your theory.

You would think that property buyers would be ecstatic over the effect that the BOT actions and reactions have had. A weakening of the baht translates well when one is bringing in money for large purchases such as condos and houses. As usual, I'm astounded at the negativity of many farangs when something is done that improves their position so dramatically.

That is a very good point, however, the way the government did it was not good. If the country had sound

economic principles to begin with, there would be no reason to use such a rash measure to prop up the baht.

The last thing the Thai government is trying to do is prop up the baht; they are trying to prop up foreign currencies. How successful they will be remains to be seen. They are acting in a way that benefits most of us readers on this forum. Apologies to currency speculators in advance!

What does this mean "they are trying to prop up foreign currencies" do you even know anything about economics? This doesn't make any sense.

Do you actually mean to tell me that they weren't trying to stop the rapid strengthing of the baht, but were actually trying to devalue the EUR, Yuan and USD????

I can make this real simple, if you are not an private currency trader, or your salary is lower than 100,000 USD per year,

you do not have to be concerned with this law.

This is a law that applies to commercial banking and currency trading.

I don't even think there is a market that will let you trade Thai baht in less than 10,000 USD transactions, anyone know of one?

if this regulation applied to what you were doing, you would know it instantly, and would know exactly how it

applies to you, so all you people asking about your little export companies or sending your girlfriend money,

don't trouble yourself another minutes though about this.

Far from true. As with many regulations in Thailand, the grey area outweighs the clarity. People are on forums like these for the specific purpose of gaining clarity, they would not be posting for help and advice if they had any solid idea of how this measure affects them. This measure will affect my business, to what extent depends on the answers to a whole host of questions - answers that no one seems able to provide at the moment. What I do know is that many foriegn banks have stopped trading in Baht, my bank WILL hold 30% of transfers (the manager told me this morning) and what constitutes a "good or service" and what is on the list of "equities" is unclear. If you are clear with things, fine. You are one of the few.

Sorry if there was a misunderstand what I was trying to do, rather than answer multiple peoples specific questions for clarification, was to

let everyone know that this regulation was targeted at currency speculators. But unfortunatly the BofT made the regulation to broad and its effects spilled over into the investment markets such as the SET.

But it will have little to do with people transfering money to individuals for personal reasons, or small export businesses as they rarely use currency hedging mechanisms.

If you are using currency hedging mechanisms in your export business then yes you will be effected by this new regulation, but I just assumed that

if your export business was that large in size, you would understand how this regulation will apply to you, and seeking advise on a board like this would

have little to no value.

Anyways, the Bank of Thailand has already repealed many of the restrictions due to the SET fallout from yesterday.

The foreign banks have not stopped trading in baht, they suspended trading in Baht, because this regulation was effective immediately and

so of course the foreign banks will enact immediate blanket stop measures on all exchange transactions in this sector, until clarification on the regulation has been made.

With the 100,000 USD salary, what I am saying is that this rule mainly effects inflows of foreign capital that are signed off by, executives

managing institutional investments.

It was an exaggeration though, I should have wrote if you aren't a foreigner making 100K salary. There are plenty of Thais working in the financial sector that don't make that kind of money that this will effect.

I can make this real simple, if you are not an private currency trader, or your salary is lower than 100,000 USD per year,

you do not have to be concerned with this law.

This is a law that applies to commercial banking and currency trading.

I don't even think there is a market that will let you trade Thai baht in less than 10,000 USD transactions, anyone know of one?

if this regulation applied to what you were doing, you would know it instantly, and would know exactly how it

applies to you, so all you people asking about your little export companies or sending your girlfriend money,

don't trouble yourself another minutes though about this.

You know.. If I actually had any faith at all in the promises of Thai systems I wouldnt mind a lifetime use and 5 years visa's for 1mil..

I dont care about golf, I dont care about the biz intros, I guess fast track immigration would be ok..

But 1 mil for lifetime 5 year visa's.. OK sure I would bite..

The the fact is its backed up by the promises of a Thai company.. who have already backed out of many initial promises (land).. And the pet project of the head waiter..

I know how much after sales service you usually get in asia, once the money is paid the service is concluded.. And I have my doubts about its lifespan say 10 years out..

Don't forget though, the Elite card was a pet project of Thaksin. Most of the companies' owners are Thaksins friends, that provide services for Elite members.

I was thinking about buying one just for the golf, but decided against it for one reason, without Thaksin that company is finished.

I think you would have to be completely insane to buy one of those things now, think about when the current contracts run out, it is going to be very difficult for the Elite company to negotiate new contracts without Thaksin standing behind them.

Nice of them to give 7 day visas for people that are already in violation of the law.

Could have been worse, they could have turned people around at the immagration desk.

Maestro, you've summed it up nicely. Tourists have homes outside Thailand. Mine is only about a 78,000 baht round trip away. Well, with devaluation of the dollar, maybe 72,000 including air fare, lodging, visa purchase, Western food, etc.

And when I insisted on taking two weeks to make a visa run, my employer did not understand. As if they could imagine living 11 time zones from their loved ones; as if they would fly home without seeing family.

If I understand you correctly you have an employer, and worry about the tourist Visa?

Sounds to me, you're one of the reasons they tightened the law in the first place...

I'm sorry that it sounded that way; no. I had employers for two years, and I was on annual B visas, and they refused to get me a work permit or lift a finger to help me get a visa. So, 24 time zones and about 90,000 baht later (including family stopovers, rental cars, etc.), I was back in the land of smiles with another visa. Not tourist visa. And no, I am not one of the reasons they tightened the law. These new laws are one of the reasons many FULLY QUALIFIED LEGAL teachers are leaving Thailand's schoolrooms empty of farang teachers.

Yep jbhh is correct, you are the exactly the type of person that inspired these rules to begin with.

You were working at a job without a work permit, this is illegal, plain and simple. If your employer refuses to give you the correct documents to get a work permit, then your only twp options are to work illegally or to quit.

You chose to work illegally.

If you have a work permit, it is no problem to get a 1 year B visa at just about any embassy in most countries.

So don't bother complaining about tourists visa rules here, if you are working here, as you might as well be complaining why the Thai government won't let you make a living selling ya baa.

With the estimated income for Phuket alone at B62b one would think they'd value their tourists and treat 'em a lil better.

Who knows, that number could grow considerably.

The maths look a bit weird to me, but then I'm not inna mood to go into it.

Who are you talking about when you say "they" are you talking about the tuk tuk driver, the small guest house owner, or the jet ski rental guy. If you are do you think that they factor in this years tourism income when they quote you a price for a ride or a guest room?

The big guys, large business owners and politicians factor that figure into there policies, but you will not come into contact with these people as an average tourist, and their policies are so watered down, by being filtered through a heiarchy of lower level people that in the end, you are left with overpricing and low levels of service.

Don't know what else to say other than that......

What was a man doing at age 57 spray painting over anything??? you might see that out of a 15 year old, but 57.........tad bit immature for his age isn't he.

Most of the people here (including the person that wrote that article) are lacking a basic macroeconomic education, which is no big deal since most of the worlds population couldn't even tell you what the word means. Most of the stuff on here about American’s being lazy and crap like that maybe true but it doesn't have anything to do with short term dollar fluctuations.

Actually the reason why the dollar has weaken dramatically is largely attributed to the US federal reserves interest rate hikes on the 90 day T-Bill, or what is referred to as the risk free rate. T-Bills are the securities that the commercial banks trade on a daily basis to control their debt ratios.

Basically, when they raise the risk free rate, this makes the dollar more expensive to borrow, thus lowering its value comparative to other currencies, ie it looks like the baht has gained in value.

The federal reserve controls most short term dollar value fluctuations, things like America falling behind or their economy weakening are things that devalue the dollar over the long term, not a period of 6 months or a year.

Here is the link the Bank of Thailand’s (Thailand’s head bank) currency rates http://www.bot.or.th/bothomepage/databank/.../exchange_e.asp

...............I love people that try to trash talk the US any chance they get......quote from Tony Blair..........."A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in ... And how many want out."

Twice I ran out of gas, and had to leave my car where it was and take a taxi home.

So basically, the taxi had to use gas (LPG probably) to bring me home, and then use gas to take me back to my car the next day. For me personally, this law actually caused me to use more energy not less.

This is great to hear, and gives a lot of creditability to the new government that they are going to get rid of some of these worthless laws that were though up by the ignorant last administration.