Prem Plays Down Rift With Chavalit

[Samuian]

If anyone would have changed Baht, even a Baht Loan, out of the country and changed it into say US$ only 6 month later it was worth double in Baht terms!

I remember too well the time, still keep one little sniplet where it says "Baht to be devalued" but than nothing append, Chavalit kept denying till that day, a Friday the government hat the devaluation debate which continued well into the wee hours of the morning, sometime before midnight the press and the "Public" was asked to stay out - it became a "secret meeting"... and nothing on Saturday, nothing on Sunday - dead quiet on Monday Chavalit dropped the bombshell, but it was a Bank holiday!

On 30 June 1996, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said that he would not devalue the baht. This was the spark that ignited the Asian financial crisis as ...

-wikipedia-

Later rumors circled that, yes who? ShinCorp had large amounts of money transferred to Hongkong and Singapore!

of course "rumors"..!

Every single one of them profited from it - there where plenty of "irregularities" - can't sum 'em all up and back them with proof...maybe the press could.

And yes, then Soros, his Hedge fund was officially blamed, their response was that they lost money.. jumped the train too late!

Edited October 17, 2009 by Samuian

[TheGoodDoctor]

Big surprise. You think the employees of Goldman Sachs were not selling off their personal stocks last year like it was 1929? Let me guess, you would have kept all your baht and watched it shrink in value by half?

Edited October 17, 2009 by TheGoodDoctor

[hammered]

If anyone would have changed Baht, even a Baht Loan, out of the country and changed it into say US$ only 6 month later it was worth double in Baht terms!

I remember too well the time, still keep one little sniplet where it says "Baht to be devalued" but than nothing append, Chavalit kept denying till that day, a Friday the government hat the devaluation debate which continued well into the wee hours of the morning, sometime before midnight the press and the "Public" was asked to stay out - it became a "secret meeting"... and nothing on Saturday, nothing on Sunday - dead quiet on Monday Chavalit dropped the bombshell, but it was a Bank holiday!

On 30 June 1996, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said that he would not devalue the baht. This was the spark that ignited the Asian financial crisis as ...

-wikipedia-

Later rumors circled that, yes who? ShinCorp had large amounts of money transferred to Hongkong and Singapore!

of course "rumors"..!

Every single one of them profited from it - there where plenty of "irregularities" - can't sum 'em all up and back them with proof...maybe the press could.

And yes, then Soros, his Hedge fund was officially blamed, their response was that they lost money.. jumped the train too late!

The press wouldnt dare. Even in the west it was left at a couple of scapegoats in last years debacle. Never rely on the media to actually dig into things. Those days are well past if they ever even existed

[jayboy]

There was a rabid anti-Soros campaign here, he even had to cancel his speech at FCCT once.

One of the leaders was Veera Somkwamkid (Preah Vihear rally last month). Not to be outdone, Weng Tojarakan, big red intellectual, was Veera's partner at that time.

It's not easy to admire speculators like Soros but it's ridiculous to blame them for currency crises.That is almost always the result of the incompetence of the financial authorities.Soros made billions on selling the British pound short in the early 1990's but he wasn't the cause of the pound's problems.The cause was the incoherent interest rate policy of the Bank of England.Ditto Thailand in 1997 and the pin headed politicians and officials who controlled financial and monetary policy, augmented by short sighted greed.Okay there was some fairly crappy advice from the IMF and World Bank specifically on deregulation, but the bottom line is that the Thais were entirely responsible for the debacle.The good news is that the necessary lessons have been well learned.

Blaming Soros is like blaming looters in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, ok not a brilliant parallel but you get my point.

[Publicus]

It's for sure Prem and his associates haven't ever overlooked Chavalit's idiocy during the 1997 catastrophe and the Keystone cops series of blunders during the leadup to it. Chavalit knows as much about economics and finance as George Bush, a dumb and dumber duo for all time.

[animatic]

The only topper is that ludicrous summit of Samak and Bush...

Thank the gods that Samak didn't have a huge hand in controling the pie in '97.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Big surprise. You think the employees of Goldman Sachs were not selling off their personal stocks last year like it was 1929? Let me guess, you would have kept all your baht and watched it shrink in value by half?

Returnee Troll.

[Plus]

There was a rabid anti-Soros campaign here, he even had to cancel his speech at FCCT once.

One of the leaders was Veera Somkwamkid (Preah Vihear rally last month). Not to be outdone, Weng Tojarakan, big red intellectual, was Veera's partner at that time.

I wouldnt use that word personally. They are all guns for hire for a variey of causes and history doesnt really paint any of them in a very good light...

Well, he is DR Weng, and he was one of PAD leaders before the coup, campaigning against Thaksin shoulder to shoulder with Veera.

[Old Man River]

It's for sure Prem and his associates haven't ever overlooked Chavalit's idiocy during the 1997 catastrophe ...

This is a fact.