Ignoring internal factors present and future which may hone opinion here the Times of London reports today

"

One indication of the fear among investors has been the rise in credit default swaps (CDS), which is the cost of insurance against a debtor defaulting.

Dubai’s CDSs rose by 134 basis points yesterday to 675, meaning insuring $10 million of the emirate’s debt would cost $675,000. This is just $30,000 short of the amount Lehman Brothers’ CDSs were trading for just before the bank went bust last year. The CDSs for countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Latvia and Hungary also all rose yesterday."

My understanding is that like Vietnam small markets will be at the mercy of huge global forces like 1997.

Recent forecasts from KBank etc have been predictabley upbeat ,hardly surprising there are few reports the contrary where the opposite opinion is not merely unwelcome but imprisonable,

In response to a recent poster asking when to transer sterling my humble opinion as aformer Midland Bank employer is HOLD.

I would be most interested if we can get some input from those currently in Forex and debt swops

The ratings agencies are looking down at Uks triple A hard

Edited November 28, 200916 yr by RubbaJohnny

The mainstream media is not who you should listen to for finance information, they tend to follow the government line and generally join a trend as it is about to change direction. Find an independent that you like with a published track record of getting it right, there are some.

The mainstream media is not who you should listen to for finance information, they tend to follow the government line and generally join a trend as it is about to change direction. Find an independent that you like with a published track record of getting it right, there are some.

Plus I only see rosy report from the Government. I feel they tend to make everyone feel good no matter the financial situation. It may be the way it is so if you feel go you keep spending.

According to some reports, Dubai seems to be in trouble and is trying to defer some debt repayments.

There are a few UK banks owed a lot of money (none of them are saying anything at the moment so hard to tell how bad it is) but I doubt any Thai banks are owed much, but Thailand does export a lot to the UAE states.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...bIbaEwD9C8JAB00

Pity the people that have bought into those expensive (over priced) fancy villa's and apartments there.

Edited November 28, 200916 yr by khundon

According to some reports, Dubai seems to be in trouble and is trying to defer some debt repayments.

There are a few UK banks owed a lot of money (none of them are saying anything at the moment so hard to tell how bad it is) but I doubt any Thai banks are owed much, but Thailand does export a lot to the UAE states.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...bIbaEwD9C8JAB00

Pity the people that have bought into those expensive (over priced) fancy villa's and apartments there.

Dont worry about the people that have bought into those expensive (over priced) fancy villa's and apartments there. They can either afford to loose the money, or would go bankrupt anyway.

This sure does look like a typical "I have some money to spend, this looks good, lets do it" Why should things change in the future, things will just go on as they have. What we do know is that things do come along that nobody saw coming, it happens all the time and nobody learns the lesson. I suspect the Arabs in the Gulf States will bail this project out as they have too much to lose if it goes belly up, more than the west and its jolly clever banking system. After the credit crunch and the world was begining to stabilize, this was just what was not required, so, the uncertainty will now continue for a while longer yet. What you can bet on is that joe public will end up having dig into his pocket to pay for all these financial follies, nothing changes there then.

"My understanding is that like Vietnam small markets will be at the mercy of huge global forces like 1997."

Wow, just like 1997 you say? So, large economies have more bearing that small economies? I had no idea!