Thai Baht in biggest weekly fall in four months after US Fed move

[mrtc77]

40 to a dollar would be nice....back to the good old days. Sent from my GT-I9200 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Good for selfish people like you, but not good for Thai people who want to travel abroad. Funny how so many expats on this forum just think of themselves. Why care about anyone else, as long as you're ok.

Pffft...what crakp. And you only think of the wealthy Thais that can afford to travel abroad in the first place.

How about the legions of factory workers in the export industry, good for them but selfish people like you just think of....

[umbanda]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

The usd might go down but not in our lifetime.

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

You are right...not because only those actions, also because the US from the biggest manufacturer and producer of good in the world, becomes the biggest consumer of foreign products and producing NOTHING with US companies and US labor. What is made for $1 in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, etc, etc, sells to American buyers for $10....Few American people and corporations are getting richer importing those products, the big money go to the foreign industries and countries.. What will happen if those foreign industries, specially in China, find other markets like Russia, Brazil, India and European markets to sell most of its production and rise prices for the US corporations...or...if the US Government start to charge taxes to imports to promote the local industry.......awaking too late of the mess its creates? Already the US is in panic and supporting "revolutions" because Russia, India, China, India. Korea, Vietnam, South Africa and other growing countries are buying the oil and goods from sources before exclusive to the US and its Allies.

Big inflation in the US it is just few years away...

[belg]

on the downside...

new menu in black canyon and everyhing 10-20% UP

portions same or smaller

same same in MK, where pieces seem to shrink

[thongsuknork]

US $ is not a Debt as like other currency i think its a big game plan of US as i heard and read many articles on us dollars as they influenced the OPEC for purchasing oil with dollars that made a huge difference, i think ditch dollar and purchase the oil with own currency makes the difference and fall of Dollar ,

its only an view i do not want to offend any one ,

sorrry,

[Ulic]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

The usd might go down but not in our lifetime.

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

I do believe the gold is in Fort Knox but so what. It is a pittance in the scheme of things. However I do agree that countries like

Russia/ China/India/Europe/ Middle East will start buying/selling oil in there own currencies. There is already vastly different prices

for crude from different production areas. How hard is it to sell/buy oil in Euro? When this happens the USD will loose 20% value

as the worlds reserve currency. Of course many countries will still need it. Africa in particular but they may choose to use Euro

if that is were most of there trade is with. Also the US debt will play a roll eventually, it has to, look at Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, Argentina etc...etc...Things cannot go on forever. On the positive side as the dollar drops exports will increase. I think

10 years give or take, who knows but as US debt climbs fewer oil producing countries will want to be paid in US dollars. They already

have enough.

[yankee99]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

The usd might go down but not in our lifetime.

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

You are right...not because only those actions, also because the US from the biggest manufacturer and producer of good in the world, becomes the biggest consumer of foreign products and producing NOTHING with US companies and US labor. What is made for $1 in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, etc, etc, sells to American buyers for $10....Few American people and corporations are getting richer importing those products, the big money go to the foreign industries and countries.. What will happen if those foreign industries, specially in China, find other markets like Russia, Brazil, India and European markets to sell most of its production and rise prices for the US corporations...or...if the US Government start to charge taxes to imports to promote the local industry.......awaking too late of the mess its creates? Already the US is in panic and supporting "revolutions" because Russia, India, China, India. Korea, Vietnam, South Africa and other growing countries are buying the oil and goods from sources before exclusive to the US and its Allies.

Big inflation in the US it is just few years away...

They must be producing something as 2011 exports were. $1,236,605,563,855

[Gulfsailor]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

The usd might go down but not in our lifetime.

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

I do believe the gold is in Fort Knox but so what. It is a pittance in the scheme of things. However I do agree that countries like

Russia/ China/India/Europe/ Middle East will start buying/selling oil in there own currencies. There is already vastly different prices

for crude from different production areas. How hard is it to sell/buy oil in Euro? When this happens the USD will loose 20% value

as the worlds reserve currency. Of course many countries will still need it. Africa in particular but they may choose to use Euro

if that is were most of there trade is with. Also the US debt will play a roll eventually, it has to, look at Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, Argentina etc...etc...Things cannot go on forever. On the positive side as the dollar drops exports will increase. I think

10 years give or take, who knows but as US debt climbs fewer oil producing countries will want to be paid in US dollars. They already

have enough.

It might not be very safe for a country to start selling oil for something other than USD. Saddam tried it and look where it got him....

As long as the US massively overpowers the rest of the world militarily the USD will remain the world's reserve currency, and the US can keep borrowing cheaply with no consequence and no matter how high its debt runs.

[Thai at Heart]

This headline should read "USD strengthens", as it has done against all of the other major currencies this week! I am waiting for the posts now of oh Thailand's doomed, it was bound to happen, Yinluck's fault, yellow/red shirts etc........... Yawn!

Simple fact, the US$ has strengthened globally on the back of the reduced amount of bond purchases from the FED.

Then why also the Euro and other currencies are getting stronger against the Thai baht?

http://au.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDEUR=X&t=5d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

USD vs Euro - USD is strengthening!!

during the last 6 months USD lost 6% vs. UR and 9% vs. GBP.

what happened "this week" is irrelevant. let's wait and see what will happen in 2014.

Probably they will stop printing quite so much money and interest rates will go up. Can small business and home owners in the USA and the UK survive.

I worry about the UK. House prices in some parts of the UK have gone way up. Negative equity beckons again.

[Thai at Heart]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

The usd might go down but not in our lifetime.

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

I do believe the gold is in Fort Knox but so what. It is a pittance in the scheme of things. However I do agree that countries like

Russia/ China/India/Europe/ Middle East will start buying/selling oil in there own currencies. There is already vastly different prices

for crude from different production areas. How hard is it to sell/buy oil in Euro? When this happens the USD will loose 20% value

as the worlds reserve currency. Of course many countries will still need it. Africa in particular but they may choose to use Euro

if that is were most of there trade is with. Also the US debt will play a roll eventually, it has to, look at Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, Argentina etc...etc...Things cannot go on forever. On the positive side as the dollar drops exports will increase. I think

10 years give or take, who knows but as US debt climbs fewer oil producing countries will want to be paid in US dollars. They already

have enough.

Fundamentally can the USA pay at this current value? Not sure they can.

[kowpot]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

[mgjackson69]

Funny how the USA bashers crow about how "the USA is going to crash", etc etc

What he hell do they think will happen to the rest of the world's economies if their predictioons come to pass?

Sent from my Xoom using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[EricBerg]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

Nothing wrong with your patriotism and love for your country. Life would be less stressy though if you wouldn't see criticism or warnings as attacks. Far as I know most western countries (and prolly many more) still feel much obliged to the US for not having to speak German now and for helping them back on their feet after the devastating war. So no "yanks-knocking" here. The US will find it has many many friends around the globe that did not and will not forget. And will be eager to help if needed. But I wonder how you explain the US can keep paying the interest on the still growing enormous national debt?

[PeterSmiles]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

Yes the US has massive oil reserves, of shale oil that is, which is not commercial viable to drill

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-scientists-wary-shale-oil-gas.html

Next there are laws that prohibit to drill for shale oil. Texas which has the largest shale oil reserves in the US, recently approved a new law which make it impossible to drill. Other states approve similar laws.

http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2013/12/20/pennsylvania-supreme-court-reins-in-state-drilling-laws-stands-up-for-localities/

Edited December 21, 2013 by PeterSmiles

[NeverSure]

US $ is not a Debt as like other currency i think its a big game plan of US as i heard and read many articles on us dollars as they influenced the OPEC for purchasing oil with dollars that made a huge difference, i think ditch dollar and purchase the oil with own currency makes the difference and fall of Dollar ,

its only an view i do not want to offend any one ,

sorrry,

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

I do believe the gold is in Fort Knox but so what. It is a pittance in the scheme of things. However I do agree that countries like

Russia/ China/India/Europe/ Middle East will start buying/selling oil in there own currencies. There is already vastly different prices

for crude from different production areas. How hard is it to sell/buy oil in Euro? When this happens the USD will loose 20% value

as the worlds reserve currency. Of course many countries will still need it. Africa in particular but they may choose to use Euro

if that is were most of there trade is with. Also the US debt will play a roll eventually, it has to, look at Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, Argentina etc...etc...Things cannot go on forever. On the positive side as the dollar drops exports will increase. I think

10 years give or take, who knows but as US debt climbs fewer oil producing countries will want to be paid in US dollars. They already

have enough.

You guys are really missing it, sorry. The US has more oil reserves than all of the rest of the world combined. Oil = Money.

Within just two years, the US will be pumping more of its own oil than it can use, and after that it will be a net exporter of oil, bringing in other peoples' money.

The US doesn't need OPEC. When the US buys oil, it's #1 supplier is Canada. #2 is Brazil. OPEC is way down the list.

It is Europe which is in trouble for oil. It is Europe which is vulnerable to the Russians and OPEC.

The US has more oil reserves than all of the rest of the world combined in just one place. If it was all drilled, including off all 88,000 miles of shoreline and in Alaska, the US might have 3X as much oil as all the rest of the world combined.

The last places in the world to run out of oil would be the US and Canada.

So many people can't see the USA for what it really is - huge and resource rich and wealthy - leading the world by far in manufacturing, resource production, invention, technology, and overall economy.

[Theoutsider]

40 to a dollar would be nice....back to the good old days. Sent from my GT-I9200 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Good for selfish people like you, but not good for Thai people who want to travel abroad. Funny how so many expats on this forum just think of themselves. Why care about anyone else, as long as you're ok.

Not all Thais are in thailand, some might be looking to go home, plus some Thais do send money you know. how much is the thai state pension?

i'm happy with 50

[rsokolowski]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

With the tapering the U.S. will only be printing 75 billion dollars each

month, that is only 900 billion ($900,000,000,000 USD) a year. See, isn't this alot better than printing a trillion dollars a year?

Ditching the USD as a standard is probably a wise move.

[sirineou]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

assume that the whole dollar money supply was $100 and you having very good credit, borrowed all of it at 5%.

the term is one year

At the end of the term you would have to repay the $100 plus the interest, since the whole money supply is $100 where would you find the money to pay the interest?

I vote for 33.3 bht per Dollar.it makes the math a lot easier

Edited December 21, 2013 by sirineou

[NeverSure]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

With the tapering the U.S. will only be printing 75 billion dollars each

month, that is only 900 billion ($900,000,000,000 USD) a year. See, isn't this alot better than printing a trillion dollars a year?

Ditching the USD as a standard is probably a wise move.

Do you guys not know that the Bank of England has also been engaged in QE, and that GB's national debt and deficits are stunning, considering its tiny size and lack of resources?

"UK National Debt - how Britain owes over £900 billion

"It's a truly frightening figure. Why is the world's sixth richest country so deeply in debt?

Every year the UK runs a large budget deficit. The Government spends more money than it can tax, so we plug the gap by selling bonds to investors at home and abroad. These bonds - known as gilts - have to be repaid in full, with interest. Added together, our unpaid loans make up the UK's national debt.

Right now, that debt is growing violently. The Government forecasts it will soar to an eye-watering £1.1 trillion by 2011. To put that in perspective, the UK went bust in 1976 running a budget deficit of 6% of GDP. In 2010 that deficit is going to top 11%."

The UK debt clock bombshell

[NeverSure]

"Since the global financial crisis, both the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve have used the policy of quantitative easing (QE) to try to revive consumer spending and economic growth.

In the UK, the Bank of England began its "asset purchases" in January 2009.

The Bank has so far committed a total of £375bn to QE, while in September the Fed said it would spend a further $40bn (£25bn) per month. This was on top of the $2.3tn the Fed had already put into QE since 2008.

At the Bank's meeting in early February, governor Sir Mervyn King backed more action to boost the amount of QE purchases above £375bn but was outvoted by his colleagues."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15198789

Edited December 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[NeverSure]

Link

[VegasVic]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

Nothing wrong with your patriotism and love for your country. Life would be less stressy though if you wouldn't see criticism or warnings as attacks. Far as I know most western countries (and prolly many more) still feel much obliged to the US for not having to speak German now and for helping them back on their feet after the devastating war. So no "yanks-knocking" here. The US will find it has many many friends around the globe that did not and will not forget. And will be eager to help if needed. But I wonder how you explain the US can keep paying the interest on the still growing enormous national debt?

We in the U.S. wonder about that too The first thing we need to do is elect a much more fiscally responsible government, and I think this will begin in NOV 2014 and culminate with the election of a fiscally responsible President in NOV 2016 Granted there has been an enormous amount of damage done since 2001 by both Obama and Bush, but I do think that much of this is reversible with the correct leaders at the helm

[VegasVic]

The US still are printing over 80 BILLION usd each and every month. That is 1 TRILLION usd a year. Ditch the usd as standard or go down with it.

assume that the whole dollar money supply was $100 and you having very good credit, borrowed all of it at 5%.

the term is one year

At the end of the term you would have to repay the $100 plus the interest, since the whole money supply is $100 where would you find the money to pay the interest?

I vote for 33.3 bht per Dollar.it makes the math a lot easier alt=biggrin.png pagespeed_url_hash=14303579 width=20 height=20>

Actually the math is just as easy at 40 baht to the U.S. Dollar, and it is a nice round figure

[SebD]

A message to all Thai politicians:

Please, please, please keep squabbling (so the Baht can go back to the good old days of 70 to the £).

It really would make a most positive difference to my Thai investments.

[watso63]

As a retiree UK expat (lucky at 50 years old) I am at the mercy of currency fluctuations as most of "us" are. I was sweating a bit when the £ dropped to 42Thb, but I believed Thailand was in an economic bubble and would suffer as a result of USA QE tapering and now its political problems are putting further pressure on the baht and restoring its value to its historic norm. Selfish? a little, but enjoying riding the rollercoaster of life in the sunshine.

[VegasVic]

US $ is not a Debt as like other currency i think its a big game plan of US as i heard and read many articles on us dollars as they influenced the OPEC for purchasing oil with dollars that made a huge difference, i think ditch dollar and purchase the oil with own currency makes the difference and fall of Dollar ,

its only an view i do not want to offend any one ,

sorrry,

...That depends on how old we are. I personally think the Dollar will go down, my guess is within 10 years, there are many factors that i base my assumption on, here's a few to start... 1) i believe there is no gold left in Fort knox, 2) the sellers of 'paper gold' (again in my opinion) have over sold the contracts by at least 5 times. 3) One of the reasons the Dollar keeps its value is that to buy oil the price is in Dollars so oil has to be purchased (from Saudi etc) in Dollars therefor other countries use Dollars for this purpose, soon however i believe there will be a change to this (Russia, China or India) will trade their currency direct for oil thus stunning the Dollar, add that to the $17.2 Trillion Dollars of the US nationel debt will maybe not kill the Dollar outright but it will make it pretty worthless.

I do believe the gold is in Fort Knox but so what. It is a pittance in the scheme of things. However I do agree that countries like

Russia/ China/India/Europe/ Middle East will start buying/selling oil in there own currencies. There is already vastly different prices

for crude from different production areas. How hard is it to sell/buy oil in Euro? When this happens the USD will loose 20% value

as the worlds reserve currency. Of course many countries will still need it. Africa in particular but they may choose to use Euro

if that is were most of there trade is with. Also the US debt will play a roll eventually, it has to, look at Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, Argentina etc...etc...Things cannot go on forever. On the positive side as the dollar drops exports will increase. I think

10 years give or take, who knows but as US debt climbs fewer oil producing countries will want to be paid in US dollars. They already

have enough.

You guys are really missing it, sorry. The US has more oil reserves than all of the rest of the world combined. Oil = Money.

Within just two years, the US will be pumping more of its own oil than it can use, and after that it will be a net exporter of oil, bringing in other peoples' money.

The US doesn't need OPEC. When the US buys oil, it's #1 supplier is Canada. #2 is Brazil. OPEC is way down the list.

It is Europe which is in trouble for oil. It is Europe which is vulnerable to the Russians and OPEC.

The US has more oil reserves than all of the rest of the world combined in just one place. If it was all drilled, including off all 88,000 miles of shoreline and in Alaska, the US might have 3X as much oil as all the rest of the world combined.

The last places in the world to run out of oil would be the US and Canada.

So many people can't see the USA for what it really is - huge and resource rich and wealthy - leading the world by far in manufacturing, resource production, invention, technology, and overall economy.

Very well stated Never Sure, but don't forget to let the gold bugs out there in thaivisa land know that the U.S. still has the largest gold reserves by far of any country on earth and much more important only Brazil has more fresh water supply than North America(U.S. and Canada) with Russia a distant 3rd The bitcoin, petrodollars ect will come and go, it will be the U.S. dollar that survives after all the fads pass

[Prbkk]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

Just to correct a few errors: the US is not, by any meaningful measure, the richest country in the world; it does NOT provide more foreign aid per capita( way down the list, in fact), it's citizens do NOT donate more to international charities , again WAY down the list per capita. There is a common misconception that the US does all these things, the reality is different. I don't believe the US is going to suffer any imminent collapse but it does face very significant headwinds notwithstanding energy self sufficiency

[NeverSure]

The USA is the largest importer of foreign goods of any country in the world. By 2017 it will be the largest exporter of energy. It has been weaning itself away from imports from the middle east and will be self reliant in a few years. It has discovered more oil and natural gas than Saudi Arabia. It has more refining capabilities than any country in the world. The USA is still the richest country in world. It gives more foreign aid than any other country. It receives no foreign aid from any country. It's citizens donate more to charities through out the world than any other country. It has repatriated and set free more of the worlds people more than any other country.

Say what you want, but the U.S. isn't done yet. At least not in your lifetime or your grandchildren's.

At least you better hope not. Why, is all this possible. Because the American people with all their own problems want it this way. Those of you that knock the "Yanks", should thank god that they came to the rescue of your country men with their unselfish commitment when it was needed.

If you think the USD is done, maybe you should tell your governments to stop relying on it. I am sure the American people could put their money to better use.

Yes the US has massive oil reserves, of shale oil that is, which is not commercial viable to drill

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-scientists-wary-shale-oil-gas.html

Next there are laws that prohibit to drill for shale oil. Texas which has the largest shale oil reserves in the US, recently approved a new law which make it impossible to drill. Other states approve similar laws.

http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2013/12/20/pennsylvania-supreme-court-reins-in-state-drilling-laws-stands-up-for-localities/

That's just nuts. Almost all of the new production of oil is from shale oil. I see nothing where Texas outlawed the drilling of shale oil and they are extracting massive amounts of it.

The massive new find that is causing N. Dakota to boom is all shale oil.

Canada is the US's #1 supplier of oil and it all comes from shale oil.

All I see is where Pennsylvania has ruled that it can zone areas against oil drilling. I doubt very seriously if they will do much of that because there is just to much money in oil. The taxes that go into state and Federal coffers are massive.

It's not "if." The US is producing more and more oil and in 2 years will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of oil and become energy independent. A couple of years after that, the US will become a net exporter of oil.

This is all on private land. On Federal land there is far more oil along the Rockies, of the 88,000 miles of coastal shoreline, and in Alaska.

It is far too soon to buy flowers for the casket of the United States of America, despite your wishful thinking.

[SebD]

All this talk about who has the largest reserves, etc.

It's all <deleted>.

The total value of disposable assets and resources, in the whole world, is estimated at circa $35 trillion (that's $35,000 billion). ie if every dollar, house, car, gold ring, food mixer etc., etc were liquidated, that would be the sum total of its worth.

The money our bankers have being playing roulette with doesn't actually exist. It is all electronic digits, is all. But amounts to over one thousand trillion (and counting as they continue to make it up, as they go along). So, every $33 you own (be it in cash or property) is only actually worth a single dollar.

Don't believe me?

If we all went to our banks and asked for our cash, who here thinks they could actually give it to us?

A banknote is a "promise" to pay the bearer x-number of dollars, pounds or whatever in either gold or silver equivalent.

Well, if you were to take every gramme of gold ever mined in history, than subtract the alloys they mix with it to make it harder and more durable (else your wedding band would wear through within a few months) and with which they, effectively but understandably, "water it down", the entire known world's gold reserves throughout history would still fit into a single vault at the Bank of England (conversely, if all the diamonds ever mined were distributed, every man woman and child on earth would have a pocket-full of them. They store and hold them and trickle them out, in order to retain their value).

So, bottom line is that if you took your (man-made) cash tokens (dollars or whatever) to the bank and demanded they give you the gold/silver mineral value, the bank would simply give you a "bond" stating you own that amount of said minerals.

And a "bond" is....?

Another promise (just like the promise on the banknotes you just excahanged). You just traded one promise for another.

And what is a bankers promise worth.........?

So, the absolute-zero bottom line is:

It don't really matter who has most of what cuz we and our predecessors already spent it, anyway.

Incidentally, China is supposed to have loads of money but, guess what, it's all electronic too. How do we know it's of any more credence than the USSR's papier-mache tanks and missiles they exhibited every year on their May Day Parade, during the Cold-War period.

Stop worrying about it.

Cuz there's now't left to worry about.

[Mosha]

40 to a dollar would be nice....back to the good old days. Sent from my GT-I9200 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Good for selfish people like you, but not good for Thai people who want to travel abroad. Funny how so many expats on this forum just think of themselves. Why care about anyone else, as long as you're ok.

Not all Thais are in thailand, some might be looking to go home, plus some Thais do send money you know. how much is the thai state pension?

i'm happy with 50

At 60 wife says they get a whopping 600 Baht/month, and it goes up with age.

[NeverSure]

All that gold would fit in a single vault in England? England must have a very special vault. If all the pure gold on the planet was made into a cube, it would be 20 meters (67 feet) square, and weigh 167,000 metric tons. Where is this vault?

I don't know if you understand fractional reserve banking. If we assume that most people will default on their loans, then yes the banks are broke. But as long as the economy keeps moving even at a slow pace, and most people repay their loans, then all is fine.

I agree about China, and am in fact a great skeptic. I think they are bust. I think there are many reasons to believe that, but there is no truth coming out of there imho.

I don't agree that you can quantify current wealth. More is being created or found every day. A harvested farm crop is new wealth as is a new oil well or a new planting of trees to be harvested as lumber in 20 years. So is the discovery of rare earth minerals in the deserts of the US.

In fact, when you take a bunch of raw materials and covert them to a brand new computer, you create new wealth, and jobs and taxes paid as an aside. That computer is new wealth that left a trail of money behind it as its materials were harvested, transported, sold, manufactured, and so on. Manufacturing is one of the greatest ways to create new wealth, jobs, and taxes.

I don't think that wealth is finite.