Did anyone saw the financial magazine in the Bangkok post yesterday (30 june ) ?

For the first time in 6 years I really feel the magazine show a blink picture of the economy.

Generally they try to water thing down a lot , but this time it was like a bomb !

One thing missing was the inflation on every items like food , perhaps to scare to put it down on paper ?

Look like the traffic is getting lighter in Bangkok too, due to the cost of the petrol.

Simcity,

I think you mean the Economic Review mid 2006? If so you find inflation (headline, F&B, NonFood, and core inflation on page 9, but only for the first 5 months and expressed in percent change Year on Year.

Those rags always tend towards the positive and skim over the bad news, and this was no worse than usual. Perhaps a little poorer in its overall analysis of the economy, but some sections seemed pretty accurate and honest. Still bowled over by the official national statistics on literacy (92%) and unempoyment (1.9%), but as everyone should know by now, the mandarins in Bangkok are better masseurs than those down Wat Pho.

If one did a whiz around an Isaan village on almost any day of the year, one would guess that about 50 % of the popn. were technically unemployed, and another 30 % semi-employed. True full-time employment by the normal definition of the word, would be 20 % at best.

plachon...me old fish...I have done a similar survey with regard to economic participation in the little town where I live...the idlers that were to be identified as 30% of semi- employed are in fact dudes between jobs, ie., waiting for a boss to get a crew together to load a truck...they are the underemployed but that is the way of the world in these parts...(load a truck in the a.m....then load a truck in the p.m., and etc)

from the movie 'El Norte' it reflects a dismal world where the disenfranchised but able bodied circulate aimlessly with arms raised and to say 'I have arms and I can work...'

it is heart breaking...we all know the value that traditional societies place upon family...how does one approach the aspect when one knows that one cannot even think about supporting a family with a day's wages...