Calling Chuck Bao!

[Okla-homey]

Hey man. Getting settled back in I hope.

I read the Thai economy is expected to enjoy near double digit growth over this new decade.

Any thoughts on Thai stocks an American can buy here? Or other investments? And no, I'm not talking investing in Nope's new rice farm acreage.

[Chuck Bao]

Hey man. Getting settled back in I hope.

I read the Thai economy is expected to enjoy near double digit growth over this new decade.

Any thoughts on Thai stocks an American can buy here? Or other investments? And no, I'm not talking investing in Nope's new rice farm acreage.

Asian economies and stock markets are doing very well. Thank you very much, you die-hard US consumers.

As I mentioned in Royalfan’s thread last week about the current raging commodity prices, Asian markets are booming. It is surprising the heck out of a lot of people here. We went from zero to 60 - political chaos bombshells in May to a completely different type of boom time now (alright, bring on the jokes). That is despite the political situation never really being resolved and will most likely resurface again within the next year.

I am no longer a stockbroker and I have no licence to offer investment advice to US investors. I don’t know of any US-based internet brokers that offer trading in individual Thai equities. There are Thai equity funds listed in the US, but they suffer from severe liquidity issues (lack of trading volume). Your best bet would probably be to invest, at least part of your portfolio, in Asian-dedicated funds. It would be more diversified and since the rest of Asia benefits from the same growth drivers and prospects without some really serious negative short-term political issues that Thailand has, it would probably be better suited for you.

I have no idea where you read the report about “near double-digit” economic growth for Thailand over the next decade, Homey. I can tell you right now that it is not going to happen. The Bank of Thailand will not allow for it. They learned their lesson during the aftermath of the traumatic ’97 Asian economic crisis. They aim for a much more sustainable 4-6% GDP growth and will use interest rates and currency and basically anything in their toolkit. I’m guessing here but I think their attitude is that markets can fluctuate and quite wildly and that is beyond their control, but the underlying economy is not.

With that being said, I can’t help but think “damn” after visiting Nope’s newly-purchased tiny plot of rice paddies in Chaiyaphum province and thinking about the potential. No, you can’t invest in Thai land, Homey. Neither can I.

[MR2-Sooner86]

No, you can’t invest in Thai land.

Why can't I invest in Thailand? :confused:

[Chuck Bao]

Why can't I invest in Thailand? :confused:

I should have said land in Thailand. It is against the law and very politically senstive. If anyone asks, Nope used his savings to buy it and I have nothing to do with it. That is true.

[BU BEAR]

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy

[Chuck Bao]

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy

Rarely are words any truer spoken, or sung for that matter. Global equity/debt/commodities/currency markets are just a temporary and uneasy balance between fear and greed, despair and ecstasy if you will. The contrarians and value investors who had been more of a stabilizing force before have already capitulated.

[Okla-homey]

I should have said land in Thailand. It is against the law and very politically senstive. If anyone asks, Nope used his savings to buy it and I have nothing to do with it. That is true.

So Thailand doesn't allow non-citizens to own or otherwise invest in real property? Interesting.

Why's that such a hot potato? It sure isn't a problem here.

[GottaHavePride]

Um, we have a lot more land than they do?

[pilobolus]

So, how does the Thai mail-order bride market shape up?

[Serge Ibaka]

Thai food is the best regional cuisine in the State's.

Chinese food is highly overrated. Thai food is where it's at.

[pilobolus]

Our first stop is in Bogota
To check Colombian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams
Golden Acapulco nights
Then Morocco, and the East
Fly by morning light

We're on the train to Bangkok
Aboard the Thailand Express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best

Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon
We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of Afghanistan
Rewards a long day's toil
Pulling into Katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a Nepal night
The Express gets you there

[Chuck Bao]

So Thailand doesn't allow non-citizens to own or otherwise invest in real property? Interesting.

Why's that such a hot potato? It sure isn't a problem here.

I had always thought that the laws limiting property ownership to Thai citizens was nationalistic and short-sighted, especially since foreigners couldn’t actually take away the property and were actually willing to invest in it.

Previously, the biggest injustice, in my opinion, was that Thai women who married foreigners immediately lost their right to own property too. I think the law has been changed but I also think that Thai women will continue to refuse to officially change their surname to that of their foreign husbands because the new law and the enforcement are still not very clear. Besides that, the whole idea of a foreigner marrying a Thai woman for a property business transaction to secure property titles seems just so preposterous in a very twisted reversal of the mail-order bride idea.

With that being said, I also understand the political realities. GHP is right in that Thailand doesn’t have the land mass of the US. Basically, Thailand is roughly the size of Texas, but it has 60+ million people and at least 40% of workers are employed in agricultural. That is a pretty huge voting bloc and will dominate any election.

I am also looking at it through Oklahoma eyes. My grandfather, who acquired a lot of his land at $3 per acre and made good, once told me that if the productive output of the land cannot pay for the interest of the debt used to acquire it, then it is over-priced. Yeah, I am still a farmer, at heart, and I loath the thought of commercial developments displacing farmers and their families.

That is also why I hate the sport of golf so much because it has essentially stolen so much agricultural land in Thailand and for what? The rich elite can parade around and employ young girls to carry around their golf clubs? How economically productive is that?

Nope bought his land and there is no way that rice production on the property will ever pay for even a fraction of the interest. Land prices have skyrocketed and, frankly speaking, I see no reason why it would get cheaper in the foreseeable future.

In reality, this goes to the heart of the current political crisis. The government is trying to make like all nice like and ask the Red Shirt supporters in the provinces exactly what they want. Their overwhelming answer is more land opened up by the government and not constitutional reform. There is a part of me that agrees and I do think that the next generation of farmers should at least be given a chance to see what they can grow.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Seems to me that Thailand is pretty smart on that one based on some of the crap going on here with foreign ownership.

[Chuck Bao]

Seems to me that Thailand is pretty smart on that one based on some of the crap going on here with foreign ownership.

I honestly don't know if smart covers it, but yeah! Vegas is a basket case on the property market and if foreign buying contributed to some outlandish prices, I could see the reason why some locals are resentful of foreigners.

Generally speaking, I think that Oklahomans have never experienced that, well not yet.

Trust me, it will happen. The focus is so much on illegal workers and their required benefits and unstainable debt and weakening dollar that we are going to get such a massive inflow of foreign property buying that it will knock your socks off.

Think about it for a sec. If you were a Chinese fund manager trying to manage the trillions of dollars of Chinese foreign reserves, what would you do with it? Are you going to buy US treasury bills? Okay, you have to with a lot of it to sustain market prices. But, wouldn't a better hedge against inflation and weak dollar be US property which is currently trading at discount prices?

It is a no-brainer for me, but I am no brain. The sad fact of this sad case scenario is that the buyer is not individual and capitalistic, but the Chinese government with its own agenda. Seriously, I think that communism and ideology shouldn't be so high up on our boogey man list right now. Ruthless economic foes give me the willies.

[Okla-homey]

I honestly don't know if smart covers it, but yeah! Vegas is a basket case on the property market and if foreign buying contributed to some outlandish prices, I could see the reason why some locals are resentful of foreigners.

Generally speaking, I think that Oklahomans have never experienced that, well not yet.

Trust me, it will happen. The focus is so much on illegal workers and their required benefits and unstainable debt and weakening dollar that we are going to get such a massive inflow of foreign property buying that it will knock your socks off.

Think about it for a sec. If you were a Chinese fund manager trying to manage the trillions of dollars of Chinese foreign reserves, what would you do with it? Are you going to buy US treasury bills? Okay, you have to with a lot of it to sustain market prices. But, wouldn't a better hedge against inflation and weak dollar be US property which is currently trading at discount prices?

It is a no-brainer for me, but I am no brain. The sad fact of this sad case scenario is that the buyer is not individual and capitalistic, but the Chinese government with its own agenda. Seriously, I think that communism and ideology shouldn't be so high up on our boogey man list right now. Ruthless economic foes give me the willies.

Point taken Chuck.

But I remain unconvinced the Khmer Rouge (Eng: "Red Scarves") and the folks driving the Red Shirts movement don't have more in common than simply their choice of wardrobe color.

The clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea itself constituted the secret leadership of the Khmer Rouge, as its official name was known only to a few insiders: it called itself the Angkar (the organization) and only announced officially its existence in 1977.

It all started with a populist push to purportedly empower rural folks and bring "real" democracy to Cambodia.

It ended, as you know, with isolating the country from foreign influence, closing schools, hospitals and factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, outlawing all religions, confiscating all private property and relocating people from urban areas to collective farms where forced labor was widespread.

By the time it was over, and among the epic atrocities perpetrated by the regime; thousands were systematically murdered simply because they wore eyeglasses, an outward sign of intellectualism.

Thus, I think the Thai government was wise to stick to its guns (literally) and smother the movement in its crib. For now.

[Chuck Bao]

Point taken Chuck.

But I remain unconvinced the Khmer Rouge (Eng: "Red Scarves") and the folks driving the Red Shirts movement don't have more in common than simply their choice of wardrobe color.

The clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea itself constituted the secret leadership of the Khmer Rouge, as its official name was known only to a few insiders: it called itself the Angkar (the organization) and only announced officially its existence in 1977.

It all started with a populist push to purportedly empower rural folks and bring "real" democracy to Cambodia.

It ended, as you know, with isolating the country from foreign influence, closing schools, hospitals and factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, outlawing all religions, confiscating all private property and relocating people from urban areas to collective farms where forced labor was widespread.

By the time it was over, and among the epic atrocities perpetrated by the regime; thousands were systematically murdered simply because they wore eyeglasses, an outward sign of intellectualism.

Thus, I think the Thai government was wise to stick to its guns (literally) and smother the movement in its crib. For now.

Dood, really? You are so far off the reservation on this one. And, I always have had a great deal of respect for your opinions and ideas.

I know the Red Shirt leadership and their views and their supporters. Comparing them to that murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the ‘70s is very offensive and so far beyond stupid that I am at a loss for words. I don’t think I need a history lesson here and I assure you that most Thais, especially those who are Red Shirt supporters, don’t either. All that the Red Shirts were asking and protesting for was a new election and a democratically-elected government.

Are you so opposed to democracy? Do you think that the military can run the government better? Do you hate the color red? Do you fear the little brown man? Okay don’t answer any of those questions because they are equally stupid.

But, make no mistake...what happened in May and June in Bangkok was really bad and unfortunate and very counter-productive to the real Red Shirt cause which was, as I still believe it to be, a fairly-elected and representative government. Previously, I dared not to ever mention any of that to Thais or to anyone for that matter. I have been as quiet as a church mouse before posting this.

Congrats, Homey, you did manage to provoke me.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I honestly don't know if smart covers it, but yeah! Vegas is a basket case on the property market and if foreign buying contributed to some outlandish prices, I could see the reason why some locals are resentful of foreigners.



I'm not resentful of foreigners at all honestly and most of them I've known I've liked. I'm just not real big on them owning large chunks of our country and then taking the profits from that property back to their home country.