Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well-defined policies and balancing that against, in my opinion, concerns regarding colonization. What are we talking about here? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Foreign Investors seeking clear policies amid volatility. On the one hand, let me just preface, I do get where foreigners can be uneasy about dealing with things - making investments in Thailand, looking to do business here - because they are uneasy about the legal system and the way things work here. My response to that has gotten to be over the years, look other jurisdictions can be just as arbitrary and capricious in many ways. I mean frankly, I've got serious issues with a lot of things that happened in the US legal system especially since the first Trump term. Let me be clear, I'm not blaming Mr. Trump, but in response to him many things have, the whole Cohen thing in the first term, and attorney-client privilege is just one example. That Supreme Court Justice whose name is escaping me off the top of, that whole thing in that first term, really there was a lot of disregarding of basic legal philosophies, and they were just sort of, I'm not saying completely thrown out, but it was concerning.

The point I'm trying to make is yes, I get foreigners’ concerns here in Thailand, but I am saying, if you were to look at your own country from an outsider's perspective, there are aspects of your own country that can be viewed as arbitrary and capricious as well is the point I am trying to make. That said, quoting directly: "Foreign investors would like to see clear and well-defined policies as they have continued to offload Thai equities for a third consecutive year, with cumulative net sales exceeding Bt. 400 billion said the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)." Well one thing to also point out is quite honestly the West is not in good shape economically, and as we saw, which one phenomenon that I just can think of off the top of my head, the sort of Tesco-Lotus unwinding. I remember reading about that at the time and they were talking about how it was advantageous for Tesco to sell off their interests because they were leveraged in some other jurisdiction and they needed the money, and they had they had done well in Thailand and so they were selling off to basically recoup gains to use to pay off other things. It is sort of the same phenomenon that will happen with gold when you see economic volatility; gold will sometimes initially go down, even though gold bugs, it's counterintuitive to them because they're like well gold is a safe haven asset, why would you do that? Well it's because people are selling gold positions in order to pay off margins and things like that, pay off margin calls.

The point I'm trying to make is this may not all be blamable on Thailand and Thai policies. There could be things happening abroad where they are selling otherwise good assets here in Thailand in order to get liquidity in order to pay off debts elsewhere where they are struggling. It is important I think to keep count of that in the back of your mind. That said, quoting further: "During a recent roadshow in Singapore, SET President, Asadej Kongsiri said regional institutional investors had expressed their desires concerning greater policy continuity, particularly regarding large-scale infrastructure investments and national development plans such as the Land Bridge project." Regional institutional investors!  Do you mean like these huge hedge funds, Black Rocks and these kind of things and they are sort of owned by, you know Ian Carroll does a really good job over on Twitter getting into like Black Rock and Merrill and all these things and who owns them and then when you do a deep dive of it, it's like they all own each other and it's sort of this ever continuing feedback loop and it's all about you can get into the history of this stuff of interlocking directorships in this kind of thing. It concerns me because this is the modus operandi if you will, of the “new colonial” class. And anytime I see Thailand being put in the sort of crosshairs of colonization, it gets my hackles up, okay. Now you can say I'm hyperbolic if you want, but I don't think that the past has borne out that I'm hyperbolic. If anything it is kind of the opposite. That said, quoting further: "He added that many investors also support revising foreign ownership limits in key sectors such as tourism, hospitality and banking to attract more long-term capital."

Yeah, let's just sell ourselves down the river so they'll be happy. Again, I don't mean to be overly hyperbolic but yeah Thailand has, for good reason, protected their local industries and frankly I don't really see, for example the tourism sector - where is Thailand going to benefit by allowing a bunch of foreign influence or foreign ownership in the tourism sector. Hospitality, okay. Maybe I can see that except that sounds like a buzz word if you will for ‘we want to own hotels’ which that gets into landownership which that's again, I’m a naturalized Thai, I tend to agree with the Thai philosophy that we don't want foreigners owning land. Maybe that's not what they are talking about, but it kind of sounds like it. And then banking because yeah foreign bankers. That is what you want in a solid stable nation state. Boy they have done a heck of a job haven’t they. Especially lo these past 50 years in the aftermath of Nixon “temporarily” shutting down the gold window. If you have any doubts about the efficiency or efficacy of foreign bankers basically interacting with the body politic. I mean just look at the past 5 years, 6 years and World Economic Forum and COVID nonsense and “we have all got to be shut down and be tracked and traced and have vaccine passports. We get to tell you what to do and “you will own nothing, and you'll be happy.” It doesn't lead anywhere particularly good.

I do understand the reasonable desire on the part of the outside investors for clarity and some level of legal stability. But that said we should not, I think, go too far in Thailand and basically sell ourselves short to what amounts to outside colonizers.