Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing mBridge, the Thai Baht and the oil trade. For those who are unaware, I have been away for about a week although we had videos I did before I left that we kept the channel going as per normal. I haven't been around this past week here in Thailand. I was up in China and I had a lot of observations - I made another video contemporaneously with this one although it will go up earlier on the channel, regarding sort of my thoughts on that - but something I've noticed since returning, or I guess I should say something I was thinking about as all of this has happened with Iran, the issue involving the Strait of Hormuz. There is also in the background something going on that I don't think a lot of people are looking at which is something called mBridge.

Now I've talked about this a lot on my Twitter, out there in the Twittersphere if you will, talked about a little bit on here; I talked about it quite a bit over on the Integrity News Service channel back when I was just sort of running it for my own personal, I don't know, amusement to make videos on, and I talked about sort of the mBridge as the mortar of Mackinder's World Island. There's Halford Mackinder who came up with this notion of there's a World Island, basically Eurasia, and there is sort of the Homeland and the Rim Land; the Rim Land is like the outer edge and down here in Thailand we are sort on the edge of the Rim Land right sort of on the way out periphery of it but still on the main land mass. And on top of it, there was this protocol that was initially created under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements. Then they sort of spun it off and it was a weird kind of spin-off because Carstens, the guy that runs the BIS, or ran it at the time - I don't think that's changed yet - he actually did two press releases in the same day regarding mBridge and he said, "oh we're spinning it off, we're letting the countries that are involved in this" and to be clear what is mBridge? It involves mainland China, it involves Hong Kong, it involves Bangkok, Thailand, and it involves the UAE, and it is basically a platform for capital movement if you will between these four places, these four jurisdictions: mainland China, the auspices of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, you've also got the Bank of Thailand here in Thailand in Bangkok, and then you have got the United Arab Emirates Monetary Authority, the Emirates, and these were the nodal points. And I have talked about this, that if you take the Halford Mackinder model, and then you sort of overlay this mBridge system with that, you sort of see nodal points along the underside, along the Rim Land of the World Island wherein foreign trade via the maritime powers can plug into each of these, and also they act as nodal points for example back before this whole War thing – “war” is kind of a bit of a misnomer because Mr. Trump did not seem to seek nor obtain a Congressional Declaration of War pertaining to Iran and to the best of my knowledge, Congress still hasn't spoken to the matter affirmatively. So I guess we're still under the old War Powers Act which I personally have issues with because Statutes cannot override the Constitution and the Constitution clearly states it is Congress that declares war, no one else. 

That being said, leaving that issue aside, we have hostilities in the Middle East. It has caused the Strait of Hormuz to become a global focal point of conflict, most notably it's difficult to get shipping in and out of there. Certain jurisdictions, as I will get into, are having varying degrees of ease if you will, in moving, in transshipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The point of this video is though, you have got UAE, you've got Bangkok, Thailand, you have got Hong Kong and then of course sort of China in the background with their sort of digital RMB or the digital Yuan, all of this is operating with a platform if you will to be able to move capital around. Now I'm not going to sit here and say I know what's happening on that platform or what's moving around, but what I can say pretty significantly or with some degree of certainty is the UAE is in a spot of bother at the moment with regard to all of this. It would not shock me if there was not significant Capital moving over mBridge to other jurisdictions. It might not be only to Thailand; it might be to Hong Kong and via Hong Kong into mainland China possibly. I can't say, but what I can say is the platform exists and the notion that there is nothing moving around, especially with the events that are transpiring at the moment seems a bit unlikely to say the least. If anything, what I think we may be seeing here in not only Southeast, as well as Middle East Asia if you will, the middle Kingdom of China as well as South Asia proper, the global South, is a pivot if you will into a new system of trade and trade relationships, and that new system of trade and trade relationships will probably be using, not exclusively and maybe not even to a large extent, but I think it's unlikely to think it won't be used at all, that mBridge will be part of all of this. I have to imagine a certain amount of capital has moved over mBridge into Thailand, and probably China via Hong Kong and it's unlikely that we will see that change. Meanwhile, it's my understanding that China is able to transship, especially oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and Thailand has made a deal to be able to do things similarly. I don't know the terms of these things but as discussed online, I've discussed it briefly in other videos before I left, again Thailand seems to have made a deal with Iran; I think Iran said something along the lines of "we will always deal with our friends" or something. Thailand, from a diplomatic perspective is always good in maintaining friendly relationships with as many countries as they can for exactly these reasons, for when things get sort of difficult on the world scene, they want to be able to try and make deals and do what's best for the Thai national interest. I have to think that there will be significant, likely positive consequences, for the Thai Baht, and for Thailand generally, insofar as an ability to create new trade relationships that may not look like those relationships that we have seen in the past. Meanwhile, Thailand, I see no reason to presume that anything other than cordial in fact friendly, good relations will be maintained with the United States moving forward; I don't see any reason to see that change. The rest of the West, hard for me to make calculations on that because I'm just not quite as apprised of all of the sort of details and nuances associated with those relationships. But I think long-term, I personally think Thailand's prospects economically are looking really good because on the one level, the Thai Baht is a bit weaker - sort of “weaker” in terms of the dollar - which allows for a trade relationship that benefits Thailand between those jurisdictions and as goes the Dollar, tends to go things like the Pound and the Euro as it pertains to the Baht, so again, trade relations between those countries I don't see becoming strained as it pertains to Thailand anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I think Thailand's economic inputs in terms of energy and also bearing in mind that Thailand seems to be also talking to Russia about buying up certain of their oil stock, I think moving forward, the inputs in Thailand with regard to energy are probably likely to be lower than many other jurisdictions around the world. Exactly what that "lower" looks like in real terms I'm not going to speak to; I think that would be too much speculation. But I think Thailand is in a very unique position where they can have lower input costs in terms of energy than other jurisdictions, and then the ability to continue to trade with many of their traditional trading partners in such a way that it really doesn't disturb that trade relationship for either party - either Thailand or the counterparty - due to the fact that again the currency relationships are such that it's in kind of that sweet spot sort of “Goldilocks just right" zone with respect to the exchange rate between the Thai Baht and those other currencies. 

So it is my understanding at the moment Anutin, the current Prime Minister here in Thailand is in a bit of hot water over matters pertaining to talking about Electric Vehicles and the issues associated with what is perceived to be something of an energy crisis possibly unfolding in Thailand. I think if anything where we are at, I'm not trying to run cover for Mr. Anutin, that's not my point. I think folks might be misunderstanding what is happening here, and what is happening here is we are in a transitional moment between an old system that Thailand pretty well found a good spot of equilibrium in, that could operate, do business, make money, everybody sort of in a broad sense, Thai GDP went up, it was beneficial to Thailand's economy to have that system, we are now moving over to a different system. It's not going to look like the old system, but at the end of the day, I think we are probably going to end up in a place where Thailand has figured out a new equilibrium within that system in order to make money and do business with their counterparties in such a way that's both mutually beneficial with those counterparties in Thailand, but also augers to Thailand's benefit internally, domestically economically, in the long term. But for the moment, while we saw Thailand have to utilize some of their price control mechanisms in order to keep the price low on petroleum while the initial phases of this transition were playing out, then Thailand made its deals in the Middle East that continue to allow energy to flow into Thailand albeit I expect there's sort of "air in the line" if you will at the moment while there has been this kind of delay that we are now seeing the ramifications of, and we are just now seeing the new supply chain come online and be working, it's going to take a minute while we're going through this transition phase for Thailand to get back to the kind of equilibrium that everybody is used to domestically here, but I do think it's coming. As I talked about in other videos previously, again the cost of fuel went up by like 6 Baht. I think that's because it was determined that, hey, we need to let market mechanisms run because we have a new supply chain in place, and we need to let the market sort of shake all this out to get to the equilibrium we need to get to in order to continue doing beneficial business insofar as business relationships that are in line with the national interest of the Kingdom of Thailand.