Transcript of the above video: 

This video today is going to be filled with Mike Myers’ movie references if you will. That said, we're talking about a topic I have been talking about a lot recently which is OECD, specifically Thailand's possible membership in it. As we discussed in other videos, Thailand is still exploring the notion of OECD. But as I have discussed in many other videos, I think OECD is terrible for this country. I think it will have all types of bad outcomes for the nation, and we're seeing it. All this banking nonsense that has come about since this "exploration" has started and they have been shutting down people's bank accounts, freezing accounts, capping out the amount of money that can be moved around. I mean it really is, for lack of a better term it's, and I don't wish to use this word overly because it becomes hyperbolic it loses its meaning, but this is true. It's Communistic, it's Sovietesque, where apropos of what that you say that you can't transfer money over 50,000 baht. What's the reason for that? Other than 'just because we say so'. And that's totalitarianism and totalitarianism that's designed to thwart the market and its economy, and its economic dynamics, that's Communism, that's the strain of totalitarianism we call Communism.

There's that great show The Americans. It's about these Soviet spies in the US in the 80s. In the later seasons there's this great kind of story arc that they did where one of the KGB Officers that worked at the Resident Tour in America, goes back to Soviet Russia and begins working internally in the KGB. And one of the things that he's working on is basically investigating people that are pursuing free market economics in the grocery sector. It's basically the food, I don't even know what you want to call it, I'm sure there's a Russian word for it but basically the grocery stores weren't run on market economics, it was all the each according to his ability, each according to his needs nonsense and he basically is having to investigate these people because, "Oh, you have got the best oranges of anybody. How did that happen?" Well it happened because she went out of her way and paid a little more basically - market economics kicked in - but in that system at that time that was all “illegal”, and therefore all this Know Your Customer and all of this totalitarian stuff where, "well how much are you paying for that good or service? Is it in line with what we think is right for paying for that good or service. Not any different really than "oh you're using digital banking, we get to cap you out at 50,000 Baht and why? Because we say so, and apparently because they don't like market dynamics. Again Mr. Anutin himself, who I will get into here in a moment, has noted that they need to inject liquidity into the system. They don't need to inject liquidity into the system; they need the liquidity that is already in the system to be able to run correctly. We need correct, proper, free velocity of money as we are a free-market economy here in Thailand. We're not some Soviet state that is going to be run by some offshore supranational organization that answers to no one here in Thailand and they are going to try to apply extra territorial jurisdiction to Tax Matters here in Thailand. And I don't agree with everything that Mr. Trump, President Trump back in the United States has done, but the Executive Order where he said we don't need OECD in the US because it would apply extra territorial jurisdiction in Tax matters and it is an affront to our national sovereignty, he's right. It's the same problem here in Thailand, and by the way, for those of you who think I am just a sycophant for Anutin, look, I can be critical of him too, as I have been in the past, if folks check my record. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Nation, that is nationthailand.com, the article is titled: Thai Premier Unveils 15-Point Urgent Agenda to Parliament. And again, for the most part, it's like with Trump, I liked him more than the alternative; I agree with some things he does, I heavily disagree with some things he does. Anutin, I am starting, well I have a little bit more affinity for him for different reasons, and I like his style too. As a Thai politician I have got to say, he is very good at what he does. But that said, I'm not sure he understands the magnitude of how bad this OECD thing is for Thailand and could be for Thailand, so I am hopeful that perhaps this initiative - after further review - perhaps cooler heads prevail on the idea of just running headlong into the OECD's arms. Quoting directly: "Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul led his Cabinet in delivering the new Government's Policy Statement to the Parliament on Monday setting out a comprehensive 15-point urgent agenda aimed at immediately addressing the nation's core challenges." So if you go down here lower under Global Trade; so for the most part I'm pretty well in line with the things that he wants to do, but then go down here under Global Trade, and remember all of this OECD nonsense was in alignment if you will with Yellen, the prior Treasury Secretary who by the way, left the United States completely broke as of the minute she left office. That was a headline like, nothing was funded. The incoming Treasury Secretary immediately from jump street had to start funding everything; it was just sort of left as, "Boom! mic drop, you figure it out." Real classy Yellen, real classy. But this "Global Minimum Tax" initiative is what all this OECD rubric stuff is all about is instituting a supranational system whereby this supranational body exercises extra-territorial jurisdiction within national boundaries and says "oh because of an offset in this other jurisdiction, you have got to apply this tax here, or you can't apply this tax here, whatever." It's all part of this initiative; I've done videos on this at length. That said, quoting directly under this subheading here, Global Trade: Establishing "Team Thailand" to upgrade existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and proactively open new markets (Middle East, Africa, Latin America)." - I can agree with all that; that's great, yeah. Good, Global trade, Team Thailand ra, ra, ra, all about it. - Quoting further: "The Government will also push for Thailand's membership in the OECD." I noticed that is just kind of just quietly put in there in a one-line statement. As the thumbnail here says, how about NO. How about we don't do this. And Mr. Anutin, I don't know if you listen, I don't know if you are listening, hope you are, it's great if you are. Tip of the hat to you on most things. I'm not sure you are wedded to the idea of the OECD. In fact I suspect if you have a look at it, you will probably draw a lot of the same conclusions that I do. Maybe you don't. Reasonable people can disagree. I don't think it's reasonable to be for the OECD, I view it as undue foreign influence in Thailand's economy, but whatever.

That said, to throw up another Mike Myers, we already used the thumbnail “how about no to the OECD”, the “how about no” from Austin Powers. Just another one. I just want to be clear. I've gotten a little bit of correspondence that would seem to be implying that I am somehow a cheerleader or something for Mr. Anutin. Great scene from the movie Wayne's World where he says, “but to me the beast doesn't mean selling out”. It's kind of a funny little moment; I'll throw that up on screen real quick. That said, I have my critiques of Mr. Anutin, I expect I'll have more as his premiership continues through the next four months. One thing I will say is I guess there is reason to be optimistic if he is for this and is going to “stick to his guns” on the whole thing. There may not be enough time to actually promulgate legislation so that Thailand will actually be a member of this OECD nonsense so maybe there's some small sliver of silver lining hope to be garnered from that. That said, I think it would be better if the country just affirmatively rejected this in the same vein that Mr. Trump did on his effectively first day of office on behalf of the American people which was a very good thing, I have got to be honest with you. If you look at nothing else from Trump's Presidency and you just look at the OECD Executive Memorandum that basically said, "hey this hasn't been adopted by Congress, this isn’t a law, therefore we are not going to play along with it," proactively this is a no-go, I wholeheartedly agree with that. If you were judging him purely on that and I think he so far has done a great job. Now I have other issues with Mr. Trump I have gotten into him in other videos. All Presidents have their pros and cons, nobody's perfect.

That said, I'm hoping over here, again the title for the video is Should Anutin “Push for Thailand's Membership in the OECD”? Yeah, I think that's a big no. That's not going to help anybody here. What would be better is make the arrangements we need to make to get to the next election in the process as best we can. The half/half, what is that, stimulus sort of initiative, ‘you pay half’ initiative, that seems to have some legs, let's worry about that. OECD membership, is that really a major priority in the Thailand we're living in right now, to allow undue foreign influence by a foreign supranational organization to influence, extra territorially influence Thailand and possibly act as a threat to our national sovereignty? Is that really something that should be a priority of this government? I don't think so. I hope it's not, and I hope this Government sees the light and reverses this policy and we can all move forward. That being said, it remains to be seen how any of this will play out, so we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.