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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thailand and the possibility of joining BRICS - that's Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa - this sort of newly emerging, not exactly newly emerging, but it was once slowly emerging and now I would say the pace is quickening in 2024 regarding more countries coming on board with this. They seem to be creating their own sort of platform if you will. I have talked about this a lot over on what we are now calling the Integrity Legal Network; it was just my personal YouTube channel to begin with. I talked about this a lot where the way I look at it it's like if the International Banking System and international trade require effectively 'railroads' if you will to move capital between different jurisdictions in order to maintain trade, what BRICS is trying to set up is set up their own rail system. Up to this point via Swift, we sort of had one unified system for the world. Now we're starting to see that that's kind of stratifying into different regions are going to kind of have their own system set up, maybe regional trade currencies. We don't exactly know what this looks like but it is sort of changing the landscape out here in Southeast Asia especially economically; it could have legal ramifications. I'm sure it will have ramifications for the business community. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent Press Release from TASS, that's the Russian News Agency. Now for those who are unaware, I try to stay objective as much as I can regarding Russia. I have been to Russia. I've been to Moscow and St Petersburg years ago back in '99. I frankly was there when they were probably having one of the hardest times as a nation that they had probably been through up to that point probably in 70 odd years if you look at their history, if you look at things historically. I rather enjoyed Russia. I liked going there. Again I am an American. I do get that there are certain national interests that conflict between the two countries and all of that stuff, but at the end of the day, I try to be objective because they are pretty interesting people and they are pretty logical too. They don't tend to do a lot of irrational things, I'll put it that way, but you have got to kind of consider your sources when you're looking at this stuff.

So again TASS, Russian News Agency. This was May 29th, the title is: Thailand needs to join BRICS as role of Dollar, Euro declines. This whole thing of ‘the sky is falling’, the de-dollarization, I don't view it as that. I think what is going to happen is Eurasian industry and probably Africa later on down the road, we are going to see booming economic activity. I mean off the charts. Haven't seen stuff like this since the Robber Baron Era in the late 19th century in the United States. I don't have any other explanation for it other than that. I mean the growth of China has been astounding to this point and I think that when we see this reorganization happen and as time goes on, the Eurasian land mass is just going to start knitting together and industrializing up and there is going to be a lot of value created thereby. 

Now that said, does Thailand need to do anything? I don't necessarily think so. This kind of reminds me of the old debate regarding the RCEP and the TPP. I can't remember what RCEP stood for but it was sort of China's answer to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP. Thailand got kind of caught in between those two things when that debate was kind of raging, and Thailand sort of took the position of "well we are going to take a wait and see attitude and just pursue our national interests". I always think of that movie, I think it was called Lean on Me. Morgan Freeman is in it, where they tell him, he's a Principal and he had done right by his school, he had taken care of this school and there's this line where the superintendent comes in and says "but you have to do this or something" and he's sitting in a jail cell, he says: "I don't have to do anything but stay black and die." The way I look at is the Thais don't need to do anything but stay Thai and continue being Thai because Thailand is not going to die, so we have just got to stay Thai. Now again, whether or not down the road entering this Community is beneficial to Thailand, I don't know and there are probably people a lot smarter than me in a policy position right now who are thinking these things over, but at the end of the day Thailand kind of gets to be Thailand, just "Thailand going to Thailand", and pursuing your national interest is something Thailand is quite good at. It's one of the reasons I like living here. Quoting further: "The Government of Thailand approved on Tuesday a draft letter of the country's intent to become a BRICS member." So let's be clear, they are not joining, they just drafted a letter of intent okay? Quoting further: "It is necessary for Thailand to join BRICS amid the declining role of the Dollar and the Euro in the global economy, Thai political scientist Rom Phiramontri told TASS."

A couple of things here. First off, again, I don't view this as the Euro and the Dollar declining. I view the overall pie of the world economy getting bigger if you will as the world industrializes. Again and as that happens, okay yes the Dollar and the Euro may make up less of a percentage overall of the transactions occurring worldwide, but it doesn't mean they are losing anything; it doesn't mean they are shrinking. It just means that as a proportion of the overall economy, their relevance is somewhat diminishing as time goes on. But it doesn't mean they're losing something, it is just other people are getting bigger while they are sort of staying the same. Quoting further, “quote: "The use of the Dollar and the Euro will contract in the future." I don't know that I necessarily buy that per se, from its current level. Okay, maybe somewhat. I don't want to be disingenuous but yes it probably will contract over time but again I think the overarching phenomenon is that the global economy is getting bigger while sort of the Western economies are just going to kind of stay the same. The so-called golden billion are going to keep doing what they are doing, but the rest of the world is going to start economically expanding and you are going to see them come up to kind of the level where the so-called golden billion have been at this point heretofore. Quoting further: "Therefore joining the BRICS group is a necessary step." Again reasonable people may be able to disagree with that. I'm sure policy makers in Thailand will assess that based on the national interest of Thailand. Quoting further: "Preparations to do this are evidenced by the increase of gold reserves by the Bank of Thailand", that was an interesting one. Quoting further: "And lowering of the Dollar dependence in trade with China and member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)", the expert said. The Government of Thailand approved on Tuesday a draft letter of the countries intent to become a BRICS member. Participants in the Cabinet meeting came to a conclusion that joining BRICS will help to increase the role of Thailand at the international stage and broaden opportunities to participate in creation of a new world order." Wow, I always kind of get a little bit - no matter where it comes from - when they start talking New World Order, that one always kind of causes red flags to go up in my mind. Again, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing for Thailand to explore this, but as per usual, I hope and I think what we are seeing bears this out. I think that Thai Officials are probably going to navigate this with the idea of maintaining Thailand's national interest as the number one priority.