Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, 'where is this lagging economy'? That's what I would like to know. That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Enquirer, that's thaienquirer.com, the article is titled: Opinion - Economic revival Pheu Thai's only way to come back, as Constitutional amendment hits dead end. The thrust to this article goes in a very different direction. It's a pretty good article, I urge those who are watching this check out that article, but I thought this one excerpt was noteworthy.

Quoting directly: "All of this means that Constitutional amendment risks becoming seen as merely a matter of politicians indulging in their own political interest." That's what politicians do all the time regardless, so I don't know why this one particular issue is acutely indulgent, but whatever. Quoting further: "Coupled with Thailand's lagging economy, Thais will ask whether or not the government is pursuing a political luxury that voters would rather leave on the back burner." Okay, first of all this whole “lagging” economy. Hey Thai Enquirer, weren't you like one of the super hyperbolic folks during COVID? Where were you talking about the lagging economy when they shut us down for two and a half years? Meanwhile roughly the last two years have not been that bad. That being said, there's a certain component of the current coalition government that seems hell bent on creating the notion that Thailand is in some kind of economic doom-loop that needs an incredible amount of government so-called "stimulus" which is basically the money you took from us in taxes that was intended to pay for the things that are set in the budget. Now you are re-distributing that back outward as “giveaways” - which it's not really a giveaway, you already took that money from us to begin with - but it was meant to be spent on things that were in the budget. Now you've gutted the budget and given away the money, and now we are going to have to go into further debt to maintain the budget okay. And what's going to be the upshot of that? Well, nothing good for Thailand and we didn't need it to begin with.

What kind of lagging economy are you talking about? We had the highest consumer spending we've seen in years in the first quarter of 2024; they're talking about the end of this year being quite good because we've had a heck of a high season, which they are then saying, "oh well that's the result of the stimulus." Well how does that work when they just gave away the stimulus? Beyond even that, so-called “stimulus” is not actually doing anything for the economy, okay. Goods and services creation is what creates a thriving economy, not moving basically coupons around to people who then just sort of move it around. Okay, it has some effect in terms of there's some consumer spending and things, but as I've discussed when we discussed the old digital economy chestnut or the digital wallet chestnut, at the end of the day you are just creating taxable events, you are just extracting more wealth from the rank-and-file without creating any concomitant value okay. So, this so-called “stimulus” isn't really stimulus and if anything, it's going to have a detrimental impact on us in the near and longer term as we gut out our budget in order to give away this so-called stimulus. Then meanwhile, the whole question is predicated on Thailand having a “lagging economy” when it's my understanding Thailand is sitting around 2 1/2 percent growth. Show me another economy, especially in the West, that can boast real 2 1/2 growth? Not made-up nonsense from their Bureau of Labour statistics in the United States or the CPI or whatever nonsense they make up at any given moment, no, I'm talking about a real 2 1/2 percent. Well, you haven't seen that in years from the West; they are just not making that kind of value creation. Meanwhile Thailand has and at the moment that we are just getting the momentum, that we are just getting that what they call in game theory “lock-in”, that moment where underneath a rocket it explodes enough that it gains escape velocity in economic terms, what are we being saddled with? An albatross in terms of massive debt for all kinds of “stimulus” that we don't really need. Now yes, are there issues in the export market? Well probably, but I would say that's probably more due to Chinese dumping more than anything. 

So the thing I would like to have answered for me in the upcoming year, especially from these pundits and so-called "political prognosticators" and journalists and what not is, where is this lagging economy we are supposed to be seeing, because I'm not seeing it when I look out the door and I see at the street level, rank-and-file Thais earning their living and doing just fine. It looks to me like the Ivory Tower class is the one that is seeing this “lagging” economy, and it looks to me like they are seeing it for their own political agenda.