Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing banking yet again here in Thailand unfortunately. I'm going to go ahead and jump in here so, actually let’s preface things. For those who are unaware, and anybody that has been watching my channel the last three or four months you have got to be aware of all of his banking nonsense, this Orwellian just "know your customer", oh we need Biometrics, we need a blood and urine sample for you to have a Bank Account; I mean we have got to have you come in and take a digital photo ID and all; when does this end? And it's pretty ridiculous. You have people's IDs; you have copies of their passports. I'm going to get into another video soon about they have been asking for people to top up their like train cards here in Thailand; foreigners now need to show their passport and things. It's just stupid. It's already linked to ID. What are you doing? That being said, there seem to be some who don't really see this for the problem that it is. 

I thought of making it this this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Even the banks in Thailand are getting serious now. Quoting directly: "By November and December of 2025, Commercial Banks across Thailand have noticeably tightened their procedures. In Pattaya, where retirees and long-stay expatriates form a substantial and generally well-behaved community" - I am sure that they will be real happy to be called ‘a well-behaved community’. What are they, like juvenile delinquents and they are all being sort of reformed or something? - Quoting further: "the impact has been quietly disruptive." Quoting further: "Transfers that once took minutes now invite questions. Daily limits appear without warning. Documents are requested, then requested again, often by people who were not there the first time. None of this is personal, one is assured. It rarely feels that way. The reason, of course, is fraud prevention and regulatory compliance." - Well not "of course". That is a pretext. That's all that is. They don't need any of this stuff and by the way, all this notion that, "well we need to freeze your bank account because someone could transfer from their bank account to your bank account and therefore, we need to freeze your account." It's both that person and the bank whose responsibility it is for that; they're the one's accountable for that. Me merely holding an account is not in and of itself anything. It's not an overt act, it's not a criminal act, it's not an element of any crime; it's nothing. So the whole pretext and pretense of all of this being, "oh it's for fraud and security and blah, blah, blah", you have digital ID of all money now that passes through all of the digital banking systems. So the notion that we have to have our liberties ratcheted down more, in order for there to be some kind of better enforcement is nonsense. You already have totalitarian control from that side of the window if you will. All this stuff is, is just more nonsense. Quoting further: "No one seriously disputes the need." I seriously dispute the need. Fraud prevention of what?

I've had multiple folks that have come to us that we had to go to the bank. We'll communicate with the bank and the bank will say, "oh yeah, yeah it's for fraud prevention because we were worried that from this account the money that came to him was fraudulent, therefore we shut down his account." No due process, no warrant, "oh we just think", and meanwhile, you're the bank, you know, you have all that documentation. So what are you talking about? Fraud or Regulatory Compliance! Regulatory Compliance is just "oh the government says so now”. Do they say so based on an actually promulgated law pursuant to Parliamentary due process? Or is this more of this shadow boxing, smoke and mirrors nonsense that we saw under the last Administration in the United States where Janet Yellen did that Executive Order where it said, "oh OECD is coming in so we need to get things in line for that." And that's this back door, bootstrapping way of effectively promulgating law without promulgating law, which is exactly what Trump pointed out in his Executive Order rejecting OECD from the United States precisely because it creates extra territorial jurisdiction in that country and because it's a direct threat to National Sovereignty. Again all of this stuff that is coming down the pike on banking is just, it's just bad. There's really no other word for it. It's not good law. It's not good policy. It's not even really designed to help with the things it's supposedly designed to help, "oh there's a scam network using bank accounts. Isn't the bank who you go to, to investigate on that? Why is the account holder, who is just holding an account, doing nothing, subject to anything on that? It's really nonsense. And this notion that, "no one disputes the need for fraud prevention and regulatory compliance." What does regulatory compliance mean? It's like people throw around the word "money laundering". That didn't exist prior to 1987. They just made that up. Prior to that, you were free to do with your money whatever you wanted, as you should be really. It's on law enforcement to go catch the bad guys. It's not on law enforcement to hamstring the good guys because bad guys exist. Quoting further: "But Pattaya is not exactly a hotbed of international money laundering." Really? Okay. Quoting further: "Most foreign residents here are moving pension income, savings, or property funds hardly exotic financial instruments." Yeah, in the case of retirees and stuff, that's absolutely right. I couldn't agree with that more. 

That being said, again it all comes back to the issue of none of this is really all that necessary. It's not right. People have an inherent right to privacy in their financial transactions. Also, we are the customers to these banks. We are not sheep in some slaughterhouse somewhere or out in some pasture that they can just shepherd us around and tell us all what to do. This is really totalitarian I'm tired of the apologia for all of this stuff; it really needs to come to an end. 

By the way, we do get into some deep dive analysis in this on our paid news service. If you're interested in that, you can send us an email and get on the email list, [email protected]. At the first of the year, I'm also rolling out a conversion of that whole thing to a new sort of Club format that we're going to be able to provide new content and services and things of that nature to club members. But that being said, if you want to get into that now please feel free to email us, [email protected]. Also, while I'm talking my book, it's fair to point out that my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, pancake pallets as the name implies it is breakfast anytime but not limited to breakfast. We also have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings, chilli bowls. If you're interested, come on down; the links are in the description below. You can come on down to Pancake Palace, we'd love to see you there.

That being said and circling back and rounding this out, yeah, I seriously dispute the need for any of this. And I think history has borne out, we actually don't need this. If anything, all we're doing in these Western banking systems is accreting more bureaucracy, that is creating more red tape, that is creating more problems for actual basically economic movement forward. If we're doing anything right now, we are just putting up red tape and walls to make things harder to get things done. I think that's a bad move. I have said it at length in many other videos. I'm hoping this turns around sooner rather than later, here in the Kingdom of Thailand.