Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the fact that now under this OECD rubric here in Thailand, it looks like the banks are going to start requiring people to disclose the source of funds for deposits of their own money into the banking system. Let's jump into this. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Cash deposits over 5 million baht to face mandatory disclosure. I love the use of the term "mandatory." We recently made a video on mandates, and where the word mandate comes from, from the Black's Law District dictionary. Mandatory does not mean you have to do something. A mandate is something that a mandator basically says, "hey will you do this?" It's a request. And if the mandatory, the person who is willing to do it acquiesces to doing it, then it's mandatory, but it has been completely misused in the common vernacular and it has basically been sort of conflated with the term required or compelled but again mandatory, is a misuse of the word, and I've done the videos on that; I made that in the last 10 days, or week or two weeks or so. That said, let's go ahead and jump in here. 

Really quick before we jump into the citation - I have discussed this in other videos - folks have asked how they can support us. We don't monetize this channel and some people say, "hey, I don't need to avail myself of a lawyer or a law firm. Is there anything I can do to support the content you're creating?” Hey, as I have discussed in other videos, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. The name is Pancake Palace, as the name implies, it is breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food; we've got hamburgers, cheeseburgers. We've got buffalo wings, we've got chicken wings, we've got grilled cheese sandwiches, we've also got again American Diner style breakfast anytime, links are in the description below if you want to come visit us there. That said, let's jump into this. 

Quoting directly: "Customers depositing more than 5 million baht in cash will be required to disclose the source of the funds from the 4th quarter as part of tighter measures to curb the gray economy and illicit financial activities according to the Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn." So the gray economy, the informal economy, the economy that they can't track and trace and tell us all what to do all the time in. The economy that the Governor of Bangkok try to bag and tag all the vendors here in the city in order to track and trace everything. Yeah, they are coming for that, and now it is a "mandatory" (mandatory, I put that in quotation marks) it's a requirement now to disclose the source of funds of someone who is depositing money into their own account; into their own account, their own money. So now the bank is saying, "hey, you have to tell us about your own money." What kind of nonsense is that? And people will say "well it's 5 million baht, I mean come on, it’s not going to affect everything," - It's going to lower. This is how this always works. They bring it in with a high threshold and as time goes on, either inflation eats it away, I mean a perfect example of that is disclosure of foreign bank accounts. That came about in the '70s and they said, "well you only have to disclose if you have more than $10,000 in the account." Well 10 grand; Pablo Escobar, that was his kind of money back in the '70s. Inflation comes along, eats away at the value of that, and then 10 grand is nothing. Everybody and their dog that lives abroad has an account or multiple accounts with an aggregate of $10,000 in it. Wait till we see that with this. 10, 20 years from now when 5 million baht is the equivalent of 500,000 today, we will be putting up with this requirement; everybody will have to do it. Or what they'll do is once they get it in, they'll just lower the threshold and then it will be, "well we already brought the rule in, we're just lowering it down." All of this is tyrannical. It's wrong, and by the way, did anybody vote for any of this? This is all being brought in at the behest of foreign bankers; period, end of discussion. That's what this is doing; that's what OECD has to do with. It so that we can access these great markets. What great markets? The West, that's falling apart? That debt to GDP ratios on all of these countries is off the charts. These are the kind of debt to GDP ratios that used to be made fun of, that Western countries used to make fun of in the "developing world"? Meanwhile, Thailand that's got quite a healthy debt to GDP ratio, a very vibrant economy, we are being put under these shackles, having to disclose all of our deposits and things, capping out the amount of money that can be transferred, which decreases the velocity of money, decreases the liquidity in the economy. "Oh but it's the informal economy; it's the one they can't track and trace." By the way, that's the economy that saved Thailand in a true practical sense, saved the everyday working Thai during the '97 crisis. It was the really economy that allowed Thailand to bounce back. That said, quoting further: "The Central Bank places high priority on tackling Thailand’s structural problems" - when did that become their priority? I thought their job was to administer the banking system. These people act like they are policy makers. They are administrators. That's the purpose of Central Banking. That's why we allowed there to be a monopoly on Banking and government interaction with banking in all of our jurisdictions. The United States being the Fed, for example. It was an administrative function; these people aren't supposed to control our lives. Quoting further: "The Central Bank places high priority on tackling Thailand’s structural problems, particularly informal economy." - the informal economy is not a structural problem. It is Thailand's economy, and it is being eaten away by this tyranny and totalitarianism, which is sucking the real economic value of creation activity under a net that it can be tracked and traced, and therefore it will not only be taxed to the utter hilt, but people won't be able to easily transact as we are now seeing where they cap out the amount of money people can transfer, so it decreases the velocity of money, it tamps down productive economic activity, and by tamping it down, it slowly destroys it. As they say, “the power to tax is the power to destroy”, and that power to destroy is being wielded through undue influence by offshore foreign bankers here in Thailand. That is what is happening right now. - Quoting further:  "gray capital and corruption." - oh gray capital and corruption. Yeah, I really think that the Central Banks and the likes of places like HSBC and all these other banks around the world that constantly get noted for all kinds of criminal activity, pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, really care about corruption in Thailand. That is the reason they want to bring on all this totalitarianism, to tackle corruption for the rank-and-file Thais. Yeah right! Give me a break. And by the way, I mean at what point do we start saying, "Hey, are the journalists, are these institutions of journalism really journalism, or are they just mouthpieces for the international banking syndicate? Quoting further: "Mr. Vitai said during a meeting with economic reporters on Saturday. Consequently, the BoT does not want financial institutions under its supervision to be used as channels for illegal activities" - okay, then get law enforcement involved. What has it got to do with people who genuinely might have 5 million baht that they need to put in a bank account? Now they have got to account for themselves, why? - quoting further: "prompting it to tighten oversight. Mr. Vitai said Officials are now renewing the scope of the Central Banks legal authority before finalizing the deposit disclosure requirements." Why do they have any legal authority? That's the position of law enforcement, the Police. The banks are supposed to be administrators, administering banking functions so we can operate our economies. That's the point, and who voted for the banks to run all of our lives, too? That said, quoting further: "Cash withdrawals exceeding 5 million Baht are subject to enhanced due diligence." Enhanced due diligence! I mean the buzzwords created by these people are just ridiculous. Quoting further: "Commercial Banks and state-owned financial institutions are required to verify customers' reasons for using cash" - ridiculous. This is not their function; they are not law enforcement; this will have a tremendously detrimental impact on the overall economy. We will see the velocity of money decrease. We will see liquidity decrease. We will see a massive lack of demand to do business in Thailand if these are going to be the parameters under which people have to bank now, especially foreign investment, etc. "Oh, but we are going after the informal economy." The exact economy of the lowest strata of the economy here. That's what the bankers are targeting. They are targeting the weakest in our financial system here, in our socioeconomic system here in Thailand. They are targeting the people at the low edge, the "informal" economy. The people that live hand-to-mouth selling food on the street, etc. that is who they want to target. Quoting further: "and assess whether transactions could instead be conducted through electronic transfers or cheques." Okay, what does it matter and who gave them the right to make those determinations for us? If I want to bring in 5 million in cash and dump it in an account, what business is it of theirs? Whoever gave these people the right to sit around telling us how we have got to live our lives, how we have got to bank? And on top of that, it reminds me of the scene at the end of Casino. I made a video with this as a thumbnail in the past where they talk about how the casino business in Vegas was destroyed because the "corporations" came in and they knew better than the old "mob". It's like the same terminology as "informal economy" versus “formal economy” etc. they came in, completed destroyed the casino business because a whale, there’s the line, "a whale walks in with a million bucks in a suitcase and some kid with a hotel degree wants to see a driving license, wants to see a social security card." It's how you kill business is through this. Quoting further: "Legitimate business transactions remain permitted, Mr. Vitai said." Well thank you so much, and who determines what is and is not legitimate? So now the banks are the adjudicators of what's legitimate business activity in Thailand? Who gave them that authority? That's Parliament's prerogative regarding the laws and the customs and how we will do business in Thailand and what is and is not legitimate. And if you want to consider it illegitimate, pass a law. That the Doctrine of Codification in a Civil Law Society. You want to make illegal, pass a law. It's not the prerogative of some foreign banker what is and is not legitimate in Thailand.

Quoting further: "Since the measures took effect in April and May, large cash withdrawals have fallen by 35%." Neat, so you have massively decreased the velocity of money. Meanwhile, what are they doing? Are they pulling and this will be the next narrative too. It's not that people are now pulling out 5 million, they are pulling out 4 million. If you need to pull out 10, you pull out 4 million twice and then two million once. It is called smurfing. You go under the threshold where it triggers these mechanisms. And then the next thing will be, "Well now people are smurfing and now people are pulling out less than the 5 million. We need to lower the thresholds." You can see where this goes. It goes to a massively totalitarian place. It goes to a place where our banking system looks like the Soviet Union's banking system and it will collapse as a result of this massive oversight. This is command economics with a new veil over it. That's all the OECD is. It's command economics with like a hipper wrap, to paraphrase the movie Air America, where Robert Downey Jr. is talking to Mel Gibson and he said, "you are the same as that warmongering major, you just got a hipper wrap." It's the same deal. It's command economics with "oh but it's sweetness and light". No, it isn't. That said, quoting further: "Since measures took effect in April and May, large cash withdrawals have fallen by 35%," Mr. Vitai said, adding that enforcement would be standardized across all banks to further reduce such transactions." Yeah, let's tamp down the amount of money that moves around so we can have value created in this economy. That is what we get when we let bureaucrats run our lives.

Quoting further: "The Thai economy has proved more resilient" - see, this is where I love it too is this get buried at the end of these articles. They pulled this crap last summer with Fitch. Fitch kept saying, "oh Thailand's banking system looks a little shaky, while we were going through all the consternation at the border with Cambodia, not to mention all the domestic politics going on with all the nonsense stemming off the Rump Coalition Government. And then in comes the foreign bankers saying, "hey, everything looks shaky." But then when you looked at the bottom of the article in that Fitch article, which I've done the videos on that before, you'll see that they said, "oh, well actually everything looks pretty hunky dory in the banking system." Well, here we go again. They talk about how they need all of this and then they bury this in there. - "The Thai economy has proved more resilient than expected during the Middle East conflict, prompting the BoT, Bank of Thailand themselves, to project GDP growth of a modest 2.3% this year instead of the 1.5% contraction feared under the worst-case scenario." So, they said there was going to be a 1.5% contraction; now they are saying there's going to be 2.3% in growth. That means there's a total of 3.8% GDP growth they were completely off by, and they have to admit it somewhere along the lines which is what they are doing here. I guarantee you most of that growth is driven by the "informal economy." Quoting further: "However, the more pressing challenge remains deep-rooted structural problems which continue to erode long-term growth potential," he said." What do you mean? The only structural problem I see that is eroding growth potential, is a bunch of bankers and bureaucrats getting in the way of people doing legitimate value-added business. It's not coming - what - you are saying that the people in the actual economy are somehow stagnant in and of themselves? That's nonsense. It's this state, it is not even the state, it is this off-shore undue influence interfering in Thailand's perfectly well working economy; I shouldn’t say “perfectly” but it works fine. That said, quoting further: quote: "We have structural problems because resources are concentrated in the hands of large businesses and we also face issues relating to the gray economy.” Okay, first of all, what does that mean? “We face issues relating to the gray economy?”  If there is an informal economy going then that's adding value to the overall system. The only problem that you people seem to have with it is it can't be bagged, tagged, tracked and traced and then pounded into the dirt with taxes so it dies an unnatural death, as far as that goes. Then meantime they say, "oh we have structural problems because resources are coordinated in the hands of large businesses.” How is this going to help that? This is only going to reinforce that. It's going to make it harder for small businesses to do business. Meanwhile, the huge corporations with teams of lawyers, teams of accountants will deal with this compliance. That is the way it worked in the West. That is how that goes. Economies have been choked to death like a strangling victim because of this. Quoting further: “What we have seen over the years are mainly short-term projects. There has been very little efforts to solve long-term problems.” Those are political Issues. That has nothing to do with the underlying economy. Those problems stem from the fact that Thailand has been stuck in this constant feedback loop for nearly 20 years because of a bunch of bad political actors, who I think were subject to undue foreign influence themselves, bringing in all kinds of problems that resulted in nothing being able to long-term, build up politically where we could get a movement in favour of free enterprise so we can all get on with it, and make money. Now they are coming back in and doing the exact same thing. I just don't see how on any level this is adding any benefit to the actual Thai economy. That being said, it remains to be seen how this plays out. We will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.