Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, I am asking the question, is Thailand under attack from foreign financial institutions? I'm really asking this seriously. I have discussed this in other videos; most recently I brought up 1997 in a prior video where I think it was Friends, Thais, Countrymen lend me your Ears was the title of that video. I'll try to put the link in the description below if I remember when we get this thing up, but that was on the thumbnail for sure. In any event, I asked the question there. This OECD stuff it looks like in the past couple of years at the behest to my mind, of undue foreign influence, they have been trying to bring in all of this stuff that is resulting in biometrics for banking and all kinds of account freezing and seizures but it's all "temporary" of course, just like closing the gold window by Nixon was temporary except we are still dealing with the aftermath of it some 50 odd years later. 

But the point I am trying to make with this video, I discussed in a prior video where I quoted an article I am going to quote here where they were talking about one of these rating agencies talking about Thailand's Banking System might have problems. And then I went into the fact that they buried the lead in the bottom of the story which I will read again, I want to, because they then go on to say well actually the Thai Banking System is pretty sound. From a purely financial standpoint I actually trust the Thai banking system more than really any other banking system; I have no lack of confidence in the underlying financial health of the Thai banking system; I really don't. I genuinely don't; that doesn't bother me in the least. I am bothered by the fact that unfortunately much like in COVID, locals here, it's like a time delay. These foreign inspired or these foreign initiatives come in here and they sort of start and if they come through the correct channels, the Thais will go ahead, it seems like locals here will start implementing these things. Then it takes a little while and it gets analyzed for what it is, much like COVID, and then things kind of turn around because people will say, "hey, what are we doing here? is this really the right thing to do?" Unfortunately, that can take a while. It is one of the reasons I make these videos in the hopes, although I sometimes feel like I am screaming into the abyss, in the hopes that folks may kind of hear it and say, "hey, wait, wait. Why are we doing this?" The thing that worries me now with regard to these account freezings, and this biometric stuff and the cap on the amount of money that can be transferred digitally, which by the way, all of this digitization was supposed to make our lives easier. Why is it more difficult to bank now than it was two, three years ago. You didn't hear about any of this stuff. Three years ago you could drop cash into a cash deposit machine, type in someone's account number, hit approve, boom the cash is gone, it's over to them instantly. Frankly, Thailand's Banking System to my mind was the envy of the world internally, because quick liquidity, movement of capital, high velocity of money; business was getting done. Now we are in this almost neo-Soviet system where you have got to queue up to get your account unlocked and even when you do that: I am getting multiple emails and there's multiple comments, I am sure there will be more on this video, where people will say, "I'm on day 20 whatever and I haven't been able to get my bank account unfrozen. I've given them what they wanted but I'm on whatever, and I still can't get in there." How did this make things easier? That's my question. All for what? Mule accounts, so-called? Again I have discussed that in other videos, but one aspect of this that I don't think is immediately apparent to folks both as policy makers nor as rank-and-file Thais, nor anyone else, is the possibility that this is being done intentionally so that the actions undertaken at least initially in good faith by operators here in Thailand, which may later be looked back upon in sort of like well, maybe we shouldn't have done that, but undertaken initially in good faith, much like COVID, again that may be done with the ulterior motive of undermining and corroding the confidence in Thailand's economy and banking system in order to put Thailand back on her back foot like she was in 1997. And that resulted in a lot of economic turmoil for Thailand and in my opinion outside influencers came in and benefited very much at Thailand's expense in the aftermath of that crisis. 

That said, getting into what I am talking about with regard to this kind of PR push as I have talked about against basically the Thai Banking System. I discussed this in another video, but somebody sent me this link again and a few other people brought up some of this analysis and sort of asked me to dive a little bit deeper. If you want even deeper analysis, I get into that in our paid news service. If you are interested in that, email us, [email protected], I'll get into insights in our paid news service even deeper than I get in on here. That said, while I'm talking my book as well, we will throw some photos up, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food, so you can come check that out if you're interested. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading again an article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, Fitch: Bad loans expected to pressure large Thai Banks. Quoting directly: "Thailand's six major banks are likely to face rising asset risks over the next several years, pressured by a continued increase in impaired loans, according to Fitch Ratings Agency." And as I brought up in that prior video, there's a great clip from the movie The Big Short about the ratings agencies and let me just leave it at this. I'll try to put the clip up again in the description of this video but take the Rating Agencies in my mind, with a grain of salt; I'll just leave it at that. That said, quoting further: "Six major Banks designated as domestic systemically important banks (DSIBs) under the Bank of Thailand's regulations -- are Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Kasikorn Bank, SCB X (the holding company of Siam Commercial Bank), Bank of Ayudhya and TMBThanachart Bank (TTB)." Now they say, "oh six major banks are likely to face rising asset risks over the next several years pressured by continued increase in impaired loans." That is the first line of the article. Then at the very end you get this. Quote: "Fitch emphasized the DSIBs maintain adequate buffers to withstand potential deterioration in asset quality. Loan-loss coverage, supported by past management overlays, remains strong at most banks, while core capital has risen steadily over the past four years" - core capital has risen over the past four years - "providing a solid cushion against unexpected stress."

So what are we talking about? It looked to me like this was a nothing article, written largely to question the strength of the Thai Banking System, specifically the pillar banks, the so-called DSIBs. And I ask why. And the only reason I keep coming to is it looks to me like outside foreign financial interests seem to be trying to attack Thailand. If you look at the timing of when this came out too, it came out when Thailand was definitely in a political transition that was delicate, tenuous and volatile to say the least, but we got through it because that is what Thailand does, she endures, and we got on with it, but this didn't help. And I often wonder, this in combination with all these machinations of freezing bank accounts and things, is this designed to corrode and erode the confidence in Thailand's banking system so as to put it on its back and then foreign interests can thereby benefit therefrom. Meanwhile, somebody actually sent me this link, and I thought it was pertinent bring it up here. Article from Reuters, reuters.com, quoting directly: "Britons face 20,000 digital pound cap under Bank of England plan." Quote: "Britons would be limited to 20,000 digital pounds ($24,000) each if the country goes ahead with a digital currency, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Tuesday. Britain's Government said on Monday that it and the BoE were pressing on with work on a possible digital pound that was likely to enter circulation in the second half of this decade and be held in a "wallet" provided by banks, although no final decision has been made." Yeah, I'm just saying all of these foreign institutions seem; it looks to me like Thailand has seen the reality of the so-called digital wall and it was largely rejected as you can see from the polling regarding the former so-called “Core Coalition” Part that introduced the idea of a digital wallet and also introduced the idea that Thailand had to go into a massive amount of debt in order to undertake this brilliant idea. And meanwhile what we are seeing is where is this coming from? This impetus to mess with the liquidity of Thailand by capping out the amount of money you can transfer digitally. Again when digital was brought online, we were told it was going to be revolutionary, make our lives all easier. It's clearly making our lives harder, and then meanwhile, it seems the plans of these International Financial operators, if you will, are to create these systems that continue to stifle economic activity all the more.

So I ask again, is Thailand under attack here because it looks like that's what's going on to me. It looks like foreign interest are really heavily on intent on putting Thailand's Financial system and economic system into a bad place and I just don't like seeing it.