Why you're wrong about the US dollar

Dear Thanong, 

I read your article about the US dollar losing out as reserve currency of the world. I know you are an intelligent person, but vehemently disagree with your opinions. If you look very carefully, when the world has economic problems and countrieslook for safety to park their money, they send it over to the United States. Not China, not Brazil, not India, not Russia, and definitely not Thailand. The whole idea about China and the Yuan becoming the new reserve currency is totally impossible. China is a country closer to political revolution than to economic success. When you have a country with 90 per cent of its population making less than $5 a day you can understand what I am saying. If there is a country in SE Asia with a very high chance of financial collapse I would most likely say it would be Thailand due to its high level of debt, lack of discipline, and high levels of corruption. Thai inflation will eventually rise to over 10 per cent before an eventual collapse due to the costs associated with corruption. I would estimate that 30 per cent of budgets in Thailand go to corruption. The Thai baht is 50 per cent overvalued and will most likely go to 45 baht to the dollar in three years or less. There is also over-building in Thailand this will come crashing down harder than it did in the United States in 2007-08. Credit cards are given out to bargirls in Thailand and a farang cannot even get a foreign savings account here without a work permit (except for Bangkok Bank and I applaud them for this). Please understand that business is supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship for all involved. In Thailand, it is like a casino. You can visit the casino and win the first few times. But, if you continue going to the casino you will eventually lose. This is the business climate for all foreigners who try to do business in Thailand. The deck is stacked against you and you will eventually lose. Luckily, foreigners are waking up to this fact, and Thailand still has time to amend its ways of doing business with the world. Don’t ever count out the United States with its intellectual, defence, and financial power. We have been through WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a severe financial crisis. But we are America and we always come back, and come back even stronger. What America has and will always have is a democracy that awards innovation and the world’s smartest people. There is no coincidence that we have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than any other country in the world. How many has Thailand won? Thanks.

The Honest Farang

Bangkok