Prepare for massive tax hikes to pay debt
Play
When Portugal joined the European Union, the government hoped that it would move from being an inward-looking rural nation to a small Atlantic powerhouse.
There was no housing bubble as in Spain, no tax evasion on a massive scale as in Greece. But Portugal, egged on by the banks, overspent on infrastructure. The economy was unable to keep up with the rest of the European Union, and then cash flows into the country dried up, and the rest is history
Thailand, in order to take its “rightful place in the new Asian Economy”, has agreed to take on a massive Bt2-trillion loan from the World Bank, with the interest alone being Bt3 trillion. The country will have to pay the bankers Bt5 trillion over the next 50 years, which can only be achieved by hiking the tax rates to Western European levels.
The problem is that the Asian market is much more price-competitive than Europe, and Thailand’s trade competitors will be much more cost-efficient because their citizens and businesses will not be saddled with this huge debt. The only people who will be happy are the World Bankers with their massive commissions.
Sebastian Woods
Chiang Mai
