Devalue Thailand baht

[GORDON]

Hey Noaksy - Thailand will not lose as you say. What will happen is that she will be able to sell her goods in a cheaper market. When demand is down prices have to go down , if the price remains too high the customer goes elswhere, as is happening to the white/rice and rubber, which Thialand now cannot sell. The Thai gov. has almost 3 million tons of stored rice that is costing 50% more than it is worth just to store it. Is that not stupid, if the price had been lower it would have sold [Vietnam is 100$ a ton cheaper- even Cambodia is cheaper - Thai buyers are buying from Cambodia instead of from Thailand] The next point is who will buy future crops now and what will happen to the farmers when they have no buyers. Thailand or any other country for that matter is better off selling cheap to maintain their market share and keep its people in work. What happens when farms are abandoned or factories allowed to run down, they do not just get up and go again easily. Lost production and lost customers remain lost. Close to where I live I have seen young rubber trees not long planted ripped out of the ground and dumped, and a food crop planted in its place. Farmers will grow for their own food and sell at their gates and not for the main market when they cannot sell there, they will not go hungry but perhaps the city dwellers will.--------------P.S. to Jhcusa , sure Thailand produces and sells a lot of raw materials but she is also a high-tec exporter as well. The people who produce these products cannot wait for growing or emerging markets , they need to be paid and eat today. I read that the gov. is seeking new markets in which to sell - so is everyone else , and the lower price will secure the market and maintain employment for whoever is the cheaper.

[Enlightened]

I think Thailand should continue with the strong Baht.
Devaluing will only cause people to lose wealth.
There are enough tourist willing to pay at the current exchange rate (or more) to support a strong Baht.
Devaluing the Baht will not significantly increase tourism.

[GORDON]

Enlightened needs to be enlightened . Is he blind and deaf as well as stupid or does he only worry about himself. How many in the country are losing wealth i.e. jobs, businesses and any savings they had. There are certainly not enough tourists to support the 30% of the country's income nor is there likely to be in the immediate future. Lowering the baht will help to some degree. Keeping the baht at its present high is now being admitted to as being a mistake by many prominant business men and banks. They finally say out loud that it is hurting their competetiveness in the shrinking world market, those that do not reduce their prices will not sell them, 70% of Thailand's income comes from exports. Exports are down massively and companies are pulling out and relocating to more favourable neighbouring countries. That is what is happening to Thailand , she can't sell her white rice or rubber because of the strong baht. The gov. is stockpiling both hoping for an increase in world prices. It's costing most of the value of the rice just to store it , what is happening to it, will it be worth anything at all , or just fed to livestock. Who is going to buy the next crop' YOU ENLIGHTENED'. There are many other products that are not selling for the same reason, I am just quoting the two that hurt the poor the most.

[adamt64]

Importers can purchase more from developed countries like the USA per Baht due to the appreciation of the Baht, which is great for Thais purchasing expensive foreign products and services, and the Baht appreciation rate has exceeded the inflation rates in various developed nations, so importers have lowered costs as the Baht has risen in value. Meanwhile, the domestic Thai prices in retail sales have continued on a path of inflation, which has been compounded by the rise in Baht value. Some Thais are obviously making a lot of money in the process of the Baht value changes, but there is an associated rapid near hyper-inflation of imported goods ongoing too, which is dangerous and not attractive to various consumers and investors. And then it's almost as if no one person or group of people, no one nation, no organization, no group of nations is actually in control of the exchange rate and other financial/economic system, which is not true but the lack of control argument is used to support, enable, and ignore negative impacts associated with recent and ongoing activity. My best advice: partner up with China and other developing nations to get more control of the global exchange rate system, which is internally very flawed and sort of all imaginary in the end, and don't allow the external powers to bully Thailand with fancy looking data or formulas, money, etc. People create the markets and financial systems. They do not follow naturally-occurring, non-manipulatable, physical phenomenon like the weather or something. Figure that one out all the way through, and there won't be much of any argument that can't be beaten. But first the wealthy Thais must stop bowing down to bullyish and at least partially corrupt external powers, and work for their own people, which means they must first make real commitments at home rather than give the market away to foreign brands, competitors, and money. Use Japan as a model, develop engineering corps, improve the infrastructure, get some Thai national brands in technologies, have some Thai-headquartered MNCs, and then bargaining power will come...market the Thai car to the real average Thai consumer...the micro, economy line...the motorcycle with a roof almost. Until then, talk about something smarter on the street and television and just about everywhere without doing bad things. Sounds like a good start eh? Dump the drunken hooligan too.

[hawaiiman]

Well it took a few years, but it's happening, at least for those of us with USD. The Euro folks, not so much. How's the BP doing?