Bad financial management comes back to bite US

The writing was on the wall, just as it was in Southeast Asia in 1995. It's easy to get caught in it and not be able to escape. I know: as an American I am caught on the wrong side of it. 

I believe that the "market signals" of Western banks unrelentingly selling and repatriating their money over the last few months are false. It is the opposite of the baht crisis this time. At the end of the day, this time, Thailand with its good mix of agriculture and basic industries, and a sizeable current account surplus, is sustainable. And on the flip side there may even be lower oil prices. And a stronger baht, when the present undertow recedes, will in the end be a good blessing also.

Sustainability and self-sufficiency are words of wisdom. Those words are the opposite of the bank debt that brought my country a crisis.

Steve Stoffers

Chiang Mai

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Oil shocks of the past nothing compared to today

Re: "Firms urged to hedge on their purchases of base metals", News, July 12.

It is not only the prices of metals that are going through the roof, but all intermediate raw material, be it chemicals, plastic resin, minerals, certain grains, certain agricultural produce etc. Prices have jumped to an unprecedented level following the trends of crude oil.

We went through the oil shocks of 1973, 1979, 1999 and 2005, but nothing can be compared to what we are experiencing now. The world is going through huge upheavals, as a result of much more costly oil. Prices of products we see on the shelves of supermarkets are just the beginning. The real big increases are coming in the next six to eight months, when the effects of higher-priced raw materials hit. The higher cost of living will affect every one of us; the poor will suffer the most.

Santhad Prakkamakul

Bangkok

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Bangkokians feel powerless to stop noisy intrusions

If you think that Bangkok is chaotic and noisy enough, has enough traffic jams and the advertising is overtly aggressive, well, then the people running this city disagree with you. They are busying themselves with measures designed to increase all of the above. They just installed a new TV screen on the junction of Wireless Road and Phetchaburi Road. Surely traffic can do with a bit more distraction, right? And drivers who don't have to suffer through the loud adverts on the Skytrain shouldn't be left out should they?

Fifty metres away from the screen they installed a loudspeaker in a residential area, just 1.5 metres away from houses with hundreds of people living in them.

I really would like to know whether our governor would like one of these in front of his house. And from a commercial perspective, would the people living in these houses buy the products being advertised just because they are being bombarded with them in their private lives? I don't think so.

In most countries there would be an effort to stop disturbances like this from being put up. Sadly, in this country the citizens seem to believe that they are helpless to do anything when such a rude intrusion comes into their lives. I live in the area and our building manager called the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration several times. All she managed to achieve was to get the mind-boggling noise stopped for one and a half days. The noise is now back, and it's louder than before.

Please tell me if there is a law or regulation that applies here to set a limit to the greedy insanity and protect the community?

Viktor T Knopf

Bangkok