Financial bubbles will inevitably burst
How do policy-makers judge their success? In today's world, buoyant stock market performance is the measure of all success. Just look at the US and Japan. The focus of policy-makers there is set on the stock market rather than the real economy....
Government continues attacks on independent agencies
Kittiratt Na Ranong, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, is picking up his knife. He has invited members of the Bank of Thailand's (BOT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to attend a meeting next Monday with him and representatives of...
Global confusion exacerbates local turf war
A crisis surrounding the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and its governor, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, appears to have subsided for now. Prasarn has submitted a comprehensive package to the Finance Ministry on how to deal with the pressure from the baht's...
America contrives to bring down gold
Gold prices have gone on a roller-coaster ride. This time last week, gold prices fell the furthest in 30 years, raising a big question as to whether gold can really serve as a safe haven. The small, speculative players were wiped out. Yet the true...
Too many problems, too few solutions
Last week I took part in a conference in Hong Kong organised by the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The event, co-sponsored by the Fung Global Institute, of Hong Kong, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation, of Waterloo, Canada,...
Tensions are reaching boiling point
Pyongyang has issued several threats of nuclear strikes before. And each time, most people treated it as a joke. But this time, it might be different.
The new order breaks from the old
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS countries, are rewriting history. Earlier this week their top leaders held a summit in the South African city of Durban to approve the establishment of a new development bank and...
Bubble warning as signs of speculation appear
This week we shall look at the signs of bubbles in the Thai property market, stock market and the baht. Let's start with the stock market.
'Recovery' looks more like illusion
The Thai stock market peaked at the 1,700 level in 1994, two and a half years before the 1997 financial crisis. The SET index hit bottom at 207 at the height of the crisis in 1998 before starting to recover. After 19 years, the SET index has yet to...
Rectify financial imbalances before it's too late
On the surface, the Thai economy appears to be doing well. Economic growth this year is expected to range between 4.5 to 5.5 per cent. Unemployment, which is the envy of the world, is below 1 per cent. Exports in January rebounded to 16.1 per cent....
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