Interim Government Moves Thai Economy Forward

... towards the edge of a cliff.

Unlike the old government, the new government wants to help Thai business.

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., the world's third-largest carmaker, may scrap as much as $1 billion [that's dollars, not baht, folks — JIP] of planned investment in Thai factories after the nation's military-backed government imposed currency and foreign-investment curbs.

"These things make it extremely difficult to do business in a globally competitive environment," Steve Biegun, Ford's Washington-based vice president for international government affairs, said yesterday in an interview in Bangkok, where he met leaders including the Prime Minister. "What we need in our business is predictability."

Hmmm... the new government kicked out Thaksin because he managed to cost Thailand's taxpayers a billion baht. Wonder if the new government feels bad about losing a billion dollars? (And just to put it in a funny little mathematical perspective, they've been in control of the government for about 1/36th the time that Thaksin was.)

Well, I'll end this post like I end every post on this subject: I luuuuv the new government. If anybody is going to wreck the Thai economy, collapse the value of the baht, and make me a wealthy guy, these dudes are my own personal Rocky Balboa.

Thank god my boys in Bangkok don't speak French... then they might learn laissez-faire, and I wouldn't want that.