The popular news today is that the digital wallet news is coming back. Other than that…let’s see what happens.

Over the weekend I watched this report on Thailand’s debt situation on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hpCpEm6PeE. It’s everything we know i.e. demographics, people overspending, covid leading to multiple issues, and its decently made – worth your 40 mins.

I’d only add that 1) Prayuth’s government killed the middle class 2) Go further back and it’s the entire political system that have killed their middle class due to the past 2 decades of fighting 3) There is a simple solution – flush the system – multiple bankruptcies – let there be blood on the streets, the poor and mid are already suffering – it’s just the larger players that aren’t (for now). “Oh but everyone will suffer” – Simpleton response hey if the banks go under – there’s no debt to be paid back :p

Random thought – Is culture downstream of politics? Saw this on x.com the other day – is it true? It does explain to me the way that businesses here act, you’d be ruthless/selfish if you had to deal with a political system such as Thailand’s. Despite the country being marketed as the land of smiles, in the business/political world – it’s a real dog-eat-dog world, zero true friends, everyone owner appears to be looking over their shoulder. It’s been interesting to observe over the past 2 decades being here, my initial questions/observations were “why are they so rude?” “Why don’t they focus on expanding the market, as opposed to just focusing on market share and refusing to grow? Doesn’t it make more sense if the market grows from 100 to 200, in exchange for giving up a bit of market share?” to “Damn, if they allowed 1 entrant in – that entrant may kowtow better to the higher ups better, and they’ll lose their market, industry position, and the business would be gone in a few years”

Back to the market – double bottom in the SET?