To the outside world, the picture of Thailand is one of crisis and chaos, however, since absolute monarchy ended in 1932, there have been 27 prime ministers, 18 constitutions, 11 successful coups and a number of tempestuous demonstrations. Such a history of tension has inevitably led to a relatively steely resolve amongst the Thai people and institutions. Quite simply, they’re not fazed easily.
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Michael Marquette’s “View from the Bridge”: There is an increasing fear that China is headed toward problems in the very near future. There are even people who expect the Chinese economy to crash sometime in the next 9 to 12 months. The Chinese property market is booming and China’s Central Bank is attempting to dampen speculation by lifting its reserve requirement ratio by another percentage point, so that most Chinese banks will now have to hold 17% of their deposits on reserve.
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