The Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) in turmoil
The coup in Thailand is a perfect example of how connected the world has become. Once the news hit the street, the stock market sold off and eventually recovered towards the end of the day. Personally, I was rather surprise the U.S. stock market recovered most of its losses. Perhaps the lack of resistance to the coup is a clue that the situation will peacefully resolve itself.
Thailand is a major economic power in Southeast Asia and is very important to the stability of the region. In that sense, the short term will bring considerable political instability as the new government attempts to assert itself into power. From what it appears, the ousted Prime Minister will not be missed as the people seem to have lost confidence in his leadership. People have been calling for his resignation for awhile now.
Coup is nothing new to Thailand. Since 1932, the country has had 17 of these. Although Thailand is considered to be a democratic society, the country is still unable to escape its past of using coups to bring about major changes. As the world watches with anticipation, expect instability in the financial market, particularly with companies that do a lot of business in Southeast Asia. How the Asian markets react to this news will provide further evidences of the severity of the situation.
Considering our recent market gains (DOW is again close to all time high), there does not appear to bee many bargains. Therefore, geo-political events such as this can bring possible opportunities. In my view, this represents an opportunities to look at acquiring some positions of companies that have sold off due to fear.
Comments
Yah, I am amazed it is that much of issue. The king has a good overall appeal in that country and it'll be business as usual I suspect.
Check out the news photo on Yahoo. Thai citizens are taking pictures and laughing.
photo
Posted by: Cool Dude | September 19, 2006 03:53 PM