Thread: Thai baht/US dollar

Is the Thai baht linked to the US dollar? If so, I read this morning that the US dollar is set to fall to 2 dollars per GB pound. If this is the case, could I also expect the thai baht to fall by a similar amount or not?

Originally Posted by willbudd

Is the Thai baht linked to the US dollar? If so, I read this morning that the US dollar is set to fall to 2 dollars per GB pound. If this is the case, could I also expect the thai baht to fall by a similar amount or not?

Read other sources. This is the wrong place.

Originally Posted by PeaceBlondie

Good point, johnny. Millions if not billions of dollars have apparently fled the SET in Thailand for better investments in other countries. Bird flu, unrest in the south, the unspeakable replacement maybe perhaps possibly during the next few years -- too many uncertainties.

I still don't know where to park my cash.

Gold or a precious metals mutual fund might be an idea for some of your shekels at least. Gold is rising because the US dollar is falling. It's at least a good buffer.

There's an unofficial peg (or band more accurately) on the dollar, and the Thai central bank has intervened occasionally in the FX markets to hold it in place. However, the Thai authorities seem more concerned with the baht/yen exchange rate than the baht/dollar and as Japan seems to be willing to let the yen strengthen a bit, you can expect to see the same thing happen with the baht.

Originally Posted by PeaceBlondie

Nobody knows where currencies will fluctuate amongst other currencies, and those who really think they know are speculators.

I think the dollar will continue falling, so this afternoon I converted some of my dollars to 28,000 baht before it's only worth 26,000.

A few factors are the inevitable rise in interest rates, soaring annual deficits, incredible absolutely unbelievable national debt (with no apparent means to pay it off), staggering imbalances in international trade, impending collapse of at least three immense public pension systems, politicians that can't speak the truth unless a big-eared ignorant stupid Texas billionaire buys millions of dollars worth of air time, a naked Federal Reserve emperor, printing presses going night and day, etc. I think the American dollar is set for a gradual fall or a freefall. I'm betting that the teensy weak baht's going to be stronger for the next few months, versus the greenback.

A weak dollar is good for the country and actually offers a built in bonus for paying back the national debt due to currency exchange rates. Not good for the american expatriate :sad: I know.

Ther are many ways to pay back a huge national deficit and Bill Clinton proved that. And that's a good enough reason to elect maybe Hillary Clinton so that another Clinton can get us back in to the black. 100,000,000 people at $1000 bucks per year pay back $ 100,000,000,000 in just one year. Even something as simplistic as this should show you the deficit isn't some kind of daunting, insurmountable task

All I know is it has devalued 30% y-o-y to the Euro. :sad: Many of us who were knocking the Euro 2-3 years ago now look a little stupid

One things for sure - there must be one hell of a lot of Brits thinking of going on a holiday to the US next year...

Added after 55 seconds:

Needless to say, I won't be among them

Originally Posted by PeaceBlondie

A few factors are the inevitable rise in interest rates, soaring annual deficits, incredible absolutely unbelievable national debt (with no apparent means to pay it off), staggering imbalances in international trade, impending collapse of at least three immense public pension systems, politicians that can't speak the truth unless

The American government publicly states it wants a strong dollar, but it is happy to see a weaker one to help exports.

I do think the recent dip in the dollar is a - lack of confidence - for the reasons you stated above.

The U.S. is in a state of decline, since it's peak of power during post WWII. All civilizations go through this. For some, like the Roman Empire it took a couple of hundred years. For the U.S., who knows? Maybe a couple to a few decades, more, or less.....

I think the American dollar is set for a gradual fall or a freefall. .

Hard to say. It will be interesting.

I invested in gold a few years back and it has been a good investment because I did it in US dollars. If I had done it in Euros it would have been almost a push. I think that if you are living overseas and have a decent amount of US dollar savings that it would be a good idea to spread it out to other currencies. It's almost as easy to get a CD in USD as it is in other currencies. Why not get a CD in a currency that is gaining against the USD and also gaining decent interest?
It cannot be long before we start seeing the Thai currency take off against the USD. Many think the catalyist to this will be when China lets its currency "float". A good resouce for info I have found is everbank.com. It has done me well. I've consistently made "safe" investments and have been averaging over 10% gains per year.
I do see trouble on the horizon for the Euro too. There is a lot of decent info out there on the internet but you need to sort through a lot of crap first.