New Phuket Wikipedia Entries - Economic Slowdown In

As we move into 2009 the world's becoming an even scarier, goofy and baffling place for property pundits young and old. As a property consultant and developer myself, its easy to get caught up in an endless cycle of doom and gloom so I've decided to tickle the ribs a bit and believe its better to laugh then cry into our respective beers. In the age of Wikipedia and high powered acronyms and terminology for international finance I'd like to take a moment to explain some of the more widely used and often cryptic phases that have become so commonplace in our daily lives.

HISP. Average number of hours per day spent surfing the internet by bored real estate sales staff that have absolutely no walk in clients, calls, emails or contact with the outside world. Also refer to KCBRES.

BFF. Best friends forever or the last words said between property and hospitality staff being downsized in the current economic turndown. Not to be confused with BS (please see separate entry)

UPSIDE. Common term often used in conjunction with the phase 'capital appreciation' and has now gone the way of that unused language of the past 'Latin'. Might stage a comeback as on the Celebrity Apprentice or else host a reality TV show on the E Channel.

TRAC. Short for 'The Russians are Coming'and something akin to the return of Jesus Christ. Widely believed to be the last great white hope as an emerging basket of nouveau rich yahoo's carrying briefcases of money, purchasing million dollar villas at the drop of a pin and partying like its 1985. Last sighted at the departure lounge in Survanhabhumi muttering comments about the downfall of a lawless society.

TOYOTA. Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of world largest industrial giants who in 2008 recorded only their second year of losses in its starred history. Industry analysts have pointed to the rapid decline in niche market Phuket's Vios and Fortuner sales as somehow triggering the global downturn.

VIOS. The first car choice of the newly enriched real estate sales personnel once they have received their first commission checks, thus making the leap from motorcycles into 4 wheels and entering the Thai credit stream.

FORTUNER. Tugboat sized SUV most often a prelude to new arrivals lured into 'living the dream' in Phuket with either a villa, townhouse or condo purchase to follow.

KCBRES. The defunct political ideology wing of the Latvians for Transgender Unification. Also stands for kilowatt hours consumed by bored real estate staff surfing the internet, Yahoo and MSN messaging and sleeping at their desks in air-conditioned offices. Current estimates are that convert the daily load factor on a larger scale could equal the entire electrical consumption of the African nation Sierra Leone.

PETRO DOLLARS. A phenomenon of overseas investment in Thailand's property market by Middle Eastern oil rich sheiks bolstered by the illusion that oil was set to reach US$200 a barrel and concept that Dubai was more invincible then Batman, Spiderman and Shrek all rolling into one. Sighted on an AirAsia flight out of the country as oil prices dropped under US$40 a barrel.

ELVIS. The King of Rock and Roll. Has no relevance whatsoever to this article and as far as we know is still dead and buried at Graceland.

MADE OFF. Commonly used nick name for Bernard Manoff who's financial demise triggered a UU$50 billion dollar investment fund subsequently vaporized into thin air. Bernard is currently working on The Dummy's Guide to Small Business Accounting and is thought to be shopping his life story titled "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

BS. If I have to explain this one then we are in deeper then anyone ever imagined.

REALICIDE. Not unlike suicide but by a real estate developer, agent or disappointed investor who's internet has been shut off for non payment, Fortuner has run out of petrol and has now been turned into a house for a family of 14 Burmese laborers along with their pet water buffalo named boo. Most common method would be taking to Phuket's road on a motorcycle without a helmet, lights and speaking into two mobile phone handsets (even though they aren't working) in the pouring rain.

MONEY. A strange and widely used payment instrument in exchange for goods or services, once coveting by many in the property industry and now on the edge of extinction. Small sanctuary's have been set up in remote outposts across many nations hoping to breed a larger growing population though the use of hedge funds, exotic investment instruments and complicated interconnected stocks. Woops that's where we came...

To sum the current state of affairs, in the words of the departed Rodney Dangerfield "don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive." There is no doubt a global hailstorm but certainly few places better to be then this lovely island.

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Is there a similarity between USA and Phuket? Majority of foreigners and uneducated Thais love Thaksin because economic prosperity was his goal, no consideration for social and moral values. American financial circles in the last few years invented a lot of "innovative" financial instruments without solid support as they went into multiple leverages. If the economy situation in USA gets worsened, we will see civil commotion like what we saw PAD and The Red Shirts (UDD) in US cities too.
If Phuket is overbuilt, the property price will come down. I first came to live in Phuket permanently in 1990 when the Internet was introduced. All my main business is still in Bangkok except one logistics and one boat/yacht/marine engine in Phuket. In early 1990s, I could drive from Thepkasatree Road to the Lotus/Tesco intersection on the two lanes bypass road without seeing an opposite car. The intersection traffic light would only blip yellow light because there was no traffic. I already start to think to move out and live in other Thai province because I know in a few years time, Phuket will have horrible traffic and morally bad places.
Progress and relevant change is unavoidable. It is useless to try making the present age like the good old days. What is important is to make each era as good as it is according to its nature. To be nostalgic for the good old days is a dreamer. But a person who values what is up to date and has no consideration for environment is selfish.

I am thinking of moving out and live in another Thai province. I foresee the traffic here will be horrible in the next few years, to an unbearable point like Bangkok. The developments here look so similar to the ghost town resorts of Spain because the public infrastructures and nature could not cope. It would be worst if Phuket become Ibiza of the East, good only for adults but not families.

Sint, 22 Mar 2009 | 9:24 am

employees from quitting, to people in its financial products unit, based in Wilton, Conn. Congress began action on a bill that would tax 90 percent of the bonuses, and the company's chief executive urged anyone who received more than $100,000 to return at least half.
RELATED LINKS
Current DateTime: 07:58:47 21 Mar 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29812425
Deadline on Bonus Decision
Bonuses Getting Tax Whack
AIG Hands Over Bonus Names
Next Target Merrill Bonuses?
Bonuses for Departed Execs
AIG has argued that retention bonuses are crucial to pulling the company out of its crisis. Without the bonuses, the company says, top employees who best understand AIG's business would leave.
The company, in response to the protests, said all its employees were "working very hard to pay back the government and help the U.S. economy recover."
"The people working at AIG today are part of the solution, not part of the problem," company spokeswoman Christina Pretto said in an e-mailed statement.
Besides Haas' home, protesters on Saturday also visited the Fairfield home of AIG executive Douglas Poling. They were met both times by security guards. They left letters that acknowledged some executives, including Haas and Poling, are giving up the money but that asked them to support higher taxes on families earning more than $500,000 a year.
"You have a wonderful opportunity to help your neighbors in Connecticut," the letters said. "We ask you to consider the experiences of families struggling in this economy."
Also on CNBC.com

Is there a similarity between USA and Phuket? Majority of foreigners and uneducated Thais love Thaksin because economic prosperity was his goal, no consideration for social and moral values. American financial circles in the last few years invented a lot of "innovative" financial instruments without solid support as they went into multiple leverages. If the economy situation in USA gets worsened, we will see civil commotion like what we saw PAD and The Red Shirts (UDD) in US cities too.
If Phuket is overbuilt, the property price will come down. I first came to live in Phuket permanently in 1990 when the Internet was introduced. All my main business is still in Bangkok except one logistics and one boat/yacht/marine engine in Phuket. In early 1990s, I could drive from Thepkasatree Road to the Lotus/Tesco intersection on the two lanes bypass road without seeing an opposite car. The intersection traffic light would only blip yellow light because there was no traffic. I already start to think to move out and live in other Thai province because I know in a few years time, Phuket will have horrible traffic and morally bad places.
Progress and relevant change is unavoidable. It is useless to try making the present age like the good old days. What is important is to make each era as good as it is according to its nature. To be nostalgic for the good old days is a dreamer. But a person who values what is up to date and has no consideration for environment is selfish.

I am thinking of moving out and live in another Thai province. I foresee the traffic here will be horrible in the next few years, to an unbearable point like Bangkok. The developments here look so similar to the ghost town resorts of Spain because the public infrastructures and nature could not cope. It would be worst if Phuket become Ibiza of the East, good only for adults but not families.

Sint, 22 Mar 2009 | 9:20 am

Bill,
Sorry to post below long article from Associated Press. My comment thereafter.

A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout.

About 40 protesters sought to urge AIG executives who received a portion of the $165 million in bonuses to do more to help families.
"We think $165 million could be used in a more appropriate way to keep people in their homes, create more jobs and health care," said Emeline Bravo-Blackport, a gardener.
She marveled at AIG [AIG 1.26 -0.36 (-22.22%) ] executive James Haas' colonial house, which has stunning views of a golf course and the Long Island Sound. The Fairfield house is "another part of the world" from her life in nearby Bridgeport, which flirted with bankruptcy in the 1990s and still struggles with foreclosures and unemployment."
"Lord, I wonder what it's like to live in a house that size," she said.
Another protester, Claire Jeffery, of Bloomfield, said she's on the verge of foreclosure. She works as a housekeeper; her husband, a truck driver, can't find work.
"I love my home," she said. "I really want people to help us."
News of the bonuses last week ignited a firestorm of controversy and even death threats against AIG employees. The company, which is based in New York, has received $182.5 billion in federal aid and now is about 80 percent government-owned, while the national housing and job markets have collapsed as the country spirals into a crippling recession.
American International Group Inc. has said it was contractually obligated to give the retention bonuses, payments designed to keep valued employees from quitting, to people in its financial products unit, based in Wilton, Conn. Congress began action on a bill that would tax 90 percent of the bonuses, and the company's chief executive urged anyone who received more than $100,000 to return at least half.
RELATED LINKS
Current DateTime: 07:58:47 21 Mar 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29812425
Deadline on Bonus Decision
Bonuses Getting Tax Whack
AIG Hands Over Bonus Names
Next Target Merrill Bonuses?
Bonuses for Departed Execs
AIG has argued that retention bonuses are crucial to pulling the company out of its crisis. Without the bonuses, the company says, top employees who best understand AIG's business would leave.
The company, in response to the protests, said all its employees were "working very hard to pay back the government and help the U.S. economy recover."
"The people working at AIG today are part of the solution, not part of the problem," company spokeswoman Christina Pretto said in an e-mailed statement.
Besides Haas' home, protesters on Saturday also visited the Fairfield home of AIG executive Douglas Poling. They were met both times by security guards. They left letters that acknowledged some executives, including Haas and Poling, are giving up the money but that asked them to support higher taxes on families earning more than $500,000 a year.
"You have a wonderful opportunity to help your neighbors in Connecticut," the letters said. "We ask you to consider the experiences of families struggling in this economy."
Also on CNBC.com

Is there a similarity between USA and Phuket? Majority of foreigners and uneducated Thais love Thaksin because economic prosperity was his goal, no consideration for social and moral values. American financial circles in the last few years invented a lot of "innovative" financial instruments without solid support as they went into multiple leverages. If the economy situation in USA gets worsened, we will see civil commotion like what we saw PAD and The Red Shirts (UDD) in US cities too.
If Phuket is overbuilt, the property price will come down. I first came to live in Phuket permanently in 1990 when the Internet was introduced. All my main business is still in Bangkok except one logistics and one boat/yacht/marine engine in Phuket. In early 1990s, I could drive from Thepkasatree Road to the Lotus/Tesco intersection on the two lanes bypass road without seeing an opposite car. The intersection traffic light would only blip yellow light because there was no traffic. I already start to think to move out and live in other Thai province because I know in a few years time, Phuket will have horrible traffic and morally bad places.
Progress and relevant change is unavoidable. It is useless to try making the present age like the good old days. What is important is to make each era as good as it is according to its nature. To be nostalgic for the good old days is a dreamer. But a person who values what is up to date and has no consideration for environment is selfish.

I am thinking of moving out and live in another Thai province. I foresee the traffic here will be horrible in the next few years, to an unbearable point like Bangkok. The developments here look so similar to the ghost town resorts of Spain because the public infrastructures and nature could not cope. It would be worst if Phuket become Ibiza of the East, good only for adults but not families.

Sint, 22 Mar 2009 | 9:15 am