Showing 91 - 100 of 3,771
Cue another erratic new leader
News, Published on 16/02/2024
» In a closely watched contest, the unofficial quick count results are now out and strongly suggest a landslide victory for the man who is poised to be Indonesia's next president: former fiery special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, who was also, for a time, the son-in-law of the archipelago's ex-dictator Suharto.
Digital wallet should be implemented
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/02/2024
» The big debate in Thailand's current economic policy planning is whether the economy is facing a crisis or not. The government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who doubles as finance minister, has contended that there is an economic crisis in dire need of both monetary policy loosening and fiscal stimulus, particularly the 500-billion-baht digital wallet scheme. The Bank of Thailand, supported by a clique of economists apparently critical of the government's "populist" policy measures, asserts otherwise that an economic recovery is in progress without the need to lower the benchmark repurchase rate.
Global trade war or merry dance?
News, Published on 15/02/2024
» Globalisation may have stalled amid the fiery geopolitical posturing of recent years, but many doubt it's in reverse, given that supply chains have been re-routed rather than returned home and overall trade volumes are less disturbed than first feared.
In Ukraine, the generals are not the problem
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/02/2024
» "God is usually on the side of the big battalions," Voltaire allegedly said. Not always, but "usually". So how much do you want to bet?
Hands off our parks!
Oped, Editorial, Published on 13/02/2024
» The latest attempt by the government to carve out 260,000 rai of Sor Por Kor land plots out of Thap Lan National Park has sparked concerns about the potential misuse of national resources to fulfil the administration's populist promise to hand out land to local villagers.
The perils of too much democracy
Editorial, Published on 11/02/2024
» This is a big week for democracy in Asia, with two nations of almost half a billion people going to the polls in the space of a couple of days.
Move Forward, Pita down but not out
Oped, Chairith Yonpiam, Published on 10/02/2024
» With a court sentence that handed Move Forward Party (MFP) MP Pita Limjaroenrat a suspended jail term for his role in a flash mob in 2019, the power games between the old powers and the left-leaning party have intensified to another level.
Thailand digital wallet dilemma
Oped, Editorial, Published on 09/02/2024
» A warning from the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on the pitfalls of the 10,000-baht digital wallet scheme is not music to the ears of the Srettha government.
Populism's great replacement of economics
Oped, Published on 07/02/2024
» In 1944, as World War II neared its end, the exiled Hungarian economic sociologist Karl Polanyi published The Great Transformation, a treatise that focused on the dangers of trying to separate economic systems from the societies they inhabit. Eighty years on, Polanyi's warnings about a market economy unleashed from human needs and relations may prove prescient. In fact, the future that he foretells bears a strong resemblance to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which the doctor's creature runs amok and eventually turns on its creator.
Imran Khan: from cricket star to jailbird
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2024
» Pakistan's former prime minister, former cricket superstar and latter-day populist politician Imran Khan was having a quiet week in jail, six months into his three-year sentence for corruption, and suddenly all hell broke loose.