2:00 PM: I have been playing the piano for about 40 years. It is an on and off affair. But whenever I sit on the chair and start to play the music that I play all my life, I feel that I am in my real element. The piece that I play for you now is called Traumerei, a part from Robert Schumann's Scenes of Childhood. Let's enjoy.In 1984, while I was studying in South Carolina, I woke up from a sweet drea....
September 1, 2007Re-pricing of risky assets from subprime crisis8:15 AM: Re-pricing of risky assets is the most alarming threat to arise from the subprime mortgage crisis, says Economist Intelligence Unit report The tremors in financial markets have gone far beyond their beginnings in the US subprime mortgage sector, and indeed far beyond the borders of the US. The full impact on the markets and the ....
August 16, 2007Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) -- a financial monster?10:30 PM: How do the collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) look like? The CDOs are complex financial products designed as a structure on top of a structure.They were very popular in the last four years because they were offered as an AAA rating and higher yield than that offered by other AAA products. The CDOs appealed to t....
August 11, 2007PM backs BOT's non-targeting baht policy10:00 PM: Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, once again, came out to support the Bank of Thailand's foreign exchange policy. In his TV interview on Channel 11 today, he said the government would not target any baht exchange rate level."We can't really say that the baht won't hit Bt30/US dollar because we are not aiming for any target," h....
August 9, 2007Only debate, no grilling6:45 PM: Members of the National Legislative Assembly are debating on the government's, if not the Bank of Thailand's, mismanagement of the baht policy. The debate started out in the afternoon and sounded like a pat in the back rather than any serious attempt to grill Dr Chalongphob Susangkarn, the finance minister, and Tarisa Watanagase, the Bank of Thailand gov....
Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn defends the government's policy on baht during a heated debate on baht crisis by the National Legislative Assembly on Thursday.(English transcript to follow)....