Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Monday, East Coast 7:50 AM, Tuesday, Bangkok...
...Certainly, Thaksin's scorecard has been impressive. This week's APEC Leaders' Summit in Bangkok has provided the perfect stage for Thaksin to flaunt his success and build his growing reputation as the most dominant leader in the region. Since taking office in February 2001, the billionaire telecom tycoon turned politician has presided over the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia. Last year Thailand's GDP rose 5.2%, and it's on track to expand 5.8-6.2% this year thanks to sizable increases in exports and domestic spending. The Thai stock market, meanwhile, has soared 67% so far this year...
...recently, to a skeptical middle class once convinced that the PM's antidote for Thailand's domestic ills?including low interest rates, government-funded health plans, and cheap loans for the poor?was little more than populism masquerading as policy. "I never voted for Thaksin in the elections," says Bangkok-based advertising executive Kitti Chambundabongse. "I thought he was just another rich kid with a hunger for power. But he has proved to be so much more than that. He's given us the confidence we lacked...
...stops pumping in money, whenever that is, the economy will collapse." Meanwhile, the country's economic success has diverted attention from Thaksin's more controversial policies, including this year's deadly crackdown on drug dealers. "This country is going backward, not forward," says a Thai human-rights worker in Bangkok. "The government is giving people money with one hand while taking their liberties away with the other...
...Back in the capital city, other pillars of the Thaksinomics miracle may be weakening as well. Aggressive lending policies by Thailand's state-owned banks, together with tax breaks to developers, have fueled a Bangkok real estate boom among Thai buyers. But some foreign investors who rushed into Thailand to snap up foreclosed properties after the 1997 crash are now selling, convinced that the market has topped. "Three years ago we had properties on our books that no one would touch," says a Bangkok-based real estate investor. "Now we are getting offers you wouldn't believe...