ABSTRACT
When Thai deputy finance minister Supachai Panichpakdi warned Bangkok’s stockbrokers in 1988 to stop their ‘devious machinations’, he was simply reiterating a warning that his subordinates had issued for many years. In Bangkok, boomtime quickly became an article of faith for the world financial community which, already receptive to Asian equity funds in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, followed a herd instinct when reacting to press hyperbole about another ‘Asian miracle’ in the making. Export-led growth has continued as development gospel after the 1970s and remains current orthodoxy. Much of the free trading ideology comes from World Bank advice now championing, after a shift starting in 1979, an ever more accelerated opening of the Thai economy to world market forces. For foreign investors, Thailand has more to offer than just a cheap and relatively docile labour force willing (as Malaysian or Singaporean workers are not) to accept continuous, 24-hour work shifts.
