HMK the world's richest royal

[Hmmm]

Forbes Magazine has just anointed HMK the world's richest royal, with $35 billion net worth.
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/08/ ... intro.html (http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/08/20/worlds-richest-royals-biz-richroyals08-cz_ts_0820royalintro.html)

An analysis of HMK's 'sufficiency economy' theory by Australian academic Andrew Walker seems timely in this regard:
http://prachatai.com/english/news.php?id=746

HMK's wealth and economic theories may have crossword fans thinking of a nine letter word starting with H-Y-P-O-C _ _ _ _.

[Beachlover]

Wow... no wonder there are so many of these "royal projects" all over Thailand.

[Hmmm]

Wow... no wonder there are so many of these "royal projects" all over Thailand.

Indeed ... Central World Plaza, MBK, Siam Center, Siam Paragon ....

"Thailand's Royal Wealth - How ThailandтАЩs Royals Manage to Own All the Good Stuff"
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=32 (http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=32)

How ThailandтАЩs Royals Manage to Own All the Good Stuff"

Better him than than someone else. Envy saturates the ether here I am sure.

[Jetsam]

Forbes Magazine has just anointed HMK the world's richest royal, with $35 billion net worth.


Wow... I bet that banned book has to be taken with a grain of salt :clown:

How ThailandтАЩs Royals Manage to Own All the Good Stuff"

Better him than than someone else. Envy saturates the ether here I am sure.

Envy. One of the Deadly Sins, as I recall.

Bill Gates is worth many billions. So is His Majesty King Bhumipol The Great. As the years go by, it becomes more and more difficult to deny the obvious fact that His Majesty is the most effective leader in all of SE Asia.

The real envy of the King is coming from other politicians, most likely including Toxin, who evidently failed The Royal Question:

"What have you sacrificed?"

Toxin must be doubly or triply mortified, to be revealed as both poorer than the King, and more corrupt. If I were Toxin, I would not like to see The Man In The Glass every morning.

ESPECIALLY since his favorite musician is Elvis Presley!

Yes, HM the King is fabulously wealthy. Never met a monarch who wasn't. YET...have you ever seen a story linking him to conspicuous consumption? To wasting the country's wealth on himself? Do you see him driving a Maserati down to the Paragon to drop a few million baht on baubles, like Toxin and his disgusting ilk? In complete fairness, you do not even hear or see such things about the extended royal family. The Queen does not drip in Prada (prim Thai silks suits are her thing) or fly off to Paris in a private jet for a multimillion dollar shopping spree (like the wives of King Mswati of Swaziland were recently condemned for you). After all is said and done, they are not a particular squandering brood, certainly not like those ingrates in Brunei or Saudi, or any number of the jet-setting European royals. One would hope that they are building wealth for the good of the country, rather than for lavishing on their personal lifestyles.

Of course, when it is the next generation's turn to control the purse strings, all bets are off.

[Hmmm]

I guess we'd all like just one fairy tale to be true. If only it was.

HMK's wealth and economic theories may have crossword fans thinking of a nine letter word starting with H-Y-P-O-C _ _ _ _.That theory is just another form of the North Korean one called "juche"

Better him than than someone elseWhy? Kleptomania is more acceptable if the person is a royal?

In complete fairness, you do not even hear or see such things about the extended royal family. The Queen does not drip in Prada (prim Thai silks suits are her thing),,,,,,,,,,. After all is said and done, they are not a particular squandering brood,
Her Thai silk suits are all made in Paris at the house of Balenciaga and as far as squandering,,, well certain members have been known to pop into certain stores for a few items which are never ever paid for. You'd be quite surprised at what goes on, obviously the full details can't be written here

The Queen does not drip in Prada (prim Thai silks suits are her thing)Don't many Thais believe she possesses some of the missing Saudi jewels?

It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it. Applies to money as well. I'm in no position to judge how well the Thai King uses his money. On the whole, Bill Gates seems to use his quite well - or maybe I'm just being taken in by his propaganda machine.

Posting Rules and Guidelines


4 . DISPARAGING OR INSULTING POSTS DIRECTED TOWARD THE THAI ROYAL FAMILY WILL BE DELETED. :flower:

- or maybe I'm just being taken in by his propaganda machine.At least Bill Gates' activities (propaganda machine or otherwise) are up for discussion in his own country. HMTK's activities are beyond discussion here in Thailand because of the lese majeste laws - which are part of his propaganda machine

Forbes Magazine has just anointed HMK the world's richest royal, with $35 billion net worth.


Wow... I bet that banned book has to be taken with a grain of salt :clown:

The banned book devotes some pages to explain why the King needed to acquire great wealth. Very early in his reign his closest advisors suggested that he need to acquire great wealth in order to endear himself to the Thai people with numerous "Royal Projects" and expressions of generosity. It would seem that he recieved some very good advice from some old men when he was a young King.

As the years go by, it becomes more and more difficult to deny the obvious fact that His Majesty is the most effective leader in all of SE AsiaWhat a low standard to set. I recall that charlatan Mahathir was once described by his toadies writing reviews of his autobiography as "one of the world's leading statesmen and great thinkers". I'm happy to put HMTK in the same boat as Mahathir. Even Lee Kuan Yew, for all his personal kleptomania, did a great job in building Singapore out of next to nothing and making the most of its "crossroads" advantages. I'd even rank HMTK alongside Soeharto, frankly, and both of course have pretensions to kingly deity

Jeez Louise
I knew the CPB was big but never thought it was that big.

One of the interesting parts of "the book which shall not be named" is how the Monarchy, which was a bankrupt institution in 1946, was able to regain the Royal Holdings that were appropriated by the state after the coup in 1932.

Its interesting that the Princes the "Revolutionaries of '32" thought were effete bunglers were actually a lot more shrewd than they were given credit for.

[TrongpaiExpat]

Front page of both the Nation and the Post report that the Forbes article is not true. The Foreign Ministry was chosen to deliver the condemnations: inaccurate and inconstant. Read: Lese Majeste.

Forbes now joins Yale press on the Lese Majeste shit list.

Long live the King

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

the problem is that when they estimate the wealth of heads of state-such as HRH The Queen of England & Great Britain and the Commonwealth-or Brenda to those like me who know her-they include the vast estates like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc-which are highly desirable real estate and unbelievably valuable, but Brenda can never sell ( and she tells me the upkeep is horrendous !) -so it's not really tangible wealth.

Mind you I wouldn't mind a small condo at the back of Buck House-should they sell. Very me and Hyacith Bouquet.

I understood that Buck House is the property of the State

You are perfectly right, indeed, Windsor Castle is the same. Only Sandringham belongs to her personally.

Was the Sandringham property acquired during the lifetime of the present monarch?

the problem is that when they estimate the wealth of heads of state-such as HRH The Queen of England & Great Britain and the Commonwealth-or Brenda to those like me who know her-they include the vast estates like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc-which are highly desirable real estate and unbelievably valuable, but Brenda can never sell ( and she tells me the upkeep is horrendous !) -so it's not really tangible wealth.

Mind you I wouldn't mind a small condo at the back of Buck House-should they sell. Very me and Hyacith Bouquet.

Actually, it was my understanding (probably incorrect) that Buckingham Palace is the property of the Duke of Buckingham and the Battenbergs have simply not moved out following a long standing invitation. I also understand that the Duke is not seeking revision of the squatting and leasing legal structures as he'd be likely to lose out big-time especially in Belgravia.

I'm surprised that HRH is judged more affluent than the ruler of Saudi or Brunei. Was there a drop in the price of oil?

[Marsilius]

(1) Re. Sandringham... The estate was bought by Queen Victoria in 1862. The existing house there was demolished and the replacement, completed in 1870, was then used as his home by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII).

(2) Re. Buckingham Palace... The Duke of Buckingham built Buckingham House on the site in the early eighteenth century. George III bought it in 1761. When Victoria became queen in 1837 it became "Buckingham Palace" and the main London royal residence.

Thank you Marsillius. I stand corrected.

I understood that Buck House is the property of the State

You are perfectly right, indeed, Windsor Castle is the same. Only Sandringham belongs to her personally.

The Balmoral Estate also belongs to the Royal family. Queen Victoria paid ┬г30,000 for full ownership in 1852. The ownership became an issue in 1936, when Edward VIII abdicated as king. The estates were legacies Edward had inherited from his father, George V, and did not automatically pass to his younger brother George VI on abdication. George had to explicitly purchase Balmoral and Sandringham from Edward so that they could remain private retreats for the monarch's family.

Forbes now joins Yale press on the Lese Majeste shit list. What a surprise. This is the way all the Asian autocrats deal with media reports of their kleptomania and other doings. The Singaporeans have the defamation laws and the Court system finely tuned. Parallels with the Soeharto family are even more apparent

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

the problem is that when they estimate the wealth of heads of state-such as HRH The Queen of England & Great Britain and the Commonwealth-or Brenda to those like me who know her-they include the vast estates like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc-which are highly desirable real estate and unbelievably valuable, but Brenda can never sell ( and she tells me the upkeep is horrendous !) -so it's not really tangible wealth.

Mind you I wouldn't mind a small condo at the back of Buck House-should they sell. Very me and Hyacith Bouquet.

Well I stand corected then..so that means the tight old c*w is as rich as Croesus...I must try and touch her for loan at the next graden party.

I must try and touch her for loan at the next graden party.Just try not to touch her up this time. I'm surprised they'll let you back

[Hmmm]

Front page of both the Nation and the Post report that the Forbes article is not true. The Foreign Ministry was chosen to deliver the condemnations: inaccurate and inconstant. Read: Lese Majeste.

Interestingly, in the Bangkok Post's report the Foreign Ministry doesn't actually say what the CPB estimates HMK's real worth to be (which I assume they would never do). So he could actually be worth more than $35 billion.

Thai newspapers always report how many Thais appear on Forbes' billionaires list. It is clearly an assumed source of national pride. So one senses a dissonance in the Thai psyche here - pride that they have the world's richest monarch, but offence that gauche farang would draw attention to it. But Thais more than most know that a source of pride is of no value if no one knows about it !

Perhaps the most telling statement from the ministry was this:
"The Foreign Ministry added that the report's reference to His Majesty the King and the 2006 military coup was also incorrect. The King had no role in the military intervention that took place in September 2006."

Hmmm ....

http://www.bangkokpost.com/230808_News/ ... news01.php (http://www.bangkokpost.com/230808_News/23Aug2008_news01.php)

Yes, HM the King is fabulously wealthy. Never met a monarch who wasn't. YET...have you ever seen a story linking him to conspicuous consumption? To wasting the country's wealth on himself? Do you see him driving a Maserati down to the Paragon to drop a few million baht on baubles, like Toxin and his disgusting ilk? In complete fairness, you do not even hear or see such things about the extended royal family. The Queen does not drip in Prada (prim Thai silks suits are her thing) or fly off to Paris in a private jet for a multimillion dollar shopping spree (like the wives of King Mswati of Swaziland were recently condemned for you). After all is said and done, they are not a particular squandering brood, certainly not like those ingrates in Brunei or Saudi, or any number of the jet-setting European royals. One would hope that they are building wealth for the good of the country, rather than for lavishing on their personal lifestyles.

Of course, when it is the next generation's turn to control the purse strings, all bets are off.

I would lay odds that the Crown Prince might enjoy some conspicuous consumtion though, IF he ever becomes Rama X

the problem is that when they estimate the wealth of heads of state-such as HRH The Queen of England & Great Britain and the Commonwealth-or Brenda to those like me who know her-they include the vast estates like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc-which are highly desirable real estate and unbelievably valuable, but Brenda can never sell ( and she tells me the upkeep is horrendous !) -so it's not really tangible wealth.

Mind you I wouldn't mind a small condo at the back of Buck House-should they sell. Very me and Hyacith Bouquet.

I always thought Queen Elizabeth II was referred to as "HER MAJESTY" not HRH which I believe was reserved for the old Duke, and the Queens children of course.
A matter of protocol I guess.

[Brad the Impala]

And we are sticklers for protocol on this forum.

The following Australian National University link has updates and discussions on this topic for those who want to follow it up - http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala ... f-the-day/ (http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2008/08/23/forbes-the-bangkok-post-and-the-conversation-of-the-day/)