All wiped out
Re: "Trade deal optimism lifts Asian shares", (Business, June 28).
I know that for pointing out the financial disaster which Thailand's current policies have inflicted upon this economy, some of my critics say I am biased and unfair. However, I would like to comment on just how unwell my president's tariffs are playing out in the USA by pointing to the death of America's very iconic favourite -- fast food -- and the thousands upon thousands of good American employees facing a similar wipeout in 2025, as some Thais I know:
Domino's Pizza, which we have here, is closing over 200 US stores. McDonald's, which we have here, is closing all of its experimental US stores. Red Robin, an American icon, is closing 70 restaurants. Popeye's [fried] Chicken, which Malaysia has, is facing complete destruction in a US$35 million lawsuit for allegedly selling chicken unfit for eating. Hooter's restaurant chain -- where pretty American girls served food in naughty clothes to horny old men -- just closed dozens of stores overnight after going bankrupt; ergo so much for an old man's reliable date at the "lucky stiff motel".
I actually have another fifty or so various iconic American brands that are in huge trouble on my daily data reports. We'll see how President Trump's "American manufacturing renaissance" is going in a few months, but it will mainly be automated and AI in such a high labour cost country anyway. So, to Thais losing jobs and feeling gloomy, I remind them, "what goes around comes around", doom does not discriminate based on race, gender, religion, or nationality, and as the band The Ventures epically said in their 1967 hit, Wipeout, which baby boomers danced to for years: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha; WIPEOUT!"
