October 13, 2011
Pattaya, Thailand

Parts of Thailand have experienced terrible flooding lately, and much of the country’s production shut down as a result. Thailand makes everything from tire factories to hard disk drive manufacturers to rice… and given the slowdown in the economy, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Not to worry, though, the government has a plan to fix it. Let me explain:

Thailand’s central bank is sitting on roughly $212 billion in net foreign reserves right now. That’s up 37% from last year and nearly 80% from 2009. Curiously, it all starts with Ben Bernanke.

When Ben Bernanke conjures trillions of new dollars out of thin air for QEx, that money has to end up somewhere… usually the Treasury Department or banks. (you may recall that banks were able to swap their worthless toxic securities for Bernanke’s worthless dollars– a truly bizarre trade…)