Thailand's political drama is making markets nervous
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Thailand's political drama is making markets nervous. Hello, this is the Marketplace Morning Report and we're live from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne. So there's political turmoil brewing in Thailand and there's recently been major financial turbulence. The Prime Minister, Pei Tong Tang Shinawatra, has been suspended by the Constitutional Court. The BBC's Shyma Khalil is tracking the fallout. Hello. Hello.

Hi. How is this political turmoil affecting investor confidence in Thailand? Even before this controversy, and this is a big controversy that has really shaken trust in Pei Tongtang, Shinawatra's leadership, really she's had problems.

in trust in the Thai economy even before that because remember she was already struggling to revive a weak economy. Pei Tong Tang saw her approval ratings fall to 9.2% last week and that was down from 30.9% in March. You know, it's a huge tumble. And remember as well that her party, the Piu Thai party has struggled to launch

key economic policies since taking office, these mega projects that we'd seen, for example, that helped boost the popularity of her father, Taksim Shinawatra's government, that hasn't worked. All of this, I think, is sending jitters to investors. And we've seen since January 2025,

that overseas investors have persistently sold off Thai shares. Could we actually see a recession in Thailand because of all of this? It's not beyond possibility at this moment because it's two-tier. One is the fact that domestically, this is a government that hasn't been able to shore up the economy. If you look at Thailand now, it is positioned as one of the world's worst performing markets. Okay. The BBC's Shyamika Lil. Thanks so much for joining us on Marketplace. Great to be with you. Let's do the numbers.

Eurozone inflation edged up last month to the European Central Bank's 2% target and the UK's second biggest food retailer, Sainsbury's, saw its sales rise in the first quarter by 4.7%. Now, the boss of the trading app Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, says Europe is ahead of the US when it comes to crypto rules.

In the EU, once a crypto company gets approved in one country, it can operate across all 27. Robinhood is rolling out new products like tokenized stocks, digital assets that represent shares in public companies, which are not currently allowed in the US. He's speaking to us from the company's first international crypto event in Cannes, France. Hello.

Thank you for having me. So you're in Canada on the French Riviera and you're talking about crypto products and you've also really pushed into Europe. What is it about Europe that's so attractive? Well, I was born here. That's one. So even though I'm American, I'm European as well. And the mission of Robinhood has always been to democratize finance all over the world.

So what we really demonstrated here was what the financial system could look like if traditional finance and crypto technology were to fully merge. Now, the EU has launched its markets in crypto assets rules, and a lot of people say that those rules are very clear. So do you think those rules give you a lot more freedom to innovate rather than in the US or it gives you more legal clarity that you still don't quite have? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Finally, with MECO regulation, we have clarity in the European Union to deliver on a lot of the innovations that we've long described as being possible with crypto technology. And I think the US itself, after many years of trying to, for lack of a better word, obliterate the crypto industry, is ready to catch up. But I think this is one area where the EU is admittedly ahead

ahead of the U.S. right now, which is clear and sensible crypto regulation. The tone has really totally changed, hasn't it? So I'm sure you're taking advantage of that in the U.S. too. Certainly the lack of regulation by enforcement is a good thing.

in the way that the removal of something very, very bad is good. But I think there's a difference between that and having clear rules of the road. So there's still many things that we announced here, like perpetual futures, like stock tokens, which...

allow tokenization of real world assets that aren't yet permissible in the US, but that we'd be very, very interested in having available to US customers. Vlad, some of the new products that you're putting out, they can sometimes be seen as maybe riskier. And obviously, the retail traders got burned in the meme stock frenzy a couple of years ago. So how do you make sure that users won't

have that same experience? Yeah. I mean, investing certainly is not without risk, right? And we make sure we communicate that very clearly to our customers. Not everyone is eligible for some of the advanced active trader products like futures and options that we offer. But our goal is to build a platform that's simple, well-designed, and that if you are eligible, you're

You have all the tools at your disposal to make informed trading and investing decisions. So I think we have things for every investor, not just the active trader. Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of Rabunhood. Thank you so much for joining us in Marketplace. Thank you so much.

Now, today marks 25 years since the Ersund Bridge first opened, linking Denmark and Sweden. It's the EU's longest road and rail bridge, and it's had a big impact on business in the region. But it hasn't all been smooth sailing, as the BBC's Maddy Savage reports. Central Copenhagen is a blend of 17th century, brightly coloured townhouses and edgy bars and fashion boutiques. But I'm here to visit IO Interactive, a Danish gaming company.

It's known for creating the globally popular Hitman franchise and is currently working on a new James Bond game.

Something I've been doing a lot recently is looking at the reaction videos of our launch trailer. That's Sandra Mondahl, who lives in Malmö, Sweden's third largest city, but commutes over the Öresund Bridge to the company's headquarters in Copenhagen several times a month. It takes me about an hour door to door because of the infrastructure with the bridge and the trains, and it's super easy. Driving across can take less than 15 minutes. It's around 10 miles long, including a tunnel section.

I find it magnificent. We have this beautiful kind of wondrous opportunity to go between countries. Let me tell you a bit more about the bridge's history as I make my way over to the other side in Malmo.

It opened at the turn of the millennium, costing more than $4 billion at the time, with the goal of increasing travel, trade and networking in the region. New figures released by Öresunds Institutet, an independent research organisation, suggest cross-border commuting has increased by more than 400% since then. And there's been a big jump in the number of Danes and Swedes starting businesses on either side of the water or moving between the two countries.

A short walk from the train station is Malmo University's Urban Studies Department, where Helena Bormann is an associate professor.

Once you open up the connection, companies can share input markets, customer markets. Finding specialized, skilled staff is easier. Malmo has experienced a surge in new tech startups and life science companies. And more than 100 businesses have moved headquarters or specialist offices here to benefit from the region's infrastructure.

And then we have the learning component, which is kind of learning spillovers. We learn by doing, we learn by being close to each other and so on. But I also think for people living on one side of the board and working on the other side, there's a lot of administration involved, you know, taxes, not having to pay double taxes and so on. Another challenge is punctuality.

Helena says major disruptions linked to border controls and reduced services during the pandemic eroded trust amongst some commuters. But a recent study by Swedish public service broadcaster SVT suggests around 90% of commuter trains are now punctual, and record numbers of people are using them. The current challenge is that travelling by train between Denmark and Sweden is a success, so the trains are crowded. That's Johan Vestman, CEO of the Öresunds Institutet research organisation.

He says a new generation of faster trains with larger capacities are on the way though. But it will be established about in five, six, seven years in the future. So until then, you still will have crowded trains.

Despite facing challenges, the Öresund Bridge remains a European icon for cross-border collaboration. And Swedish and Danish authorities are discussing boosting this even further with new fixed connections, including a road and rail tunnel and even a subway between the two Nordic countries. In Sweden, I'm the BBC's Maddy Savage for Marketplace. And that's it from the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne. Have a great day and thanks so much for listening.

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