How shadow banking feeds Myanmar while starving its military

On a recent Friday night in a Bangkok dive bar, a group of young Myanmar exiles sang softly along to a mournful ballad played on an acoustic guitar. None among the crowd had any plans to leave, either for their homeland or home for bed. They fled war, a broken economy and forced conscription into a military that seized power in the 2021 coup. While their future in Thailand is uncertain, their ties